00 FLOUR: An imported Italian flour made from national grains and/or blends of national and imported grains (including Manitoba flour from Canada) to achieve a range of protein of about 10-12.5%. Common brands of 00 flour available at the retail level in the U.S. include Caputo, Bel Aria and Delverde. King Arthur also produces a “clone” of the 00 flour (called Italian-Style flour), with a protein level of 8.5%, which is quite a bit lower than the imported Italian 00 flours. It is
not an authentic 00 flour and will have different behavioral characteristics.
ABSORPTION: A measurement established by flour producers to describe the capacity of a flour to absorb water and achieve a desired dough consistency. The value is expressed in terms of percent of water absorbed by a flour sample during the measurement test. The measurement is a laboratory measurement and, hence, is not identical to the hydration ratio actually achieved in field applications, although it is usually quite close.
ACTIVE DRY YEAST (ADY): A dried form of yeast that, before combining with other dough ingredients, is activated by re-hydration, or “proofing”, in warm water (or other liquid) at around 105-115 degrees F. Some brands of active dry yeast can also be combined with a portion of the flour and other dry ingredients, in which case the temperature of the liquid used (usually water) can be as high as 120-130 degrees F. Advantages of active dry yeast include convenience of use and long storage life, especially when sealed and frozen in an airtight container.
ADY: See
ACTIVE DRY YEAST.
ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR: A medium-protein flour used for general baking purposes. Protein levels of all-purpose flours vary from one producer to another, but a typical range is 10-11.7%.
AP: An abbreviation for all-purpose flour.
ASCORBIC ACID: An organic acid more commonly known as Vitamin C and commonly used as an additive for flour and also for instant dry yeast (IDY), and sometimes with active dry yeast (ADY). When added to flour, it acts as an oxidizing agent (by virtue of acting with atmospheric oxygen), which makes it easier to form the gluten network (by preventing the gluten bonds from breaking down) during kneading of the dough. When used with yeast, it acts as a nutrient and provides an acidic environment for the yeast so that it acts faster and longer.
ASH: A term used in relation to flour to indicate its mineral content. The higher the ash count, the more minerals are present in the flour, and vice versa. To calculate the ash count, a sample of the flour is incinerated and the remains (the “ash”) are then weighed in relation to the original sample weight to calculate the ash count for that flour. The ash count can serve as an indication of the degree of refinement of the flour since a flour from which most of the bran has been removed will have a lower ash count than one from which less bran has been removed. A flour with a high ash count will also be slightly darker than one with a low ash count because of the higher amount of bran. Today, ash count has even less of a relationship to milling quality than it did a few decades ago because new wheat varieties and richer soils have made higher ash levels the norm, with typical ash values commonly being around 0.50% for domestic wheat varieties.
AUTOLYSE: A rest period, typically lasting 15-45 minutes, during which flour and especially the protein in the flour fully absorb the water before the yeast and salt are added and fermentation activity begins. Full absorption allows the gluten structure to form better, more complex bonds and serves to reduce oxidation of the dough and shorten the overall mix time. Autolyse also helps increase the extensibility of the dough due to the action of protease enzymes in the flour to break down the gluten slightly during the autolyse. Over time, the term “autolyse” has come to be used to refer to almost any rest period during the mix/knead cycle even though such use is not technically an autolyse as conceived by its originator, Prof. Raymond Calvel, a professor emeritus of baking sciences at L’ecole Francais de Meunerie and author of the classic work on European breadmaking,
LeGout de Pain. The term autolyse is pronounced ah-toh-leez.
BAKER’S PERCENTS (OR PERCENTAGES): A mathematical tool and “language” used by bakers to analyze recipes and to scale or re-size recipes up or down in quantity. It is a weight-based system in which the percentage of each ingredient is stated in relation to the weight of the flour, which always has a baker’s percent of 100%. In the context of pizza dough production, baker’s percents can be used to determine the quantities of ingredients required to make any dough batch size or number of pizzas of any given size and crust thickness.
BIGA: An Italian term that generally means preferment. A biga is made from a mixture of flour, water, a small amount of commercial yeast, but no salt, and typically uses a hydration sufficient to achieve a generally quite stiff, dough-like consistency, much like the final dough into which it is to be incorporated. It is allowed to ferment and ripen at room temperature for several hours (typically from 12 to 24 hours or more) before incorporating into the final dough. Although bigas most often use commercial yeast, a biga can also be made using naturally occurring (wild) yeast. Such a biga is sometimes referred to as a “Biga Natural”. The term “biga” is pronounced
bee-gah.
