home oven, no steel. c250g ball, 151g flour, 91g water, 4.5g salt, 4g olive oil, 0.2g ID yeast, 2 days cold ferment, 1 hour room temp before stretching. 11.8% flour. Kneaded for 10 mins by hand, yeast was active (tested in water), chilled, warmed, stretched. cooked 10mins at 300°c. it was very easy to handle, springy, stretched well, didnt stick. but it came out very dense. I think i should let it proof at room temp for longer beforehand, and perhaps 1 hour after chilling isn't enough time before stretching? sauce is crushed tin tomatoes, oregano, then dry mozzarella cut into cubes. underside wont improve until I get a steel, im resigned to that, its fine. im sure the crust can be way better with a home oven though. I think i will have to get an IR thermometer too so I can be sure about these temps. im trying not to change too many variables at once whilst I am learning. tasted good though.
side question: what does the sauce ratio look like? I didnt measure it but as an afterthought was left thinking is this the right amount of sauce just looking at it? or too much/little?
by Capt_Vindaloo
4 Comments
I don’t get to say this often because people here tend to use a lot of yeast, but you definitely did not have enough yeast for a 2 day cold ferment.
Edit: or if you use that amount of yeast, you need to pay close attention to your finished dough temp and probably do several hours of room temp rise before putting in the fridge
You could do with a little less sauce but the real issue is oven temps. 300º is far too low to achieve any type of leapording underneath. Oven needs to be cranked up to max temp. And if you have a stone or steel it would be optimal to launch the pizza onto to an already hot surface to help achieve an undercarriage that isn’t pale and doughy.
You’re not far off. Did you give it any time before going in the fridge? That yeast count is pretty low at less than a 1/16th of a tsp so an hour or two running start wouldn’t hurt. A couple of hours on the bench before bake might help too. I’d bump up yeast to 0.4g and give it a little more time warm on the front and back and see where you are.
Generally speaking, unless you bake on a well-preheated hearth (steel, stone), expect dense/bready crusts from a home oven for that style. Pan pizzas do much better if not baking on a hearth.