Dewey's Pizza - Perfection (replication?)

[FJPhil]

So I went ahead and made my pizza with Dewey's dough again... Note on the first pic..the actual dough ball weight was 390g. For whatever reason when I took the pic, the weight was fluctuating. 

A few more notes:
1. Dewey's dough really is the easiest dough I have ever worked with.  I rate the Papa Johns clone at about a 8 out of 10 on the easyness scale..Dewey's is def a 10 out of 10..if not higher.  It literally takes only 1 or 2 mild tosses and the thing is already opened to the full 13" size. 

2. The dough is extremely pillowy and soft, even straight out of the refrigerator.

3. It doesnt have a particularly strong odor...which would lead me to believe that it is definitely an IDY based dough. 

Also, when I baked this pizza, I baked it on a screen on the lowest rack in my gas oven at 500 for about 10 mins.  I recently broke my pizza stone, otherwise I would have used that.  At Dewey's, I believe they use a Baker's Pride steel deck oven.  Based on this info, even with using Dewey's actual dough, my pizza doesnt really come out to the same texture as if you were to get it in the restaurant. 

[Fullback66]

When you make the perfect Dewey's Pizza dough please share with us. I love the pizza at Dewey's.

[Chicago Bob]

When I did hydration tests on the MM thread I cooked a 10 gram sample pressed flat into a 2 1/2 in.round  ramakin, 350 degree oven for 10 min.   Norma did the same type of test with a dough ball I sent her from an MM shop and got the same results.

Bob

[CDNpielover]

But keep in mind that although different trials using the same method produced similar results, this does not mean the results are accurate measurements of the actual percent water of the dough.  I do not have experience measuring the water content of doughs, and perhaps that method might work just fine given the level of resolution need for baking (?).  i do have experience working with plant materials though, and generally one wants to work at lower temperatures (e.g. around 100 C) for longer periods of time (until a constant mass is achieved).  At higher temperatures thermal breakdown reactions begin, which will be interpreted as water loss.  Pyrolysis for example begins in wood at around 200 degrees celcius, and if this is occurring in the dough samples then this will lead to an artificially high measurement of water content.  An easy way to tell if this is occurring in the dough is to see if it is burning/browning/charring.  

[Chicago Bob]

But keep in mind that although different trials using the same method produced similar results, this does not mean the results are accurate measurements of the actual percent water of the dough.  I do not have experience measuring the water content of doughs, and perhaps that method might work just fine given the level of resolution need for baking (?).  i do have experience working with plant materials though, and generally one wants to work at lower temperatures (e.g. around 100 C) for longer periods of time (until a constant mass is achieved).  At higher temperatures thermal breakdown reactions begin, which will be interpreted as water loss.  Pyrolysis for example begins in wood at around 200 degrees celcius, and if this is occurring in the dough samples then this will lead to an artificially high measurement of water content.  An easy way to tell if this is occurring in the dough is to see if it is burning/browning/charring.   

Yes, you are absolutely right...I'm sorry, I forgot to add that Peter took our result numbers and whipped some of his magic on it to come up with the actual recipe percent .   Thanks CDN.

Bob

[Pete-zza]

But keep in mind that although different trials using the same method produced similar results, this does not mean the results are accurate measurements of the actual percent water of the dough.  I do not have experience measuring the water content of doughs, and perhaps that method might work just fine given the level of resolution need for baking (?).  i do have experience working with plant materials though, and generally one wants to work at lower temperatures (e.g. around 100 C) for longer periods of time (until a constant mass is achieved).  At higher temperatures thermal breakdown reactions begin, which will be interpreted as water loss.  Pyrolysis for example begins in wood at around 200 degrees celcius, and if this is occurring in the dough samples then this will lead to an artificially high measurement of water content.  An easy way to tell if this is occurring in the dough is to see if it is burning/browning/charring.  

CDNpielover,

The instructions I used and also gave to Norma called for baking the sample piece of dough at around 212 degrees F for several hours. This was after the sample was baked at a high enough temperature to cause the sample to expand and be amenable to being slit into two pieces for the longer bake. More specific details are given at the MM thread.

Peter

[DustinA]

Does anyone have any insights into their sauce recipe?  My wife and I went Dewey's last night and were trying to dissect what was in their sauce.  It's extremely bright and acidic which made me suspect they used a red wine vinegar of some sort and was also just slightly spicy, which made me suspect red pepper flakes even though non were visible.  Upon visual inspection I could see pepper and what I'm assuming to be oregano as it didn't have the sweetness that basil would usually give you.

Anybody else have any thoughts?

[DustinA]

I stumbled upon success out of the blue yesterday with the below recipe.

1000g/100% Flour  (Gen Mills High gluten, bromated superlative)
650g/65% cold filtered water
20g/2% canola oil
20g/2% honey
20g/2% sea salt
1 (6oz) square of baker's yeast.

I dissolved the yeast into the water and honey and mixed to combine.  I let that stand for 10 minutes and then mixed in the dry ingredients.  After bringing it to a shaggy mass stage, I further kneaded it until I had a good elastic consistency. 

From there, I did a one hour bulk rise on the counter before portioning, balling and tossing the dough in the fridge for a 72 hour nap.

When I was ready to bake them off, I let them sit out for an hour while my oven preheated.  I brought the oven up to 500 for an hour and got my pizza stone nice and hot.  The pies went directly onto the stone and baked up nice, brown and crispy.  These were delicious.

Each were dressed with Pizziolo, a dash of oregano, basil and red pepper flakes and then top with RD whole milk mozz.

This was as near to a Dewey's crust as I have ever gotten.  The only thing that was missing was that slight nutty flavor that Dewey's gets.  At this point, I'm attributing that to a higher temperature oven than I'm using.  I'll get some pics up as soon as I can.

[Maximus1000]

I made the dough as you specified and have them in the fridge now..  Hopefully it will come close to deweys as we really love the taste and texture.  I'll report back as to how ours turns out.

[briterian]

Definitely looking to try this.  We live in Cinci and love their pizza.  Do you think adding a bit of Diastatic Malt Powder or maybe a bit of molasses might help impart the nuttiness?  Does anyone know how much malt powder is recommended?

Also I can't get ahold of fresh square yeast - what would the amt of yeast if I use dry?   Also - are you sure you used 6 oz?  That is the amount for like 30 cups of flour (http://redstaryeast.com/yeast-baking-lessons/yeast-conversion-table/)

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/diastatic-malt-powder-16-oz

[woodmakesitgood]

This Dewey's pizza sounds interesting. I like the idea of a light, soft textured rim crust.
I doubt they use spelt wheat in their dough, but in a pinch, a few % of that would add some nuttiness to the dough.

[dpappa]

From what I've found online, one square seems to be 2oz.
https://www.theartisan.net/convert_yeast_two.htm

According to this conversion, its about 17.5 Grams, which still seems like a lot of IDY.