Cornmeal crust

[Arne_Jervell]

I am throwing a BBQ evening next week and thought it'd be fun to serve pizza on the side, instead of a more traditional (?) cornbread. But then I think using some corn flour could be appropriate.

Have anyone tried using a percentage of cornmeal in a "focaccia style" pizza dough? Specifically I'm aiming for a "Roman in teglia" style.

Any tips or inspiration would be much appreciated.

[Rolls]

Arne,

If you're aiming for the highly aerated crumb structure typical of teglia romana, I would first make a base dough using only wheat flour and then, after the gluten is well-developed, add the corn component in the form of polenta rather than dry cornmeal.  A series of "stretch and folds" should help incorporate the ingredients.  I would make the polenta using a finely-milled cornmeal to avoid any grittiness in the finished product.  Another tip would be to make the base dough entirely of semola rimacinata in order to bolster the yellow colour typical of many cornbreads.


Rolls

[Arne_Jervell]

Thanks for these suggestions. I particularly liked the little "cheat" of using semola rimacinata. Nobody needs to know.

Will make a test batch and see how that works.

Thanks again.

[Arne_Jervell]

Rolls, I made a test batch with 100% Semola Rimacinata and it worked really well!

All I did was replacing the flour with Caputo Semola Rimacinata. The dough was surprisingly workable (at W250, I was a bit wary of whether I could reach 80% HR with this), and the result was a slightly yellow crust. A little reminiscent of cornbread actually. 

It tasted really nice too. Slightly fuller or sweeter than usual than it seemed. Hopefully that will go along nicely with the other toppings I intend to stuff between the layers. 

[Rolls]

Arne,

It looks very good!  I've been adding more semola rimacinata into my bakes and am also pleased with the results.  I've been somewhat obsessed with the following video ever since it came out a couple of months and you might also find it interesting. Ian has some great stuff on his channel:




Rolls

[Arne_Jervell]

Amazing video! I think I'll have to try to replicate this biga based semola focaccia one day. Have you tried it?

[Rolls]

^^  Yes, a couple of times.  It's phenomenal! Drizzled with some good olive oil (I'm partial to Spanish arbequina) and draped with a good prosciutto cotto from Italy, you're in for a transcendent experience.  You must, must try this.


Rolls

[Arne_Jervell]

I made a batch of the biga based focaccia this week-end.

You were right, Rolls!