I’m hunting for the world’s best pizza dough! However I might settle for one I just like a lot. Now my friend at Napoli Pizzeria Ristorante in Seattle has dough I really like but and I don’t know why, he won’t tell me everything about how he makes it. I know he uses Shepherd's Grain Enriched Unbleached High Gluten Strength Flour but that’s it. So I’m off hunting the internet for a recipe that fits the bill. I come across a recipe in Epicurious.com. For dough based on one from Chris Bianco, ok this should be good, right? I’ve heard of this guy, he makes pies, yes? It calls for 1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons) for 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, alright, let’s mix. Everything is going well, mixes good, smells great, I get done divide in two, ball it up and in the frig it goes for a 72 hour nap. This is at 11am in the morning, I go back about 6pm that night and I have a monster growling at me from within. What the ****, I’m on the phone to my local pizza maker Bill Jensen (La Pizza Pela), “hey dude what have I done”? I’m at the same time scanning the net for another example and find two recipes, wow the same amount of yeast in both but more than double the flour. A miss print, that’s a first but none the less my problem. Now what I ask? Bill said punch it down and good luck. Saturday rolls around and I figure, why not take a ball off to the last day of a local market, get a pie made and see what’s up. I take it out of the frig about three hours before going, ok. When I come back to it, it’s doubled again, this little monster just isn’t going to quit. I get to market, it’s raining, cool, Bill’s oven is only getting up to around 600’ to 650’. Bill gets to work on it, a little dry this dough is but a pie emerges and into the oven. Bottom line, everyone likes the taste however we think the yeast has consumed too much sugar from the flour. The pie comes across a little flat, it has too much chew, kind of tough but none the less a pie and a great way to kill time fool’n’ with the pies.
