I always knew you'd be Food/Travel/Writer, but for now I guess the travel will have to be Boston and around/PTown/Vermont and thereabouts. I love your writing, especially about food/bread/pizza. Stick with it and keep those photos coming as well!
Thank you for this recipe. Will give it a try. Just revived my starter and we did pizza 2 nights ago, so playing around again. Used Caputo 00. Spoon coating of starter. Left it on the counter overnight. It went from sleeping to climbing out of the container in the morning 😲😲 Punched it down and refrigerated for 24 hrs, then balled. Crispy but delicate - shrimp with pesto, ricotta and fontina highly recommended!
Hi Andrew, thanks for this very interesting recipe. You really can't beat the texture of a naturally leavened pizza. That said, I've always been a little leery of naturally leavened pizza because it sometimes takes over with the sour flavors. So I do try to use recently refreshed starter and not too much of it. One thing about pizza is that you really don't need that much leaven because it doesn't really need to rise very much. Anyway, I will give this a try!
James - I think you are right, though I'd venture that this recipe, with 24% levain and only a couple of hours on the counter is actually a "small" amount, since normally sourdough needs much longer to take off. When I did it this way but with much less levain, it was like a brick.
Regarding mozzarella, what brand do you recommend or use? I feel like Polly-O is too wet or at least gives too wet of an appearance. Also, do you have a recommended sauce recipe? Currently, I just use ATK’s recipe from their thin crust pizza with an anchovy or 2 and some sugar and red pepper flakes. Thanks!
Jax - I tend to use Calabro whole or part skim, but I don't stress too much about it, since most supermarkets don't tend to stock more than one or two options. As for sauce recipes, that ATK recipe is mine, but I'll be sending out updated ones here tomorrow, so stay tuned!
I live in the Netherlands where flour is soft and I generally add 10gr vital wheat gluten to a typical bread recipe. In this recipe you call for diastatic malt, which I've never heard of. I'm wondering how that compares to powdered gluten since they both seem to help with a stronger rise. I don't really expect you to know the answer I'm just wondering if I should use both or just one? If just diastatic malt, then is that a substitute for vital wheat gluten in other recipes too when trying to compensate for soft (low gluten) flour?
You should use both! They are not interchangeable or related. Diastatic malt is an enzyme that promotes fermentation, while vital wheat gluten adds structure.
coil folds! I forgot to mention that as one of the things I would’ve done differently, as it is the contemporary method of 8 folds, and foodgeek says it’s slightly better.
Does the dough need the full 24 hours in the fridge - or would something shorter, say 5 hours, be okay? I didn’t plan ahead enough and am hoping to make this a same day recipe!
Theresa - there are a lot of reasons to do the long fridge proof, but this dough would _probably_ work as a same day dough. You'd have to proof it at room temperature until it started to get a little puffy, which I guess might be after 5 hours or so.
Hi there. I'm making this recipe for the third time since you first sent out the recipe to test. I love it! Can you please recommend the best way to freeze this dough? Should I wait until Day 3 of cold fermentation and then transfer it to the freezer? Or should I freeze after the initial 2 hours at room temp, and then, three days before planned use, transfer it from the freezer to the fridge for it's 3 day cold fermentation? Or, does it really matter? Thanks!
Kristen - I don't really freeze my pizza doughs myself, but I'd guess the best approach is to put it in the fridge for 24h, freeze it, and then thaw it out for 2 days in the fridge before baking. Let me know how it goes!
As we are preparing for Nor'Easter Gail to visit NYC I am gathering supplies to make pizza and am looking forward to trying this recipe. Can I use a flour such as Jovial Einkorn AP flour or should I just stick to KAAP flour?
A note on holding the pizza dough in the fridge: During the rush of the holidays I abandoned a refrigerated ball of dough in the back of the fridge and rediscovered it after Christmas. It was Day 19 after making it, but the dough smelled normal and had no signs of mold or off colors, so I made pizza--and it was great! I'm not recommending extended aging (I don't generally have that much restraint), but it was still great pizza.
Amazing! I'd expect the dough to be VERY slack, but I've used doughs like that before, by being very gentle with them. I think the longest I've let a dough go before using it was around a week.
