My quest continues to make GREAT home made pizza. This week I tried
King Arthur Brand Crust Mix, a pack makes two 12″ thin crusts, or larger single thick crust.
The mix is complete, includes a yeast package, the ingredients ( semolina flour (durum wheat), King Arthur Unbleached Flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour), dough improver (extra grade sweet cream dairy whey, highly refined soy flour, sweet cream buttermilk, hi-heat non-fat dry milk), natural flavorS, salt, leavening (monocalcium phosphate, baking soda, cornstarch), diastatic malt powder (malted barley flour, wheat flour, dextrose), inactive yeast, sour cream powder (sour cream, cultured nonfat milk, citric acid). YEAST: yeast, sorbitan monostearate, ascorbic acid) are quite complex, would be difficult to duplicate on one’s own.
The first thing I liked about this was I was able to do it completely in the mixer with a dough hook, no hand kneading was required (although you may enjoy kneading, some people do). The dough was very workable and had the right amount of stretch, and it was absolutely no problem to roll it or stretch it to the size and shapes I wanted.
It cooked up very well @ 500 for 15 minutes on a stone, tho I am still having a little problem sliding them onto the stone without some misshaping occurring. The stones have corn meal on them (which burns @ 500), and so does the paddle, as well as being dusted with flour, but there is some trick to an easy slide which I haven’t mastered. I have better luck with using the silicone/plastic cutting mats than I do the metal pizza paddle.
I made two pies from this batch, a salami/pepperoni, green olive, mozzarella one, and an all vegetable one with peppers, onions, basils from the garden, and mushrooms.
The outer crust was perfectly crisp, the center was slightly crispy and chewy. I could have probably rolled them thinner, but then sliding them onto the stone would be a greater problem. I need a dough roller!
I also purchased a 3# bag of King Arthur Perfect Pizza Blend ($7.50 – would appear to be a better value than the mix), which I will give a shot in the near future.
Would appreciate any suggestions for the “stone slide” problem I am having!
Home pizza dough