Donatos Pizza Recipe

[Wazatron]

Hello all,
Well for a while now I've been working on a recipe for a Donatos-style pizza and have finally reached a point I'm comfortable with. Most of the credit for this really goes to Pete-zza and others who have helped out at every step. The experiment thread has gotten a bit too crazy and large, so it's time to post what I consider to be the “final” recipe on a new thread to help anyone out who might want to try this. Of course I'm sure it will be tweaked and modified as many recipes are, but this is a great starting point and I'm very happy with the results of this recipe.

I hope people try this out and post comments – and if you have had Donatos please post your critiques so we can continue to improve this recipe.

For those of you who don't know what Donatos is: Donatos is a pizza joint from Columbus, Ohio. The style of pizza they make is very popular in Ohio and is essentially a thin-crust pizza with little to no crust (100% pizza!!) with toppings that go edge to edge and is cut into squares/rectangles instead of slices.

This recipe is pretty involved, but it's well worth it – especially for me! I can't get any Donatos where I am (or any other of my Ohio favorites). Also, it doesn't really fit into any of the other main categories so I'm keeping it here in General Pizza Making.

Please enjoy!!
~Wazatron

[Wazatron]

Tools: I thought it might be handy to list all the hardware I use to make this.

1.   14 inch perforated pizza disk. I got mine from pizzatools.com and they work amazingly well.
2.   2-quart Pyrex mixing bowl (for the hydration step)
3.   Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer
4.   18 inch Vic Firth rolling pin (helps get a nice even 14 inch skin)
5.   Those rubber dough-rings for the rolling pin. I got mine at Williams Sonoma and use the green one. Again, it really helps in getting an even skin since I don't have a sheeter.
6.   Cornmeal – it's not listed in the main ingredients, but don't forget it! Donatos style pizza without cornmeal on the bottom of the crust just isn't right.
7.   Pastry brush – I just use a silicone basting brush – for the dough/cornmeal steps
8.   Mixing bowls
9.   Dough Docker – you don't need one of course, but I broke down and got one from pizzatools.com and it's really handy. You can just use a fork.

[Wazatron]

Wazatron's 14-inch Donatos Clone Dough Recipe – Version 1.0
 
Bread Flour (100%) (I use KA):  240.33 g  |  8.48 oz | 0.53 lbs
Water (46%):   110.55 g  |  3.9 oz | 0.24 lbs
IDY (.5%):   1.2 g | 0.04 oz | 0 lbs | 0.4 tsp | 0.13 tbsp
Salt (1.7%):   4.09 g | 0.14 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.85 tsp | 0.28 tbsp
Vegetable (Soybean or Canola) Oil (3.5%):   8.41 g | 0.3 oz | 0.02 lbs | 1.85 tsp | 0.62 tbsp
Sugar (1%):   2.4 g | 0.08 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.6 tsp | 0.2 tbsp
Sweet Dried Dairy Whey (1.5%):   3.6 g | 0.13 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.19 tsp | 0.4 tbsp
Baker's Non-Fat Dry Milk (1.7%):   4.09 g | 0.14 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.05 tsp | 0.35 tbsp
Eggs, large (10.8%):   25.96 g | 0.92 oz | 0.06 lbs | 5.13 tsp | 1.71 tbsp
Total (166.7%):   400.63 g | 14.13 oz | 0.88 lbs | TF = 0.0918 (0.09) | 2% Residue
 
 
Dough Preparation:
•   Stir the nonfat dry milk into a small amount of the total water, scald (with microwave), let cool, and set aside.
•   NOTE: If you use good quality bakers nonfat dry milk you can skip the scald step and just add it to the dry ingredients. If you use store bought (like Carnation) you must scald.
•   Combine the flour, sugar, IDY, and the dried dairy whey in a bowl, whisk to mix well, and set aside.
•   Put the remaining water into the bowl of the stand mixer, add the salt and stir to dissolve.
•   Crack one egg, mix the egg well, measure out the amount needed, and add to mixer bowl.
•   I usually just put the mixer bowl on a scale and slowly pour in the beaten eggs. If you miss by a gram or two it doesn't seem to significantly change the final product.
•   Add the cooled liquid nonfat dry milk/water mix to the mixer bowl and mix for a minute or so with the wire whisk attachment, just to combine well.
•   Change to the dough hook and add the flour mixture SLOWLY a bit at a time and mix/knead at  speed-1 all everything is incorporated nicely. It will still be a bit dry at this point, but most of the dough should start to pull away from the site of the mixing bowl.
•   I generally add the flour in three installments using a 1-cup measuring cup, shaking each cup in slowly. Once the cup is added I constantly scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything gets integrated well.
•   Add the oil and knead to combine, using speed 1 and/or 2, adding any additional flour and/or water needed to achieve a dough that is smooth and slightly sticky (tacky).
•   TIP: It is possible that you will need to add a TINY bit more to get the dough to come together (only if it's still very coarse). If so, add in VERY SMALL increments, like 1/8 tsp. The dough can easily go from dry to too sticky and unworkable in a heartbeat.
•   Once the dough is mostly together (if it splits into two big pieces, that's okay, just combine them by hand) knead the dough by hand for about 30 seconds and shape into a ball or disk.
•   Lightly oil the dough ball and place it within a container (covered) and then put into the refrigerator.
 
