DKM Deep Dish question

[Woohoohoo]

Every Friday night is homemade pizza night for us. Last weekend I stumbled upon this forum and was blown away by the content. After seeing pictures of deep dish pizzas, there was NO way I wasn't making one this week

I used Pete-zza's conversion to make a 9" crust from Message #15 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,560.msg5176.html#msg5176

AP Flour: 221g
Water (cold): 135g
Cornmeal: 43g
Melted Salted Butter: 43g
Sugar: 5g
Kosher Salt: 5g
IDY: 3g

The flavor was great... I LOVED the cornmeal flavor and the butter, but the dough was a little too bready - I am hoping for a flakier dough. I need some advice on my prep and/or ingredient ratios for a flakier, softer dough.

I mixed the flour, water, cornmeal, sugar and yeast in a stand mixer until combined, then I let it rest for 10 minutes. I then added the salt until combined, then slowly poured in the butter. It seemed as if there wasn't enough dough in the mixer for it to be thoroughly mixed by the dough hook, so I had to knead it by hand for about 5 minutes. I worked it pretty hard until the dough came together and the butter was incorporated. I put it in a greased bowl, covered, and put directly in the refrigerator. The next day, I let it sit on the counter for 4 hours before forming in the pan.

The size was perfect, the flavor was great, but it was too dense for our liking. What can I try different to develop a flakier crust? Would Caputo 00 flour work? Shortening? Laminating? Thanks for helping me on my first post!

[Woohoohoo]

Picture of my first DKM Deep Dish Pizza:

[DKM]

The size was perfect, the flavor was great, but it was too dense for our liking. What can I try different to develop a flakier crust? Would Caputo 00 flour work? Shortening? Laminating? Thanks for helping me on my first post!

Less mixing time.  Mix only until a ball forms 1 -2 minutes.

[Woohoohoo]

Thanks, DKM - I just spent about 3 hours going through the message boards... I figured this 'dense' issue has been addressed. http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8094.0.html

I'm going to try one with yellow cornmeal and one with Semolina Flour and see the difference. There goes my weekend!

[jeffereynelson]

I wonder if you could take a hard stick of butter and grate it into the dough as if you were making a pie crust. Never seen anyone suggest it before but it seems like it could be interesting.

[Woohoohoo]

That's a very interesting idea. The ratio of butter to dough is much higher in a pie crust, so I'm wondering if you'd have to bump up the butter percentage in the pizza recipe to have a similar effect.

[jeffereynelson]

Replace some of your oil with increased levels of butter and post some pics! I'm curious now haha

[Woohoohoo]

Hey DKM - I know you mentioned knead until a ball forms after a minute. I did BTB's recipe this afternoon and I gently mixed it until it juuuust formed a ball. It definitely appeared "biscuit"-like in that it had layers and appeared to have thin "sheets" of pasta overlapping one another. It also looks like it can fall apart at any minute

We'll see how it turns out... I didn't knead it like I normally would with pizza dough, so we'll see what happens. I'm pretty new to the pizza-making world, so I'm wondering, generally speaking, the less you knead the dough, the lighter it 'should' be, correct?