BUFFALO MOZZARELLA (MOZZARELLA DI BUFALA): A cheese made from the milk of water buffaloes (river water buffaloes). The cheese is generally considered to be of high quality because the water buffalo milk from which the cheese is made is thicker than regular milk, whiter (porcelain-white), with more butterfat, and more non-fat solids. (It also has 38% more calcium and 43% less cholesterol than cow’s milk.) The cheese is a firm, stringy-textured cheese with a thin rind and delicate taste. Its principal drawback for the average home pizza maker is that the cheese has to be imported from Italy, mainly the Campania region of southern Italy (which is home to over eighty percent of Italy’s water buffaloes), and, accordingly, is expensive compared with domestic cow’s milk mozzarella cheeses. It also starts to deteriorate in quality fairly quickly. While most buffalo mozzarella cheese is imported from Italy, there are at least two domestic producers of the cheese as of this writing.
CAKE FLOUR: A relatively low-protein flour (typically 7-8.5%) milled from soft red winter wheat and used primarily for baking cakes and similar soft baked goods. It is often combined with other flours, including all-purpose, pastry and bread flour, to simulate imported Italian 00 flours for use in making Neapolitan-style pizzas. It has a typical absorption rate of about 53%, +/- 2%. It is one of the few flours to be bleached by King Arthur, which is done to achieve greater volume.
CALVEL (Prof. Raymond): A recognized expert on the production of quality French and other European hearth breads and the originator (in the 1970’s) of the autolyse method and other aspects of dough and bread making. Was a professor of baking sciences at the L’ecole Francais de Meunerie and the author of the classic work on bread production,
Le Gout du Pain (translated into English as The Taste of Bread.) Is considered by many to be the “father” of bread making.
CAPUTO: An Italian producer of Caputo 00 flours sold in the U.S. and in several other countries for use in making pizza doughs and doughs for other baked goods. The Caputo brands in the U.S. include Caputo 00 pizzeria flour (the flour most commonly used by pizzamaking.com members), Caputo Rosso, and Caputo Extra Blue. The Caputo Rosso flour has the highest level of protein of the three flours and the Caputo Extra Blue has the lowest. See also the Caputo website:
http://www.molinocaputo.it/#.
CHEF: See
PATE FERMENTE.
COLD FERMENTATION: The fermentation of a dough under refrigeration, usually for an extended period of time, for the purpose of developing better flavors and aromas in the finished crust through increased production of fermentation byproducts.
COMPRESSED YEAST: A fresh form of yeast also commonly referred to as “fresh” or “cake” yeast. It is a “wet” form of yeast inasmuch as it has a moisture content of around 70%, which makes it faster acting than dry yeasts and, hence, attractive to bakers and pizza operators who must use yeast regularly and in high volume in their businesses. This form of yeast is also available to consumers in small packages (usually 0.6 ounces, or 17 g.) sold in the refrigerated sections of many supermarkets. In use, the compressed yeast is either hydrated (“proofed”) in tepid water (80-90 degrees F) before using or crumbled and mixed into the flour and other dry ingredients. The principal drawback of this form of yeast is that it is highly perishable and has a short shelf life (refrigerated), usually around two weeks or less. For consumers (but not for bakers) it is also considerably more expensive than dry yeasts on an equivalency basis.
CRUMB: A term used by bakers to define the inside of a bread or pizza crust, that is, its internal cell structure. Many factors can influence the cell structure of the crumb. For example, a high hydration dough that has not been overkneaded, has been properly shaped, and has sufficient yeast available at the time of baking to produce a good, final oven spring will generally result in a crumb that is open and airy with a lot of large, irregularly-sized and shaped holes (called alveoles). Conversely, a dough with low hydration, rolled rather than hand shaped, and with low yeast levels at the time of baking (resulting in a poorer oven spring) will generally result in a crumb that is more breadlike, with small, even-sized and tightly formed cells. Experienced bakers can usually also tell from the color and other facets of the crumb what kind of flour and yeast levels were used, including the use of preferments.