 
Dough management:
•   Place in refrigerator for about 48 hours
•   24 hours is enough to taste good, but the flavor does get better the longer it ferments.
•   Warm up at room temperature for 2 hours
•   Roll out on heavily floured work surface, using a rolling pin, to 14 inches
•   Dock the dough and oil with vegetable oil.
•   Liberally dust with cornmeal, patting down into the dough
•   Flip the dough onto a disk and use a pizza cutter to “cut” around the circle for a nicely shaped pizza without big edges.
•   Proof in the oven, with humidity (from 200-degree F water in a large measuring cup), for 1/2 hour.
•   I generally fill up a big Pyrex container with 6 cups of boiling water and stick it in the back corner of the oven, and can fit two 14" pizzas in at the same time.
•   Pull skin out and rest on counter while oven heats up to 450 – leave until the edges get a bit crusty
•   You can leave them on the counter for a while, especially if you are preparing the crusts ahead of time for company or something. They get kind of plastic feeling, which seems to help the overall browning.
 
 
Dressing of the Pizza:
•   Dress using Donatos’ clone sauce, shredded Provolone cheese, and whatever toppings you might like (all veggies must be fresh!! No canned mushrooms!!)
 
 
Baking Protocol:
•   Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
•   Place pizza on lowest rack position at 450 for 7 minutes
•   Check the bottom after 7 minutes - if it needs to brown more, turn the oven up to 475 just so the coils come back on and get hot. It can go from nice and brown to burnt quickly so keep checking at this point and pull before it looks too brown.
•   If the top needs extra browning, open the door and turn the broiler on high, and moe the pizza to the top position rack until it looks good
•   I've never actually tried this step, though it was suggested to try and get the pepperoni to get more crusty like Donatos pepperoni.
 
 
 
Wazatron's Donatos Clone Sauce – Version 1.0
 
Mix/whisk together before hand and let sit overnight. Do not cook.
•   1 6oz can tomato paste (Contadina seems to be the best if you can get it)
•   9/10 can water (same size can)
•   3/4 tsp table sugar
•   1/2 tsp table salt
•   1/2 tsp basil


Makes enough for two 14" pizzas spread nice and thin ALL the way around (don't leave any dough exposed - you gotta go edge to edge), unless you like them with extra sauce..

[Wazatron]

Some other general Donatos notes:

Donatos is famous for their Pepperoni pizza - they put 100 pepperoni on every large pizza (see my avatar picture)! To do this without it turning to a big grease pool they use their own recipe which has lower fat content than most. It has a very unique flavor too. I generally par-bake pepperoni at 200 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes in order to mop up some grease so I can load up the pizza. I haven't found a best/favorite pepperoni yet, but Kroger brand works really well and of course the pre-sliced Ezzo Pepperoni (purchased from PennMac.com) can never go wrong either. Finding the most Donatos-like pepperoni will always be the biggest challenge in re-creating the pizza at home!

Cheese - Donatos also uses aged provolone!! To get the flavor right please use aged or aged & smoked provolone! Not mozzarella!!

Also, on most of their pizzas (especially the "original" pepperoni) they seem to use a sprinkle/shake of something. To get this I generally liberally shake on some basil and Parmesan cheese before putting it in the oven. If you get the good pepperoni that "craters" this shake bakes nicely in each pepperoni and adds a very good flavor.

[Wazatron]

Mariachi Beef or Chicken: another famous Donatos pizza. The toppings are simple, but the pizza is great! Try this for someting different!

Toppings:
Donatos pizza sauce
Provolone AND shredded Cheddar Cheese
Seasoned ground beef (or seasoned chicken, your choice)
Fresh sliced Roma tomatoes
Fresh sliced jalapenos
Mariachi spice mix (listed below)

Serve with Sour Cream!!!!


