The great crust off!

The gauntlet has been thrown down. It’s time to find out who makes the best pizza crust. The rules are simple. Anything goes. With the event looming, I decided to throw down and try something new: a wet knead. It’s an adaptation of Jeff Varasano’s technique, but without the proper yeast starter.

The recipe is rough, but works out to this.

4 cups flour

1-1.25 cups water

0.5 packet of yeast (~ 1 tsp)

1 tsp of salt

mix 75% of flour, yeast and salt for 1-2 min in kitchen aid mixer (KAM) adding water until you’re somewhere between a batter and a dough (close to a batter according to Jeff) . cover and allow the mixture to “autolyse”  for 20 min. knead the resulting wet dough in the KAM on low (“2″) for 5-6 min and then gradually add remainder of flour a little at a time.  it took 2 minutes to add the additional cup. mix on (“3″) for an additional minute. let dough rest for 20min. remove to floured board and knead for 30s-1min using additional flour sparingly to prevent sticking. divide dough, and place it in lightly greased containers (0.25 tsp of oil for 5 containers) and refrigerate.  i’ll fill in the rest once I get to that stage…

Some pics of the process: