WhatDidAlexisHaveForBreakfast: July 2020

Supper, Saturday August 19 2019: pizza (dough (bread flour; water; salt; yeast); sauce (crushed tomato; tomato paste; oregano; thyme; granulated garlic; granulated onion; pepper; red pepper); italian sausage; smoked oysters; onion; jalapeno; mushroom; black olive; parmesan; mozzarella.

Almost no one does this at home. It's a pain in the ass. It requires some skill (but it isn't brain surgery). It also requires some specialized equipment, or in lieu of that some special techniques. Although I have not mentioned this before we actually have this fairly often. I will talk about this more in the future. For now let's look at the dough. Just the make up, not the shaping.

The ingredients are pretty simple. There's just four. I used to weigh. It really is more accurate, but for crust we can be a little less rigorous than if we were trying to make a good baguette. (Some might argue that point. Don't care.)

Measure 4 cups of bread flour into your favorite bowl, assuming your favorite bowl is at least 4 quarts. Add a scant 2 cups of hot water. Again, I used to measure the temp, but now I just use the hot tap water. At the same time get a small bowl, an ingredient bowl, whatever you want to call it, and place a little hot water in it. Basically the "scant" you left out of the big bowl. Also add a dollop of honey or half of a teaspoon of sugar. (OK, that means it really is five ingredients. I just put it in there to boost the yeast. It is not needed.)

Mix the flour and water until the flour is mostly wetted. Sprinkle the salt on top, 2 tsp. Do not mix it in. Set the dough aside. This BTW is the "autolysing" step. This allows time for the enzymes in the flour to convert some of the starch into food for the yeast.

Now go back to the water and honey. Add a packet of yeast, or if you have a bulk jar then add a teaspoon. Mix and leave it. Now this step is not really necessary, but it doesn't hurt, it can speed things along if you are in a hurry, and it allows you a natural timer for the autolysing step. You could just put all the water in the flour, mix, then sprinkle the salt and the yeast on top. Wait 20 minutes then start mixing.

When the yeast is really working, it is time to get mixing. Add the foamy mess, and fold the nascent dough in on itself a few times to incorporate the yeast water. The real mixing now starts.

Starting on one side start pinching the dough with your forefinger and thumb. Use your middle finger if for whatever reason you have trouble with the forefinger. Keep pinching along the dough until it looks like a fat caterpillar.

The dough will be sticky. You want the end result to be just a little sticky so add flour as you mix. Don't be afraid to add a small handful at the beginning if the dough is super sticky.

Fold the head and the tail of the caterpillar over the middle. Mush it down. Rotate a quarter turn. Make another caterpillar. Lather. rinse, repeat.

How long? You will start to feel the dough getting more homogenous. You might encounter lumps that are much harder or dryer than the rest of the dough. I pinch at these with my fingertips to break them up. I should mention here that there is a temptation when hand working sticky dough to get the dough stuck on your hands by rubbing them together. Don't do this over the dough. It makes lumps. Those rolled up balls of dough end up hard balls of dough. After two to five minutes (more like five for the beginner), finish with the mush step. You should have an ever so slightly sticky homogeneous lump. Cover the dough with a towel and let it rest 15 minutes or so. Again, I'm not a stickler. (I gotta remember that "sticky homogeneous lump." That is a great phrase.)

Now for the kneading. Without this step the dough will not stretch. You will not be able to make a crust. The goal is to gently pull the dough in a way that allows the gluten to align and thus give the dough strength and elasticity.

Imagine a pile of loose wool. Not very strong. You can tear it apart easily. Align the fibers and twist to keep them aligned. The resultant yarn can be very strong. This is what we want to achieve.

We are going to do something like that. First we need to prepare hands and dough. If the dough still seems a little sticky, flour your hands and the dough LIGHTLY before starting and keep your hands floured to prevent too much sticking. If the dough is just right or maybe dry, then wet your hands LIGHTLY and keep them wet. Wetting is preferred for this part but do what you gotta.

To do the knead grab a big pinch along the edge of the dough blob. Stretch it a little less than the width of the blob then twist it 1/2 turn then fold it over to the middle and press it in. Rotate a bit to a new spot that was not affected by the stretch and start again. Repeat this 4 to 6 times to make it around the blob. When you are all the way around you should have something that looks like a weird twisty ball or a giant Kaiser roll.

The first time will look a little rough.

Now we are not finished but we are finished for now. We want to let the dough rest then repeat the pulley-twisty thing. Cover the dough with a towel and do something else for a few minutes. 5 minutes or so later the dough should have sagged some back towards a blob rather than a ball. Now repeat the knead and let rest. Do this 4 - 6 times. You are done when the ball mostly stays a ball and it is smooth and a little velvety on the surface. The dough will resist pulling quite a bit at this point.