Italian flour
Hi,
I have been outside this country 3 times, 2 to Canada and Once to Italy, Roma and North, so food was edible, but not as good as I had hoped. I also hate fish, so evey one of my long dead relative rolled over in their graves. But I did eat pizza 3 times in Roma and it was as expected, MEH . I would rather the pie offered in NYC when I was growing up.
But I have always wondered about the mystique of Italian 00 (or whatever) flour.
Now my understanding is, their flour is near 9% gluten,, and very fine. Like the myth that breads from Florida are terrible and both Pizza and Bagels can not be made there due to the water, I just do not see that in fact. I have made Foccaccia for relatives on a visit, as well as "Pie" and they tasted just like it was made either in NYC or Long Tax Island.
As far as the flour granularity, it is all powder and if you let a dough sit for an hour to autolase , then give it a good knead, then size it by weight and put in a fridge, it should be same. And dough used after a 12-24 hour cold rise, is amazingly good.
And one could scale off say 12 ounces AP flour then add 4 ounces of corn starch, or maybe 13 ounces AP and 3 Ounces corn starch. We did that in a class once to make pastry dough. and the starch induced pastry flour worked out as good as the lower gluten soft, pastry flour. Not perfect, but the average consumer, eating a very sweet cake with fats and maybe dairy cheeses. Never could pick up on it.
any thoughts??
thanks