Pizza Dough recipes

[JonGoku]

I bet that the majority of homebrewers have at one point in time or another have tried to make their own pizza. Just the fact that most homebrewers are DIY kind of people and the damn fact that pizza goes so well with beer. On that note, I wanted to see if anyone had any particular recipes they would care to share or tout.

I'd be particularly interested in recipes that tie in with beer making such as the use of spent grain or ale yeast etc.

P.S. Dan, although I've not had the chance to have any first hand, I hear your pizza's are killer. I envy your woodfired oven.

[brahn]

I really like this recipe for Best Pizza Dough Ever. I don't really know about it's claim of being the best ever, but it's turned out well for me a few times and it's easy to freeze and use later.

[JonGoku]

I've used this recipe a number of times and with generally good results. Spent grain from darker beers had a stronger flavor but all were fairly interesting.

This is the third trial for this recipe. It is a much less "hearty" dough than my original loaf bread recipe down the list here somewhere. It makes a great dough for thin crust pizzas baked in the oven or on the grill (rather similar to the pizza crust at 21st Amendment in San Francisco), as well as a decent focaccia if you just want to use half the recipe for pizzas. This makes eight 9" thin crust pizzas or four 9" thin crust pizzas and one 9-10" pan of focaccia-- or whatever other sizes you want! This recipe presumes you have made pizza before. If you haven't, let me know of any questions you may have.

Alewife's Spent Grain Pizza Dough:

1 pkg. dry bread yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 cup olive oil
2 T sugar
1 tsp salt

1 cup flour

1 cup spent grains
1/2 cup water

3 cups additional flour

olive oil for bowl

flour to sprinkle bread board

Proof yeast by mixing with 1/2 cup warm water and 1/2 tsp sugar. Let sit 5-10 minutes--a nice layer of foam should prove that the yeast is alive and well.

In large mixing bowl, mix together olive oil, sugar, and salt. Blend in yeast mixture. Stir in 1 cup flour until well blended. Set aside while you prepare the grains.

Add 1 cup spent grains (drained well, but still wet) and 1/2 cup water to bowl of food processor. Process until you have a semi smooth mixture. It doesn't ever get really smooth, but you don't want it too chunky either.

Add grain mixture to yeast slurry and mix together well. Add remaining 3 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing well with each addition. I do this by hand with a wooden spoon. It goes quickly, but you could do it in a mixer with a dough hook if you wanted. The last cup of flour will make the dough seem pretty stiff if you are mixing by hand, but it's ok! Don't worry. It's still a bit sticky, but will clean the side of the bowl. I just use my hands at the end and knead it together right in the bowl.

When you have a rough lump of dough together and the sides of the bowl are clean, push the dough ball to one side and add a bit of olive oil to the bottom of the bowl. Push the dough into the oil and flip it over, smoothing the oil over the top of the dough. Reshape the dough into an even round. Cover lightly and place in a warm place to rise for about an hour.

When ready to use, push dough down, deflating it. Bring sides in to center and flip dough over. Put dough out onto floured board and pat out evenly. Cut dough into equal sized pieces for each pizza you will make. If making all pizzas, you should have 8 equal sized pieces of dough. Shape each piece into an evenly round ball and place on a cookie sheet. Cover lightly and let sit 20-30 minutes. When ready to bake, take each little round of dough and pat it out on the floured board into an evenly round shape. You can use a rolling pin if you want to speed the process up a bit. I like them about 9" around for a thin crust pizza. Obviously, a thicker pizza would need to be pushed or rolled out to a smaller round. Once they are rolled out, top with what you like and bake as you usually would.

This works better with a thin to medium crust pizza -- not so great in a Chicago or deep dish style. The grains add a nice crispiness to a thinner crust. It works well on a BBQ grill, too!

Alewife

[brahn]

Oh, and I'd stay away from ale yeast. I've used it in baking, but not pizza. It'll work but bread yeast works better. I think of it kind of like making a beer with the wrong yeast strain, you'll have beer but it would probably have been better with the proper strain.

As for spent grains, keep the amount low and you could probably sub some for flour. I'd probably pass on this too and tie in the beer by drinking it while eating the pizza. This is a combination that I've heard is very good.

[JonGoku]

Oh, and I'd stay away from ale yeast. I've used it in baking, but not pizza. It'll work but bread yeast works better. I think of it kind of like making a beer with the wrong yeast strain, you'll have beer but it would probably have been better with the proper strain.

Interesting. In what ways did it feel inferior or not so optimal for you? Rise, flavor, or both? I am familiar with the argument that bread yeast (IDY or ADY) makes for some not so tasty beer, but I believe the reasoning behind that is because bread yeast is engineered to add as little flavor as possible, as it's main purpose is to leaven the dough. I also believe the leavening power of yeast can be compensated for by the amount of yeast added. When speaking of pizza dough in particular though, a lot of the "rise" or bubbling of pizza during the bake comes from the water in the dough turning to steam and not all from the leaving power of the yeast.