Spice Mix (I pre-mix this and sprinkle on liberally when I make the pizza)
Romano Cheese
Dark Chili Powder
Garlic Powder
Oregano
Ground Cumin
Ground Coriander
Ground Cayenne Pepper

[Pete-zza]

Waz,

Thank you for taking the time to present the information on your Donatos clone in such a user-friendly manner.

One thing I would like to bring to your attention is that if you are using the baker's grade dry milk powder, there is no need to reconstitute it as you described. It can be added to all of the other dry ingredients. If you were using the Carnation's dry milk powder as found in most supermarkets, even then you wouldn't have to reconstitute it because it is used in such small amount. At the time I described the reconstitution process, I didn't realize that it really didn't have to be reconstituted.

Some time you might want to try to make some skins up in advance and keep them in the refrigerator until ready to be used. I did this recently with some cracker-style skins and I liked the convenience of doing so. Preparing skins in advance would also appear to be consistent with Donatos' practice of delivering skins (frozen, I believe) to their stores.

Peter

[aptfive]

..lets see some photos of your pizza ..maybe there's a reason why it was only popular in Ohio??

[Wazatron]

?? 

Well, some people DON'T like Donatos. Fine by me! Many other "Ohio Style" pizza joints are looked at, by some, as being better (Masseys, Tommy's, Enricos: some other central Ohio joints) - but they all share the same basic characteristics. Thin (but not cracker) crust, loads of toppings from edge to edge, almost no crust edges, square cut pie (no big floppy slices). And yep, I plan on making some more here soon and taking pictures as I go to post for everyone.

And for anyone else curious about Donatos, they are now located in more states than just Ohio (so MANY people LOVE Donatos) and are working on a new franchise plan to expand even further. There's a lot of history with Donatos, but I won't post any more here since it's not really appropriate for this thread. If anyone wants to read more about Donatos just check out their website. Actually there's a recent post about their growth into two new states - North and South Carolina! I believe they are now in 7 states (just need them to come west a bit further... haha)

http://www.donatos.com/about_donatos/index.asp (pictures, history, locations, etc)

[Wazatron]

Okay with the extra time I've got during the Holidays here I figured I'd just go ahead and make some more pizza!! Here are some pictures of the Doug Preparation stage.

1. The ingredients
2. Measuring the flour and adding the dry ingredients
3. Mix well with a whisk
4. Add the egg to the salt-water in the mixer's bowl
5. Mix in the mixer - this is before the oil is added. Still dry and fairly lose.
6. This is after the oil is added - it's come together and is slightly tacky but NOT sticky.
7. This is after kneading for 30 seconds and rolling into a ball.
8. If I poke the dough it does NOT stick to my finger. If your dough is too sticky at this point toss it back in the mixer's bowl and mix in 1 tsp of flour at a time until it is tacky yet not sticky.

At this point, you just slightly oil a bowl (I spray lightly with PAM) and the dough ball. I then cover it TIGHT with plastic wrap and into the fridge!

I will either make these tomorrow night or the night after. When I do I will take more pictures and post both putting the pizza together and the final product!

[aptfive]

..hehe ..i'm was jus given you the business Wazatron ..all pizza is great ..i certainly can appreciate your passion for Donato's or any other pizza recipe ..even if it has "sweet dry dairy whey" in it ..come on!!

[BTB]

Very interesting, Wazatron.  Thanks a lot for the formulation, tips and information.  As I'm interested in trying all kinds of pizzas (have never tasted a Donato's), I will have to put this on my list of pizza experiments for the near future.  Now I have to find where to get sweet dried dairy whey and baker's grade dry milk powder.  For your recipe, is that a whole large (regular) sized egg that is added to the mix?  Please post some pictures of the finished pizza along with a view of the crust the next time you make one.  But I assume that those in the "side bar" represent this style pizza.

[Pete-zza]

BTB,

Bob's Red Mill offers both the dried dairy whey and the baker's grade dry milk powder. I called Bob's Red Mill twice about the dry milk powder and was told both times that it is baker's grade. Whole Foods may be a good source for the Bob's Red Mill products.

Peter

[Wazatron]

BTB - it really ends up being a bit less than 1 egg. I generally make 2 pizzas when i make this and crack/whisk 2 eggs for both (and I don't use all of both eggs either).

I've been able to find the milk powder at Whole Foods in bulk, and got the Dried Dairy Whey at Vitamin Cottage.

And I will certainly post more pictures (soon! I have 2 crusts in the fridge) of both putting together the dough and the final pizzas as well. And BTB, yep, the "side bar" picture on my posts is what the final "Donatos" product looks like. my recipe doesn't quite get it perfect yet, but like I said it's close enough that I'm very happy with it.

aptfive - Yep, many pizza "purists" look at the ingredients of Donatos and just shake their heads. And even I must admit that there are other central Ohio joins that I might actually like better. But Donatos represents a model of consistency for the type of "Ohio Style" pizza that I love and miss so much. It is a very unique flavor/style of pizza (at least IMHO) and I highly recommend any pizza lover trying it out. Even if you end up hating it, it's something different that is a fun experiment.