CUTTER PAN: A circular solid or perforated metal pan with sloping sides and a sharp exposed outer edge for permitting a rolled out or sheeted dough that has been draped over the sharp edge of the pan to be cut to fit the pan by rolling a rolling pin over the dough and pan. To see a typical example of a cutter pan, go to
http://www.pizzatools.com/productdisplay.aspx?catid=52.
DAIRY WHEY: A baking ingredient derived as a byproduct of cheese production and processed into a dry form for use in doughs to promote greater crust browning. Dried dairy whey includes around 70 percent lactose, a milk sugar. It’s the only simple sugar that is not metabolized (consumed) by yeast. But it contributes to browning of the crust. The lactose also has a low sweetness factor, so it won’t be detected in the crust. So the result will be better color in the finished crust but not the accompanying sweetness. The usual rate of use of dairy whey is around 4% by weight of flour
DAMAGED STARCH: Starch in flour that is damaged during milling (and sometimes inherent in the wheat grain). Damaged starch in a flour is important because enzymes in the flour, namely, alpha- and beta-amylase, work on the damaged starch to produce compounds that are converted to simple sugars for feeding the yeast during fermentation, and also to contribute to the residual sugars in the dough at the time of baking to promote better crust browning.
DIASTATIC MALT: A barley malt commonly used in flours to increase the extraction of sugars from the flours for use as food for the yeast during fermentation and to increase the residual sugars in the dough at the time of baking to promote increased crust browning. The diastatic malt is produced from barley that has been sprouted, dried and ground into flour. The diastatic malt works through enzymatic activity (it provides additional alpha-amylase) to release sugar from the damaged starch molecules of flour. Diastatic malt is available in both dry and liquid form. The recommended rate is about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon for every 3 cups of flour. Any more than that can result in a slack, sticky dough and a gummy crumb in the baked crust.
D.O.P/DOP: An abbreviation for
Denominazione d’Origine Protetta, or “denomination of protected origin”. This mark is guaranteed by the European Community (EU) and was created to promote the authenticity and artisan characteristics of certain food and agricultural products. These products are split into the categories of cheese, fruit and vegetables, salumi (or meats), and olive oils. A DOP certification guarantees that a product and all phases of production for that product have been carried out in a strictly defined geographic area which, in some cases, can be just a small cluster of villages. Among the pizza related ingredients that are often covered under the D.O.P. mark are San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella cheeses, olive oils, prosciutto di Parma, grana padano, pecorino Romano, and Parmiggiano Reggiano cheeses.
DOUGH CONDITIONER: A general term used for additives that function to help improve the quality of the finished product by altering the way dough behaves. There are four main categories of dough conditioners: 1) enzymes, 2) oxidizing agents, 3) reducing agents, and 4) emulsifiers. Enzymes are biological catalysts that accelerate chemical reactions, such as increasing the extraction of sugar from starch. Oxidizing agents improve the dough strength by forming bonds between the protein chains. Reducing agents weaken the protein by breaking bonds between proteins during mixing, thereby reducing the mixing times and dough elasticity Emulsifiers strengthen the dough or soften the crumb. Examples of additives falling into the above four categories include diastatic malt, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), L-cysteine (or PZ-44), and lecithin, respectively.
DOUGH RELAXER: A baking ingredient used to relax dough that is excessively elastic and prone to shrinking and snapping back. The problem is most commonly experienced with doughs made from high-gluten flours. Common examples of ingredients used to relax such doughs so that they can be shaped and stretched to the desired size (diameter) include glutathione (dead yeast cells), L-cysteine, and PZ-44 (a combination of L-cysteine and whey proteins). Since these ingredients are available primarily for use by professional pizza operators, home pizza makers usually rely on high hydration levels and longer periods of fermentation to allow the enzymes in the flour (namely the protease enzymes) to soften the gluten so that the dough becomes sufficiently extensible to shape and stretch out to the desired size. (Note: a dough relaxer product produced by Lora Brody for use by home bakers as a dough relaxer has been discontinued.)
DRY MILK: A powdered milk product commonly added to dough primarily for crust color development (browning). It includes lactose (about 50%), a simple sugar that is primarily responsible for the browning but is not consumed by the yeast. Consequently, the sugar is available during the time of baking as a residual sugar to promote browning. Because lactose has a low sweetness value, it will not be detected as sweetness in the crust. What is important is that the powdered milk be of a high-heat baker's grade form, not the type sold in supermarkets. The baker’s grade form of dry milk has been heated at high temperature and otherwise processed to disable certain offending constituents of milk (either a whey protein or an enzyme) so that the dough doesn’t become overly slack and soft. A typical rate of use of the baker’s grade dry milk is around 3-5% by weight of flour. At higher levels of use, the dry milk can provide a measure of softness in the finished crust.
