- [Babish] Today's episode is sponsored by Ooni,
the portable pizza oven that allows you to make
amazing pizza at home.
To make today's pies I'll be using the Ooni Koda 16,
a propane fueled pizza oven that can reach temperatures
up to 932 degrees Fahrenheit.
That's the same as a traditional pizza oven,
giving you amazing flash-fired pizza
like you'd find from your favorite pizza place.
Head to the link in the video description
to find out how to get yours,
but for now, let's get down to basics.
(upbeat music)
Before we get into the endless ways in which you can
manipulate flour, water, salt and yeast into pizza dough,
let's talk a little pizza dough theory.
First up hydration.
Different styles of pizza dough
require different hydrations.
Most pizza doughs have a hydration between 60 and 70%.
That is to say the amount of water in the dough
is 60 to 70% of the weight of the flour.
The higher the hydration the softer and more open crumb
the final product will have,
but the more difficult to handle the dough will be.
So higher hydration doughs are generally better
for pan pizzas and Sicilian style.
Next up the all-important act of gluten formation.
All pizza requires gluten development,
some more than others.
Once all of your ingredients are combined
there are a few different ways that you can develop gluten.
The most well known and widely dreaded of which,
is kneading by hand.
Kneading can be a sticky, frustrating,
and exhausting process for newcomers to the kitchen,
so if you're not confident in your forearm strength
and if you're not worried about
what your downstairs neighbors are going to think,
you might want to try the slap and fold technique,
that is slapping the dough down,
doing your best to elongated on the downstroke,
folding it over on itself, turning it 90 degrees,
and repeating.
This works especially well with higher hydration doughs
that are difficult to manage.
Depending on the rapidity and strength of your slaps
this could take anywhere from six to 15 minutes.
And you'll know that it's done when the dough becomes soft
and supple and manageable and passes what's called
the window pane test,
which is the baker's standby practice of stretching
a little piece of dough as thin as you can possibly manage,
and if it becomes translucent without tearing
it has a sufficient gluten development.
A significantly more expensive,
but exponentially easier method, is to use a stand mixer,
which is pretty much as simple as adding your ingredients,
affixing a dough hook and letting it knead on medium speed
for five to seven minutes.
A slightly fussier, but much faster method,
involves a food processor.
Who's violent, blade-whipping action can sufficiently
develop gluten in a dough in as little as 90 seconds.
Another easy method that requires no special equipment
is what I'm gonna call the,
"fold it over on itself every five minutes or so" method.
This method starts by roughly combining our ingredients
until no dry spots remain,
covering and letting rest for five minutes,
and then, from the side, lifting the dough up onto itself,
rotating 90 degrees and repeating for four total folds,
recovering with plastic wrap
and letting rest for another five minutes,
and then repeating the process over the course of 20 minutes
for a grand total of four times,
after which you'll find that your lumpy beginnings
have effortlessly transformed a soft, springy,
well-developed dough.
And then perhaps the laziest,
but most time consuming method, is the no knead method,
that is combining all your ingredients
until no dry spots remain,
covering and letting ferment at room temperature
for 18 hours,
after which you'll be delighted to find
that your lumpy craggy mass has developed
into some oven-ready chewing gum.
And so there you have it,
a two and a half minute crash course on dough theory.
Now let's put our theory to practice and make some pizza.
We're starting with what is arguably the archetypal pizza
of the pizza world, the Neapolitan style.
This style of pizza calls for a chewy, toothsome crust.
So we're using bread flour, 850 grams of this stuff,
along with 12 grams of instant yeast
that we're gonna tiny whisk together
and make sure that it's evenly dispersed
before adding our wet stuff.
Neapolitan pizza typically has a hydration of about 65%.
So that's about 550 grams of water,
which we're going to mix together until just combined
before adding the salt.
17 grams worth of kosher salt,
which we're adding at this stage to help protect the yeast,
the delicate necessary microorganisms
that salt loves to bully.
Once we get everybody combined it's time to knead
using your method of choice.
I think that since this is Neapolitan pizza
I should probably knead by hand,
so as not to piss off the Italians,
even though it's my third batch of pizza so far today
and I'm getting a little tired.
Just remember not to get too discouraged
if your dough is really sticky,
because as you work it you're going to find
it come together and become more cohesive and bouncy
and springy and soft and awesome.
And that first hand earned window pane test
is gonna feel all the more deserved and cathartic.
And it's going to feel especially good
if Sohla El-Waylly drops by to steal your stand mixer
and tells you you did a good job.
- [Sohla] That looks fantastic.
It really bounce.
Look at that, wow.
Pops right back.
Kneaded with (indistinct).
- [Babish] Kneaded with rage.
- Persistence. - Anger.
- [Sohla] Rage and persistence.
- [Babish] Well, that's about all the validation
I could ask for this year.
Anyway, now that our dough is kneaded,
and our gluten is developed,
it's time to head into an oiled bowl.
We're going to cover it and let it rest at room temperature
for two hours during what's called
a primary bulk fermentation.
But if you want truly amazing Neapolitan pizza
you gotta do what's called a cold ferment in the fridge,
which is basically just fringing it for three to five days.
During this time not only is the flavor gonna deeply develop
but the gluten strands are going to lengthen,
giving you that amazing chewy texture
that you really want in Neapolitan pizza.
Whether you cold ferment it for days
or just bulk ferment it for a couple of hours,
it's time to divide and shape the dough.
I'm dividing into six equal pieces
by weight to ensure accuracy.
And then I'm shaping it into balls
by rolling the dough between my hands
and pinching the edges down underneath the dough itself
to pull the top taught.
At this stage we want our dough balls as perfectly round
and taught as possible before either placing them
on a lightly floured rimmed baking sheet
or a proofing container like this one.
Cover and proof for one hour
if you made your dough the same day,
or one and a half to two hours
if the dough is refrigerator cold.
You want the dough to spread out and become a little poofy
but not quite double in size.
Then at long last it's time
for things to start taking shape.
First we're flouring both our work surface
and the dough itself,
before beginning to pat it out as wide as we can
with our fingers,
leaving a very small rim around the outside
that will eventually become our crust.
Then it's time to begin gently, slowly stretching our dough
by passing it knuckle over knuckle
until it gets just about as thin as you can get it,
in this case about 12 inches wide.
Then we're performing our final shaping
and eventual topping on a generously floured pizza peel.
And then for the simplest most beautiful form
of Neapolitan pizza, Pizza Margherita,
we need only two things, roughly pureed,
whole San Marzano tomatoes
with a generous pinch of kosher salt
and shredded or torn pieces of fresh mozzarella.
The shredding of which has made much easier
by freezing beforehand for about 15 minutes.
Both of these toppings are pretty high moisture
so you want to apply them very sparingly.
There's no such thing as a Neapolitan pizza
with extra toppings,
unless you want a pizza pool on your hands.
Once it's topped up, it's time to head out to the oven.
And this is one of those instances
where you can really only make this
in an oven like the Ooni.
Because it's such a lean dough
with a relatively high moisture content,
this pizza would turn into a cracker
if you tried to bake it in a home oven
even at its highest setting.
So this is the one style of pizza that truly needs
the 932 degree Fahrenheit kiss of the Ooni.
Once it emerges from the oven is simply topped
with torn basil,
not before but after it comes out of the oven
as has been vehemently pointed out to me by many commenters,
before being sliced and served as desired.
And guys, I gotta tell you this is truly remarkable pizza.
I still can't believe that I was able to make
something like this in my house with my hands,
and my more often than not limited brain,
but here it sits in all of its Neapolitan beauty.
But what do you say we try on the exact opposite
of Neapolitan pizza, deep dish pan pizza?
A pizza whose thickness
and longer lower temperature cook time
call for a higher hydration enriched dough.
So into a bowl we are combining
about 240 grams of bread flour,
and about a half teaspoon or one and a half grams
of instant yeast, tiny whisk to disperse,
and then we're adding 170 grams of water
for a dough with a hydration of 70%.
We're also adding 15 milliliters of olive oil,
which is both going to add flavor
as well as shorten our gluten strands
so we don't end up with pizza taffy.
Mix just to combine before adding four grams,
or about three quarters of a teaspoon of kosher salt,
continue mixing until no dry spots remain.
And then we're gonna do our lift
and fold on itself technique.
What did I call it last time?
You know, the one where we give it four folds
every 20 minutes and that develops our gluten for us
without sapping us of our much needed strength.
Once complete it's best to let this guy rest
in an oiled container overnight in the fridge.
This is going to help develop its flavor.
Then come pizza day, we're going to generously lubricate
a 10 inch cast iron skillet
with two to three tablespoons of olive oil.
And then we're going to carefully dump
our dough ball inside.
Flipping wants to coat with oil
and then gently pressing out to fill the bottom of the pan.
Depending on how cold your dough is,
you may experience some resistance
so don't be afraid to cover it with plastic wrap
and let it rest for 15 minutes before trying again.
Once shaped we ultimately want it to be out of the fridge
for about an hour and a half before topping and baking.
To bake we want to preheat a pizza stone in the oven
at 550 degrees Fahrenheit for at least an hour,
ensuring that the bottom of the pizza gets blasted
with enough heat to make it crisp.
You can also bake this in your Ooni
by cranking down the flames
so it gets to be around 550 degrees Fahrenheit.
You can top it up however you like.
I'm going with a more generous spread
of our San Marzano tomatoes,
a thick layer of low moisture mozzarella,
making sure to spread it all the way out to the edges
so you get that cheesy crunch on the outside,
and some thick sliced pepperoni that's gonna curl
into little adorable pepperoni cups.
