Forno Bravo's Basic Vera Pizza Napoletana Dough Recipe

[NewJerseyCricket]

Last week was my first attempt of using Molino Caputo Tipo 00 flour for pizza. I followed the recipe on the website. When making this dough, I felt like 4 cups of 00 flour should have more than only 1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast, so I used an envelope (2-1/2 teaspoons) in my dough recipe. It yielded an extremely flexible thin crust and the pizza was delicious. What would have happened if I did use only 1/2 teaspoon?????

[james]

Excellent posting and topic. I've moved this to Pizza.

James

[NewJerseyCricket]

Thanks James, I'm new to this forum.

[james]

We have some serious bakers and pizza makers here, so I am sure you will get a lot of input on this.
James

[gjbingham]

I'm not that good - I'm not sure. I think it would depend on the amount of time you let the dough ferment. Using it that day, 1/2 tsp may not be enough. Mixing the dough and throwing it in the 'fridge for a day or two would probably give the yeast time to adequately metabolize the nutrients in the flou and give a completely different result.

I could be way off. As James says, there's plenty of very very experienced pizza chefs and bakers who can answer the question correctly.

Too little yeast will though will not adequately break down the starches etc. in the flour to create the sugars that carmelize when you bake the crust. Way too much yeast will create a yeasty tasting crust. Better to err towards a bit too much than way too little in my book.

[Frances]

Yes, but wasn't it John who explained that with more yeast the time slot between not risen enough and over risen gets smaller and smaller? So a dough with less yeast in it would take longer to rise, but be more time-flexible, and less likely to rise too much... that has to be an advantage when cooking in a WFO.

Having said that though, I usually end up making Pizzas in a tearing hurry, adding a bit more yeast to make the dough rise faster, and then putting it in the fridge to stop it again when the oven doesn't heat up as expected. The pizzas are delicious, so I don't see that it matters all that much...

I think it would depend very much on whether you object to the taste of yeast in your crust.

NewJerseyCricket, why don't you try using 1/2 a spoon of yeast next time (with ample rising time), or even do two diferent doughs - one the day before with the whole proofing overnight in the fridge thing - and then see if you can tell the difference?

[asudavew]

I've cut my yeast down to 1 gram. (maybe 1/8th of a teaspoon? or 1/4 teaspoon)
I let the dough double.
Then I divide it into whatever size dough balls I want. Then I let it rise again.

It works fine as long as you have about 4-5 hours until you are going to use it.(room temp)

Or don't let it double. -- Make dough balls, and place in fridge overnight.

I tried using three grams of yeast for overnight retardation.... The next day, I no longer had balls, but a nice sheet of dough!


It was tasty though... I cut it into rectangular hunks and baked in my WFO using leftover heat.

I ended up with some quite nice baby loaves from the blown dough.

Dave

[Dutchoven]

Cricket
First I would suggest investing in a kitchen scale...I think you will find much more consistent results by weighing your ingredients...the next thing I suggest is picking up a copy of "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart...I learned infinite amounts about doughs and dough making from it and I believe you would also...there is another excellent resource in Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread"...as some of our other members mentioned, using less yeast will require a longer initial fermentation for the dough to "double"...which also allows a greater time for the enzymes to break the sugars out from the starches giving it a bit more complex flavor...given the right environment of food, moisture and temperature yeasts, even in very small amounts will do their work...they just need more time...
Stay with us, I think James said something like this "baking is like tennis the bettter you get at it the better you want to get"!
All the best!
Dutch

Originally Posted by NewJerseyCricket

Last week was my first attempt of using Molino Caputo Tipo 00 flour for pizza. I followed the recipe on the website. When making this dough, I felt like 4 cups of 00 flour should have more than only 1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast, so I used an envelope (2-1/2 teaspoons) in my dough recipe. It yielded an extremely flexible thin crust and the pizza was delicious. What would have happened if I did use only 1/2 teaspoon?????

[james]

Originally Posted by Dutchoven

Cricket
First I would suggest investing in a kitchen scale...I think you will find much more consistent results by weighing your ingredients...the next thing I suggest is picking up a copy of "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart...I learned infinite amounts about doughs and dough making from it and I believe you would also...there is another excellent resource in Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread"...
Dutch

All three of these are excellent ideas that I heartily agree with. I did each of them in recent years.
James

[NewJerseyCricket]

Dutchoven,

Thank you so much for all your tips. It's been real helpful

Cricket