The taste was suprisingly good, but not so much on the dough side as much from everything else...Since pizza has evolved more from just, making pizza every once and a while to a slight obsession I have begun investing in really good ingredients and use those so even if my dough falls short or in this case is a same day, the toppings hit it home...
Here I used boars head cheese and pep, some organic feta, my handmade sauce from muir glen crushed(surprisingly decent(ran out out escalon, need to re order)) delallo banana pepp and organic spinach...Topped with Fillipo evoo and hand grated while the pizza was baking Garna Padano...very much influenced by Dom and everyone of my family members and friends love the olive oil pre and post bake!
With regards to the kneading how much less should it be? Should it look really smooth and tighter before the fridge or very loose as I have done before, perhaps even somewhere in the middle?
what toppings do you perfer? I would love to check out some new brands!
I agree that pizza is more than just the crust. You absolutely need a great crust, but aside from that you also need a good quality sauce and quality cheeses. When you marry all 3 with the company of friends, you have fantastic pizza. It sounds like you are using some quality products. I also like Dom's method of combining 2-3 cheeses, topped with OO, and a good parm/romano/grana padano, and lots of fresh basil.
As far as toppings go, I like simplistic. I really like a traditional margherita pie with a good bufala or cow's milk mozz and a sprinkle of sea salt. I also like pepperoni with mush or jalapenos. My recent favorites have been shrimp with garlic slivers, or an alfredo pizza. Arugula and pine nuts are always good as well.
As far as kneading for a cold ferment, it's really just trial and error. Experiment and see what works for you. It's impossible for me to say how long to knead or how many folds to do as that all depends on the strength of the flour, the hydration ratio, use of oil or not, hand or machine kneading, etc. For a HG flour like AT's i would stick with a minimal knead of a few minutes. Bulk rise for an hour or so and divided and ball before going into the fridge. After the dough has bulked for an hour, the dough should become smooth as you ball it. Not too many folds during the balling stage. Just keep track of how many folds you do and then note how the dough opens and adjust it from there.
As far as cold ferments and flavor goes. I am decidely not a fan of cold ferments. I can make good pizza with cold fermented dough but choose not to. Cold ferments tend to give me a drier than I like crumb unless I use about 2% oil in the dough. You can develop a similar or even the same flavor in the dough with a same day dough (< 24h room temp ferment) by using a high percentage of active starter - 20-50%+. I can even make sourdough bread with a same day dough. As sour as you would like with as much flavor as you like. I just don't like the heavier texture i get with well fermented doughs (whether it's a same day or cold fermented dough). I have not been able to make a light as air texture sourdough bread and doubt that one exist but if anyone can enlighten me, I'm all ears.
Wucatus1, your first post sounds like A LOT of folding and kneading, but if it produced a good result then I wouldn't change it. It's really just practicing and paying attention to the dough consistency during intermittent intervals during the dough making process. You know that you have overkneaded or overfolded if the dough is tough to open and/or produces a dry and tough crumb. By looking at your picure, I would say the crumb looks fantastic. It's open, airy, and most importantly moist looking. Dry looking crumbs are chew and leathery, and no doubt you did a fantastic job.
Im my mind, texture is much much more important than the "flavor" of the crust. It's important to have both and you can balance it out, but if I had to choose one over the other, I would go with texture any day.
Good luck,
Chau
