I have 2 friends in the catering industry – one who owns a lovely little restaurant in Harrogate and the other who supplies and installs trade kitchen equipment throughout the UK. It’s the latter who once told me that many of his pizza-related customers don’t like revealing too much about their dough recipes. I’m starting to see why but no such thing on this blog – what I find I post for the good of others. How nice.
So, Mrs Pizzageek says let’s go out for lunch and I had the choice of where so I plumbed for the old favourite which I mentioned in an earlier post.
Walking through the door was one of those good feelings you get about being somewhere you’ve not been for a long time and it’s good to be back. We hoped it was good to be back. The manager looked over, recognising us as he was one of the original staff from when we used to visit. It didn’t take long before I was quizzing him about their dough recipe and procedures. Expecting him to clam up I was pleased / surprised / intrigued to hear him wax lyrical about the dough, the flour, the methods – everything. All this while my fork was stuck in a main course prawn. A sacrificial crustacean if ever there was one. Without further ado, here’s what I discovered:-
Recipe for 35 – 40 pizza doughs (catering size, obviously not your average dinner party)
- 2Kg 00 Flour
- 250ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 3 Spoons Salt
- 4 Spoons dried Yeast
- 1 and a half Pints Water
I will have to take a guess at the size of the spoons for the yeast and salt because that’s exactly what’s written on the notepaper from the restaurant – has to be teaspoons but that is a lower salt content than I’m used to.We shall see.
Converting that back to a home size recipe we get:
- 500g 00 Flour (or strong white bread flour)
- 60ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Teaspoon dried Yeast
- 213 ml water (a bit precise I know but that’s what it worked out at!)
So, given I normally only put a drizzle of olive oil into my regular recipe and 300ml of water you can see that there’s 87ml of water replaced by 60ml of olive oil. Sounds a bit dry to me but I’m definitely going to give this one a go.
One last thing – the manager took an interest in my interest and invited me into the kitchen to show me how they store their dough in the fridge. Dozens of uncovered 200g pattys stored in bread trays, ready to go. By now I’m converting all this knowledge into how I can use it at home when he offers me the chance to come in one morning and watch or take part in the process. Allow me, readers, one blasphemy: GOD YES. I’ve got some knowledge on search marketing and web site creation that I know will come in handy for them so it’s a bit of a back-scratching session.
Forward, fellow dough apprentices… where I go, you shall… oh you get the idea – I’ll fill you in when I’ve discovered a bit more.