More pictures and final product shots soon!!!

[Wazatron]

Okay - I am making the pizzas today. They have been in the fridge for 2 days now! Referencing the pictures below...

1. The fermented dough. Not a big rise, though a bit more than it would have been at just 24 hours. The bottom will be a bit sticky, so carefully take it out and place the bottom right on your heavily floured work surface.
2. My station - all ready to go. Rolling pin set with the dough rings, cornmeal ready, oil ready, and not pictured is my docker.
3. Rolling it out - you will need to apply flour AS you roll it out. The dough can get pretty sticky. This step is still tough for me - trying to get a nice circle AND keep the dough a consistent thickness all around. I still generally end up with some parts too thick, some too thin... thankfully some just right!
4. I check with my disc to make sure I've got the dough large enough.
5. Then dock, brush with oil, and sprinkle on the cornmeal. I pat it in with my hands so it sticks and doesn't all come off when I flip.
6. Next step is to flip the crust (oiled cornmeal side down) on to the disc. Then use a pizza cutter to cut the around the disc, trimming off all excess dough so you get a nice round pizza.
7. Then into the oven for the 30 minute hydration period. Here you can see my Pyrex thing full of 6-cups of boiling water.
8. Post hydration - it's a bit hard to see in the picture, but they come out slightly puffy with a bit of a plastic look to them.

Time to let them rest! I'll be topping and baking them in the next few hours, so I'll post more pictures tonight!

[Wazatron]

Well, all done! Though before I post the pics I want to note a couple things.
I did NOT scald the dry milk this round and I think that was a mistake. I am guessing that the bulk dry milk I have gotten at Whole Foods is not of baker’s quality. But I thought I’d try – and my microwave conveniently died the day I made the dough, so I didn’t have much of a choice anyhow. I believe the final product suffered a bit because of this. It did not quite taste “right”, the bottom didn’t develop as rich a golden-brown color as normal, and the crust overall did not rise in the oven as much as necessary and had more of a stale/chewy taste. I’m not suggesting all of this is directly a result of not scalding the milk, but I’m sure some of it was.
I also cooked the pizza’s at a neighbor’s house and I think his oven performed a bit differently than mine, necessitating in longer cooking times.
But even so, they were still enjoyable and I took pictures to post here as well. I’ll reference the pictures again from here out.

1.   Sauce the sucker – leave no crust edges!!!
2.   Topped with pepperoni, mushrooms, and sausage.
3.   This pizza is done “Mariachi Beef” style (provolone & cheddar, seasoned ground beef, roma tomato slices, fresh jalapeno slices)
4.   Pizza is done! It looks a bit “flatter” than normal. As I mentioned above it didn’t rise quite as much as it usually does, and I had to cook it longer in my neighbor’s oven. The longer it cooks the more the toppings “sink” into the pie – Donatos isn’t a very “flat” pizza, it has lots of texture (for lack of a better term) from all the toppings.

CUT IN SQUARES!!!

5.   Here’s the finished Mariachi Beef. Again, it’s a bit flatter and thinner than normal. Not by much, but slight changes make a big difference in this pizza.
6.   Here’s what you should shoot for in the bottom crust – almost burnt edges so they’re crispy, and a golden brown bottom.
7.   This piece has the toppings scraped off to show the contrast from the bottom of the crust. The top of the crust should come out almost spongy.
8.   A side shot – this piece is roughly the thickness to shoot for. There should be the browned crispy bottom crust, the  spongy top, and an almost chewy layer between.

When you pick up a piece it should be able to support its own weight – pieces that are floppy and have no discernible “middle” layer are too thin.

Well I was hoping to get the perfect result this time for the pictures, but it goes to show how some more experimentation is needed to get this 100% right. I know there are a few more out there now actively trying this recipe who are also able to do side-by-side comparisons, so hopefully they’ll be able to help this recipe get even closer. And in all honesty I hope to end up with a pizza that’s even better than Donatos!
Thanks to anyone actively reading this, and again, I hope some more people out there give this a try. I’ll probably stop actively posting on this thread now, except to answer any questions people might have.
~Wazatron

[aptfive]

..looks delicious Wazatron ..great pics ..i have family in Olmstead Falls, Ohio

[Pete-zza]

Waz,

I, too, think the pizzas look great. I look forward to your next set of pizzas.

