Rather than burden JerryMac’s thread on his NY style pizza with my experiments, I decided to start this thread. Basically, what I was trying to achieve most recently is a 16” version of a JerryMac NY style pizza. In the course of doing so, I made a few changes to the dough recipe that Jerry posted at the thread he started at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5851.0.html.
The starting point for my latest effort was the baker’s percent dough formulation that I posted at Reply 52 at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5851.msg55496.html#msg55496. In addition to scaling that recipe up to 16”, I made a few other changes. First, I used a hydration of 68%. That number was chosen because Jerry had indicated that the hydration for his dough is in the high 60s. Second, I used a thickness factor that was between the two values used by Jerry in making 13” and 14” pizzas. The thickness factor I used was 0.096738. Third, I decided to use a more classical method of making the poolish in which I used equal weights of flour and water, yielding a hydration of 100%. As in Jerry’s recipe, I used all of the formula water in the poolish. Fourth, I used honey instead of barley malt syrup, mainly because honey is easier for most people to find. As before, the flour used was the King Arthur bread flour. To improve its hydration, I sifted it. As discussed below, I also used the whisk attachment of my KitchenAid stand mixer to further improve the hydration of the flour used in the poolish. Fifth, I used a bowl residue compensation of 2.6% to compensate for minor dough losses during preparation of the dough. That value turned out to be almost perfect. Finally, I dressed the pizza on a 16” pizza screen and baked the pizza using a combination of the screen and my pizza stone. In preparation for making the pizza, I had preheated the oven and the stone for about an hour at around 500-550 degrees F.
Using the expanded dough calculating tool at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/expanded_calculator.html, the dough formulation I ended up with was as follows:
Flour (100%):
Water (68%):
IDY (1.3575%):
Salt – Morton’s Kosher (1.61763%):
Honey (4.71332%):
Total (175.68845%):
| 322.02 g | 11.36 oz | 0.71 lbs
218.97 g | 7.72 oz | 0.48 lbs
4.37 g | 0.15 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.45 tsp | 0.48 tbsp
5.21 g | 0.18 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.09 tsp | 0.36 tbsp
15.18 g | 0.54 oz | 0.03 lbs | 2.17 tsp | 0.72 tbsp
565.75 g | 19.96 oz | 1.25 lbs | TF = 0.0992532
|
Note: the nominal thickness factor used in the tool is 0.096738; bowl residue compensation is 2.6%; the water was tap water at 68 degrees F
To prepare the poolish, I started by combining all of the flour (sifted) with all of the IDY. I then put all of the formula water, 7.72 oz., into the mixer bowl of my basic KitchenAid stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment at stir speed, I then gradually added 7.72 ounces of the flour/IDY to the water in the mixer bowl. When all of the flour was incorporated into the water, I removed the whisk attachment. To get the poolish that stuck to the whisk attachment off of the attachment, I simply tilted the mixer head (unlocked) back slightly while using the stir speed and then the 2 speed. That caused the poolish to spin off of the whisk attachment into the mixer bowl. The mixer bowl was then covered, and the poolish was allowed to preferment for 5 hours at a room temperature of about 67 degrees F. (Note: Technically, the poolish can be used a reasonable period of time after the poolish reaches the "break point". The break point is the point at which the poolish peaks and starts to recede, or collapse. All else being equal, the time that it takes to reach the break point will depend on the temperature, usually room temperature, at which the poolish preferments.)
At the end of the 5-hour preferment period, I added the honey, salt and the remaining flour/IDY to the poolish in the mixer bowl. Using the C-hook of my mixer, the ingredients were mixed initially at stir speed. Once all of the ingredients were fully combined, they were kneaded for about another 3 1/2 minutes at speed 2. The dough was then removed from the mixer bowl and placed on a lightly floured work surface, hand kneaded for about a minute, and shaped into a round ball. The dough was then put into a covered oiled container (a plastic Rubbermaid storage container) and allowed to ferment for 1 ½ hours. At the end of that time, the dough was punched down, reshaped, and allowed to proof for another 1 ½ hours (also in the covered Rubbermaid storage container). All of the times involved (preferment time and rise and proof times) were as generally recited by JerryMac.
As I expected, and as I had been forewarned by Jerry, the proofed dough was highly hydrated and very extensible. Using just enough bench flour to coat the dough skin as I initially shaped and stretched it out to about 12”, I was able to lift the skin and to further stretch it out to about 16”. This was the trickiest part of the entire dough handling exercise. However, I was able to drape the skin over my forearms and deposit it onto the 16” pizza screen. To be sure that the skin wouldn’t stick to the screen, I had lightly pre-sprayed the screen with a canola oil spray.
The pizza was dressed in a buffalo chicken style, using the same ingredients as described in Reply 644 at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,576.msg55299.html#msg55299. The pizza was baked initially on the screen on the topmost oven rack position of my oven until the rim of the dough had risen and the cheeses were starting to bubble, about 4 minutes. I then shifted the pizza off of the screen (which I then removed from the oven) onto the pre-heated pizza stone (on the lowest oven rack position). The pizza baked on the stone for about 2 minutes, and once the bottom crust turned brown, I moved the pizza back to the topmost oven rack position for about another minute to achieve additional top crust browning.
The photos below show the finished pizza. The pizza was excellent. It had very good oven spring, with a large, chewy rim and a soft, airy crumb. There was also good crust coloration and flavor. I would say that the pizza overall was one of the best same-day pizzas I have ever made. The bottom crust of the pizza was not as crispy as I might have achieved had the pizza been baked entirely on my stone, but I expected that result. That would not have been an option in my case in any event, since my pizza stone cannot accommodate a pizza size greater than 14”. So, I have become accustomed to the slightly less crispy crusts when using a pizza screen.
For those who may be interested in using volume measurements for the flour in the dough formulation I used, I used November’s Mass-Volume Conversion Calculator at
http://foodsim.toastguard.com/ to do the conversions of the weights of flour to volumes. The 7.72 oz. of flour used in the poolish converts to 1 c. + 1/2 c. + 1/4 c. + a bit more than 1 1/8 t. The remaining flour, 3.64 oz. (11.36 oz. – 7.72 oz. = 3.64 oz.), added to the poolish as part of the final mix converts to 1/2 c. + 1/3 c. + about 1/3 t. The 7.72 oz. of water is between 7/8 and 1 c. in a standard Pyrex measuring cup (viewed at eye level on a flat surface). To be sure that the correct amount of flour is measured out volumetrically, one should stir the flour in its container, lift the flour into the measuring cups/spoons using a scoop or kitchen tablespoon, and then level the tops with the flat edge of a standard kitchen knife. Of course, if one chooses to use a different pizza size for purposes of using the expanded dough calculating tool (with the same thickness factor and baker’s percents as recited above), it will be necessary to use November’s tool to get the correct conversions of the weights of flour to volumes. However, the numbers should be pretty straightforward and easy to use since the weights of the poolish flour and water are the same and all of the formula water is used in the poolish.
Peter
EDIT (4/24/21): For a replacement for the inoperative foodsim link, see
https://www.pizzamaking.com/FoodSim.htm
