caputo flour report

[Robert Musa]

we used the caputo flour this weekend in our pizza construction efforts and i'm happy to report an excellent result. if you want a thin cracker like crust then the caputo is the only way to go. we've never before been able to get such a thin yet crispy crust with any other flour. a couple of notes:

1. the receipe posted (in pdf format) here at forno calls for 1 and 3/4 cups of water to 4 cups of flour. this makes a loose and sticky dough. forget about tossing it. i suppose its theoretically possible to toss it but then again its also theoretically possible to shape a pizza into a facimile of the mona lisa.

heres a shot of the (puddles of) dough. pretty wet, huh?


2. flour your hands (and the peel) well when working with the dough. what's great about the dough is that is can easily be hand stretched to a very thin thickness without tearing and without springing back. even though its thin, it bakes to impressive structural strength. i took the picture below to illustrate the thinness and strength but unfortunately he camera decided to focus on the background. this slice of pizza was loaded with onions, bacon and blue cheese and was held up, without flopping, by a thickness of crust equal to about 10 sheets of paper.



here's another picture indicating the holding power of the crust.






all in all, great stuff and as far as i know impossible to dupicate its characteristics. we've made a lot of pizza with a lot of different flours and nothing has handled or baked like the caputo.

[parsley]

Feeling adventurous? I posted the results of my 'cake flour experiment' in the Pizza forum - 75 % bread flour (King Arthur), 25% cake flour. This dough hand-stretched very thin and uniform, and I was quite happy with it. The cake flour (Pilsbury Softasilk) was about $2 for a 2 lb. box. Have you tried anything like this?

[Robert Musa]

Originally Posted by parsley

75 % bread flour (King Arthur), 25% cake flour. This dough hand-stretched very thin and uniform, and I was quite happy with it. The cake flour (Pilsbury Softasilk) was about $2 for a 2 lb. box. Have you tried anything like this?

eva has made some doughs with cake flour but i don't know what percentage she used. all of the prior doughs had some "spring back" which made stretching and getting the dough thin a problem. on the other hand, i don't think we've ever hydrated a pizza dough as much as we did this weekend so that might of had some effect as well. i was impressed at how we could stretch the caputo without any tearing as compared to our previous doughs.

[arevalo53anos]

Robert:

I am not so lucky to easily reach the Caputo 00 flour here in my country.
The better one which I use to work is a blend with 10% of protein content.
However, in working the dough with a 24/72 hours of refrigerated rest, normally the results are a delicate, stretching dough, without tearing when stretched and so thin (if you like so) that you could read through it.
It is so smooth that could be difficult to toss it (even I did it, eventually). To shape the dough I stretch it on the counter and take it in between my fingers, letting the gravity to do his workr.
The pizzas are superb.

Luis

[Richard]

Experienced similar proble, with amount of water. a very loose and sticky dough. Very difficulat (impossible) to form into a ball and reatd. just spreeeeeeeads on sheet.

will try with significantly less water. looking a hydration more in the mid 50's by weight

[james]

I guress we are pushing the edge of the envelope here. I have been able to get that high hydration and still have the dough ball hold together to throwing -- but it's right on the edge. You can try letting the dough sit for 5-10 minutes after everything is mixed, before you start kneading. It let's the dough hydrate.

You might want to cut back on the water -- but only a little. A previous version of the recipe called for 1 1/2, plus 2 tblspoons of water, but I thought there was room for a sckosh more water. But definitely the dough ball should form a ball, and not be a puddle.

Now that I have a scale, I am going to experiment with percentages, which will be more accurate. I did a 64-65% hydration earlier, and it held together nicely.

Fun, fun.
James

[Richard]

What is ther gluten content of the Caputo OO.

Realize different milling terchnique , etc, however gluten content will also be another gauge to water content, depending on if one wishes a soft, medium soft, medium stiff or stiff dopugh.
I prefer medium soft

[james]

It's 11%-12%. The grain is selected by, among other things, its extensible gluten. The mill has a computerized lab where they make sample dough batches before they buy a grain, and runs tests on how far they can stretch a dough without tearing, how fast, bounce-back, etc.

My super hydrated doughs are ultra-soft, so you can defintely cut back on the water.

James

[Robert Musa]

my dough puddles came out great. i really didn't have any trouble handling or shaping the dough, its just that the dough was not "throwable". if i add less water, will that affect the final product or its stretchability?

[james]

You can go drier and not loose the extensibility. Just don't go dry to dry sake. The flour can go "really" (that's a technical term) far without tearing -- I have seen pro's do some great work with it.
James