August 21, 2007 - 10:08pm
Oops! Forgot the salt
Today I took my large amount of accumulated starter out of the fridge, and made pizza dough with it. I rolled out one for tonight's dinner, and put 4 balls in the fridge. It was only as I rolled out the first one that I realized I hadn't added salt to the dough. I added extra salt to the sauce and salted the baked pizza as well. All things considered, it wasn't too bad. But I'd like to get the salt in the dough for the remaining ones. Any suggestions?
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You could just sprinkle a little salt on the rolled out dough, pat it in, and flip it over since the tongue touches the bottom of the dough first, that's all what's needed. or sprinkle it on the dough and work it in but wait for the dough to relax before rolling it out. or sprinkle the salt on the parchment before putting the dough on it (but it might roll around). or mix a little flour in with the salt and dust your pan with it or, or, when's that pizza going in the oven? now? end of 2 cents. -Mini
I like the idea of getting the salt on the bottom of the dough. I'll do that when the dough is halfway rolled out so I have less to flip over, and maybe add a bit to the top of the crust as well. This sounds a lot easier than rekneading the dough and letting it (hopefully) rise again!
I used about 480 grams of dough for a large pizza last night, and the 1/4 tsp (or so) of salt I added to the sauce wasn't enough. The pizza still tasted a bit flat until we salted the finished product at the table. Looking at Reinhart's 2 pizza formulas in Crust & Crumb, he uses 3/4 tsp. (or a bit more) salt per pound of dough. I'll try to add in about 1/2 tsp to my 12 oz. dough balls. It's great to have pizza dough made up and ready to roll out. It's less great when the dough's not right!
I used a lot of semolina flour in the dough, so it was nice and easy to work with. This was my 1st time working with the semolina.
I added not only a bit of salt, but also some black pepper to the crust - then spread with the most obnoxiously salty barbecue sauce you could imagine. Toppings were smoked brisket, raw onion and corn kernels. Cheese was about half & half sharp cheddar and Italian blended. It was quite good - even the leftovers which served as today's lunch. :)
I was quite glad to find a use for that BBQ sauce. It's a good sauce, just about twice as much salt as we can stand - and we eat salty foods.
Salt is used for taste and for controlling the yeast (or so I've heard). If the yeast has pretty much done its job, then taste is all that's left. If your approach with the sauce worked, you might just do that again. Or, as I think has been said, sprinkle the salt on the surface or the dough and roll it in.
Rosalie
I think that rolling some salt into the bottom of the crust helped - probably just as well I didn't need to add a whole 1/2 tsp. that way!
Somewhere I got the idea that the salt also strengthened the dough somehow - though the more I try to remember the details the more I think that's wrong. I've got a couple of PR's books here - I'll see if I can find some reference.
Salt does interesting things molecularly and the world would not be the same without it. Wet your fingers with salt water and tell me how it feels. Very slippery? It should, soft water anyone? Think about that in your dough, even if it strenghthens the gluten strands, it will make them slide against each other. Pizza dough is pretty flat stuff, but I bet the difference is more obvious in a loaf. I remember a town baker frustrated trying no-salt loaves claiming they were coming out smaller and colorless. With just a little bit, things worked. :) Mini Oven
Thanks for the info Mini. That makes a lot of sense - and might account for why I didn't get the rise I hoped for with the crust. The flavor was still very good, and it wasn't rock hard, but neither was it as light as I had hoped for.