From ingredients, to dough, to oven, to mouth. It’s a process you’re probably familiar with. But do you really know what goes into the making of a perfect slice of ‘za? How all the disassembled ingredients form into the springy ball of dough? How that dough slowly rises until it’s ready to be stretched out into a round, spongey crust? How that crust hardens on the outside but still stays wonderfully fluffy on the inside in the fiery oven? How all the flavors combine and become perfect?
To really make the perfect pizza, it all comes down to the ingredients. Subpar ingredients make subpar pizza. To end with perfection, you must start with perfection. Precision is imperative. Even before you begin, you must have the proper tools. Of course, you will need an oven— heated to four hundred degrees Fahrenheit—in which to cook your pizza and a stone to cook the pizza on, when the time comes. Along with that, attach the dough hook, the attachment that kneads your dough while you mix, to your stand mixer. Also, make sure you have a rolling pin handy, though any round, long implement will do. You will also need scant amounts of cornmeal, to prevent your crust from sticking to the stone. With these things gathered, you are ready to start.
Begin by heating 128 grams of water between ninety-five to one hundred fifteen degrees Fahrenheit. The water must be within this range in order to begin the fermentation process. Too cold, and your dough won’t rise; too hot, and your yeast dies. In either case, fermentation cannot happen. Fermentation is, in simple terms, any process where the interactions of microorganisms bring about a desirable change to food or beverage.
In this case, the microorganism involved is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This long word is the scientific name for the “sugar eating” strain of yeast most commonly used in fermentation. For the perfect pizza, obtain 14 grams of your sugar eater. Now you need the sugar for the tasty fungus to eat. Weigh out 28 grams of honey. The sweet, sticky substance feeds the yeast perfectly with the simple sugars that make up its molecules. The honey bees that make it out of sweet nectar are sure to be jealous of its role in your perfect pizza.
With your yeast and its constituents in order, the rest of your ingredients are easy. Get 32 grams of olive oil. This oil, made from the paste of ground olives, pressed through fiber disks to separate the liquid, is essential for the perfect pizza dough. Combined with a half-teaspoon of iodized sodium chloride—table salt, that is—the crust will be the perfect density.
Last, and certainly not least, is the flour. Without packing it, weigh out 204 grams of whole wheat flour, and the same amount of all-purpose flour. The former is just wheat berries that have been milled into a fine, powder dust. The latter, however, goes through a much more rigorous process. It is milled into the same dust as whole wheat, but then it is subjected to a refining and bleaching procedure. The two both perform very similar jobs, but because of the different processes the two are subjected to, they have minute differences as well. Because of its wheat content, the whole wheat has more gluten, which makes the dough elastic-y. The all-purpose, which has much less gluten, makes the dough soft and chewy.
Having all your ingredients in order, your dough is now ready to become perfect. To begin, add your yeast to your mixing bowl. Like most things, your yeast is helpless on its own. To remedy its helplessness, add your hot water. This wakes the yeast, readying it for activation and fermentation. Now that your yeast has woken, it needs breakfast. To feed it, add your honey. The fermentation process has begun.
Let your yeast feast on its sweet treat for five minutes. This will cultivate the production of carbon dioxide—CO2, the fundamental gas that makes your dough rise. When you return to your doughy beginnings, the yeast will have formed a foamy layer atop the water.
To the yeast-water, add your salt, to strengthen gluten production. Drizzle your olive oil in over all this and blend. The olive oil not only adds that delicious, nutty flavor profile to your dough, it also provides a vital task in the baking process. Because of the molecular structure of the oil, it is incompatible with water; the two do not mix. So while the crust is in the oven, the oil’s incompatibility with water impedes the migration of moisture throughout. This makes the inside of the crust soft and chewy, while the outside still remains crisp.
At this point, you are down to only one ingredient—minus toppings. It is time to add your flour to thicken your yeasty, oily soup. Slowly, with the dough hook running, add the flour one cup at a time. The dough should form into one condensed mass. However, if this is not the case for you, you must troubleshoot.
If your ball is more like five small, dry lumps, you have added too much flour. Slowly, add in water as the dough hook runs. The problem should remedy itself in no time. If the opposite is true for you, and your dough is too runny, then you must do the opposite. While the mixer runs, add in spoonfuls of flour until the dough is thick enough to hold itself in a ball shape.
With your dough at the right viscosity, you may set aside your mixing bowl; it’s useless going forward. Add a layer of flour to a clean surface and lay your dough atop the flour. Begin to knead your dough, making sure there is plenty of flour on your surface. This will help develop the production of wheat gluten in the dough. By kneading, the wheat gluten—which is the protein in the dough—holds the bread together and aids in fermentation. Be careful not to under- or over-knead the dough. Under-kneading will lead to a dense, heavy crust: just keep going! The problem will go away in no time. Over-kneading is much more difficult, as the dough becomes tough as you continue. If you do end up with over-kneaded dough, your crust will be rock hard, dense, and dry. The best thing to do is start over. There is no saving your dough now. To tell if you no longer need to knead, give your dough one good poke. If it springs up right away, you’re perfect.
After kneading, let your dough rest in a well-oiled, large bowl. You just gave it a wonderful massage, it needs a break before you put it to work again. Let the dough rise for at least an hour, though the more time, the better. If your dough doesn’t have a chance to rise, the crust will be dense and less flavorful, so be sure to give it enough time to at least double in size. The rising is due to the fermentation you started earlier. The yeast, if left in a warm environment, will continue creating CO2. However, it’s now trapped in a doughy vessel. The CO2 gets trapped in air bubbles and the bubbles cause the dough to get bigger and bigger.
Once your dough has at least doubled in size, remove it from the bowl and once again place it on a floured surface. Separate your dough into at least two equal-sized balls, and set one aside, for the time being. Take your first ball and pinch it flat, turning it like a steering wheel to make it even and circular. As soon as the dough is about six inches across, set it on the floured surface and begin rolling in a circular motion until the crust is fifteen inches in diameter. It should fit the entire length of your stone. Dust the stone with cornmeal and set the crust atop it.
Put your stone—and crust—in the oven for five minutes. While there, the crust will begin going through several chemical and physical changes. First, the heat of the oven kills the yeast, and the crust stops rising. Then, the gluten that you developed while kneading hardens. Lastly, the dough solidifies; with the help of the olive oil, the outside becomes crisp while the inside remains light and fluffy.
When the five minutes of oven time have expired, take the pizza crust out and prepare your toppings. Begin with a layer of marinara sauce. That savory, tomato puree adds the perfect amount of acidity to the flavor profile of your pizza. To the marinara, add Italian sausage and red and yellow bell peppers. Of course, you can add whatever toppings you prefer, but you do want this pizza to be perfect, don’t you? On top of your toppings, sprinkle a blend of full-fat mozzarella and fresh mozzarella. The full-fat, shredded mozzarella has a lower moisture content that unifies the flavors in your pizza. In contrast, the fresh will add a rich, creamy flavor profile and a springy texture to the pie. All these things will bring your pizza to the next level: perfection.
Your pizza is almost done. Just one more step, and then you can indulge. Put the pizza in the oven one last time, to melt the cheese and finish cooking the crust. Just ten more minutes. The bonds that hold the cheese together break and it spreads across the surface. Once the crust looks golden brown, remove your pizza from the oven. Cut into eighths and serve.
Finally! The slice hits your tongue and perfection is achieved. The microvilli—little hairs on your taste buds—send signals up to your brain. Savory! Salty! Perfect! Even just the smell can make you salivate, creating the production of amylase, a digestive enzyme. The digestive process has begun. But that’s another essay for another time. . .
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