I've been noticing the past few weeks that my dough is rising a lot during the 72 h rest in the fridge. I'm stumped. My fear is that my fridge temperature is not cold enough, but I'm also wondering if my starter was added when more active? (Not sure if that makes sense, trying to use the words I know ha!)
hmm. That's odd. like a LOT a lot? Take the temp of the dough after a day or so in the fridge. It should be around 35-40F. If not, it's your fridge. (Maybe it needs to be lower down in the fridge?) I don't think the starter activity should matter (it SHOULD be active).
This week it was a LOT. Popping the top off my container a lot. But the resulting pie did not seem that adversely affected, thankfully. I'm 99% sure it was my fridge, and I think I've solved the problem.
Love what you're doing here Andrew! As a seasoned home pizza maker I stumbled upon your baking recipes to try out some variation in my dough because I was sensing a lacklusterness in the flavor dept of my current sourdough crust recipe. Your expertise and fond referral of diastatic barley malt powder made me eager to try it in efforts to boost flavor. Though, I wanted to get your thoughts on potentially incorporating a bit of actual barley flour in the mix to achieve that iconic flavor before I attempt to get my hands on the praised secret ingredient?
Alex - hey there. This comes up a lot, but diastatic malt is an enzyme with no flavor that helps convert starches to sugars so that doughs ferment and caramelize in the oven. Barley malt or malt sugar is a sugar with a malty flavor. Barley flour will give you some of that flavor, but since you can't add very much, it probably won't do the trick, if malt flavor is what you are after. Does that make sense?
If you need future newsletter topics, a dive into diastatic and non diastatic powder would be wonderful- I have them both but no clue how or when to use them. Same for vital wheat gluten. How could we incorporate these into recipes that don’t necessarily call for them but would enhance the end product.
Andrew, I have been a SD baker for the last 3 years and worked to "perfect" my SD pizza dough recipe with all Italian flour (based off of a Perfect Loaf Recipe)....this year I decided to give your recipe a try and I am hooked! It is perfect and I use a combo of OO and Italian semolina flours and have cold proofed for over 96 hours with utter amazing results! Kudos and thank you so the time and effort to provide this fantastic recipe. It is now my go-to pizza dough that we make once/week!!
Got around to making this last night. Family said this is a keeper!
A couple of questions:
1) You explicitly call for 75 degree water, but then have a DDT of 78. House is running around 68 right now, so used 95 degree water, and ended up with temp of 75 (this is the first time I've really tried to hit the DDT).
2) I think I may have used too much oil for the "well-oiled counter," as it was difficult to get the ball sealed. I'm used to shaping on a barely floured surface, so certainly felt different doing it this way. Contributing may also be that I popped it into the fridge after the 2 hours, and pulled it out to divide/shape a couple of hours later (messed up my days schedule). When I went to stretch it, one ended up with a hole in the center. Also re-read your yeasted recipe, that had some more details on this shaping, so will try leaving a "tail" next time.
3) Didn't get the color I wanted. Just ordered Diastatic Malt, which should help here. In my oven with a baking stone and a 1 hour pre-heat, let the first pie go around 15 minutes, and the second one took a bit longer.
I made this tonight in a warm (78 degree) house. I shaved a half hour after the bulk ferment thinking that would compensate for warmer temps, but if anybody is watching this thread I'd be curious what others think of that, or if I should have done something different or not done anything different at all. The dough did seem to be building strength and had small bubbles on the surface so it was on its way. I couldn't tell if it had gone far enough or not.
Kevin - 78 is dead-on for sourdough's ideal temps, so I wouldn't have changed anything. That said, I'm guessing you'll be fine as long as the starter was active enough.
It was definitely fine --- one of the better ones I've made. 48 hours in the fridge , dough was super workable.... I think i caught the starter at peak activity too which probably helped -- and that doesn't happen all the time.
I always knew you'd be Food/Travel/Writer, but for now I guess the travel will have to be Boston and around/PTown/Vermont and thereabouts. I love your writing, especially about food/bread/pizza. Stick with it and keep those photos coming as well!
