Whole Grain Pizza Dough

Reader Recipes
1

1 – 14” Pizza Crust (454g, 16 oz ) total
Ingredients
Flour: 100% Turkey Red whole wheat or Khorasan 80% = 212g
Fine Durum Flour 20% = 53g
Total = 265g
1g sugar .4%
.8g Instant Dry Yeast (or ¼ cup -70g starter) .3%
14g Salt 2.6%
175g 60degree Water 66%
5.3g Olive Oil 2%

2 – 14” Pizza Crusts (908g, 32 oz ) total
Ingredients
Flour: 100% Turkey Red whole wheat or Khorasan 80% = 424g
Fine Durum Flour 20% = 106g
Total = 530g
2g sugar .4%
1.6g Instant Dry Yeast (or ½ cup - 140g starter) .3%
28g Salt 2.6%
350g 60degree Water 66%
10.6g Olive Oil 2%

Directions
Combine 60F water with 10% of flour, instant yeast and sugar in a large bowl. Let sit for 30 minutes to get bubbly (or longer if needed.)

(sourdough version: mix starter with 25% flour and water to make a pancake batter paste. Let sit to ferment.)

Combine balance of flour and salt with the above and mix on low speed for 4 minutes or by hand until all is incorporated. Then dribble in the olive oil and mix an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Let sit for 30 minutes covered and check consistency, should be soft and pliable, not sticky

(sourdough version: mix all as above paragraph.)

Stretch and fold the dough several times. Continue kneading until cohesive and smooth, with elasticity. Divide the dough if making more than one ball.

(sourdough version: after kneading let sit out to proof before degassing and placing in refrigerator as written below.)

Smooth some oil on top of the dough and cover it with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours before using.

To bake remove from cooler, let sit at room temperature for 2 hours or to at least 60F in temp. Roll or toss dough on a floured surface and prepare (dust) pizza peel.  Add favorite toppings and bake at a minimum of 475F (higher if possible) for 5 to 9 minutes depending on heat.

To Store the Pizza Dough
At this stage you can either store it in the freezer or fridge.
To store it, wrap it in plastic wrap and seal it in a ziplock bag. Store in the fridge for 3 days or the freezer for 3 months. When your ready to use it, if your dough is frozen let it thaw in the fridge for 6 hours or overnight. Remove dough from the fridge and let it sit on the counter at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours or to at least 60F in temperature before making pizza.

2

Hi Dennis,
I don’t have a wood oven, what temperature do you bake to pizza in a home oven?
Thanks
a

3

I doubt a home oven can get too high for pizza when the rule of thumb for a good pizza is baking at high temps.

Crank it up to the hottest setting.

What you might find you need to toggle is the fan and elements. Just exactly what’s best for pizza I don’t know. Try with and without fan then if your oven allows toggle on or off the top and bottom elements if possible to do so. Every oven performs differently and you might need to find what setting is best for your home oven. But temps? As hot as possible.

What temperature is your oven capable of?

4

I set my oven on 550F on convection bake. Set the pizza when the stone reaches at least 500F (usually we are too hungry to wait the other 50 degrees LOL). Timer set for 8 minutes, turn 180 @2 min, remove from baking pan at 6 min, bake until bottom browned, which is somewhere between 7 and 7 1/2 minutes.

Be warned that there are variances in home ovens. I have read that some people have bad results using convection bake, my Electrolux does very well and better than regular bake. I used my Rofco Bread Oven for pizza when I first received and found it did not have enough bottom heat to match the top heat and the shelves were not adjustable. Also it retained way too much steam (which it is supposed to do.) but doesn’t work well for pizza.

I don’t know where the bake at high temperatures comes from. I suspect it comes from using the clay ovens and needing to get them out quick but I am not sure. Just a wild guess on my part as lower temps will produce a nice pie also. I had 2 pizza joints and although I don’t remember the exact temp we set the commercial ovens at, I can tell you it was less than 500F. 475 or 485 comes to mind but then don’t trust a 73 year old memory… LOL…The pizzas though came out perfect you just have to judge the right heat on top and bottom.

Hint: At home I make pizzas like all Americans PILE IT ON (not supposed to do that.) We did not do this in the shops (costs too much.) When doing this you have to watch the moisture from the vegetables. We coat the “proofed shell” with spray oil very lightly so any moisture from the sauce or vegetables does not soak through the crust and evaporates off. We also lay out all the vegetables on paper towels to soak up the excess moisture for at least an hour or so. My crust is is never soggy, is crunchy on the bottom with a soft chewy texture and the top is cooked to perfection.

You will though have to experiment a little to make it “perfecto.”

Dennis

1 Like
5

Hello Abe,
It is good to hear from you, I know you are staying healthy!
Thank you for the tips!
I am confused because I have seen recipe called for preheat to 550F and others, such as the one from Breadtopia called for preheat to 450F only.
I don’t know what my oven is capable of, I know I often preheat to 550F. I also toggle between 550F and Broil for pizza.
A

6

Hi Dennis,
Thank you for sharing.
I am going use your hydration and starter/levain rates, but I use different types of flours, also home milled. I often use a mixture of different grains, but always incorporate buckwheat for health reason.
I will let you know how it goes.
How are your breads these days, now that you know your timing?
Have you baked with sprouted red fife?
Thank you again,
A

7

My breads including the rustics ones have all turned out very good. I only screwed up once with the bulk proofing once in the past couple of months BECAUSE I did not follow my past timing hours. My bad, should have known better from the looks of it!!

I bought a Rofco Bread oven from Pleasant Hill and that has made a big difference in the rustic breads from the aspect of baking and steaming. A little learning curve though (not a big deal) as usually the oven is turned down to 50C after about 1/2 through the bake and I am not used to the top browning as fast although the breads really look good. I made hard rolls a couple of days ago and they came out perfect (actually the best I have made at home) in 1/2 the time in the Rofco.

I have never had any red fife, did have Turkey Red which was good but the shipping costs are now way too extreme to purchase. Some suppliers ship in smaller quantities through the mail at much reduced prices and have not found one yet that does this grain.

I generally don’t use starter for my pizza dough as I don’t like the waiting time and difficult to get the right time for baking for dinner . I make dough and let it bulk in the cooler and then on the counter for 5 to 8 hours, sometimes overnight but rarely. It has good flavor and matches what we did in my shops. With the instant yeast it is just so much more predictable and easier to change depending on conditions.

I use different flours also presently using 71g hard white spring wheat home milled, 57g Durum home milled and 119g King Arthur Bread flour along with 2,4g of barley malt powder for a 12" pie. Get a little more rise (a tad) because of the bread flour and proofs up nice before placing ingredients. I change ingredients once in a while it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Dennis

8

All good here thanks. Hope you’re keeping well.

I suppose there might be some variations depending on types of dough, enriched or not, and toppings on top.

Don’t forget that recipes come with the authors personal experiences when making pizza themselves in their own ovens.

9

Thank you Abe