Pizza Dough

Last week we took a peek into the world of pizza. This week were going to look a little deeper into exactly what pizza dough is made of, and the varieties that one can easily make at home.

First off, however, I need to highly recommend that if you want to make a first class pizza that will knock the socks off any locally produced pie, you have to have an appropriate surface to cook your pizza on. Your choice will affect the outcome of your crust, and, when it really comes down to it, it’s all about the crust. I’m a fan of a pizza stone, which can be purchased at any good kitchen supply store. They are available in a round or rectangular shape. Mine measures about 17” X 15.” I keep in on the bottom rack of my oven most of the time. Alternatively you can use a pizza pan or even a sheet pan, but the crust will not be as good as one cooked on a hot pizza stone.

Secondly, I like to allow my dough to ferment before baking. Fermenting the dough, which to commercial bakers means the “first rise,” allows the yeast and bacteria to feed on the sugars in the flour, producing carbon dioxide, alcohol and acids, which make the dough rise and gain flavor. A single rise of the dough, however, will not be long enough to really affect the flavor, so I allow my dough to rise to between double and triple it’s size, deflate it and either allow to rise a second time, or I refrigerate it until closer to the time I need it. If refrigerated, remove at least 30 minutes before using, and an hour is even better.

Another fermentation method is to produce a “pre-ferment,” what the Italians call a “biga,” This is a piece of dough made from water, flour and a small amount of yeast. It is mixed and allowed to ferment for nine hours or more. After being mixed, allow it to sit at room temperature for an hour or two, then refrigerate until ready to mix the rest of the dough. It will be glossy and porous and have an acidic smell, which will add flavor to the dough.

There are many pizza doughs that can be made without fermenting the dough, however these doughs are more for those who worship the toppings, not the crust. To me, the toppings are a great addition to the pie, but the dough is where the ultimate flavor is brought to the party. I tend to keep my toppings simple and few in number, and the crust is the star.

A commercial baking technique called autolyze in France is helpful in making pizza doughs. The flour and water are combined and allowed to rest for 20 to 25 minutes before the other ingredients are added. During this rest period, the starches and gluten in the flour are allowed to fully absorb the water, which shortens the kneading time and makes a soft dough easier to handle. It also adds to the dough’s extensibility and the dough will have a higher rise.

Next week we'll review focaccia, an Italian flat bread related to pizza. We'll discuss yeasts and which ones you might want to use and I'll provide a white whole wheat focaccia recipe that was very popular at Boldo's.

Here's the highly hydrated dough that is my current favorite. Try it and I think you will like it.

Roman-style White Pizza

Pizza Bianca alla Romana

2 pizzas

Equipment:

Heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook
Pizza baking stone
Pastry brush
Bench scraper
Pizza peel
Parchment Paper

Ingredients:

425 g (1 ¾ cup) Tepid water
5 g (1 tsp) Instant yeast
500 g (3 ¼ cup) Hi-gluten bread flour
10 g (1 ½ tsp) Sea Salt

60 g (1/3 cup) Extra virgin olive oil
10 g (1 ½ tsp) Sea Salt, coarse preferred

Optional additional toppings:

2 cloves or more garlic, minced

1/4+ grated Romano or Parmesan cheese, grated

Pour water into stand mixer, add yeast, flour and salt and stir until a dough forms. With the dough hook, mix the dough on medium high speed (8 on a Kitchen Aid) for 15 to 17 minutes. Periodically scrape down the dough hook as the dough will climb it. Up the speed to 10 and knead the dough 3 minutes more until it clears the sides of the bowl, collects on the hook, and is glistening, creamy and very elastic. Check with a baker’s window and if it tears, knead another minute or so.

Transfer to an oiled 3 qt container and allow to triple in volume. Cover and let sit at room temperature 3 ½ to 4 hours. It can be deflated and allowed to rise again, or refrigerated. Remove from fridge at least 30 minutes before using.

Preheat oven and baking stone at 500 degrees for 1 hour.

