*** Quest for the Ultimate Homemade Pizza ***

[canadave]

Hi all,

If you've read this recent thread: (http://forums.glutenfree.com/post54536.html#54536), you'll know why this thread exists. It's to establish a common thread for those of us who were dedicated pizza connoisseurs in our previous (NGF) lives, and are ready to tackle the greatest challenge of GF life: finding a perfect homemade (non-store-bought-mix) pizza.

First, my own story/credentials:

I was born and raised in New York's Greenwich Village. I basically lived off pizza my entire life, eating at some of the most famous pizzerias in New York--Joe's, Lombardi's, John's, Di Fara's. When I moved to Canada in 2000, I discovered it was a pizza wasteland. Accordingly, I joined pizzamaking.com's discussion forums and set out to find out how to make the very best homemade NY-style pizza I could.

Over the years I perfected my recipes and techniques, learned the science of baking perfect pizza, acquired non-standard tools and implements, and eight years later, developed a perfect pizza I could replicate on demand. I was in heaven. Then this year I was diagnosed with celiac

So now I (and at least one other person) are on a new quest--to take those pizzamaking techniques, adjust them for the unique challenges posed by GF baking, and try to discover as many replicable perfect pizza recipes and techniques as we can. Join in and help us on our quest, and hopefully soon we'll all be eating the most delicious GF pizza in the world

--Dave

[canadave]

I'll start off the quest by sharing a bit about what I know, and some of my speculations on how the perfect GF pizza will be achieved.

First, to clarify--what kind of pizza are we looking for? It'll be different for everyone. For me, I want to find the perfect NY-style pizza--relatively thin crust, foldable, large slices (hopefully at least a 16" round pizza). This may not be possible, but it's what I'm shooting for. Other people may want a Chicago style, or deep dish, pizza. Others may look for Sicilian square pizzas. Whatever you want to go for, chime in here; but I'll just speak for myself and say up front that my posts will be aimed at achieving the NY-style pizza.

To that end, here's what I know about making a non-GF NY pizza:

NY pizzas are made with high-gluten flours--in the neighbourhood of 14% protein. The high gluten content is what enables the dough to remain "tough enough" when the yeast in the dough consumes its sugars and releases gas. The gas forms bubbles which are contained by the tough structure of the dough (the bubbles would just pop if there were no gluten), and that's what makes the pizzas airy and light and chewy. Their nice moisture content comes from the fact that NY pizza doughs also have a high proportion of water to flour; generally up around 65% or so.

Once the dough is prepared, the best way to use it is to put it in the refrigerator and let it rise in the cold, or "retard", for at least 24 hours. I found that the best tasting doughs came after I retarded the dough for at least 2-3 days.

As for the bottom of the crust, that nice browning and crispiness is achieved by using a baking stone (also to some extent influenced by how much sugar you've put in the dough--the more sugar, the more browning). The pizzas are generally prepared on a wooden pizza peel (those "paddles" you see all the time), slid into the oven, and then baked at around 500 degrees F on a tile or stone surface, which browns the bottom nicely and enables the pizzas to bake so fast that they don't lose a whole lot of moisture from inside the dough.

That's all well and good, and we can do that all at home. Well, everything except the high-gluten flour obviously Darn! OK, we have to figure out some kind of alternatives.

The way I see it, there are several problems to tackle:

1) Finding a way to make the dough tough enough to contain the yeast gas bubbles, in the total absence of gluten. This will affect the texture of the dough.

2) Determining if the high moisture content of GF doughs will be a help or hindrance.

3) Figuring out whether it's possible to retard GF dough, and if so, for how long.

4) Finding a way to get the dough onto a pizza peel without sticking, and then being able to slide it onto pizza stones in the oven (this might necessitate "par baking", or baking the naked crust first in a pan, then removing it, adding sauce and cheese and toppings, and putting it back in).

5) Finding a way to preserve a good portion of the taste of a non-GF pizza dough.

Tough challenges, for sure, and perhaps there's no way to overcome some of them, or all of them. But that's why we're going to make the attempt

Chime in with your observations and thoughts...let's get the dough ball rolling!

[canadave]

I already have one tip I can share: get an Electrolux DLX mixer The DLX is a VERY expensive mixer made in Sweden and imported to North America; I was lucky enough to save enough money to buy one. It uses a different method of mixing dough than most mixers we're familiar with; it uses a roller and scraper action, and spins the bowl itself. This methodology means that the dough is mixed MUCH more gently than a normal KitchenAid-style mixer. I have yet to try making a GF dough in it, but I suspect that this much gentler mixing may help preserve what little dough cohesion we're going to be able to get, given that we can't use gluten.

If nothing else, you should all consider getting a DLX mixer for the fact that it can mix very large batches of dough. In my non-GF life, I was able to get enough dough out of one mixing session to make EIGHT 16" pizza dough balls.

Here's a link to a review of the DLX, with a link at the end to buying one from Kodiak Health Products--as far as I know they're one of the only N. American sources where one can buy the DLX (marketed as a "Magic Mill" here on this side of the pond):

http://www.breadmachinedigest.com/reviews/stand-mixer-reviews/electrolux-magic-mill-dlx-mixer.php

[Irish Daveyboy]

[Grube]

Boy do I know what you mean. I spent years learning to make from scratch a good soft hard crusted brown bread. When I was finally satisfied I worked for a good hard crusted San Francisco sour dough and got that than 6 months later was diagnosed CELIAC. Now I have taught my DH to bake and he is happy but I can not eat. I go out and work in the shop or yard so I don't have to smell the bread. So far I have not created anything GF that is as good. Grube