Thank you for this recipe. Will give it a try. Just revived my starter and we did pizza 2 nights ago, so playing around again. Used Caputo 00. Spoon coating of starter. Left it on the counter overnight. It went from sleeping to climbing out of the container in the morning 😲😲 Punched it down and refrigerated for 24 hrs, then balled. Crispy but delicate - shrimp with pesto, ricotta and fontina highly recommended!
Sounds great, Gary!
Hi Andrew, thanks for this very interesting recipe. You really can't beat the texture of a naturally leavened pizza. That said, I've always been a little leery of naturally leavened pizza because it sometimes takes over with the sour flavors. So I do try to use recently refreshed starter and not too much of it. One thing about pizza is that you really don't need that much leaven because it doesn't really need to rise very much. Anyway, I will give this a try!
James - I think you are right, though I'd venture that this recipe, with 24% levain and only a couple of hours on the counter is actually a "small" amount, since normally sourdough needs much longer to take off. When I did it this way but with much less levain, it was like a brick.
Regarding mozzarella, what brand do you recommend or use? I feel like Polly-O is too wet or at least gives too wet of an appearance. Also, do you have a recommended sauce recipe? Currently, I just use ATK’s recipe from their thin crust pizza with an anchovy or 2 and some sugar and red pepper flakes. Thanks!
Jax - I tend to use Calabro whole or part skim, but I don't stress too much about it, since most supermarkets don't tend to stock more than one or two options. As for sauce recipes, that ATK recipe is mine, but I'll be sending out updated ones here tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Very happy with Galbani whole milk mozz.
I live in the Netherlands where flour is soft and I generally add 10gr vital wheat gluten to a typical bread recipe. In this recipe you call for diastatic malt, which I've never heard of. I'm wondering how that compares to powdered gluten since they both seem to help with a stronger rise. I don't really expect you to know the answer I'm just wondering if I should use both or just one? If just diastatic malt, then is that a substitute for vital wheat gluten in other recipes too when trying to compensate for soft (low gluten) flour?
You should use both! They are not interchangeable or related. Diastatic malt is an enzyme that promotes fermentation, while vital wheat gluten adds structure.
Thank you! I will, as soon as I can get my hands on the diastatic malt.
coil folds! I forgot to mention that as one of the things I would’ve done differently, as it is the contemporary method of 8 folds, and foodgeek says it’s slightly better.
Does the dough need the full 24 hours in the fridge - or would something shorter, say 5 hours, be okay? I didn’t plan ahead enough and am hoping to make this a same day recipe!
Theresa - there are a lot of reasons to do the long fridge proof, but this dough would _probably_ work as a same day dough. You'd have to proof it at room temperature until it started to get a little puffy, which I guess might be after 5 hours or so.
Hi there. I'm making this recipe for the third time since you first sent out the recipe to test. I love it! Can you please recommend the best way to freeze this dough? Should I wait until Day 3 of cold fermentation and then transfer it to the freezer? Or should I freeze after the initial 2 hours at room temp, and then, three days before planned use, transfer it from the freezer to the fridge for it's 3 day cold fermentation? Or, does it really matter? Thanks!
Kristen - I don't really freeze my pizza doughs myself, but I'd guess the best approach is to put it in the fridge for 24h, freeze it, and then thaw it out for 2 days in the fridge before baking. Let me know how it goes!
As we are preparing for Nor'Easter Gail to visit NYC I am gathering supplies to make pizza and am looking forward to trying this recipe. Can I use a flour such as Jovial Einkorn AP flour or should I just stick to KAAP flour?
Penelope - I seriously doubt it, einkorn doesn't have the strength of KA AP, and it absorbs water very differently.
Good to know. I'll stick to KA AP, thanks!
A note on holding the pizza dough in the fridge: During the rush of the holidays I abandoned a refrigerated ball of dough in the back of the fridge and rediscovered it after Christmas. It was Day 19 after making it, but the dough smelled normal and had no signs of mold or off colors, so I made pizza--and it was great! I'm not recommending extended aging (I don't generally have that much restraint), but it was still great pizza.
Amazing! I'd expect the dough to be VERY slack, but I've used doughs like that before, by being very gentle with them. I think the longest I've let a dough go before using it was around a week.