Divide the dough in 2 on a well-floured board. Let rest a moment before stretching into a long even sided rectangle on pizza peal sprinkled with corn meal or flour. If you don't have a peel, place a piece of parchment paper on the back of a sheet pan, and continue with the recipe. Dimple the dough all over to stretch it out, but don’t over handle. Brush with evoo and sprinkle with coarse salt and optional toppings of garlic and cheese, if using. Slide onto a pizza stone from the peel by sliding edge onto back of pizza stone and quickly jerking pizza backwards, leaving pizza on hot stone.  If using parchment paper, slide it and the pizza onto the hot stone. Bake until bubbled and golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Turn a couple of times as the back of the oven is often the hottest part. Remove to a rack, brush with a little more oil and serve hot.

Pizza

Everyone loves pizza, so let’s take a look at this popular dish with its many varieties, and see how we can make a high quality product at home. Pizza dough can be purchased from a local pizzeria to be cooked at home, or some stores sell pre-made pizzas that you finish in your oven at home. Frozen pizzas are ubiquitous, but I’ve never had one that could come close to a hand-crafted pizza cooked on a pizza stone in my own oven. We like to make our dough at home, and there are numerous recipes depending on whether you’re making a thin crispy crust or a thicker, chewier crust, or a deep dish crust, or a calzone, a form of folded pizza.

Pizza originated in Naples, Italy which is the epicenter of any pizza aficionado’s universe. In Naples, the making of pizza by specific traditional methods is codified into law, giving you an idea of how serious they take their pies. Consisting of a thin bread dough crust, pizza can have a large variety of toppings from the simplest to the most elaborate, as in today’s California pizzas, with their fresh vegetables and local fare, popularized by Wolfgang Puck. New York-style pizza is thin crusted, but flexible as New Yorker’s like to fold their pizzas when eating. Chicago has it’s deep-dish pizza, where the dough covers the bottom and sides of a deep spring-form pan, and a large number of ingredients like cheese, meats and the sauce, usually on top, fill the interior. Greek-style pizza has a thick crust and is cooked in a pizza pan usually with ingredients like feta cheese, Kalamata olives, and spinach.

Pizzas can be cooked on a pizza pan or directly on a stone, which has been preheated to a high temperature. Some of the best pizzas are cooked in a wood or, even better, coal-fired oven. When I was in New York, I frequented Lombardi’s in lower Manhattan and Grimaldi’s under the Brooklyn Bridge where they have coal-fired ovens. The pizzas would come to the table smoking, with little areas of the crisp crust scorched by the heat of the oven, which is heated to about 900 degrees.

We like to use high gluten flour, marketed as “bread flour,” for our pizza doughs. In addition, we prefer a more highly hydrated dough as this adds to the dough’s extensibility, which is its ability to stretch. More water means an open, bubbly structure to the dough, and a wet dough will result in a highly caramelized crust, making it more flavorful. However, a dough with more than 60% hydration gets difficult to handle, so if we’re making an 85% hydrated dough, we have to use a stand mixer for the flour to absorb all that water.

Pizza toppings are limited only by your imagination. Traditional toppings include tomatoes, either in sauce or whole slices, mozzarella cheese because it melts so beautifully, Italian meats like pepperoni, salami, sausage or ham, grated cheeses like Parmesan or Romano, vegetables like spinach, peppers, onions, mushrooms and, of course, garlic. Fish and shellfish make appearances on pizzas including shrimp, clams and anchovies. Some people put nuts on their pizzas like cashews, pine nuts or pistachios, and herbs like basil, oregano or marjoram. We sometimes add fresh arugula on top of our pizzas after they are cooked, making them a one dish meal with the salad on top.

Basic Pizza Dough

1 Cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
1 Package active dry yeast
3 to 3 ½ Cups All Purpose, unbleached, white flour
½ Tsp salt

Put the water in a medium sized mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Stir gently and allow the yeast to dissolve and turn the water to a light beige color. Let stand 5 minutes.

Add the flour in 1 cup batches to the water/yeast mixture. Combine just until it forms a rough dough. Cover the mixture with a damp side towel and allow to stand 25 minutes. Stir in the salt and turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is elastic and satiny. If you break off a small piece, see if you can stretch the dough out in what is known as a “baker’s window.” You should be able to stretch the dough to the point you can just see through it without it tearing. If it tears, knead a few more minutes.

Lightly oil a bowl or other suitable contained with olive oil. Turn the kneaded dough over so all sides are lightly coated with oil, cover and set aside to rise in a warm place (70 to 75 degrees) until at least double or more in bulk, I like triple.

