Mario Batali’s Pizza Dough A few weeks ago I decided to try an experiment. I had some leftover white wine sitting in our refrigerator and I remembered seeing a dough recipe by Mario Batali that called for using wine in the dough, so I thought I would give it a shot. The recipe I had was from the book “Everybody Loves Pizza”, but it can also be found with some variations at assorted websites, like these:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=7018206&page=1http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/mario-batali-pizza-doughhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/travel/escapes/17pizza.htmlhttp://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/pizza-dough-recipe/index.htmlHere is the recipe from the book that I used for the dough:
Ingredients 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 cup warm water
¼ cup dry white wine, at room temperature
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
I did not try to convert the ingredients to percentages or weights, partly because I wanted to see what would happen with his recipe if you went by the original instructions and partly because I was lazy. I altered Batali’s recipe in that I did not bring the ingredients together as he does by hand. Instead, I used a plain old KitchenAid mixer (hook attachment), started with the activated yeast, honey, water and wine, salt, olive oil, and gradually added the (sifted) 3 cups of A-P flour (King Arthur). I had measured the flour using the leveling method and then sifted it. The dough came together nicely – silky smooth but very little stickiness. I divided the dough into 2 balls and left them in sealed plastic bags at room temperature for 2 hours; then put them in the refrigerator over night.
Approximately 28 hours later, I removed the bags from the frig and let the dough come to room temperature for about 1 hour. I then made the pizzas and used my 2-stone device on a gas grill for cooking the pizzas. I used my standard mozzarella, provolone, cheddar cheese combination in an 80-10-10 blend. On one pizza, I used red onions, mushrooms, and fresh tomatoes; on the other, I used my standard Italian sausage and mushrooms. I let the grill heat up for about 45 minutes before using it. I don’t have an infra-red temperature gun, but the grill thermometer was reading 700+ at the time I was placing the pizzas on the 2-stone.
I didn’t think of taking pictures until I saw the finished product, but then I decided these pizzas were worth capturing, so below you will see the results. I used semolina flour to help keep the pizzas from sticking to my wooden peel. I used a metal peel for removal of the pizzas from the 2-stone.
The taste was good. The cararmelized color of the crust was exceptional. The texture was little surprising. I was expecting a little more ‘poof’ and airy-ness to the cornicione than what came out in the finished product. But taste counts more than texture in my book, so I will probably try this recipe again, but I would like to see how it would come out using bread or high gluten flour next time.