For your information, on the assumption that your large egg was typical of the one used by the government to calculate its nutrition profile for large eggs (that is, a large egg contains 76% water), I calculated that the 'real" hydration of your dough is 54.2%. I mention this in case you want to lower the nominal hydration (46%) a bit in a future test. Doing that might make the dough less wet and easier to work with and to roll out without having to add as much bench flour.

Since the dry milk powder does play a role in the rise of the dough, it is possible that if you used the wrong form it might have been a factor in your results although it is hard to say at the low levels you used in relation to the amount of flour. However, I agree that you want to get this issue resolved even if it only to rule out the milk as a factor in the final results and also to rule out the possibility that using your neighbor's oven was a contributory, or even sole, factor. In case you are interested, there is more on this topic at Replies 9-11 starting at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5609.msg47756.html#msg47756.

Another thing you might want to consider in future tests is to weigh the finished skins that are cut out of the larger sheets of dough and note any correlation between the skin weights and the finished pizzas, as well as the range of variations of skin weights. When I have prepared thin-crust doughs, I have used the "Rectangular" feature of the expanded dough calculating tool and entered dimensions of two inches larger than the desired final pizza size I am after. For example, if I want to make a 14" skin, I enter 16" by 16" into the tool as the dimensions of the sheet from which I plan to cut the 14" skin. I roll out the dough to 16" by 16". This allows an inch on each side of the 14" skin as scrap. I believe that the way that Donatos makes its skins is to roll out a long sheet of dough with rectangular dimensions and then cut the skins out from that. Of course, there is nothing wrong with using circles of dough as you have been doing and as I did when I made my Donatos clones. In fact, the amount of scrap is likely to be less with circles than rectangular pieces.

One experiment I would like to try out sometime is the one I previously mentioned, that is, to prepare a Donatos clone skin in advance, much as I suspect Donatos itself does at its commissaries.

Peter

[Wazatron]

Hey there Pete - I like your ideas for future experiments! Is it hard to try and roll dough out square? I think going for a 16x16 square and then cutting out a 14" pizza might help even more in getting a more even and consistent crust. And I might try a lower overall hydration as well - that might help make the final product a bit crisper, and also come together without being so sticky. It might require a bit more hand-kneading to get the dough together out of the mixer but I don't think that would really be a problem.

At any rate, thanks for the suggestions! As I keep saying, I'm very happy with how far we've gotten this recipe, though there's still room for improvement!

[Pete-zza]

Is it hard to try and roll dough out square? I think going for a 16x16 square and then cutting out a 14" pizza might help even more in getting a more even and consistent crust.

Waz,

I don’t think that it is so much the shape of the skin as it is the hydration of the dough. If a dough is stiff, it will be hard to roll out whether you roll it out in the shape of a circle or in the shape of a square. However, I found that it is easier to roll out a piece of dough into a square shape if the dough piece you start out with is also square. I used the latter method recently to make a Round Table dough clone. I described how I prepared the RT dough clone at Reply 249 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1911.msg51105.html#msg51105. In the first photo of that post you will see the square storage container I used to keep the dough piece relatively square at all times. The second photo shows the square sheet that was rolled out of the square dough piece, using a long, tapered wood rolling pin. The hydration of the dough piece was 52%, or a bit lower that the “effective” hydration of your Donatos dough clone (54.2%).

You will also see in the abovementioned post that I used a new “dough warming” method to make the dough easier to roll out. In my case, I was rolling and re-rolling a sheet of dough that was folded onto itself so as to produce multiple layers. It’s been a long time since I last made a Donatos clone so I don’t really remember if the dough coming out of the mixer was stiff or not. I don’t believe we have ever investigated whether Donatos uses a multi-layer dough preparation method at its commissaries, but independent of the answer to that question, the dough warming method works well for essentially any stiff dough that has to be rolled out by hand using a rolling pin. I think that you may find it instructional to see how that dough warming method works for various doughs, and especially stiff doughs, by reading Reply 16 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5762.msg49138.html#msg49138. The dough that was described in that post had a hydration of only 36%. If you decide to try pre-making a Donatos clone dough skin, as I suggested as a possibility (and which I think has a lot of merit), you may find reading other posts in the same thread useful (the thread starts at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5762.msg48991.html#msg48991). That thread was another nice collaborative effort of several of our members, as is the Round Table collaboration. 

Peter

[November]

Peter,

Have you noticed that there is a wide array of Donatos products listed at the Nutrition Data website?  Most intriguing are the "No Dough Pizza" products.  With the dough excluded from the nutrition facts, one can narrow the list of ingredients that go into the dough by measuring the delta.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-donatos000000000000000000000.html