As I mentioned in Reply 44, I decided to see if I could make a decent cracker-style dough using my KitchenAid stand mixer in lieu of my Cuisinart food processor. In part it was because I thought that other members like BTB without food processors might be interested but I also wondered whether the results using the two different machines would be similar.
As will be described below, as part of my strategy in using the KitchenAid machine I decided to use the same basic methods as previously described in order to get improved hydration of the flour, but also to minimize development of the gluten as much as possible so that the dough would be easier to roll out. I also decided to increase the size of the finished pizza to 15”, the size of my cutter pan including the sloping sides. For purposes of the expanded dough calculating tool, I used 16”, or one inch greater than the desired final size. As before, I used a thickness factor of 0.07. The formulation I used looked like this:
Flour (100%):
Water (36%):
IDY (1%):
Salt (1.75%):
Vegetable (Soybean) Oil (3.5%):
Sugar (1.2%):
Total (143.45%):
| 278.15 g | 9.81 oz | 0.61 lbs
100.13 g | 3.53 oz | 0.22 lbs
2.78 g | 0.1 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.92 tsp | 0.31 tbsp
4.87 g | 0.17 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.87 tsp | 0.29 tbsp
9.74 g | 0.34 oz | 0.02 lbs | 2.14 tsp | 0.71 tbsp
3.34 g | 0.12 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.84 tsp | 0.28 tbsp
399.01 g | 14.07 oz | 0.88 lbs | TF = 0.07
|
Note: Pizza size entered into the tool is 16”; desired final pizza size is 15”; no bowl residue compensation
To prepare the dough, I started by sifting the flour (Harvest King) to which I added the IDY and stirred to uniformly disperse it in the flour. I then added the formula water, which I had preheated to 135 degrees F, to the mixer bowl. I gradually added the flour mixture to the water by tablespoonsful and stirred the mixture after each flour addition using a standard kitchen fork. I did this until a shaggy wet dough ball formed around the fork. Using this simple method ensured that there would be little or no gluten development at this stage. I estimate that about half of the flour was added to this point. I then covered the bowl and let the dough rest (autolyse) for 15 minutes in order to improve the hydration of the flour. The autolyse period also served to shorten the overall mix time.
At the end of the 15-minute period, I added the salt, sugar, oil and the remaining flour/IDY to the bowl. Using the paddle attachment and operating the mixer at stir speed, I mixed the ingredients for about 6 minutes. I decided not to mix longer than that because I did not want to overly develop the gluten. At the end of the 6 minutes, the dough mix took on the appearance of popcorn, with small-to-medium irregularly shaped pieces. The first photo below shows the dough as I put it on my work surface to form into a ball. As can be seen in the first photo, there was little loose flour. To form the ball, I just pressed everything together. I kneaded the dough ball gently for about a minute. Again, I did not want to overly develop the gluten. The second photo below shows the dough after it was formed. I then flattened the dough ball, oiled it, and placed it into my lightweight plastic snap-fit storage container. The container then went into my proofing box, which I had preheated to its maximum operating temperature of about 115-120 degrees F. The dough remained in the proofing box for an hour and a half. During that time, the dough expanded by about double, as is shown in the third photo below.
The heated dough was removed from its container and rolled out using my heavy rolling pin. The dough was rolled out to 16”. The dough did not roll out quite as easily as the dough made using my food processor, but it was still far easier than if I were rolling out an unheated dough. It took maybe a few minutes longer, plus I was rolling out to a larger size. From the 16” skin, I cut out a skin of 15”. The weight of the 15” skin was 9.70 ounces. I calculated a thickness factor for the 15” skin of 0.063, which was within normal range based on my recent experiments. As before, I dusted the final skin, folded it in quarters, encased it in plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator. It remained in the refrigerator for 2 days and 4 hours, at which point I brought it out to room temperature and let it warm up, still in the plastic wrap, for an hour and a half.
When I was ready to use the dough skin, I noticed that it had shrunk about a half-inch while in the refrigerator. However, using my rolling pin, I was able easily to restore the skin to its 15” size. I then docked the skin on both sides and fitted it within my 14” cutter pan that I had pre-oiled in order to get increased bottom crust browning. The cutter pan was then placed in a 475-degree F preheated oven, on the lowest oven rack position, for about 5 minutes. The cutter pan was then removed from the oven to dress the pre-baked crust.
As a change of pace, I decided to make a Mexican-style pizza that was inspired by a favorite tostada that I make using fresh chorizo from a local Mexican butcher shop and shredded quesadilla cheese, which is a mild-tasting Hispanic cheese similar to mozzarella cheese and often recommended for use on pizza. I put the shredded quesadilla cheese on the pre-baked crust and distributed small pieces of the chorizo, which I had lightly sauteed until pink, over the cheese. There was no pizza sauce. The dressed pizza was returned to the oven and baked for 7 minutes, again at 475 degrees F, on the lowest oven rack position. I then moved the pizza to the top oven rack position for about 1 ½ minutes of additional baking, mainly to get a bit more browning of the quesadilla cheese. I noticed throughout how well the cheese held up to the oven heat.
The photos in the next post show the finished pizza. The crust of the pizza was crispy and crackery although the texture was a bit different than the crust made using the food processor. It was perhaps a bit more tender with a texture that reminded me of a thinner version of the first pizza I made and reported on in this thread. However, the crust was flavorful and enjoyable nonetheless. At some point I plan to make a dough for a larger sized pizza (14”) using my food processor to see if the end results are the same as using the stand mixer.
Peter
