What an awesomely cliche title for a post on pizza. While I think it will be nearly impossible to top the dough mastery of Larry, I have worked over the past year and a half to develop my pizza making skills. I have only some humble equipment and can only dream of the 800 degree heat of Larry's blistering outdoor pizza oven. In fact, after this year and a half, I am only now beginning to consistently make acceptable pizzas. My craft has been much improved by a pizza paddle, which eases the process of sliding the delicate uncooked pizza onto the baking media. As can be seen in the previous pizza post, amateurs (read: dg) often fail to recognize the restraint needed to amply top a pizza and the steely constitution required to slide the supple dough into its final resting place. All budding pizza makers: MOISTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
On the topic of dough, I rarely follow a recipe. While much of the blogosphere seems focused on imitating the exactitude of many of New York's finest pizzerias, I find myself haphazardly throwing together flour and water until I sense the dough has reached the appropriate consistency. 5 cups of flour and 2 cups of water usually combine nicely. Coupled with the gas creating power of maybe 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast, I find my recent batches of dough to have been crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.
On the topic of dough, I rarely follow a recipe. While much of the blogosphere seems focused on imitating the exactitude of many of New York's finest pizzerias, I find myself haphazardly throwing together flour and water until I sense the dough has reached the appropriate consistency. 5 cups of flour and 2 cups of water usually combine nicely. Coupled with the gas creating power of maybe 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast, I find my recent batches of dough to have been crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.
I knead by hand. Why? Because I ain't got no damn mixer.
Something that has revolutionized my own pizza making of late has been the discovery of the freezer. Usually making dough requires little active time but a lot of forethought. Now I make a big batch and break it up into 4 or 5 dough balls, 1 to be eaten immediately and the others to be stashed in the freezer. Then alls I need do is pull the dough out two hours before cooking time and the game is one.
My most recent pizza pleased my frugal sensibilities immensely. One of life's sublime pleasures is finishing a lingering food item. In this case, I used a last chunk of mozzarella, the rest of the dank gruyere from last weekends BBQ supreme (jk claims pictures are forthcoming, I doubt his trustworthiness and sense all honor has been drowned in pools of various condiments), the end of a bag of spinach, some leftover bacon, and a fistful of basil from ye olde garden. The end result was symphonic, the mozzarella providing a milky background to the pungent punch of gruyere, the crisped spinach adding a grassy element, and the morsels of fatty bacon reminding me constantly of how awesome smoked pork fat is. This mouth party was a post-work treat.
While toppings are important, it was the dough that really shined. Super thin and crispy and even exhibiting some minor charring.
The exhortations of Comrade Lenin remind me of the importance of revolutionary self-criticism. To constantly fight my bourgeois ways, my inclination towards self-adulation, I note that the dough itself was rather one-dimensional in flavor, lacking the yeasty flavor that might have been gained with another day of slow rising in the ice chest.-mg
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