Text 23705, 103 rader
Skriven 2012-04-14 23:10:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: pizza 532
=================
-=> Quoting Michael Loo to Dale Shipp <=-

 DS> I would certainly go for the extra cheese -- but no olive oil
 DS> at all.

 ML> For me, less cheese, heavy on the oil.

For me, less cheese, extra sauce.

It's amazing how early in life kids get VERY firm ideas on what
makes a good pizza.... like, about 2-3 years old. For Neekha it was
and still is bacon and double cheese, Lexi... vegetarian special
with one thin layer of meat topping added, Charlee... the meat
lover's special. Obviously they can never share one large one.


MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV  2.10

     Title: No Knead Pizza Bianca Pt 1
Categories: pizza
  Servings: 4

    500 g  bread flour
     10 g  kosher salt
      5 g  instant or rapid-rise yeast
    375 g  lukewarm water
    1/4 c  extra-virgin olive oil
    Coarse sea salt such as
    Maldon or fleur de sel
      1 TB finely chopped rosemary
    leaves (optional)

While focaccia are baked in a pan, pizza bianca are baked directly
on the floor of the oven, much like a neapolitan pizza. Stretch the
dough out to a length of about six feet on top of a monstrous paddle
before dimpling it with fingers to prevent large bubbles from
forming (a major defect, according to Sullivan Street Bakery's Jim
Lahey). It gets drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt,
then folded up accordion-style before being inserted deep into a
500-600 F oven and stretched back out.

While large, cavernous bubbles that char are considered a defect in
pizza bianca, you still want an extremely open, wide hole structure
in the crumb. The holiness of bread is pretty much directly
proportional to the amount of water you add to it. Adding more water
to your dough works in two ways:

It adds more steam. When your dough goes into a hot oven, you
probably notice that it expands significantly. This is due in large
part to the conversion of water to steam within the bread. More
water = more bubbles = airier, bubblier bread.

It makes your gluten network looser. Gluten is the network of
proteins that develops in bread dough when you combine flour and
water. This network, when cooked, firms up, giving bread its
structure. For optimal bubble formation, you want gluten that is
very strong, yet very stretchy. Adding more water to your dough
allows those bubbles to be stretched out extra-wide.

While most pizza dough is made with a hydration level of around 65%
to 70% (that is, the amount of water added weighs in at 70% of the
amount of flour used), I took mine all the way up to 80%, producing
a dough that nearly pours out of the mixer, yet bakes up into a
supremely stretchy, light, and airy crumb. In other words, perfect
for pizza bianca.

With very wet doughs, I find that using the No Knead method is the
easiest way to handle it. To develop gluten, you generally want to
knead your dough to speed-up the linking process between the
proteins in the flour. With the no-knead method, you simply stir
together your basic ingredients (in this case bread flour, salt,
yeast, and water), cover them, and let'em sit around overnight.
During this time, enzymes in the flour get to work snipping up
proteins and allowing them to easily link up to form gluten. An
overnight rest also allows for time for some good flavor development
as the yeast slowly digests the flour, creating a wide array of
flavorful compounds.

While the pie-men of Rome might have the training and agility to
deftly shuffle 6-foot long pizzas in and out of a hot oven, I'm
after more modest goals here. A couple feet long is good enough for
me. Yet because of its high level of hydration, I found it very
difficult-nearly impossible-to slide a pizza off my wooden peel onto
a hot pizza stone without deforming it in some way. I used the
focaccia method of letting the dough rise directly in a rimmed
baking sheet which I could then transfer to the oven. That method
works, and it's really easy but it wasn't quite right. The problem
is on the undercarriage which comes out with the fried texture of
focaccia or Greek pizza, not the dryer floury texture of good pizza
bianca. Delicious, but not what we're after.
                     
MMMMM-------------------------------------------------

Cheers

YK Jim


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