Gently deflate the dough by turning its edges back over itself. Don’t over handle it. Quickly cut the dough into 6 to 7 oz balls, each ball will become a pizza. You can refrigerate or freeze them, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, at this point. You can also let them proof further, but don’t let them over rise.

If you refrigerate the dough it will continue to ferment until ready to be used. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, knead it gently to deflate, and preheat your oven. Allow at least 30 minutes for the dough to return to room temperature, then form, top and bake at 450 degrees until done.

Black Pepper-Lard Pizza Dough

1 Cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
1 Package dry active yeast
3 to 3 ½ Cups All Purpose flour
½ Tsp salt
½ Tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 oz (2 heaping tablespoons) naturally rendered pork lard

Pour water into a medium sized bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Gently stir to dissolve the yeast and allow to stand 5 minutes.

Add the flour to the water-yeast mixture to form a rough dough. Cover with a damp side towel and allow to stand for 25 minutes. Add the salt, pepper and lard and mix thoroughly. The dough should be soft and sticky, but come away from the side of the bowl.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and proceed to knead from 5 to 10 minutes, adding small amounts of flour as needed. The dough will become elastic and smooth. When properly kneaded, it will spring back when pressed down.

Place dough is an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place until risen between double and triple its original volume. At this point, you can cut the dough into 6 to 7 oz balls and form them into pizzas, or you can refrigerate the dough for use later.

This will produce a excellent all purpose pizza dough. It is thick and chewy. If you want it thicker, allow to proof for 30 minutes once you’ve lined a pizza pan, but top it just before baking.

Leeks

If you are not familiar with those large green and white scallion-like vegetables known as leeks, you are in for a treat if you’ll give them a try. A member of the Alliaceae family along with onions, scallions and garlic, their Latin name is allium ampeloprasum. The plant is composed of a large cylinder of bundled leaf sheaths that are blanched white by hilling dirt up around the plants as they grow. For this reason, leeks often contain sand or grit and need to be washed thoroughly. The plants are very hardy and can be harvested from mid-summer right up to a hard freeze, so they can be found at local farmers’ markets during the summer and fall months. Ramps are wild leeks that grow from the Carolinas north into New England and can be foraged for in the early spring.

Long a staple in French cooking, the leek was cultivated in the Middle East and pictures of leeks have been found in Egyptian tombs. In Rome, Nero was well known for his love of leeks, which he thought would help his singing voice. Romans probably introduced the leek to Britain where it became the special vegetable of Wales. Welshmen wore leeks on their helmets in battles with the Saxons to distinguish themselves from the enemy and the leek became the symbol of Wales and an integral part of their culture.

In culinary use, the whole plant is edible, but the root is cut off and the top of the creased green leaves can be coarse and taste more like cabbage than onion, so they are generally discarded or added to the stockpot. The white stem and pale green leaves have a mild sweet onion with hints of cucumber taste and a fresh smell. Smaller leeks are preferable over large, older leeks, which can have a solid, ligneous flower stem at their core, which is inedible and must be removed before using the rest of the plant.

Leeks can be eaten raw, sliced thin and added to salads, but more frequently they are cooked, as in leek and potato soup (Potage Parmentier), which becomes Vichyssoise when you add cream and serve it chilled, Cock-a-leekie soup, which includes chicken with leek, or braised leeks or leeks au gratin with ham. As the leek contains a lot of long-chain carbohydrates, they are slightly mucilaginous, making them particularly well suited to soups and stews as they add body to the broth.

When sauted in butter, the leeks’ leaves become crispy and the mild onion taste sweetens. When cooked in water, like in braised leeks, they become soft and their flavor is mild. You can also grill leeks, but you’ll want to par boil them first or they will burn before cooking all the way through.

I'm not posting a Potage Parmentier (leek & potato soup) recipe as they are easy to find in any good cookbook like Julie Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Here's an Italian recipe we enjoy on occassion at our house.

Spaghetti with Leek Sauce in Parchment
Serves 4

6 Leeks
6 Tbl Butter
1 Chicken bouillon cube
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 Cup Milk
8 oz. Fresh fillet of sole
3 Tbl Heavy cream
4 Tbl Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated
1 lb. Dried spaghetti (or 1 1/12 lb fresh)

Peel away any yellow or bruised layers of the leeks. Wash thoroughly. Cut the white part only into thin slices, discarding the green part. Place 4 tablespoons of butter into a large skillet, and saute the leeks over low heat until lightly browned. Crush the bouillon cube over the skillet and add the salt, pepper and milk; cook for 5 minutes over low heat.

