Ooni Karu beginner dough

[tnumrych]

Hey everyone,

I'm new to home pizza oven baking. I tried my hand last weekend using Ooni's Cold-Prove Pizza Dough recipe and it was pretty disastrous. The dough was fragile and easily torn. I think part of the problem was that I attempted to accelerate warming up the dough in my oven (cold) with the light on. IIRC I checked the dough temp prior to stretching and it was only about 75F, but I'm not certain that was the issue. I was only able to stretch and put on my peel two of the four balls (250g each)

Anyways, what's a good beginner dough recipe for a home pizza oven, Ooni or otherwise?

[kbrede]

I'm just starting out myself. Don't worry about the failures

You mentioned putting the dough in the oven and I don't see anything about that in the recipe you're following. Making dough isn't like making soup, follow the recipe and the directions closely until you know what you're doing. I think you learned that already

Are you using a mixer or mixing/kneading by hand? Are you using scales for measuring? What flour are you using?

The recipe is very similar to the one I started with. The hydration you're using is 60% which is a good place to start and works with your Ooni.


 

[tnumrych]

I'm just starting out myself. Don't worry about the failures

You mentioned putting the dough in the oven and I don't see anything about that in the recipe you're following. Making dough isn't like making soup, follow the recipe and the directions closely until you know what you're doing. I think you learned that already

Are you using a mixer or mixing/kneading by hand? Are you using scales for measuring? What flour are you using?

The recipe is very similar to the one I started with. The hydration you're using is 60% which is a good place to start and works with your Ooni.

Mixer. Caputo 00 (red bag). Scale. Only deviation was the oven rise, I had a timing issue due to family obligations and three toddlers demand dinner at VERY specific times.

[kbrede]

Caputo Pizzeria 00 (the blue bag) is generally what people recommend for high fired neapolitan style, but I have no idea how big of a deal that is.

What I used with success for my first run is the Saturday Pizza Dough recipe from "The Elements of Pizza" book.

I modified the recipe for a 60% hydration instead of the 70%, since the recipe was originally created for a bake at a lower temperature in a home oven. I didn't use a mixer, not really needed. Anyway, if you want to try the recipe linked below, just change the amount of water to 300g and you'll be at 60% hydration.

https://recipes.oregonlive.com/recipes/saturday-pizza-dough

Here he has instructions on how to work with the dough.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWqTac5vy0ccjgmP4j0RukuzNLpEOkZot

[Timpanogos Slim]

Caputo Pizzeria 00 (the blue bag) is generally what people recommend for high fired neapolitan style, but I have no idea how big of a deal that is.

Caputo blue 00, or caputo red 0, are surely good flours for 24-hr and 36-hr-plus ferments, respectively.

But the major consideration for decks over 800f is the lack of malt and/or enzymes, which are added to enhance browning in lower temperature ovens.

There are many domestically produced "all purpose" flours in the USA that lack malt or enzymes and will work fine - from memory, in the south-east of the USA you should be able to find White Lilly AP or Martha Washington AP, and throughout the USA you can probably find Arrowhead 'organic' AP, and at Target stores you should be able to find "good & gather" organic AP, which have no enzymes or malted barley.

[kbrede]

There’s also King Arthur 00 Pizza flour. I found some at Whole Foods but haven’t used any yet.

[Timpanogos Slim]

There’s also King Arthur 00 Pizza flour. I found some at Whole Foods but haven’t used any yet.

That's a good pick too -- just be aware that "Type 00" is not a regulated claim outside of Italy, and some flours with "00" on the label are malted or have enzymes added. For example, Central Milling's Tony Gemignani Signature California Artisan Type 00 Pizza Flour is malted and has enzymes added and does not resemble the Italian "type 00" spec in any way that they specify on the label. The ash spec might be low enough but they don't say. It has far more protein than italian 00, and is milled from hard rather than soft wheat.

[kdkrone]

Caputo Pizzeria 00 (the blue bag) is generally what people recommend for high fired neapolitan style, but I have no idea how big of a deal that is.

What I used with success for my first run is the Saturday Pizza Dough recipe from "The Elements of Pizza" book.

I modified the recipe for a 60% hydration instead of the 70%, since the recipe was originally created for a bake at a lower temperature in a home oven. I didn't use a mixer, not really needed. Anyway, if you want to try the recipe linked below, just change the amount of water to 300g and you'll be at 60% hydration.

https://recipes.oregonlive.com/recipes/saturday-pizza-dough

Here he has instructions on how to work with the dough.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWqTac5vy0ccjgmP4j0RukuzNLpEOkZot

Like kbrede I have used Ken Forkish's Saturday Dough recipe with great success (modifying the recipe for 60% hydration---for our home oven at 550 degrees, the original recipe works quite well, particularly with the addition of 10gm of diastatic malt and 30 gm of olive oil to help browning).  I did an "experiment" comparing Caputo Red, Caputo Blue, and King Arthur 00 flours.  Using the same measurements the Caputo doughs were wonderful in texture and flavor.  The King Arthur was quite sticky compared to the others, requiring generous use of flour when balling.  The flavor was close to that of the Caputo.  However, when using Forkish's 24-48 hour dough (with cold fermentation), the King Arthur was noticeably less flavorful than either of the Caputo flours, which were each quite delicious!

[Pete-zza]

kdkrone,

The King Arthur 00 flour does not have a good reputation on this forum. See, for example, Reply 18 at:

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=71931.msg688661#msg688661

You may also want to look at other posts in the same thread, as well as other pertinent links in those posts.

Peter