Forno Bravo pizza recipe

[jabguit]

Hi all,

After years of so-so results in making pizzas I decide to try the recipe for crust on this site's home page (Authentic Vera Pizza Napoletana Dough Recipe). What I ended up with was a surprise:

Although traditionalists might scoff, I am used to dough recipes that called for a small amount of sugar (or honey) to boost the yeast. I figured that without it in the FB recipe, a long enough rise time should be sufficient for some nice bubbles in the crust. The amount of salt, however was alarming, to say the least. Salt is poison to yeast - I know this, but I went ahead with the proportions anyway.

After a 2.5 hr. initial rise, shaping of the dough balls, further 1.25 hr. proofing, I made one crust and refrigerated the other (I halved the recipe). Although I felt the dough was a bit too stiff and added some extra water to get a workable mass, I was able to get a very elastic one, that I could stretch out very thin and actually see through it. I stretched about a 12" pie crust. Keeping my toppings to a couple tablespoons of sauce, 3.5 oz. of cheese, a few Calamata olives and 1 jalapeño, both chopped, I assembled to pie. My oven has no self-cleaning so I just cranked the temp all the way up to an indicated 650F (whether or not it actually comes that close). My pizza stone is a cheapish 3/8" thick one, so I preheated for about 50 min. Popped the assembled pizza in and watched attentively, hoping for something decent.

To my surprise I saw a beautiful crust rise up on the edges, staying nice and thin in the middle. Of course my concern was that it would be fully cooked in the middle. As I watched it bake, the toppings - cheese and sauce - actually boiled on top of the crust! It took approximately 6 minutes at the temperature I could achieve, and came out with a nice char on the edges and bottom. After a couple minutes of cooling, I sliced the pie into 6 small slices, pulled the first out and looked at the middle of the crust. Not soggy, actually pretty decent.

Seconds after my first bite, however, I was greeted by a crust that was not only very salty, but beyond chewy - actually tough! I ate the entire pie, but it was so tough that my jaws were aching after the second slice!

I am going to modify this recipe to 1/4 the amount of salt and add just a 1/4 tsp. of honey to boost the yeast.

Anyone else have similar results from this recipe? Or am I alone in finding it way too salty? Is my assessment correct in that the excessive salt made it tough?

[gjbingham]

I think someone was going to change that recipe. I think it calls for 2 tsp of salt? I've never actually put in that much. After reading the forum for awhile, you see these little problems arise through other people's sufferings, and know in advance that you're dealing with bad information.

Anyone know the correct measurement of salt? I've been guessing and using 3/4 tsp. I'm happy with that result.

[jabguit]

gjbingham,

Actually, it calls for 4 tsp. for the full recipe! I'm going to reduce that to 1 tsp. (1/2 tsp. for half recipe), which sounds more like it to me.

[Frances]

Yep, I decided about half (2 tsp) was ample...

[RTflorida]

the orginal recipe (which I copied a yr ago from the FB site and is also privided with each Caputo flour order) calls for 2 tsp of salt and 2 tsp of yeast, not the current 4/2. I thought James had recognized and corrected these current amounts.....seems there was a typo during an update several months ago....in any case, no more than 2 tsp is needed; I've actually cut it to 1 tsp with no ill effects.

RT

[fdn1]

The version of the Forno Bravo pizza recipe that I copied a while back from the Forno Bravo recipes section site calls for 4 teaspoons of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of dry active yeast (not 2 teaspoons).

One would think that the recipe that comes with the Caputo Tippo 00 flour from Forno Bravo would be correct, however, the inconsistencies in various "official" Forno Bravo recipes over time leads to some suspicion.

It would seem that sufficient confusion exist over this matter that publication of another "official" recipe is warranted.

[RCLake]

There is a difference in the recipe on the home page and from the ebook. Home page says 20g (4 tsp) of salt and 3g of yeast whereas the ebook stated 10g of each. I thought James was going to fix that , I'm going with Dave's recipe of 10g of salt and 3g of yeast.

[NewJerseyCricket]

1/2 teaspoon of yeast didn't seem like enough, so I used 2-1/2 teaspoons with good results.

[Dutchoven]

Is the recipe referred to the 500g flour, 325g water, 10g salt, 10g yeast?...the salt in the recipe a 2% ingredient...pretty standard in nearly all the bread we make...the yeast is a bit high at an equicalent 2%...depending on how you handle the fermentation and such...this would be more of a "quick rise" recipe...our formula uses yeast as a .5% ingredient or about 2.5 grams according to this...usually "doubles" on the initial fermentation in about 2 hours...
Dutch

[gjbingham]

Dutch, that's closer to what I use. Almost all my bread recipies call for 1 - 1.5 tsp of yeast and 1 tsp of salt. I use the weight measures for the water and flour and toss in the salt and yeast by measuring spoons.