In a separate skillet, cook the sole in the remaining butter over medium heat. When lightly brown, remove from the heat, and flake the fish into small slivers with a fork. Add the sole to the skillet with the leeks, add the cream and the cheese. Cook over low heat 3 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti until al dente, drain and add to the leek mixture, tossing it well. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Using aluminum foil, make a package in which to place the spaghetti & leek mixture. Seal thoroughly and cook in the oven for 10 minutes.

Serve hot.

Braised Leeks with Parmesan Cheese
Serves 4

4 large or 6 medium leeks
3 Tablespoons Butter
Salt to taste
3 Tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Pull away and yellow or withered leaves from the leeks. Cut away the roots from the bulbous end, but do not cut off the green tops. Cut each leek in half lengthwise and wash them thoroughly under cold running water, spreading them with your hands to be sure all the grit is washed away.

Put the leeks in a pan just broad enough and long enough so they can lie flat and straight. Add the butter, salt and enough water to just cover them. Put on a cover and turn the heat to medium-low. Cook gently until the thickest past of the leek feels tender when prodded with a fork, about 15 to 25 minutes depending on how large they are. Turn them from time to time while they are cooking.

When done, uncover the pan and turn the heat to high to cook off any remaining liquid. In the process, the leeks will become lightly brown. Just before turning off the heat, add the grated cheese, turning the leeks over in the butter-cheese mixture so they are thoroughly coated. Transfer to a warm platter and serve at once.

Easter Ham

Sunday will be Easter and many of us will be cooking a ham for the Easter dinner table. I bought a maple-cured ham from Hogwash Farm (www.hogwashfarm.com) where their heritage breed Tamworth pigs thrive on pasture and organic grains without antibiotics or hormones. Unless you buy a ham direct from a farmer, you are more apt to have a factory-farmed pig as this is what’s available in the supermarket, for the most part.

A ham, if not labeled “fresh,” is the cured and sometimes smoked rear leg of the pig. The curing process may be one where the pig leg is rubbed with salt and/or salt, sugar and other ingredients and left for a period of time to allow the moisture to be leached out while the salt cure penetrates the ham muscle, after which the ham is hung to dry for a period of time ranging from a few months to a year or more. These are dry-cured hams typified by Kentucky or Smithfield hams in this country, and Proscuitto di Parma in Italy and Jamon Serrano in Spain. They are usually eaten raw in thin slices sometimes with fruit like melon or figs.

Alternatively, the ham is immersed in a brine composed of water with salt, sugar and other flavoring agents, or more commonly, the brine is injected into the ham muscle. These hams are usually smoked over a flavorful wood such as hickory, apple or corn-cobs. Some hams have been injected with “liquid smoke” to provide a smoky flavor, so buyer beware. The smoking adds flavor to the ham, but is no longer used as a preservation method as in the past.

Supermarket hams come in a variety of choices, so read the label carefully. The USDA rules permit the use of the term “ham” to mean the hind leg of a pig containing no less than 20.5% protein and no added water. A “ham with natural juices” contains no less than 18.5% protein, while a “ham with water added” is at least 17% protein with no more than 10% water added. Lastly there is a “ham and water” product, which can contain any amount of water, but the label must specify the amount. Then there are tinned hams, usually pieces of ham that are “sectioned and formed,” and cooked in the tin. These hams are usually shelf stable without refrigeration for a year or more.

Commonly today you will find “spiral cut” hams where the ham has been pre-sliced around the shank bone for ease of serving. These hams run the danger of drying out while cooking, so cover closely in aluminum foil to prevent disappointment.

Hams that are “fully cooked” can be eaten without reheating, but most benefit from being placed in a slow oven until they reach between 130-140 degrees. Uncooked hams should reach 160 degrees before serving.

Americans like to glaze their hams, where the exterior is cut into cross hatched diamonds, studded with cloves, and rubbed with the family’s secret glaze, usually mustard, honey or maple sugar and perhaps some fruit juice like pineapple, or some bourbon. While we tend to bake our hams, braising them is an excellent preparation method.

