My first attempt at DKM's cracker recipe. I adjusted to attain a flour amount of 2.5 cups:
Flour: 317 g
Water: 114 g
ADY: 3.8 g
Salt: 3.8 g
EVOO: 11.1 g
Sugar: 3.8 g
I made what I thought was a fatal mistake and activated the yeast in cool water straight from the fridge, but by the time I realized my blunder I was already done with my 10 minutes of hand kneading. This dough was extremely stiff, and I had to fight it to get something that resembled a dough ball. But once I had something close to a ball I sealed it in a pyrex bowl and set it on the counter overnight. The next morning I was pleased to see that the ball had risen to twice its original size. The growth of the dough made it clear that the yeast was alive and happy, so I threw the container in the fridge and went to work. Nine hours later I took the container out of the fridge to find that the dough ball had deflated to its original size. I was displeased with the shrunken dough, but I pressed on and let it adjust to room temperature on the counter for a couple hours. After the couple hours had passed I folded the dough twice and rolled it out out on the counter. The dough was extremely stiff and took a lot of upper body strength to roll out. Once I had something close to a circle I put it in the oven on a stone preheated to 550°. I removed the crust a couple minutes later to dress it with mozzarella, Muenster, and turkey pepperoni. I put it back in the oven for a few more minutes until it was ready to eat.
I deviated from DKM's recipe in the following ways:
- Activated yeast with chilled water
- Refrigerated dough ball for 9 hours after 9 hour initial rise at room temp
- Hand kneaded the dough
All in all I am happy with my results. The slices were crackery crisp, and the crust had visible separation of layers across the entire pie. I'll try it again with proper yeast hydration to see how it affects the finished pizza.
(I apologize for the poor photography; my DSLR batteries were dead so I was stuck with my compact)
