in my teen years i worked at a small college town pizza shop. a pre-dominos era traditional pizza shop. the kitchen was old school with massive stainless...
...steel equipment. a 3 phase mixer that could pass for a japanese soaking tub. a huge 3 foot wide staged roller contraption that neatly rolled out our hand rolled dough balls into small/med/large sized pies. archaic but effective. the process was an ongoing 2-3 day cycle starting in that mixer. giant scoops of flour from a wheeled bin. chunks of subtly stinky moist yeast, sugar, salt, and eggs (??!!). mixed then watered. mix and wait. mix again. wait. final mix then rolled by hand into long coiled snakes of dough. then cut by hand to small/med/large chunks (by eye, no measuring). rolled into balls that were set into their respective sized aluminum pie pans. into walk-in fridge over night. next morning taken out and set on kitchen shelves and covered with moist white commercial cotton sheets. then in a not as huge mixer big cans of tomato sauce, sugar, and spices from a pre-mixed blend of what smelled like mostly oregano and thyme. risen dough balls then got kneaded and run thru the roller contraption and back into their pans for a finish fit by hand. then we sauced the doughed pans and put them back in the walk-in. ready for the evening shift!
surprise, surprise that Jim Lahey's 'My Bread' has a simple, perfect pizza dough recipe for two 13X18 rimmed baking sheets...here's my version,
300 grams warm water in a small bowl mixed with 10g yeast and 5g sugar. stir occasionally until bubbly. (no foamy bubble = bad yeast)
while yeast does it's thing 500g flour gets mixed in a big bowl with 5g salt. add bubbled yeast water to flour mix and then knead until it's got that soft like a baby's bum feeling. rub 1t olive oil into a clean bowl. put dough in oiled bowl, cover and rise for one hour. preheat oven (and pizza stone? if you have one) to 500F. split dough into two. add a generous T olive oil to coat each pan and patiently spread dough to cover pans. it may initially seem like there's not enough dough but after hundreds of experiences i'll say you're wrong. (i do weigh both halves out evenly)
300 grams warm water in a small bowl mixed with 10g yeast and 5g sugar. stir occasionally until bubbly. (no foamy bubble = bad yeast)
while yeast does it's thing 500g flour gets mixed in a big bowl with 5g salt. add bubbled yeast water to flour mix and then knead until it's got that soft like a baby's bum feeling. rub 1t olive oil into a clean bowl. put dough in oiled bowl, cover and rise for one hour. preheat oven (and pizza stone? if you have one) to 500F. split dough into two. add a generous T olive oil to coat each pan and patiently spread dough to cover pans. it may initially seem like there's not enough dough but after hundreds of experiences i'll say you're wrong. (i do weigh both halves out evenly)
we're not all that imaginative from here. tomato sauce base always. my son adds sliced cooked italian sausage, ham, artichoke, olives, cheese. he removes his pizza from the oven just when there's a hint of crust browning. a little 'rare' but nice and dough-ey. the second pizza is veggie based and my wife and i let it get crispy-er. since we have one stone we cook the pizzas one at a time.
RSS Feed
