Pain a l'Ancienne Pizza Dough

[vengroff]

Pain a l'Ancienne Pizza Dough

Serves 6 as Main Dish.

This formulation is adapted from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice. It uses all purpose flour instead of higher gluten bread flour, and a lower hydration, but the technique is similar, including the slow cold ferment for 24 hours. It is the basis for the pizza's I made in the pizza cookoff thread.

• 425 g All-purpose flour
  
• 280 ml ice-cold water
  
• 8 g salt
  
• 3 g instant yeast (sometimes labeled bread-machine yeast)
  
• olive oil in a spray container
  
• semolina or corn meal
  
• your favorite pizza toppings
  

Put all four ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer and mix with the paddle on low speed until combined, about one minute. Scrape the sides down if flour sticks to them. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium low for another five minutes. The dough will be very wet and sticky, almost like homemade ice cream right out of the machine.

Spray a bowl with olive oil, place the dough in it, spray that, then cover with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 24 hours.

Three hours before you want to bake the pizza, remove the dough from the fridge and allow to ferment for two hours at room temperature. At this point the dough will still be soft and wet, but will be bubbling as the yeast springs to life.

Divide the dough into six pieces, and with heavily floured hands roll each into a ball. Spray with oil, place in a large dish. Cover with plastic wrap, and allow to ferment for another hour. While fermenting, preheat the oven and a pizza stone to 550F, or hotter if your oven will do it.

With floured hands, place a ball on a floured work surface and flatten into a disk about 5" in diameter. Roll with a rolling pin or toss and stretch, depending on your ability and experience, until about 12" in diameter and just two or three mm thick. Place on a peel dusted with semolina or corn meal. Top lightly with tomato, cheese, and/or your favorite toppings. Bake on the stone for 5-6 minutes or until the edges of the crust are crisp and golden brown and the cheese is bubbling steadily.

Repeat with the other five pizzas, or refrigerate or freeze the dough for later use.

Keywords: Intermediate, Dinner, Italian, Vegan, Vegetarian, Bread, Stand Mixer

( RG1230 )