Spelt

[Duvel]

From my viewpoint the @trfl recipe would do make a nice pizza dough. At very high temperatures (and shorter fermenting times, if it’s a workshop), you might want to up the hydration a little bit.

Please share what kind of pizza / baking set / temperatures up you are aiming for: the term “American pizza” seems a bit generic, especially if you are fine with thin or thick crust. 

[food mom]

You are correct, Duvel, I should have stipulated which kind of crust I am looking for at the very beginning. I would start with a thin-crust pizza, old New York-style. This is why I think that the recipe @trfl suggested would not do. First off, it is meant for a gadget that no one here has (the closest we get are the clay Romertöpfe, which are not much in everyday use here these days), which, as I read the device description, deals with a moist enviornment. Not what is desired in a pizza oven. Second, the recipe calls for a 16-hour rising period, not something to do in a class. Yes, I could tell them about it, or pre-prepare a dough, but that's not what people are paying for.

 Third, spelt dough is already a "wet" dough. I wouldn't want to up the hydration, but decrease it. I've just found some old clippings titled "American Liquid Measure Conversion Chart" and "Am. Volume Measure Conversion Chart" (unfortunately no note of source, but easy enough to find, I'd think) which says to decrease the liquid in the recipe by 10-15%.

 Here we have five International Standard grades of Spelt - 630 contains 12-14% gluten, and is most widely used - which are all used for different end products. I visited the mill today, talked with the saleswoman there, and she suggested using a combination of the two lowest grades (Dunst and Grieß, the Omnipotent Wiki has a chart under "flour"), to give more structure to the dough.

 So I'll do that, but early next week, as tomorrow is the class, Sunday is the European vote, and Monday it should rain.

 Thanks to all for help/input. Will let you know how things turn out. Happy weekend,   -betsy

[Duvel]

Thanks, @food mom. 

 

I understand the logic dismissing the no-knead approach from a timing perspective. The hydration however is fine from my view, and takes into account that you want to have a properly risen loaf and not the famously dense whole wheat / ancient grain type loaves of the olden days. The durch oven that @trfl employs certainly helps with the load structure and makes best use of the high hydration ...

 

And yet you are looking at a pizza, something with a large surface area compared to volume, so higher hydration is even more your friend and will lead to a more expanded base (especially on the rim), instead of a cracker-type, dry crust.

 

If you are looking at neoneapolitan (e.g. New York style) pizza, you want chewy, foldable base with a defined, expanded rim. One thing that you could try is to balance the moisture content by adding yoghurt, which will add structure and give some chewiness. I do add yoghurt to make whole wheat / rye flour crusts (e.g. for Kassler Speckkuchen), and it works pretty well. So would a poolish, that you could bring to the workshop. 

 

If you have more time to research (e.g. for your next workshop, not today’s) please have a look at the technique described for the complete wheat Neapolitan pizza dough (90% hydration, btw) ...