ELASTICITY: The capability of dough to return to its original shape after stretching. This effect is often referred to as “dough memory”. Generally speaking, doughs made with high-protein, high-gluten flours tend most to exhibit this tendency because of their higher gluten content and their more extensive and stronger gluten network. Doughs will also exhibit high elasticity if they are reworked or re-kneaded just before shaping and stretching, which disorients and misaligns the gluten strands from their relaxed state just prior to reshaping.
EXTENSIBILITY: The capability of dough to be shaped and stretched without breaking or springing back to its original shape. Generally speaking, doughs made with low-protein low-gluten flours, high hydration levels, and long fermentation times will tend to be more extensible than doughs made with high-protein high-gluten flours, low hydration levels, and short fermentation times.
FALLING NUMBER: A term used by millers and bakers to refer to the alpha-amylase activity in flour. The lower the falling number, the more enzymatically active is the flour, and vice versa. For many flours, the falling number is adjusted through the addition of diastatic malt, or fungal amylase, to increase the level of enzymatic activity for optimum dough performance. Such adjustments are usually done at the mill, but sometimes by the baker. Malted bread flours typically have falling numbers of: 250-290. Generally, a falling number value of 350 or greater indicates low enzyme activity. Values below 200 indicate high levels of enzyme activity. For comparison purposes, the King Arthur Sir Lancelot flour, which is a malted flour, has a falling number of 250 +/- 30 sec. By contrast, the Caputo 00 pizzeria flour, which is unmalted, has a falling number of 340-360 sec. Quite often, the falling number alone will indicate to one whether a particular flour is malted or not.
FERMENTATION: The process by which yeast metabolizes (consumes) simple sugars to produce carbon dioxide and alcohol (ethyl alcohol). The sugars come basically from three sources: a small amount of simple sugars naturally present in the flour, sugars that are converted from complex sugars to simple sugars through a series of conversion operations, and sugar that is released by enzymatic action on damaged starch in the flour (starch that is primarily damaged during milling). The carbon dioxide resulting from fermentation is trapped within the gluten structure, causing the dough to rise. The alcohol is converted to compounds that provide flavor and aroma to the finished crust.
FIBRAMENT: A brand of baking (pizza) stone sold by AWMCO. See
http://www.bakingstone.com.
FIOR DI LATTE: A fresh, whole-milk mozzarella cheese made from cows milk.
FRICTION FACTOR (FF): A value, stated in degrees F or degrees C, that represents the amount of frictional heat imparted to a dough by the particular machine (e.g., stand mixer, food processor, or bread machine) used to mix and knead the dough. This value is used along with other temperature measurements, namely, room temperature and flour temperature, to calculate the temperature of water required to achieve a desired finished dough temperature (usually around 80-85 degrees F, which is considered optimal for fermentation purposes). Water temperature is selected for adjustment since it is the easiest of all the temperatures to control. The value of the friction factor will vary depending on the type of machine used, the machine speeds used, bowl and dough batch size, and duration of knead.
GLUTEN: An elastic, rubbery substance that results when certain proteins in flour, namely glutenin and gliadin, are combined with a liquid (usually water) and mixed together. Prior to this combination the gluten does not exist. When the gluten in dough is properly kneaded, a strong and highly developed gluten network forms that has a honeycomb-like structure to retain gases (carbon dioxide) produced during fermentation. As the gases are produced in quantity, the gluten structure expands, causing the dough to rise.
HYDRATION: A term that refers to the capacity of flour to absorb water. Hydration is usually stated as a baker’s percent, or ratio, that is equal to the weight of water divided by the weight of flour used in a recipe. Different flours have different capacities to absorb water, with high-protein flours having higher hydration capacities than lower protein flours.
HYDROSCOPIC: See
HYGROSCOPIC.
HYGROSCOPIC: The capacity of a substance to absorb moisture from its surroundings. Flour, salt and sugar (and honey) are good examples of hygroscopic ingredients familiar to pizza makers. The term hygroscopic is sometimes spelled hydroscopic.
