14" Pizza Raquel w/o starter (IDY or ADY only)

[PapaJon]

I'm having issues converting the Pizza Raquel recipe into a 14" version and using standard IDY or ADY yeast only.  I have tried a couple of the calculators listed on these forums, but the removal of the starter and compensating it with the standard dry yeast is confusing me.  If anyone could kindly help me out here that would be wonderful.

I know in the final stages of this recipe pftaylor moved to a 24hr room temp rise, but for my use I would like to stick to the cold refrigerator rise.  The last recipe he posted (i think) that still included the cold rise was here.

Below is the revised Pizza Raquel formulary. The various updates I will be working on over the holidays are:

1) Incorporation of flour sifting with Bromwell's Guaranteed 5 Cup Sifter
2) Incorporation of dough whisk in lieu of dough hook
3) Incorporation of hand kneading technique when dough "comes together"
4) Slight adjustments to ingredient ratios to drive toward a less "bready" crumb

                                            Pizza Raquel - Everything You'd Want (TM Pending)         
 
Weight                            Description                                         Bakers Percent
20. Oz/567. Grams          High Gluten Flour                                       100% (KASL or equivalent)
12. Oz/340. Grams          Bottled Water                                              60%     
.01 Oz/.283 Grams          Instant Dry Yeast                                    Not much (Baker’s pinch)     
.40 Oz/9.10 Grams          Sicilian Sea Salt (fine cut)                               2%
1.0 Oz/28.4 Grams          Preferment (Varasano or sourdo Italian)       5% (Peak activated)
33.41Oz/947.16 Grams

Note: Produces three dough balls weighing approx 11Oz each. Enough for three 15" - 16" pizzas. Flour must be sifted to maximize absorption.

Preparation Steps
1 - Stir water and salt with spoon until dissolved in stand mixer bowl. Fit mixer with whisk attachment.
2 - Add approximately half the flour first, then the yeast. Mix 1 minute on stir to fully incorporate yeast.
3 - Add preferment. Mix 1 minute on stir to fully incorporate preferment.
4 - Allow soupy dough to rest for 20 minutes.
5 - Mix on stir speed. Rain the flour down slowly in the bowl until mixer groans.
6 - Remove dough from stand bowl and slowly incorporate remaining flour by hand kneading on bench. 
7 - Check dough temperature with digital thermometer; 80 degrees for a cold rise/75 for room temperature rise
8 - Rest dough for 15 minutes.
9 - Hand knead dough until it becomes springy. Typical time is approximately 1 minute.
10 Cut into 3 equal pieces, form into balls, place dough into bowls, cover with shower caps.
11 Place dough in refrigerator for 1+ day(s). Longer times (3 up to 6 days) equal more crust flavor.
12 On the following day(s), remove dough from refrigerator and bring to room temperature.

Note: Do not punch down, reform balls, or do anything to the dough other than let it warm to room temperature.

Stretching Steps
1 - Place dough ball in flour bowl. Dust both sides well. Dust prep area with flour.
2 - Flatten ball into a thick pancake-like shape with palm of hand, ~ 2" thick. Keep well dusted.
3 - Press fingertips into center and working toward the rim until skin is 10 inches round. Keep well dusted.
4 - Place hands palm down inside rim and stretch outward while turning. Stretch to 12" round.
5 - Place skin over knuckles (1st time dough is lifted off bench) and stretch to 16"+/-
6 - Place on floured peel and dress with favorite toppings.
7 - Peel dressed skin into preheated oven (1 hr+ at max temp) outfitted with unglazed quarry tiles.
8 - Bake until lightly or heavily charred (more flavor).

Thanks!

[PapaJon]

Ok, doing some digging I found Pete-zza's 15" version for all IDY, and I ran it through the expanded pizza dough calc and came up with this.  Being my first attempt to use the calculator I'm still nerves and would appreciate confirmation that it looks right (I tend to over think things and when it's so simple I doubt myself).

14" Pizza Raquel (All IDY, 1 Skin)

Flour (100%): Water (60%): IDY (.23%): Salt (2%): Total (162.23%):

207.14 g  |  7.31 oz | 0.46 lbs 124.28 g  |  4.38 oz | 0.27 lbs 0.48 g | 0.02 oz | 0 lbs | 0.16 tsp | 0.05 tbsp 4.14 g | 0.15 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.74 tsp | 0.25 tbsp 336.04 g | 11.85 oz | 0.74 lbs | TF = 0.077

The last time I made the Raquel dough and reported on my results, at Reply # 198 of this thread, I mentioned that I was planning to attempt another Raquel dough based on the use of only instant dry yeast (IDY) as the sole leavening agent, along with two rest periods. What I was attempting to determine is whether an all-IDY Raquel dough produces results comparable to a Raquel dough using a natural preferment.

