Infusing pizza dough with flavor and finesse (Part One)

We pizza makers immerse ourselves into the science, craft and business of perfecting pizzas every day. The basis for any great pizza is usually milled wheat of some type mixed with water and a fermentative vehicle that, with the help of time and temperature, produces gases. These gases produce carbon dioxide, whose carbonic acids taste slightly sour when they hit the receptors of the tongue. Other flavors depend on additive elements in the dough such as flavorful liquids. This is the cliff face I want to geek out on, without doing a Wile E. Coyote swan-dive into the desert floor. Let’s start with the rules of the past, then drive fast to the future.

“When it comes to the rules of cooking, the one that supersedes them all is what I call ‘The Flavor Rule.’ That is, flavor rules! And one way to infuse flavor in dough is through liquids that already carry flavor.” – Peter Reinhart Baker, Educator and James Beard Award-winning author of “Pizza Quest,” “Perfect Pan Pizza” and “American Pie”

Foreign Influence

Many great minds have created categorical definitions for bread and pizza dough that have formed over years of human history. These different doughs formed slowly in cultures depending upon location, weather, soil, history and resources. For instance, the traditional Tuscan bread named Pane Sciocco, meaning “simple bread,” does not contain any salt. This is because in the Middle Ages the city of Pisa controlled the salt trade and taxed salt. Here are some traditional bread dough categories:

Stiff, Standard and Rustic: These are made according to hydration, from very firm to tacky and sticky, accordingly.

Lean: Made with little or no fat or sugar – a very hard dough.

Enriched: Medium-soft dough made with less than 20 percent fat – can also include sugar, eggs and milk.

Rich: Over 20 percent fat, may also include eggs, sugar and milk.

Flat: This is baked thinly and is soft and crisp. It may or may not include yeast.

Mixed Blessing

Mixing doughs is just as important as every other step in your baking routine, and what liquids you use can make all aspects of any pizza or bread react differently. But first, a word on absorption.

Absorption is defined as the amount of liquid your flour can suck up and hold while being made into a simple dough. This is often expressed as a percentage of the weight of the flour itself, usually known as Bakers’ Percentage. So, if you add 40 pounds of water to 100 pounds of flour, your absorption ratio is 40 percent. Because starch is the largest volume of any flour, it absorbs most of the liquid, but only up to ¼ to ½ of its weight. Proteins absorb up to twice their weight in water, so variations in protein levels in your flour can make a big difference in absorption. As an example, a high-protein flour with 80-percent absorption will, under the proper circumstances, produce a dynamic oven-spring (the initial rise when the dough hits the hot oven stones) because of the steam in the dough. It also will produce a crisp, blistered crust and large, waxy alveoli in the cornicione, or crust, if aged properly.

Fluid Situation

There are many examples of infusing bread with flavorful liquids with or without water.

Beer

It is fermented with different yeasts – Saccharomyces cerevisiae, known as “Brewers Yeast,” is in ales, and Saccharomyces pastorianus in lagers. You may get a different outcome in your pizza dough for each of these. For instance, ale yeast ferments better in hotter temperatures and lager in colder temps. Hops, heat, alcohol and acidity in beer all can affect any dough that is risen from freshly brewed beer. This is why a lot of bakers boost beer doughs with sourdough starter, baking powder, pre-ferments and/or instant-rise flour. The magical quality that beer adds to a pizza dough is flavor. IPA beer will add a hoppy, bitter taste, while lagers will add a malty flavor, and porters, stouts and brown ales will add a rich chocolate or coffee flavor.

Malt

This addition to pizza dough has an enzyme named amylase that breaks starch into sugars that the yeasties love. This results in a deeper brown crust and a more vigorous rise. The two malts are diastatic and non-diastatic. Non-diastatic adds color and sweet, malty flavor, while diastatic malt helps when a fast bake time is looming; it bakes to a higher volume and a more tender cell structure.

Honey

More pizza makers are using honey in their pizza dough because it is a natural sweet vehicle for yeasts to feed upon. Honey also is a natural humectant that draws in moisture and will make for softer dough. It does help with the maillard* reaction in crust by having a lot of simple sugars that create a richer color and deeper flavor. (** A reaction when amino acids and sugars in food are heated to create browning.)

Porridge

It is ironic that historically the precursor to bread was porridge, and there are many instances of whole peoples being mocked as “porridge eaters.” The procedure of adding porridge to dough is now on the cutting edge of creativity in the artisan baking community. It is born of the popularity of whole and alternative grains, which are practically devoid of gluten, in breads and pizzas without producing a brick-like texture. By cooking or soaking whole grains with water before mixing, a fermentation produces a mild cheesy aroma. Adding over 50 percent of this porridge to each batch adds digestibility and longevity to the bread or pizza dough. Because the porridge is barely cooked, it needs lower baking temperatures, par-baking stages and extra time to set up before slicing.

Curry

There is no better statement of your innovative creativity than a curry-crusted pizza! This mix starts with roasting onions with curry powder and extra virgin olive oil, grinding them into a liquid and adding it to any dough mix. Sometimes, raisins or walnuts will multiply the flavor bomb but may inhibit some forming techniques. I’ve done this for years with great results!

Matcha Tea

This addition provides a nice earthy, sweet, vegetal taste to pizza dough. The biggest attribute being the bright green color like in Japanese Milk Bread. This pizza dough needs to be baked at 500 F or below because you may get a brown crusting on the color at higher temps.

Maple Syrup

Because I have access to many friends who make maple syrup, I’ve spent years trying to perfect the best maple bread and pizza dough around. The deep sweetness of maple infused in bread is a real crowd pleaser and best partnered with spelt and whole wheat. Like Matcha, maple syrup must be watched or baked on a parchment-covered pan in lower heat because the sugars may caramelize too much.

JOHN GUTEKANST owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.