Ok, Let me clarify a few things, as I think that I've been misunderstood slightly. Here's what I meant about 'flour not making a difference':
If you make 2 identical batches using identical technique, varying just the flour, then OF COURSE, there will be a difference in the result. This is not what I meant at all. What I meant was that you'd better know more about that technique part FIRST.
When I came on the board last year, the conversation regarding dough was all about the ingredients and about techniques that made no difference. Flour type, how much oil, how much malt, how much sugar, what temp the water is to proof the yeast, etc. People were looking for increased browning by adding sugar, looking for more chewiness by going to Hi gluten, more flavor by varying the mixing temp of the dough. Using cornmeal. Etc. No offense to anyone, but the photos being posted did not look good. Most of this conversation was frankly WAY off base, at least as it pertained to Neopolitan/ elite NY places.
What I meant on my site is that it's 95% technique and 5% the flour type. It's like playing tennis. Have you ever seen a beginner go out and spend $1,000 on a racket that some pro uses? Then he goes out and misses the ball by 10 feet. Andy Roddick is going to kick my ass with $10 racket, I promise you.
Now, does Andy Roddick use a $10 racket? No. He uses a $1000 racket. But that's because he's at a different level and he's looking for that extra edge so he can go from the 99.9th percentile to the 99.99th percentile. The $1000 racket is going to make a difference to his game, but not to mine. I had to learn technique. People on this board where 'blaming their racket' for missing the ball. They were chalking it up to the flour. THIS was the myth.
And that was my point. Making a low hydration dough with oil, sugar and tons of IDY and watching it spin uselessly to a Kitchen Aid hook was not going to improve just because you switched over to hi gluten or because you switched from Gold medal high gluten to KA high gluten. This was the type of debate that was raging and this is what I was trying to correct. The windowpaning photo that you see on my site, which is a dough with amazing gluten development, was made with Bread flour, not high gluten and you can even do this with AP (and should learn how to as part of your training). I'm pretty positive that most doughs that were posted at the time that were made with Hi gluten came no where near this level of gluten development.
When I came on the board, there was a lot of talk about what the elites places do for a more Neopolitan pie. Not to brag, but I was the first to spell it out:
- Dough is just flour, water, salt, yeast. No malt, sugar, oil, cornmeal, vitamin c. etc.
- IDY is very limited and you have to use a natural starter
- Super wet mix, with gradual flour add only near the end
- Very wet final dough
- Autolyze before and after
- Limited rise, no more than 50% by volume
- Understanding warm and cold rise techniques
- Super hot oven, with higher temp from above than below
- Brick ovens are great, but at the wrong temp they are 90% useless because heat and not stone cooks a pizza
- Don't precook or overspice the sauce, strain rather than precook
- Rinse the acid out of the tomatoes, rather than add a lot of sugar
- Balance the ingredients
THESE are the fundamentals. Many of these are now considered standard, but when I came on the board, I fought with members over many of these. I had a full day argument with a 'professional' baker who said that you could make San Francisco sourdough out of IDY. Pure alchemy. No one was autolyzing before my site. Wet kneading was unknown. Natural starters were not being used. Low temp was the order of the day. My purpose was to shift the whole conversation 180 degrees - to shift focus to a new set of more important variables.
Flour type IS a factor, but not to the LEVEL of this list of a dozen points. If you want to improve, then work on the game, and worry less about the racket. Then later worry about the racket.
Currently I use about 40% Caputo and about 10% KASL and 50% KA Bread. And my results are off the chart great, as good as any NY place. Caputo definitly adds bigger bubbles and spring than Bread alone. But 100% Caputo has a nutty flavor I don't love. But regardless, my money is on the guy using AP who knows my dozen points, before the guy obsessing about KASL who doesn't know how to use it. The first photo on my site is AP! These are ALL pretty good flours. Some refer to Hi gluten as 'higher quality'. The truth is that they are ALL high quality. They vary in spec, not quality. And they are what you make of them. I promise that few NY places use KASL. They use Gold Medal All Trumps or whatever their restaurant supplier has at a good price. Even Patsy's. But their pies are great. Technique, technique, technique. I went last year with my Grandma to learn how to make her amazing pasta sauce. Does she special order escalon from the west coast? Or spend $5 a can for DOP San Marzano? No. She buys Red Pack from the A & P and makes a killer sauce everytime that probably blows away what most people have ever tried in their life. Technique. Even after watching her 3 times, mine tastes lame next to hers.
Similarly, with the water, I keep hearing the excuse that pizza & bagels down here (Altanta) suck because of the water. That's a lame excuse. That doesn't mean I use bad water. I wouldn't touch Atlanta Tap water, but filtered water or Dasani bottled water is all you need.
I hope that clarifies my point.
Jeff
