I recently decided to try a variation of the Emelia’s dough recipe as given at
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1955931. I decided to use this recipe mainly because the dough is based on using a preferment (more on this below) and because the dough could be made and used the same day. It had also been a long time since I last used all-purpose flour and this gave me a reason to use it again.
The two major changes that I made to the recipe were to halve the recipe to make dough for only one pizza (12”) and the second change was to substitute IDY for fresh yeast, which is no longer sold in supermarkets near me.
As is often the case when trying out new dough recipes recited in volume measurements, I also struggled with the Emilia's dough recipe. The first obstacle was that the amounts specified for the flour and water suggested a hydration of over 80%, which is considerably higher than the rated absorption value for all-purpose flour. Since no weight was given for the flour, and since I had no way of knowing what was intended with the recipe, I decided to assume that the flour is measured out Textbook style, and to let the chips fall as they may. As most members know, the Textbook method of flour measurement entails stirring the flour in its container (like a flour bag), lifting the flour into the measuring cup(s) with a scoop or ordinary tablespoon to the point of overflowing, and then leveling off the flour with a straight edge (such as the flat side of a standard kitchen knife). For the water, I measured it out by volume while the measuring cup was on a flat surface and viewed at eye level. I then weighed the water.
Based on the above approach, I came up with the following profile for the Amelia’s dough recipe, as I halved it for my purposes. Since I was using the King Arthur all-purpose flour, my numbers were based on that flour.
Total Emilia’s Dough Formulation
King Arthur All-Purpose Flour (100%):
Water (82.3529%):
IDY (1.3888%):
Sea Salt (0.91199%):
Total (184.65369%):
| 153 g | 5.4 oz | 0.34 lbs
126 g | 4.44 oz | 0.28 lbs
2.12 g | 0.07 oz | 0 lbs | 0.71 tsp | 0.24 tbsp
1.4 g | 0.05 oz | 0 lbs | 0.25 tsp | 0.08 tbsp
282.52 g | 9.97 oz | 0.62 lbs | TF = N/A
|
Note: No bowl residue compensation
Preferment
King Arthur All-Purpose Flour (100%):
Water (136.956%):
IDY (2.30978%):
Total (239.26578%):
| 92 g | 3.25 oz | 0.2 lbs
126 g | 4.44 oz | 0.28 lbs
2.13 g | 0.07 oz | 0 lbs | 0.71 tsp | 0.24 tbsp
220.13 g | 7.76 oz | 0.49 lbs | TF = N/A
|
Note: Water was at 50 degrees F
Final Mix
Preferment (from above): 220.13 g | 7.76 oz | 0.49 lbs
Remaining Total Formula King Arthur All-Purpose Flour (100%):
Total Formula Salt (2.28745%):
| 61 g | 2.15 oz | 0.13 lbs
1.4 g | 0.05 oz | 0 lbs | 0.25 tsp | 0.08 tbsp
|
Total Dough Weight: 282.52 g | 9.97 oz | 0.62 lbs
As can be seen from the above, the preferment cannot technically be called a “sponge”. It can’t even be technically called a “poolish”. If anything, it is a poolish-like preferment. However, at a hydration of 136.96%, that meant that the preferment would bubble after 4 hours of prefermentation at room temperature (at 64.4 degrees F in my case) but that it would be more frothy than a classic poolish. And, such was indeed the case. There were more bubbles at the end of the prefermention than at the beginning, and there was a significant volume expansion, but the bubbles were largely disguised by the frothy character of the preferment.
When time came to prepare the Final Mix, I ran into the second major obstacle. The instructions call for kneading the final dough for 25-30 minutes. My first reaction was that maybe such a long knead time was to fully develop the gluten while making such a high hydration dough capable of handling without sticking to one’s hands. Although the instructions did not give any hint about the purpose of the 25-30 minute knead time, the method is one that I have seen described for doughs with hydrations of close to 100%. After five minutes of kneading, I saw that little was happening to the dough other than being sloshed around by the dough hook. So, to get a workable dough, I found it necessary to add more flour, to the tune of 43 grams. While I did not re-do the profile given above, I calculated that the total formula hydration was 64.29%. That was still high for an all-purpose flour but it was not that far out of line and consistent with prior efforts in which I have been able to achieve around 65% hydration for such a flour.
The final dough, which had a finished dough temperature of 70.8 degrees F and a weight of 311 grams, was allowed to ferment at room temperature (67 degrees F) for four hours, by which time the dough had more than doubled in volume. I shaped the dough to a 12” size as instructed (the dough was a bit extensible but easy to handle), docked it using a dough docker, and then pre-baked the 12” skin for two minutes on a pizza stone that had been placed on the middle oven rack position and preheated for about an hour at around 525 degrees F. During the pre-bake, the crust developed a few large bubbles but I simply pierced them with the tip of a sharp knife when I removed the crust from the oven. I then dressed the pizza with the cheese and toppings and finished the bake on the pizza stone, about 7 more minutes, at which time the crust had developed a nice brown color. I thought the pre-bake was a pretty good idea since it allowed me to leisurely dress the pizza without fear that the pizza would stick to the peel.
A photo of the finished pizza, which shows the finished crust, can be seen at Reply 4 at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10176.msg91645.html#msg91645. The crust had very nice color, both top and bottom, and was chewy at the rim and crispy from the rim to the center. From a thickness standpoint, the pizza had a thickness factor of 0.0970. The flavor of the crust was good but not exceptional despite the use of the preferment as I elaborated it as discussed above. In this case, the star of the show was the toppings and the flavors they imparted to the pizza. Also, I found the crust not to be salty enough. So, next time, irrespective of how I might modify the Emilia’s dough recipe to achieve improved performance, I would use more salt. I also think that using bread flour in lieu of all-purpose flour should also work well with the recipe.
As noted above, I did not rework the profile for the dough I made. However, I can do so if anyone is interested, with or without the salt increase.
Peter
