MY DOUGH IS NOT UNIQUE, LIKE OTHER DOUGHS, IT MADE OF FLOUR, WATER, YEAST, A BIT OF SALT AND SOME OLIVE OIL. THIS RECIPE FOR DOUGH STARTED BEFORE WRITTEN LANGUAGE, IT WOULD BE WEIRD OF US TO CLAIM ANYTHING TO IT. BUT THE DETAILS ARE WHAT COUNTS!

There are many kinds of flour; bakers, rising, 00, 000, buckwheat, maze, hard flour, soft flour and so many more that you can just go ahead and open the Wikipedia page on it and sink in to a beautiful afternoon of reading and learning, followed by a trip to woolies where you’ll find just a shard of the variety that exists.

What type of flour to use for pizza?

Flours, in general, could be divided on levels of protein they have, the more protein, the more elasticity. High protein flour is beautiful for pizza, but terrible for crackers. Bakers flour is quite balance, since you don’t want too many air bubbles in your bread but also not too dense. Me personally, I prefer to use pizza flour to make pizza, people in history, smarter, braver, kinder, and better knowledgeable than me, decided that the would be a pizza flour, and I am in no position to question them. Its high protein and gives a great stretch, its ground finer and allows for more water to be absorbed, it makes my life easier constantly.

Water is important, one could use mountainous spring water, or other mineral water, I prefer filtered tap water, Australian tap water are amazingly clean in comparison to the rest of the world, they are quite neutral in flavour, and low on sediments, which makes them easy to use and makes the dough easy to work with.

Water ratio for pizza

How much water is a great question, and its called “hydration”, hydration is the ration of flour to water, so if you put 7kg of water into 10kg of flour, you get 70% hydration, which is, by the way, a great ratio for pizza. Most of the time I’ll use 60%-70% hydration, as it gives a good crust to stability ratio. This varies daily, on dry days I need to add a bit of water, and on humid days I could go with a bit less. Its looking at the dough and feeling the air that determines the result.

There are more variables, like the kind of salt used, how much of it, how it effects the hydration? The yeast, dry or fresh, or maybe a sourdough starter, which is the most fun! And the oil. Gives some flavour and texture and binds the all dough nicely, but not too much of course.

And putting it together, or kneading it. Its allot and it takes muscle, while I’ll use a machine to bind it all, mainly because it is a messy process! I’ll kneed it by hand once done, to get a feeling if the texture is right, if its lumpy or wet, and to not over stretch it, some things only a hand knows and its not for a machine to understand.

And that’s my dough, it basic in its form, but the attention to details, the 24hrs I give it to rise, the feeling of it in my arms, is what makes it count at the end of the day.