The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

My favorite pizza dough

Doc Tracy's picture
Doc Tracy

My favorite pizza dough

This is my favorite pizza crust ever. It got me interested in making bread and is still my very favorite. I got it from "The Field of Greens" vegetarian cookbook. Is there anyone that would be willing to convert this to weights? I just got a scale and would prefer the reliability of making it with weight measurements.

This book also has a corn rye bread that I haven't made yet but it looks really good. I'd like to get that one in weights as well. There are a couple of interesting sourdough recipes in this book.

What I love best about this book is the explanation about how to use and even grow herbs, vegetables and fruits that you may have never used before like marjoram, borage, fennel, meyer lemon. It's very enjoyable reading. I started my first sourdough starter from the recipe in here.

Tracy

Gunnersbury's picture
Gunnersbury

Sorry, I couldn't find the recipe.

Gunnersbury

Doc Tracy's picture
Doc Tracy

PIZZA DOUGH

Fields of Greens: New Vegetarian Recipes From The Celebrated Greens Restaurant  - by Anne Somerville

This basic dough is perfectly delicious made with all white flour, but we like the earthy flavor the cornmeal and rye flour add. Be sure to soak the cornmeal in the milk; it needs the moisture to soften it. The milk enriches the dough, but if you prefer to make the dough without it, use the variation at the end of the recipe.

Makes One 15-Inch Pizza Or Two 9-Inch Pizzas

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
6 tablespoons warm (110°F) water
6 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil«                        -
1 tablespoon fine cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon rye flour
About 1 3/4 cups unbleached white flour
1 to 3 tablespoons additional flour for rolling the dough


Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside in a warm place for 3 to 4 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the milk, oil, and cornmeal in a 1-quart bowl. Add the yeast mixture, then the salt and rye flour; mix well. Gradually add the white flour, making a soft, workable dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 5 minutes, sprinkling in a little flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the surface. Put the dough into an oiled bowl and turn it once so the surface is coated with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled in bulk, about 35 to 40 minutes.

Prepare the topping.

Preheat the oven to 500°F and heat the pizza stone, if you're using one, for 20 minutes.

To shape the pizza, first form the dough into 1 round ball or 2 equal-size smaller balls. Roll out on a floured surface, turning it regularly to keep a round shape. It should be about 1/8 inch thick, slightly thicker at the edges. Lay the dough on an oiled pizza pan or a well-floured wooden peel. Cover with the topping you have chosen. Bake the pizza on its pan or slide it onto the heated pizza stone.


VARIATION MADE WITHOUT MILK: We've replaced the milk by increasing the water and doubling the olive oil, which the flour easily absorbs. The additional oil makes a very soft, easy-to-work dough.

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
10 tablespoons warm (110°F) water
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fine cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon rye flour
About 1 3/4 cups unbleached white flow
1 to 3 tablespoons additional flour for rolling dough

Prepare and roll out the dough as directed.

TO FREEZE: Immediately after mixing the dough, form it into 1 or 2 balls and wrap tightly in 2 layers of plastic wrap. When you're ready to use the dough, thaw it in the refrigerator overnight, or set it in a warm place for 2 to 3 hours. Roll out as directed.


GARLIC OIL
We brush our rolled pizza dough with this garlic-infused oil before spreading on the topping—the garlic oil adds extra garlic flavor and forms a seal that helps protect the crust from moist toppings. To make it, finely chop a clove or two of garlic and cover generously with olive oil. Store garlic oil in a sealed container in the refrigerator and we it to saute or season other dishes.

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

In the prefacing of the recipes, does the author happen to mention how the flour was handled before measuring? Sifted, fluffed and sprinkled, etc?

Unless someone just happens to have made this recipe by weight-or made it and can tell you how the flour was measured-it may be somewhat pointless to try a conversion at this time.

In all honesty, the quantities of flour used in this recipe are relatively small, so any flour/liquid adjustments should be relatively miniscule. And this would be a good recipe to get a feel for how to measure flour for all of the recipes in the book. And seeing how she says "about" this much flour tells us she can't tell you exactly how much to use.

A likely starting point is to go with 4.8 oz per cup of flour. This is the weight I usually get when I give the flour a short(but thorough) fluffing with a spoon, then scoop with a measuring cup, and level off with a straight edge(butter knife, etc).

So 1.75(1 3/4) x 4.8 oz = 8.4 ounces flour.

For all other ingredients, there's the KA Master Weights Chart:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes2008/master-weight-chart.html

Good luck. It really is not that complicated(most times). If you are really that uncertain about how much flour too use, stick to recipes given in weights, or use sites like King Arthur Flour, America's Test Kitchen, etc, where you know the weight of the flour being used(most of the time).

One last note: the Josh Madison "Convert" program(free download,search) is a good thing to have in making conversions(like grams to ounces if your scale does not measure in one or the other).

Doc Tracy's picture
Doc Tracy

It did not say. I did, after I asked this, find a pretty good conversion chart today but I'll check out Josh Madison's as well and download it. I found KA's lacking.

My scale seems to do everything! It's an Onyx AWS, for about $23.00 online. It's so thin, nice looking and small. I love it. It showed up about two days ago. Today I used it to make the best bread I've ever made, a WW/rye yeasted "German rye" that I adapted from a white/rye version from the KA website. I used their weights for the flours and the conversion website that I found for everything else.

Thanks Dwight!

Tracy

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

The good thing about the Convert program is you don't need to be connected to the internet for it to operate, once you have it downloaded.

Congrats on your recipe success.

Doc Tracy's picture
Doc Tracy

Thnks. Internet access is pretty good. My husband runs a forum and three servers. He has a heart attack if we're down for more than a second. I frequently cook with my computer although I worry about getting it wet and sticky.

What I should do is check for an IPhone download. Then I can use my computer for recipe and IPhone  for conversions at the same time.

And I could barely turn on a computer 10 years ago!

gardenchef's picture
gardenchef

From Peter Reinhart's 'artisan breads every day'. Rustic Whole Grain Pizza Dough....DELICIOUS!!!!

RECIPE HERE: www.footbridgecove.blogspot.com

MERRY CHRISTMAS & GOD BLESS YOU ALL