Maple Braised Ham

1 (7- to 8-lb) fully cooked bone-in shank-end ham
6 cups water
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup granulated maple sugar or brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup apple juice or pineapple juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (or 10 cloves stuck into ham)
2 cups raisins (10 oz)

Put ham cut side down in a large deep heavy pot (about 10 quarts) and add water and syrup.

Bring liquid to a boil, then reduce heat to low and gently simmer ham, covered, until tender, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Uncover and cool slightly.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

When ham is cool enough to handle, remove from pot, reserving cooking liquid, then cut off any rind and excess fat, leaving a thin layer. Transfer ham to a roasting pan.

Whisk together sugar, mustard, apple juice, and ground cloves, if using, in a bowl, then spoon over ham. Add raisins and 1 cup reserved cooking liquid to roasting pan and bake in middle of oven, basting occasionally, until ham is glazed and juices are bubbling, 30 to 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Mollusks

Continuing with our look at seafood, mollusks include not only clams, mussels, oysters, and scallops, but also squid, octopus, abalone and snails. Here in New England we are mostly acquainted with the bivalves, which populate our seacoasts, but there are over 100,000 species of mollusks around the world.

Clams, mussels, oysters and scallops all have a two part shell lined with mother-of-pearl, which varies in color according to the algae that lives in the waters from whence they were harvested. A large adductor muscle, which is always edible, controls the opening and closing of the shell, This muscle comprises the portion of the mollusk that we consume, and it is detached from the shell when the mollusk is eaten raw, and attached to the shell when cooked. The scallop also has a coral, which is thrown away in this country, but used elsewhere to flavor the sauce that accompanies the shellfish.

Mollusks in general are lean and low in cholesterol with high protein content, abundant mineral salts and great taste and texture if handled properly. As shellfish use amino acids to counteract salt concentration, the saltier the waters they come from the more savory the shellfish. They have a mouth filling quality while being both slick and tender when consumed raw, but they are chewy when cooked.

Most shellfish should be eaten in the colder months of the year, with November to April being the ideal months. The old saying is oysters are only eaten in a month with an “r” in it, and this is primarily due to their breeding during the summer months. While today they fly oysters in from all over the world and oystermen don’t harvest from breeding beds, it’s best to follow the old rule if only because you’ll be eating a local oyster, and local is best.

Mussels are mostly farmed in gravel filled mesh bags and can be safely eaten, if acquired from reliable sources, year round as can clams and sea scallops, also. The best scallops are “diver” dry scallops, which are hand picked by deep sea divers, and have never been immersed in a solution of polyphosphates which the adductor muscle absorbs, becoming plump and glossy white. Sea scallops usually come in on boats that are out fishing for days or weeks, so they are less desirable as these scallops have been treated in solution. “Bay” scallops, of which the Nantucket bay scallop is one of the most prized, are small scallops hand dredged from harbor floors during the winter months, and are delicious eaten raw right out of the shell or freshly shucked. Any I buy around here, I always cook.

All clams, mussels or oysters should have a hard outer shell, and have been stored on ice, but not in water. They should be alive as evidenced by their shell snapping shut when they are rapped with a knife. Any that don’t close should be discarded. Clams, both hard shell and soft shell, can be soaked in salted cold water for a couple of hours with some corn meal mixed in to purge any sand or ingested foods before being prepared to eat. Hard shell clams include large chowder clams called quahogs, medium sized cherrystones and the smaller little necks, both delicious raw on the half shell with a drop of lemon. Soft shell clams, with their characteristic siphon protruding, are traditionally steamed and served with a mug of the broth for dipping, and a container of melted butter. Clams, mussels and oysters…I love them all!

Pasta with Clams
Serves 4

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup bottled clam juice
1 lb linguine
2 lb little neck clams, scrubbed well
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Accompaniments: extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling; dried hot red pepper flakes

preparation

Heat oil in a 5- to 6-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté onion, stirring, until golden, about 4 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and oregano and cook, stirring occasionally, until garlic is golden, about 2 minutes. Stir in wine and clam juice and boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until slightly reduced, about 3 minutes.

Cook pasta in a 6- to 8-quart pot ofboiling salted water until al dente, then drain in a colander.

While pasta is cooking, stir little necks into sauce and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until little necks open wide, 4 to 6 minutes. (Discard any little necks that have not opened after 6 minutes.) Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted.

Add pasta to little necks along with parsley and salt to taste, then toss with sauce until combined well.