I've been noticing the past few weeks that my dough is rising a lot during the 72 h rest in the fridge. I'm stumped. My fear is that my fridge temperature is not cold enough, but I'm also wondering if my starter was added when more active? (Not sure if that makes sense, trying to use the words I know ha!)
hmm. That's odd. like a LOT a lot? Take the temp of the dough after a day or so in the fridge. It should be around 35-40F. If not, it's your fridge. (Maybe it needs to be lower down in the fridge?) I don't think the starter activity should matter (it SHOULD be active).
This week it was a LOT. Popping the top off my container a lot. But the resulting pie did not seem that adversely affected, thankfully. I'm 99% sure it was my fridge, and I think I've solved the problem.
Love what you're doing here Andrew! As a seasoned home pizza maker I stumbled upon your baking recipes to try out some variation in my dough because I was sensing a lacklusterness in the flavor dept of my current sourdough crust recipe. Your expertise and fond referral of diastatic barley malt powder made me eager to try it in efforts to boost flavor. Though, I wanted to get your thoughts on potentially incorporating a bit of actual barley flour in the mix to achieve that iconic flavor before I attempt to get my hands on the praised secret ingredient?
Alex - hey there. This comes up a lot, but diastatic malt is an enzyme with no flavor that helps convert starches to sugars so that doughs ferment and caramelize in the oven. Barley malt or malt sugar is a sugar with a malty flavor. Barley flour will give you some of that flavor, but since you can't add very much, it probably won't do the trick, if malt flavor is what you are after. Does that make sense?
If you need future newsletter topics, a dive into diastatic and non diastatic powder would be wonderful- I have them both but no clue how or when to use them. Same for vital wheat gluten. How could we incorporate these into recipes that don’t necessarily call for them but would enhance the end product.
I've talked about this before, but that's a good idea, Sarah!
Made this last week. So so good. Perfect marriage of lightness, crispness, and chew. Best crust I’ve ever made, hands down.
Made one pizza 24 after 1 day in fridge, second pizza after nearly 5 days in fridge. Loved both but thought that the longer ferment had more flavor.
Thank you!
So glad to hear that, Steve!
Andrew, I have been a SD baker for the last 3 years and worked to "perfect" my SD pizza dough recipe with all Italian flour (based off of a Perfect Loaf Recipe)....this year I decided to give your recipe a try and I am hooked! It is perfect and I use a combo of OO and Italian semolina flours and have cold proofed for over 96 hours with utter amazing results! Kudos and thank you so the time and effort to provide this fantastic recipe. It is now my go-to pizza dough that we make once/week!!
Heather - So happy to hear that! Will have to give that flour mix a try. (As soon as I get my new Ooni oven, which has been delayed in shipping...)
Got around to making this last night. Family said this is a keeper!
A couple of questions:
1) You explicitly call for 75 degree water, but then have a DDT of 78. House is running around 68 right now, so used 95 degree water, and ended up with temp of 75 (this is the first time I've really tried to hit the DDT).
2) I think I may have used too much oil for the "well-oiled counter," as it was difficult to get the ball sealed. I'm used to shaping on a barely floured surface, so certainly felt different doing it this way. Contributing may also be that I popped it into the fridge after the 2 hours, and pulled it out to divide/shape a couple of hours later (messed up my days schedule). When I went to stretch it, one ended up with a hole in the center. Also re-read your yeasted recipe, that had some more details on this shaping, so will try leaving a "tail" next time.
3) Didn't get the color I wanted. Just ordered Diastatic Malt, which should help here. In my oven with a baking stone and a 1 hour pre-heat, let the first pie go around 15 minutes, and the second one took a bit longer.
I made this tonight in a warm (78 degree) house. I shaved a half hour after the bulk ferment thinking that would compensate for warmer temps, but if anybody is watching this thread I'd be curious what others think of that, or if I should have done something different or not done anything different at all. The dough did seem to be building strength and had small bubbles on the surface so it was on its way. I couldn't tell if it had gone far enough or not.
Kevin - 78 is dead-on for sourdough's ideal temps, so I wouldn't have changed anything. That said, I'm guessing you'll be fine as long as the starter was active enough.
It was definitely fine --- one of the better ones I've made. 48 hours in the fridge , dough was super workable.... I think i caught the starter at peak activity too which probably helped -- and that doesn't happen all the time.