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The Elements of PIzza -- Problem with PIzza Al Taglio Recipe

JoshTheNeophyte's picture
JoshTheNeophyte

The Elements of PIzza -- Problem with PIzza Al Taglio Recipe

I picked up a copy of Ken Forkish's The Elements of Pizza and I'm making the Al Taglio Pizza Dough on page 134.  There is a discrepancy in the amount of yeast between the table of ingredients (1.5g per 355g of flour) and recipe text "measure 0.3 gram (1/4 of 1/4 teaspoon of instant dried yeast)".

Has anyone else found this?  Which one do you think is right?  Both the table and the recipe indicate 1/4 of 1/4 of a teaspoon so at least that is consistent.

i mixed the dough this morning using the 1.5g.  

Thanks,

 

Josh

 

 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Let us take a look.

Dan

JoshTheNeophyte's picture
JoshTheNeophyte

Water 255g

salt 10g

yeast 1.5g (or 0.3g)/ 1/4 of /14 of a teaspoon

00 flout 355g

 

 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

OK. The yeast is minuscule. Now we need to know the instructions. Is he using a Poolish or some sort of a preferment?

It is very possible that the yeast is correct, if there is a long fermentation time. Do you have a scale, Josh?

Dan

JoshTheNeophyte's picture
JoshTheNeophyte

This is a pretty straight forward recipe:

12-14 hour room termperature bulk ferment (no poolish or biga)

followed by a 3 hour second fermentation (also at room temperature).

No retard

I do have a scale. 

So 0.3g of yeast is .08%

1.5g  is 0.42%

Hence the really long fermentation time

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

I didn’t understand, “yeast 1.5g (or 0.3g)/ 1/4 of /14 of a teaspoon”. But I think you are on the right track. Ken is using a trace amount of yeast and a long ferment to develop intense flavors. I’d love to try a slice {;-)

Dan

JoshTheNeophyte's picture
JoshTheNeophyte

Yes, sorry about that typo.  I tried to correct it but couldn't find a way to edit the post.  

As I mentioned above the, the recipe is ambiguous: it says 1.5g of yeast (0.42%) in the table but 0.3g (0.08%) in the recipe text.

Which one do you think is correct given the fermentation times mentioned above.  0.08% seems really low to me.

HansB's picture
HansB

This is a very good chart to determine amount of yeast to use vs. time/temp.

 

What temp are you going to bake the pizza at?

 

ttps://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,26831.msg349349.html#msg349349

JoshTheNeophyte's picture
JoshTheNeophyte

525 which is as high as my oven goes.

That chart is interesting.  It seems to indicate that the .3g of yeast is actually the right amount.  At room temperature, 0.06% of IDY takes 11 hours (.3g of yeast in 355g of flour = .08%).  Where as 1.5g, or .42% is literally off the chart.

 

HansB's picture
HansB

That 00 flour is usually not malted and will not brown very well at 525F. 00 flour is usually used at temps above 800F. You might consider using 60/40 AP/00.

Let us know how it was!

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

I use Caputo 00 for pizza dough from time to time. Should I add a little Diastatic Malt or just stick with AP?

Dan

HansB's picture
HansB

I think that adding 1% malt powder and maybe even 1% sugar will help. Depends on the malt too. I use LDMP from NY Baker, it is about 20 lintner.

 

Easiest is to blend flours. This formula works pretty good in a home oven at it's hottest setting: 

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016230-robertas-pizza-dough?regi=1&join_cooking_newsletter=true&login=facebook

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

50% 00 flour and 50% AP flour. East enough.

Thanks

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

I think you’ll be safe with 1.5g. I’m assuming the 12 - 14 BF is in the refrigerator. Is that correct?

Lets us know how it turns out.

We’ve made our share of pizza. We have a crazy simple one that is our favorite. Just get 2 or 3 cheese that you like and have it sliced. It doesn’t have to be exotic cheese either. We like to lightly mist the shaped dough with olive oil, the add your slices. Nothing else.

Once the cheese melts, you’d have a hard time knowing it was sliced. Simple and IMO, outstanding.

We used to heavily load the pizza. We had our share of topping sliding off and into the oven. We got this peel and never had a problem again.  https://www.amazon.com/EXO-Non-Stick-Polymer-Sealed-Super/dp/B00NGOOM6K/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1517762113&sr=1-1&keywords=Super+peel&dpID=41%252BRqUX6T1L&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

HTH

Dan

Maverick's picture
Maverick

Just in case others run into this error in the text, I thought I would answer. The Al Taglio recipe in the book should read 0.25g (which rounded would be 0.3g). As with several of the other recipes, the bulk fermentation is done on the counter (not in the refrigerator). Forkish states in the book that 1/4 of a teaspoon is about 1g of yeast. So 1/4 of 1/4 teaspoon is 0.25g. Other recipes that use 0.3g say 1/3 of 1/4 teaspoon (like the Saturday Pizza Dough). The text and baker's percentage, along with the fermentation time all indicate the 1.5g is an error.

He has other recipes that are retarded in the refrigerator, and these have higher amounts of yeast. For instance, his 24-48 Hour Pizza dough uses 1.5g of yeast and the measurement is written as 3/4 of 1/2 teaspoon.

For those interested, Forkish takes the standard pizza dough recipe from Naples and scales it down while adjusting the hydration for the home oven. I found it interesting that the longer fermentation time is not done during bulk fermentation, but after the balls are made.

ETA: Looking at the charts of several recipes, it seems that there are errors in the decimal place for the baker's percentage. Easy enough to correct, but a little sloppy. The Al Taglio is one of the few with the correct percentage, but as pointed out, the weight is written incorrectly. If you go through the book, this will not mess you up. But if you are simply sharing the information, people might have some issues. I hope they come out with a 2nd version or at least an errata sheet.