My preference in pizza is a medium crust, not cracker thin, not thick. In my terms, about 225 g per 10-12" diameter.
My preference is changing to a thin crust; I thought you might appreciate my reasons for the change:
1. In the book Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink, he describes experiments that clearly demonstrate our ability to take a cue when we've eaten enough - stinks. We pretty much eat all that is served. Read the book, the experiments are awesome - especially the Pringles experiment. One related observation on this is we'll be just as satisfied when eating two meals of approximately the same volume, e.g., a double burger might make us just as satisfied as a single burger stuffed with veggies; there are better examples in the book. I figured a thinner crust might serve as a substrate for the same 12" pizza with fewer calories. Note: I realize I'm dangerously close to a low carb thing here, but I'm simply trying to find a great satisfying food with a few less calories.
2. I really love (some) thin crust pies, especially those of California Pizza Kitchen. Thin, yet good bubbles on the surface, tender and wonderful flavor.
3. A higher veggie to carb ratio can not be bad (again, dangerously close to low carb stuff - warning! mid age belly burgeoning).
4. The wife and kid like the thin pies too.
4. The wife and kid like the thin pies too.
I want to make a thin crust pizza rivaling my current favorite, CPK.
The number of experiments - given my current understanding and experience making pizza at home - are limited. I want some oil in the dough for tenderness, but the big question is a slack or stiff dough (high moisture or low moisture respectively) better? The only way to start this investigation is pretty easy: try both.
Commercially, a shop would use a sheeter to get dough this thin and even. I'll just weigh the lump of dough, push it to half the diameter by hand and finish with a rolling pin. Prior rounding of the lump of dough will give a disk of dough with adequate symmetry (important for density for the two pizzas).
The dough recipes:
Slack Dough (depicted below)
water, 220 g
unbleached white flour (Montana Sapphire), 300 g
sugar, 5 g
olive oil, 25 g
salt, 5 g
yeast, Red Star instant active, 7 g
Mixed, 1 rise, scaled to 150 g and rolled to 12" diameter (pretty exact)
topped with fresh thinly sliced tomato, chevre and basil, baked at 450°F
water, 220 g
unbleached white flour (Montana Sapphire), 300 g
sugar, 5 g
olive oil, 25 g
salt, 5 g
yeast, Red Star instant active, 7 g
Mixed, 1 rise, scaled to 150 g and rolled to 12" diameter (pretty exact)
topped with fresh thinly sliced tomato, chevre and basil, baked at 450°F
Stiff Dough
water, 180 g - all else the same
...stay tuned...
water, 180 g - all else the same
...stay tuned...
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3 comments:
looks great-so you think a high moisture dough works better? In general that's my preference for pizza doughs of all kinds.
I'm not sure. I'll probably get to the dryer dough today. It may be counter intuitive. Slack doughs looks like they would yield more bubbly surfaces, but a drier dough, in a baguette, gives better volume.
The other thing is a slack dough is a pain to handle when this thin. What kind of dough does it take to toss like the NY/NJ guys do? This recipe would fall apart if subjected to that tossing. Should be fun run.
I'm a thicker kind of hand-tossed dough girl. One of the challenges with living in Columbus is that all establishments provide the super thin crust. Some of us want some substance! Nice work with the dough! :)
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