That's getting topped up
with some optional freshly grated Parmesan,
and then it's ready for the oven,
where it's going to bake anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes
being rotated once halfway through
until it comes out looking like this,
melty and bubbly and brown,
and literally deep frying before your very eyes.
Now you gotta let this thing rest for at least 10 minutes,
both to reabsorb the oil,
and if you at all value your delicate skin and mouth,
also to make sure that the bottom crunches up.
If it's not crunchy enough for you,
you can throw the whole thing on the stove top
over medium heat for two to three minutes
until the bottom is crisp.
Then alls you gotta do is slice and serve
and prepare for this perfect example of everything
you loved about pizza when you were a kid,
gooey cheese, saucy sauce, and most importantly,
a soft and chewy, yet oily and crunchy crust
surrounded by a crown of crunchy deep fried cheese.
So we've explored the very Italian
and the very American pizza doughs.
What about the Italian American pizza dough,
the New York style?
This very much straddles the line between the two
and it is reflected in the dough,
as it is enriched with sugar and oil,
but has a much lower hydration.
So we're going to try the food processor
kneading method this time,
combining 470 grams of bread flour, 25 grams of sugar,
and about a half teaspoon or one and a half grams of yeast
in the bowl of a food processor,
which we're going to process together a couple of times
just to combine everybody
before streaming about 285 grams of ice water
through the feed tube as the machine runs
until a ball of dough forms,
giving us a dough with a hydration of about 60%.
Once it comes together we're gonna switch it off
and let it rest for 15 minutes
before returning with nine grams of kosher salt
and 15 milliliters of olive oil.
Pop the lid back on,
and process for anywhere from 60 to 90 seconds
until the dough forms that embodies the three S's,
smooth, supple, and silky.
Then using a lightly oiled countertop
and your lightly oiled hands,
we're gonna knead the dough
until it sort of cohesively comes together into a very soft,
smooth mass which we're going to form into a taught ball
and place into an oiled container,
which we're going to proof in the fridge overnight.
Once again, this isn't a hundred percent necessary
but it's going to greatly improve your doughs texture
and flavor.
After its overnight stint in the fridge,
it's time to divide, shape, and proof.
This recipe from America's Test Kitchen
is enough to make two 14-inch pizzas.
So we're dividing our dough precisely in half,
stretching into taught balls,
and allowing to proof on a lightly floured,
rimmed baking sheet or a proofing box,
and allowing to proof for two hours at room temperature
or until lighten and poofy and very easy to work with.
Then it's a similar situation to the Neapolitan pizzas
but on a larger, thicker scale.
We do want to aim for 14 to 16 inches,
and the dough is going to be slightly thicker
than the Neapolitan, but just barely.
I'm talking about like three millimeters
versus five millimeters.
We still want it super thin,
but thick enough to stand up to the incoming toppings,
which we're going to apply as before
on a lightly floured peel,
this time opting for a cooked tomato sauce
with garlic and basil and lots and lots of shredded,
low moisture mozzarella cheese.
Then likewise, it's headed out to the Ooni,
but this time at a slightly lower temperature.
We're shooting for 700 degrees Fahrenheit.
Shuffle it on in there.
And unlike the Neapolitan,
which only takes about a minute to bake,
this is going to take between five and seven.
You're gonna want to rotate it often,
because as with any traditional pizza oven,
all the heat is concentrated in the back.
Try to pop any huge bubbles as you go along
and pull it when it's deeply brown around the exterior
and the cheese is melted and starting to display
a golden brown dappling.
Let it rest for five minutes before slicing and serving.
But don't delay,
because it's just not New York style pizza
if it doesn't completely annihilate the roof of your mouth.
And there you have it.
I hope you've enjoyed these three distinctly
different styles of pizza as much as I have.
Though, probably not,
because I'm the one who got to eat them all.
And it was all made possible,
both literally and figuratively, by today's sponsor, Ooni,
the outdoor oven that makes the best pizza at home.
You might be saying, "Babish, I can make a pretty awesome
"pizza in my kitchen oven."
And to you, I'd say, "I can't actually hear you.
"You're talking to a screen,
"and that you've never had a home pizza
"as good as one from an Ooni."
They have different models with a variety of fuel types,
like propane wood, charcoal, and pellets.
The secret, which isn't really a secret,
is the stone cooking surface and the immense heat.
Ooni can reach temperatures of 932 degrees Fahrenheit,
the same as a traditional pizza oven.
Not only does this live fire heat allow you
to unleash your inner pizzaiolo,
it's also fast, like 60 seconds fast.
What better way to celebrate national pizza month
than by purchasing an Ooni pizza oven for your backyard?
It can be used year round and cooks more than pizza.
Basically any food that needs heat can be prepared
in this oven.
So head to the link in the description
find out how you can get yours,
and start delighting your friends
and family with the best pizza they've ever had today.
(light music)