Since pizza dough in it's purest form is only Flour, Salt, Water, & Yeast, I am curious to know if anyone has seen a change for the better in flavor due to the use of Ale yeast. There are many pizza makers that swear on the use of a sourdough starter (read that as cultivated wild yeast, not SF sourdough although that is an example).

As for spent grains, keep the amount low and you could probably sub some for flour.

I definitely agree with you here. You don't want to replace all the flour with all spent grain. The alewife recipe calls for the spent grain to be used in a 1:5 ratio and which I would say is really the most you would ever really want to use. I think you could get away with a 1:8 - 1:10 ratio for spent grain from a porter, stout, or other very strong flavored beer.

I'd probably pass on this too and tie in the beer by drinking it while eating the pizza. This is a combination that I've heard is very good.

I hear this is quite exceptional as well. Actually one other technique I have heard that might add some flavor is to supplement part or all of the water in a dough recipe with beer. I have some doubts on the science behind using all beer though as the amount of alcohol that bread yeast can handle is I believe less than that for standard ale yeast and would probably prevent much leavening.

[brahn]

Oh, and I'd stay away from ale yeast. I've used it in baking, but not pizza. It'll work but bread yeast works better. I think of it kind of like making a beer with the wrong yeast strain, you'll have beer but it would probably have been better with the proper strain.

Interesting. In what ways did it feel inferior or not so optimal for you? Rise, flavor, or both? I am familiar with the argument that bread yeast (IDY or ADY) makes for some not so tasty beer, but I believe the reasoning behind that is because bread yeast is engineered to add as little flavor as possible, as it's main purpose is to leaven the dough. I also believe the leavening power of yeast can be compensated for by the amount of yeast added. When speaking of pizza dough in particular though, a lot of the "rise" or bubbling of pizza during the bake comes from the water in the dough turning to steam and not all from the leaving power of the yeast.

It didn't rise as well for me, I used something like a tablespoon of yeast slurry for the bread I was making. It was WLP300. I also used this to make a starter that I kept and used for making 'sourdough' pancakes. I really never noticed much flavor from the yeast. The explanations that I've read elsewhere is that bread yeast has been cultivated and selected for it's gas production where beer yeast has been selected for it's alcohol production. I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes sense based on my experience.

[JonGoku]

It didn't rise as well for me, I used something like a tablespoon of yeast slurry for the bread I was making. It was WLP300. I also used this to make a starter that I kept and used for making 'sourdough' pancakes. I really never noticed much flavor from the yeast. The explanations that I've read elsewhere is that bread yeast has been cultivated and selected for it's gas production where beer yeast has been selected for it's alcohol production. I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes sense based on my experience.

Thanks for the clarification.

Very interesting about the sourdough pancakes too, as I had forgotten there was such a thing, and had never really thought about adding yeast to a pancake recipe. I did a quick and rough review of some sourdough vs non-sourdough pancake recipes and it looks like addition of the sourdough reduced the amount of baking soda (traditional pancake leavening agent) by half. Again that was a very quick rough comparison so that could be way off.

Can you elaborate on how you made your sourdough culture with the WLP300 and at what consistency did you keep it (i.e. 1:1 flour to water ratio).

[brahn]

Man ... you're really trying to tax my memory here.

I think it was 1:1 flour:water to which I added about a tablespoon of thick 3rd gen slurry. For this one I think I used whole wheat flour. I let that sit on the counter at room temp for a few days with some additional feedings then put it in the fridge. I fed it occasionally after that. I think this was the recipe I used for the pancakes:

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/breakfast/s ... ecipe.html

Except I used whole wheat flour and I'd sometimes add some lemon zest too. The pancakes were good, but like I said I don't know how much benefit I got from using the WLP300. I made these with a normal wild starter and AP flour also and that was tasty too.

[dhempy]

P.S. Dan, although I've not had the chance to have any first hand, I hear your pizza's are killer. I envy your woodfired oven.

Hey Jon .. been real busy and not on the board much lately (prepping my corp and personal taxes). I'm currently on the road but I can tell you that we use the Calif Pizza Kitchen recipe (from their book). We make all of the dough first thing in the morning and let it rise as long as possible. As I recall, the CPK recipe is simple (water flour yeast oil and salt). I probably shouldn't post a copyrighted recipe but if you want details, let me know.

Dan

[JonGoku]

Busy I can relate to, however I bet your busy puts other people's busy to shame

I have a couple different recipes for various types, but my current recipe that I've been working on is for a NY style with a Neopolitan influence and is also quite simple as far as ingredients go. I've realized as I imagine you have as well that the ingredient quality, mixing, fermenting, and baking processes are what really make a pizza shine.

My current recipe for a 14-15" pizza in bakers percents, grams, and ounces.
Flour (100%): 198.35 g | 7 oz
Water (60%): 119.01 g | 4.2 oz
IDY (.545%): 1.08 g | 0.04 oz
Salt (2%): 3.97 g | 0.14 oz
Total (162.545%): 322.4 g | 11.37 oz