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Submitted by rainwater on June 30, 2009 - 10:33am Italian "00" flour continued.....Well....here is the final chapter...maybe/probably in the Italian "00" imported flour Saga. I have made the "00" pizza crust with pretty much the same consistency as the crust made with King Arthur Unbleached bread flour. The "00" flour makes the crust with a bit more bite (al dente?), but it's barely noticeable, but mentionable. I used the same formula for both crusts, but the Italian "00" uses one Tablespoon of olive oil instead of two like I use with the King Arthur. I'm not sure the Italian flour likes olive oil added??? I have to say......the Italian flour does have flavor and scent that is noticeable. Especially when the baked product reaches that point in the oven when the aroma drifts into the house....The Italian flour has an aroma that is unique.....These pizza crusts are 75% hydration. When my stash of Italian "00" flour is finished, I probably will not order any time soon in spite of the flavor....it's a bit expensive to mail order the Italian flour...... The first photo is the Italian "00" crust, the second photo is the King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour. I have to say....I haven't tried all the European flours (of course), but I'm not sure they have any advantage over our American flours in texture of finished product. The perfect crust would be King Arthur texture with Italian "00" flavor......it must be something in the soil..or maybe it's the particular strain of wheat that's used. Caputo states in their website that they use flour from many places to mill....maybe it's not just Italian soil, but maybe the strain of wheat.....This would be a great study for a company like King Arthur to research.....maybe get American farmers to use some European strains of wheat to produce or coax some different qualities from our flours.
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00 Flour
I love to make pizza in my Kamado ceramic cooker. I have had great success in both the crust and sauces by extracting ideas from the net including this forum.
This forum introduced me to 00 flour. I have been looking for 00 flour locally, The San Diego area for some time. I finally found a good source:Mona Lisa Restaurant. Mona Lisa is located on India Street in the heart of Little Italy. The restaurant has a deli at one end with a separate entrance. The deli has many Italian ingredients including 00 flour, San Marzano tomatoes etc.
I plan to test the 00 flour in the near future.
Bix
More 00
This is such an interesting discussion to me. I just spoke to someone "in the know" who said that, in fact, Caputo's imports US and Canadian wheat to make their 00 and that it's all in the milling. When I worked in a bread bakery in Italy, the baker was very proud of the fact that she used Canadian wheat. Now that I' m nearing the end of a 50# bag of Caputo's, I'm having to add water to my already 70:30 hydration. The flour seems to be drying out. Has anyone else experienced this?
Italian 00 flour
I'm in Italy, whhich makes getting anything other than 00 flour difficult. I use Barilla brand, usually, which makes OK bread in the winter, but gets horribly sticky when I make sourdough at higher temperatures in the summer, like now.
Barilla is made from Grano Tenero -- soft wheat -- and the pack says 9.5 g protein per 100 g flour.
Does that make it 9.5%? I suppose it does.
I see Canadian flour on the shelves, but it is expensive. Also Semolina Remacinato, which I think is generally made from Grano Duro -- hard wheat. I need to investigate that further, although it seems coarser than 00 flour.