Over the last few days, I attempted an all-IDY Raquel dough. In doing this, I simply used the amount (by baker’s percent) of IDY recommended by pftaylor for the all-IDY version of his Raquel formulation--which is more than he recommends when he uses a small amount of IDY with his preferment. The formulation I ended up with was as follows:

100%, High-gluten flour (King Arthur Sir Lancelot), 8.40 oz. (237.79 g.), 1 c. + 1 T. + 1 t.
60%, Water, 5.03 oz. (142.67 g.), 5/8 c.
2%, Sea salt, 0.17 oz. (4.76 g.), a bit less than 7/8 t.
0.23%, Instant dry yeast (IDY), 0.02 oz. (0.54 g.), 0.18 t. (about 1/8 t. plus half that again)
Total dough ball weight (for one 15-inch pizza) = 13.64 oz. (385.76 g.)
Thickness factor (TF) = 0.077

The processing of the dough was essentially identical to the procedures I used the last time, including the use of the two rest periods. The dough was cold fermented for a bit over 3 days, as was the case with the last Raquel dough. During that time, the dough hardly rose at all. It simply spread and flattened out. When I used the dough, I allowed it to warm up at room temperature until it reached a temperature of around 62 degrees F. I then shaped and stretched the dough into a 15-inch skin. I had no problem doing this although the dough was quite a bit more extensible and therefore more difficult to handle than the last Raquel dough in which I used a natural preferment. This leads me to believe that using a preferment alters the dough texture characteristics and handling qualities in a way that appears to be materially different than when only commercial yeast is used. In fact, it's possible that the use of a preferment is as critical to the final dough characteristics as the use of rest periods.

Once I dressed the skin, I baked it in the same manner as the previous Raquel pizza. This time, I got fancier with the toppings. In keeping with the high-class nature of this thread and pftaylor’s high-quality productions, my “menu” for my pizza was as follows:

Pizze Pietro
 La Regina DOP San Marzano tomatoes, with a reduction of can juices
 Fresh fior di latte mozzarella cheese
 Imported Italian provolone cheese
 Spicy Italian sopresatta, julienned
 Hand-cut pepperoni sausage
 Sweet onion confit, with 10-yr.old Balsamic vinegar (from Trader Joe’s)
 Dried Sicilian wild oregano (origano selvatico)
 Imported extra-virgin olive oil, first cold press
 Sicilian sea salt infused with basil (sale al basilico)
 French white truffle oil
 Freshly-grated Reggiano-Pamigiano and grana padano cheeses
 Wine accompaniment: Allegrini Valpolicella Classico, 2003

The finished pizza was very good. The crust had nice flavor and all of the toppings harmonized and balanced very nicely. But my attentions this time were directed primarily to the crust. It was chewy and flavorful and I fully enjoyed it. But I would definitely give the edge to the Raquel version using the preferment. This is consistent with my past experience (and, I believe, those of other members) in making both preferment and non-preferment versions of otherwise identical doughs. In my opinion, preferments are in a class by themselves, and using them will invariably produce superior results. That is not to detract in any way from an all-IDY crust. It’s just hard for IDY or any other commercial yeast to compete in the flavor and texture departments with preferments. Consequently, if a preferment is available, I would recommend its use.

The photos below show the finished pizza.

Peter

[Pete-zza]

Ok, doing some digging I found Pete-zza's 15" version for all IDY, and I ran it through the expanded pizza dough calc and came up with this.  Being my first attempt to use the calculator I'm still nerves and would appreciate confirmation that it looks right (I tend to over think things and when it's so simple I doubt myself).

14" Pizza Raquel (All IDY, 1 Skin)

Flour (100%): Water (60%): IDY (.23%): Salt (2%): Total (162.23%):

207.14 g  |  7.31 oz | 0.46 lbs 124.28 g  |  4.38 oz | 0.27 lbs 0.48 g | 0.02 oz | 0 lbs | 0.16 tsp | 0.05 tbsp 4.14 g | 0.15 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.74 tsp | 0.25 tbsp 336.04 g | 11.85 oz | 0.74 lbs | TF = 0.077

PapaJon,

You got it right.

Peter

[PapaJon]

Ok, looking further at the two recipes something wasn't quite right.  It looks like Pete-zza's calculation is based on an older Raquel recipe (quoted below) since his dough ball for 15" weighed in at 385.76g.  While the newer Raquel recipe I quoted in the OP was 315.72g for a 15-16".  In pftaylor's older recipe though he does suggests an extra 1/4 teaspoon of IDY if not using the preferment so perhaps this resolves my question.

Using some fuzzy math (1tsp of IDY = 3.11g / 4 = 0.7775g + 0.283g = 1.06g total IDY) and some trial and error inputs into the expanded pizza dough calc since I'm not sure how to come up with the bakers percent and this is what I came up with.

Sound about right?

14" Pizza Raquel (All IDY, 1 skin)

Flour (100%): Water (60%): IDY (.545%): Salt (2%): Total (162.545%):

194.24 g  |  6.85 oz | 0.43 lbs 116.54 g  |  4.11 oz | 0.26 lbs 1.06 g | 0.04 oz | 0 lbs | 0.35 tsp | 0.12 tbsp 3.88 g | 0.14 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.7 tsp | 0.23 tbsp 315.72 g | 11.14 oz | 0.7 lbs | TF = N/A

Here is the updated Pizza Raquel recipe:

                                                        Pizza Raquel - Everything You'd Want                                                    
             
 
Weight                                  Volume                                         Description                     Bakers Percent
16   oz/  456  Grams      3 1/3 cups                                   KASL High Gluten Flour                   100%     
9.6  oz/  273  Grams      1 1/8 cups or 9 fluid oz               Water                                                60%     
.01  oz/ .285  Grams         1/8 teaspoon (baker's pinch)   Instant Dry Yeast                         .0625%     
.32  oz/  9.1   Grams      2 1/4 teaspoon                           Sicilian Sea Salt (fine cut)                    2%
1.3  oz/  37    Grams      2  tablespoons (heaping)            Preferment (I use Varasano)              8% 
27.23oz/775.385 Grams

Produces two dough balls weighing 13 - 14oz (enough for two 15" - 16" pizzas). If you do not have a preferment simply add an extra 1/4 teaspoon of IDY.