(I had plenty of possible titles for this post… there was ‘No Knead for Speed Here’…’Gluten for Punishment’… ‘And Dough it Goes’… ‘What Happened Yeasterday’… just to name a few. But then I decided I would like for us to still be friends. So I stifled the knead to make a pun.)
I have a good friend who asked for my help the other day. He makes a lot of pizza at home with his family and said he needed a lesson in dough. And since I’m such a giver, I agreed. But only on one condition- The lesson would have to be filmed so I could use it for blog content.
(I’m a giver but I’m also a user.)
So he came over the other night and we got down to business…
But listen. I’m gonna warn you. You’re about to watch an episode here. This is not one of my usual quick videos, it is a for-real episode. So prop those feet up and get comfy, y’all.
And here’s the link to take you to the YouTube page if you weren’t able to view it above…
And here’s the recipe…
Start by blooming your yeast…
In a small bowl combine the following:
–1 TB active, dry yeast (about 1 1/2 packets)
–1 tsp sugar
Pour in 3/4 cup of warm water (the water should be very, very warm but not uncomfortably hot…it should feel like bath water. 105-110 degrees to be specific.)
Stir with either a plastic or wooden utensil…or do what I do and use my finger. Make sure all the yeast has dissolved into the water- no clumps.
Set aside and wait 3-5 minutes, or until the mixture has risen. It should look like this:
(Note- if your yeast mixture does not grow like the photo above, you either used expired or bad yeast, the water was too cool or it was too hot. Try again.)
While you’re blooming your yeast, mix up your dry ingredients…
In a large mixing bowl, combine the following:
–3/4 cup whole wheat flour
–1 1/2 cups all purpose white flour
–1 1/2 tsp gluten (OR if you have bread flour, skip the gluten and simply use 1 1/2 cups of the bread flour in place of the AP)
–1 tsp kosher salt
Mix well to combine. Set aside.
Pour 3 TB of extra virgin olive oil into your bowl of yeast/sugar/water.
And pour that wet mixture into your big bowl of dry ingredients.
Stir with a fork to combine everything and create a shaggy dough…where all the dry has been completely moistened.
Transfer the dough onto the counter and begin to knead. If your dough is incredibly sticky, use a bit of bench flour. Knead the dough for several minutes, or until it turns into a smooth, firm, springy ball, without any rips or tears. The longer you knead, the more chewy your dough will be. Chewy is good.
Place the dough ball back into the mixing bowl that you’ve greased well with olive oil. Grease the top of the dough as well. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise in a warm place- 2 hours or so.
After 2ish hours, it should look like this:
Now you get to be agressive with it again. Punch it. Take your fist and punch that puppy down. It’s incredibly fun.
Set aside to rise again…
After a couple more hours, it should double in size yet again…
Now you’re ready to shape it and make your pizza!
OR…wrap it up and refrigerate for a couple days…OR wrap it up, place in a freezer zip bag and freeze for a couple months.
Done.
No Comments