Pizza Dough Formula

[FrankZ]

Since I was asked to post my dough recipe here it is:

Bread Flour 80%
Semolina Flour 20%
Water 68%
Yeast 1.6%
Sugar 2%
Salt 1.9%

My normal 2 dough run works out to:

Bread Flour: 331g
Semolina Flour: 83g
Water: 282g
Yeast: 7g
Sugar: 8g
Salt: 8g

The weights round in my spreadsheet as my scale doesn't do tenths of a g.

Sometimes I put a splash of olive oil in when making this.

 

[Timothy]

Since I was asked to post my dough recipe here it is:

Bread Flour 80%
Semolina Flour 20%
Water 68%
Yeast 1.6%
Sugar 2%
Salt 1.9%

My normal 2 dough run works out to:

Bread Flour: 331g
Semolina Flour: 83g
Water: 282g
Yeast: 7g
Sugar: 8g
Salt: 8g

The weights round in my spreadsheet as my scale doesn't do tenths of a g.

Sometimes I put a splash of olive oil in when making this.

Thanks Frank, as a person who has never made dough from scratch, but only in a bread machine, will you explain how and in what order you put it all together, please?

If I put all of that in my bread machine and let it do the kneading and resting cycles, would that work?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Since I was asked to post my dough recipe here it is:

Bread Flour 80%
Semolina Flour 20%
Water 68%
Yeast 1.6%
Sugar 2%
Salt 1.9%

My normal 2 dough run works out to:

Bread Flour: 331g
Semolina Flour: 83g
Water: 282g
Yeast: 7g
Sugar: 8g
Salt: 8g

The weights round in my spreadsheet as my scale doesn't do tenths of a g.

Sometimes I put a splash of olive oil in when making this.

Thanks, Frank! I like recipes that allow me to use the scale.

 

[pacanis]

Thanks, Frank! I like recipes that allow me to use the scale.

Recippes like this mean I have to go out and buy a scale!

 

[FrankZ]

Basically I proof the yeast. While that is proofing I let the mixer blend all the dry stuff.

Dump the water/yeast into the bowl and let Lucille go to town kneading.

Once the dough is ready make a ball out of it, put it in a bowl to rise. Take an hourish.. Cut in half, make dough balls and put them on the counter covered in a tea towel to rise the second time. I lightly dust the counter with flour.

About an hour later they are ready (it doesn't take as long as the first rise but close). I preheat the oven about 20 minutes after the second rise starts to get the stone hot.

Pacanis,

I have this scale and have been pretty happy with it, though I wish I had the higher capacity one on occasion.

 

[Alix]

Thank you Frank. I'll give this one a go next time I'm doing pizza. Do you freeze after the first rising?

 

[FrankZ]

Yes, when I freeze the dough I do after the first rise. I make the dough balls and put them in freezer bags. I learned to not just plastic wrap them, especially too tightly. They rise in the freezer afore the freeze, burst out of the plastic wrap.

 

[Alix]

Ah! Good tip! Do you oil them?

 

[FrankZ]

No oil in the bags.

When you take it out of the freezer, remove from the bag, lightly floured counter, tea towel. Wait.

 

[Alix]

Frank, we've used this recipe the last twice we've made pizza and really like it. Thanks so much. Now, I've got a couple of questions for you.

1. I know you regularly freeze the dough before second rising, do you wrap in plastic wrap and THEN put in freezer bags? I don't want dried bits on my dough.

2. Have you ever parcooked a pizza shell and frozen that? I'd like to do that, simply to make it easier both for storage and for use later. Just wondering if you had any tips on that.

 

[FrankZ]

1) No. Well.. errm.. I wrapped in wrap once. Bad idea. It escaped. It doesn't freeze right away and will continue to rise in the freezer for a little while. Mine split the wrap. (I thought I had bags but didn't, so I tried the wrap).

2) No. I haven't even tried cooking it a little then doing the toppings. I think a full sized pizza would be harder to store (especially for us) than a itty bitty dough ball.

Glad you like the dough. I copped it from some web site then made some changes and tweaked a bit until I was happy with it.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

good topic!

 

[Alix]

OK Frank, I think that I'm going to try freezing a couple of pizza shells. They're flat, so they shouldn't take up a ton of room. I'll report back on how it goes. My current plan is to bake the shells for about 5-10 minutes then cool and wrap in either plastic wrap or in the freezer bags.

I don't want to freeze the dough in balls simply because I know my family won't be as likely to use them when I'm working evenings. I'd be good with using them myself when I need a quick dinner, but they wouldn't.

 

[FrankZ]

I find that the dough balls aren't "quick" just convenient. My experience is about 4-5 hours on the counter for them to thaw and rise.

Do you have enough room so they can lay flat? We just don't have that kind of space. I wonder if you could stack them with wax paper between.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Alix]

I would freeze them flat in the small freezer on the fridge then store them vertically in the big freezer. I think they will fit perfectly in the small side of my freezer. I'll let you know.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I don't understand how flat pizzas could be any easier to store than "smooshed" pizza dough balls. I've never freezed my pizza dough but I imagine the scenario where I would take a ball of dough out of the freezer and just chuck it on the counter several hours before dinner and then maybe flatten it an hour before cooking, let it rise a bit more then cook it.

Why is a flat pizza any easier to store in a freezer than a pizza dough ball? In fact AFAIK that's how commercial pizza dough is delivered to franchise restaurants, frozen in balls. Right? (I don't know, I've never been involved with the restaurant industry.) In fact I think I've heard you can even purchase dough from some of them.

 

[FrankZ]

In a restaurant it is sometimes delivered in a frozen ball, but more usually as a bag of powdered dough that water and some other stuff is added to. When I was in a pizza place we called the powdered dough flour.


I think Alix is wants to store them on edge. If her freezer set up allows that then this might be a nifty idea. I suppose the can slide in next to the boxes of lemon ice in her freezer.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Alix is also considering par-baking them, they will then have a different structure. She's wanting to try this to encourage her family to use them when she is not at home.

 

[Alix]

Thanks PF, that's exactly right. Greg, when I work an evening shift I'm not home to make dinner. It isn't feasible for me to toss a ball of frozen dough out and expect them to do the work with it. They're often on the run to dance classes and after school jobs and Ken doesn't arrive home until its just about time to sit down.

SO...having said all that, a parbaked crust would be easy for them to grab, load up and bake. It MIGHT even have the structure to allow them to slide it onto a hot stone if they left it partially frozen.

I'll report back later. This is on the agenda for this weekend along with some lemon squares.

Frank, did you know you can set your freezer to making lemon ice?

 

[FrankZ]

Frank, did you know you can set your freezer to making lemon ice?

I think it is just for the Canadian versions...