Great pizza starts and ends for the most part with the crust.
Sauce,
cheese, and toppings are all important to be sure; but the crust is the
one thing that you have the most control over. It is the foundation of
your pizza and it is probably what people stress over the most. So to
get the best results - it's important to make the best decisions before
the battle is even fought. The road to great crust starts with flour.
There is no shortage of options when it comes to flour at your local
supermarket. Add the wide expanses of world wide electronic commerce
and the choices get even broader. How to choose the right flour for the
right job? Let's start with an introduction to the player behind the
scenes: wheat gluten.
Gluten is a complex protein that can be found in wheat and other foods.
It is formed in the flour when the water is mixed; two simple proteins
bond together to form gluten. It is rubbery and elastic and gives the
crust a chewy texture. When you make a yeasted dough the fermentation
process produces carbon dioxide which is trapped by the strands of
gluten. This is what makes the dough rise. When you bake the pizza, the
gluten along with starch in the dough coagulates, which stabilizes the
final product that comes out of the oven.
The point of all this is that the gluten content has a big effect on
your final product. The higher the gluten content, the chewier product
you will get so this type of flour is ideal for products like pizza,
bread and pretzels. Lower gluten content will produce a texture that is
more delicate, making it ideal for pastries and cake.
All purpose flour is the most common form of flour available on the
market. As the name would suggest,
it is very versitile and can be used
for bread, pizza, pancakes, pies, biscuits, etc. Most cookbooks will
call for the use of all purpose flour, probably because it is so easy
to find. If you are planning on making more deep dish or thick crust
pizzas, I find all purpose flour to be the best choice. I find that the
texture of the crust is more satisfying with all purpose flour.
Bread flour differs from all purpose flour in that the gluten content
is higher. This is a little harder to find. It may also be marketed as
flour ideal for use in bread machines. The increase in gluten
development helps in giving a thin crust pizza a more crisp texture. So
if you are more interested in the thin crust pizzas with some crunch to
it, then bread flour might be the way to go. Keep in mind that dough
made with higher gluten flours will be harder to work with my hand.
In addition to bread flours - there are also high gluten flours, which
are even higher in gluten content. Sir Lancelot flour by King Arthur is
one example. Unless you live in a larger market with specialty shops,
these will likely only be available online.
There are other specialty flours which can be used from time to time
when making pizza. Semolina flour is made from durum, another type of
wheat. Semolina is traditionally used to make pasta. It can be used in
small amounts along with wheat flour or, as you can see in the Sicilian
recipe, it can be used by itself. It produces a crust with an
interesting texture and flavor.
Another specialty flour is "OO" Flour, or Caputo flour. This is
imported from Italy. Caputo flour is a popular choice in making
traditional Neopolitan style pizzas. It is a little tricky to use in
the home oven. Because the professional ovens get so much hotter it is
harder to get crusts made with Caputo flour to brown the way we might
like. Caputo flour is also much harder to find. There are sources
online of course, but you will end up paying a fair amount for
shipping. If you are lucky enough to live in a larger urban area - I
would suggest exploring for smaller independently owned Italian
Grocers. For example, if you live in St.
Louis, the Hill District is
one place where you can find Caputo flour for sale.
I am asked from time to time about the use of whole grains in pizza
crusts. If this is something you would like to pursue, my advice would
be to start with a relatively small ratio. Three parts white flour to
one part whole wheat is a good starting point. Try it out and see how
you like it. If you don't, you can adjust the whole wheat up from
there. Just keep in mind that the more whole wheat you add to the
dough, the heavier it will be. The jagged edges of the whole grains
literally slash open the gluten strands and gas pockets in the dough
which prevents the crust from springing up as much as you might like.
