40 Hour Hand Mixed New York Style Pizza
The plan for tonight’s pizza was to eliminate my bread maker as the reason for not being able to get large voids in the rim of my New York style crust. The theory was that if the dough was subjected to a gentler mix the cell structure might be better. In order to test this theory I decided to hand mix the dough. Being my first time hand mixing I wasn’t sure what to expect. As it turned out, all went smoothly.
I combined the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and simply used my hands to get things together. Once the water and flour were combined, I placed the ball on a floured table and began the hand kneading process. I used the ball of my hands to press the ball out then folded it onto itself, turned it and pressed again. This technique is supposed to get the gluten active and produce good structure in the final ball. After 8 minutes or so, I stopped and formed it into a ball. It was lightly oiled and placed in the refrigerator to retard overnight.
Unexpectedly, I was not able to make the pizza the following evening! I left the ball in the refrigerator for another night and removed it the next day after about a 40 hour rise. I allowed the dough to bench rise for about 30 minutes before stretching an topping it.
While stretching, the dough had a similar feel to the others I’d made with the bread maker. I topped the pizza with Neapolitan sauce, cheese and pepperoni. It was baked on a pizza screen for 9 minutes at 480 degrees.
After baking, the crust rim was crisp and light as is typical for a dough that is 40 hours old. I noticed a difference in the size of the voids, but not a dramatic one. Due to the longer retardation, I can not be sure that the hand mixing made any difference. I decided that I will need to redo the experiment.
The pizza tasted quite good and was well received. Hand mixing was definitely enjoyable, but if it does not change the rim structure I don’t think I will continue to do it. It took longer and made a bigger mess than normal. I look forward to trying this again.
Here is the New York Style pizza recipe that I have been using for my tests.
