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[FirePie]

Pete,

Could you possibly list a ratio following the Lehmann Method for the appropriate amounts of both King Arthur AP flour and Caputo 00? I have never obtained or used Caputo flour, even though I plan on ordering some in the near future. I learned from Charles and Michele Scicolone's comprehensive guide "Pizza: Any Way You Slice It" a while back that an alternative for making Neapolitan-Style pies is to blend a small amount of cake flour with AP but have never tried this method. I'm not sure if you would recommend this, but if so could you please help me measure the proper amount?

Also, I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to the recipes listed in this book. The regional variations of American pizza she includes don't seem very authentic when compared to other tried-and-true formulas, as can be detailed or even argued by her Chicago-Style Deep Dish Sausage and Cheese Pizza recipe. Neither the dough formula nor the filling, which resembles a sausage ragu come remotely close to, say Pasquale Bruno Jr.'s recipe in "The Great Chicago-Style Pizza Cookbook". I have chosen to take the word of native Windy City residents who agree that this recipe is the real deal. So far, the only recipes from Charles and Michele's book that I would follow are the variations they give from both the classic Marinara and Margherita pizza, perhaps their Sfinciuni di San Vito or different torte rustiche. When I've made my own dough in the past I never measured the ingredients, but since I now own a kitchen scale I can determine the appropriate amounts of each thanks to your input.

Thanks,

Bryan

[Pete-zza]

Bryan,

Can you tell me why you want to combine the King Arthur all-purpose flour and the Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour? That is, what you are looking to accomplish with such a combination?

As for the matter of combining all-purpose flour and cake flour to simulate a 00 flour, that is a method that was suggested many years ago. Even in her book, Pizza Napoletana!, Pamela Sheldon Johns has a Neapolitan style dough recipe that calls for using a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour. At about the same time, Ms. Johns and others came up with similar flour combinations using all-purpose and bread flours with cake flour or pastry flour. 00 flours existed at the time but they were hard to come by by the ordinary home pizza maker. Even now, several years after the clone flour combinations were proposed, you have to look hard to find the 00 flours in ordinary supermarkets. You have to either look in specialty food markets or order the 00 flours online, for example, from places like PennMac.com or Forno Bravo. With the increased availability of 00 flours, and especially the Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour, I see no reason to use combinations of all-purpose, bread, cake and pastry flours. I have written extensively on the forum on this subject and can cite you threads and posts on the subject if you would like, but I don't see much of a reason for using such flour combinations if you have a source of the Caputo 00 flour.

Peter

[FirePie]

I just wasn't sure if you had ever blended King Arthur AP with Caputo 00 before. I have Pamela Sheldon John's Pizza Napoletana! as well as other books but have been referring to this site for further info. I haven't made nearly as many pies as most of you have, and I'm simply looking to find out what works and what doesn't.

[Pete-zza]

I just wasn't sure if you had ever blended King Arthur AP with Caputo 00 before.

Bryan,

The flour that is most commonly combined with Caputo 00 flour is high-gluten flour. That is the blend that is used by Dom DeMarco at Di Fara's in Brooklyn and that others try to replicate to get a finished crust that is close to the Di Fara crust. Sometimes bread flour is combined with the Caputo 00 flour when high-gluten flour is unavailable but with a different ratio to get a high enough total protein value. I have tried both of those combinations but I don't recall combining all-purpose flour and Caputo 00 flour, mainly because both of those flours are fairly low in protein and combining them doesn't yield a protein content that is close enough to the other flour combinations mentioned above. However, the possibility of combining all-purpose flour with Caputo 00 flour arose recently and was discussed at Replies 9 and 10 starting at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9008.msg78017.html#msg78017. In that case, the member who asked about that particular blend ended up trying the blend and was satisfied with the results. It all comes down to what you like. A nice tool to do protein percent calculations is member November's Mixed Mass Percentage Calculator at http://www.unclesalmon.com/tools/food.php. That tool will allow you to do different blends to determine which blend you like the best.

Peter

[FirePie]

Thank you Peter, this helps quite a lot.