It is always a challenge for me to try to convert buzz’s recipes given in volume measurements to baker’s percent format but I decided nonetheless to give his thin crust recipe a try and to try to convert the recipe to baker’s percent format. I used the recipe as slightly modified by buzz in his last post.
I tried as much as possible to follow buzz’s instructions explicitly, using my KitchenAid stand mixer (with the C-hook), but some minor changes were necessitated. First, I used Pillsbury unbleached all-purpose flour rather than Gold Medal all-purpose flour. In measuring out the volume of flour, I used the method described some time ago by buzz at Reply 8 at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1184.msg10708.html#msg10708. On that basis, the 1 ¼ c. of all-purpose flour I measured out came to 6.05 ounces. Together with a teaspoon of bench flour I ended up using, the total flour was 6.15 ounces. Second, I used ADY, which I assume is what buzz intends with his recipe. I used six of the eight tablespoons of water to rehydrate the ADY, at 105 degrees F for 10 minutes. I held back the remaining two tablespoons of water in case I needed it later (which I did). Third, in the absence of a recitation of what brand of Kosher salt buzz uses, I elected to use the Morton’s brand of Kosher salt. Fourth, since I did not have any canola oil on hand, I substituted a light olive oil. Piecing everything together and using the Lehmann dough calculating tool at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/dough_calculator.html, the dough formulation I ended up with was as follows:
Flour (100%):
Water (56.9106%):
ADY (2.16801%):
Salt (2.75304%):
Oil (30.9712%):
Sugar (2.28658%):
Total (195.08943%):
| 174.82 g | 6.17 oz | 0.39 lbs
99.49 g | 3.51 oz | 0.22 lbs
3.79 g | 0.13 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1 tsp | 0.33 tbsp
4.81 g | 0.17 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1 tsp | 0.33 tbsp
54.14 g | 1.91 oz | 0.12 lbs | 4.01 tbsp | 0.25 cups
4 g | 0.14 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1 tsp | 0.33 tbsp
341.05 g | 12.03 oz | 0.75 lbs | TF = N/A
|
Note: Finished dough weight = 11.15 ounces; no bowl residue compensation used.
In preparing the dough, I found that I needed all 8 tablespoons of water to get a pancake batter like dough consistency in the bowl as buzz described. I also found that I needed to use a thin, flexible plastic spatula to move the ingredients into the path of the dough hook. The first photo below in this post shows the dough (in the mixer bowl) after the first rest period (30 minutes). The second photo shows the dough after the addition of the remaining flour (1/2 cup). It took only a teaspoon of bench flour to get the finished dough into a smooth round ball. The third photo below shows that dough ball. It was very soft but not wet or even tacky. As noted above, the weight of the dough ball was 11.15 ounces. Since the formula amount is 12.03 ounces, I apparently lost 0.88 ounces during the preparation of the dough through minor losses in the bowl, but it is also possible that my actual weights of the ingredients other than flour and water were different from the values in the dough formulation (where I kept the volume measurements as buzz specified).
I allowed the dough to ferment for about 6 hours before using. The dough rolled out very easily, which came as no surprise given the amount of water and oil in the dough. The dough was quite moist but I tried to minimize the amount of bench flour while rolling out the skin. I did not know whether buzz uses all of the dough to make the 14” skin, but that is what I did. I could have rolled the dough out even more thinly but for the first attempt I decided to use all of the dough for the 14" size. On the basis of the 11.15 dough ball weight and 14” skin size, I calculated that the thickness factor was 0.0724317. That is the value one would use in the Lehmann dough calculating tool for larger or smaller pizza sizes.
I docked the skin on both sides and placed it in my dark, anodized nonperforated cutter pan from pizzatools.com. Since I calculated that the dough formulation used almost 30% oil, I saw no need to oil the cutter pan. The skin was covered with aluminum foil and baked for 10 minutes on my lowest oven rack position (my oven is an electric oven), at 450 degrees F. The pre-baked skin was then dressed with slices of Sorrento whole-milk mozzarella cheese, 6-in-1 pureed tomatoes right out of the can (with a bit of dried Italian oregano), and Hormel pepperoni slices. The pizza finished baking for 10 minutes on the lowest oven rack position, and for an additional two minutes at the uppermost oven rack position to complete the baking of the cheese and toppings. The temperature was 450 degrees F. The photos in the next post show the finished pizza.
Whether I ended up with something that was like the pizzas that buzz makes, I thought the pizza turned out quite well. As buzz described, the crust was crispy and crackery. And the slices were rigid, not floppy. The crust was not a flaky, layered crispy crust as I have achieved recently with cracker-style pizzas based on modifications of DKM’s recipe, but I did not expect that since buzz had posted his recipe in the American style section of the forum, not the Cracker section. The crust made from buzz’s recipe derives its crispiness from the high heat transfer characteristics of a large amount of oil, and a long bake time (a total of 22 minutes in my case, including the 10-minute pre-bake and an additional 12 minutes of final bake). I’m glad I tried the recipe. Now I have a better idea of another thin style. Unless and until buzz tells me that I messed up somewhere, about the only change I might make to the recipe is to use less salt, which was very noticeable in the finished crust. Of course, if my weight of flour was off (on the low side), then the percent of salt and other ingredients would come down.
Peter
