Sourdough Bread

And your dough recipe as well.

This is mine.

Original recipe

Water 1000 ml
Salt 50-55 grams
Fresh yeast 3 grams
Flour 1.7/1.8 kg (depending on strength)

I scale down and make a quarter which makes 3 good sized bases:

Water 250ml
Salt 12.5g
Fresh Yeast 0.75g
400-450g flour (425 seems to work well)

Half Italian 00 flour and half plain flour

Blend yeast in a bowl with the water.
Add both flours and the salt.
Combine into a dough.

Knead for 20 mins.

The mixture should be sticky, soft and elastic to touch.

Leave to rise for 2 hours.

Divide the dough and form into balls.

Leave to prove covered for a further 4-6 hours.

Weigh everything for the best results.
I'm using an adaptation of the authentic Neapolitan pizza dough recipe. If you don't have a proper pizza oven you need to reduce the amount of 00 flour as it is not designed to be cooked for a long time.

To reduce the cooking time, I cook the dough in an incredibly hot dry pan for a few minutes (until the base starts to blacken) and then chuck in the oven for as short a time a possible (and as hot as I can get it).

Don't cook the tomato sauce before adding it to the pan either. Just combine ingredients and spoon onto the hot dough in the pan.

Use a baking stone or a pizza steel if you have one.

When I started to refine a pizza dough there were however, two other areas that were equally important.  Sauce, I agree never cook it but also how do I cook/bake the pizza.  Kitchen ovens can only reach 500º.  After a lot of thought I came up with the following.  First of all I have a barbecue that half of it is for charcoal half for gas (three large burners) and place for pots.  It also has a domed lid.  

I went to a home building store (not a Lowes or Home Depot) that sell bricks, slate, gravel, etc.  I purchased six fire bricks.  These are the ones that are used to build fire places and can withstand thousands of degrees.  I took a very stiff brush (not metal) and cleaned them.  I then put them in my kitchen oven which can only go up to 500º and they stayed in there for about 50 minutes.  They got hot.  I then put them in the gas side on my barbecue while all three burners were on high.  Within minutes I got up to 700º ambient and I am sure the bricks were hotter.  However 700º is the highest the BBQ thermometer can record.  I slid the pizza of of my peal and with in minutes I had a good pizza.  But you will only get cardboard crust in a kitchen oven.  If you are interested I will share with you my sauce recipe.

Please share your sauce recipe

To begin with the most important thing is what type of tomatoes you use.  Most canned tomatoes have too much juice which does not make a good sauce.  I only use Cento “crushed” tomatoes (photo below).  Once opened you can stand up a table spoon in it.  I generally add a little shallot and garlic to take away the sourness that tomatoes sometimes have.

I take about a table spoon sometimes more of finely chopped shallot and sauté it in a sauce pan with extra virgin olive oil.  I add about 1/8 of a teaspoon salt to the shallot.  Salt is not only a spice but as you know it breaks down food.  When the shallot is where I want it I add a clove or two (depending on the clove size) of garlic but I use a rasp to make a paste.  After only a few seconds I add some of the tomatoes.  When you add a liquid to sautéing garlic it stops it from burning.

I then pour in about 1/4 of the tomatoes; keep in mind these tomatoes are very thick but not very moist.  No it does not look like tomato paste.  Once in the pot I stir to make sure the shallot and garlic a well combined; it is still on a very low flame.

I then pour in the rest of the can of tomatoes and pour in some water in the can to collect all of the remaining crushed tomatoes on the side of the can.  Normally I have to add a little water because the mixture is still very thick.  Use your judgement.  I stir the mixture to make sure everything is completely combined.  Then, I let it stay on the flame until I can fell warmth not high heat.  Once I see a big bubble (if you have ever been to Yellowstone and saw the mud pools burp you will know what I mean) I turn the flame off.  These tomatoes have not been cooked they have just been warmed up so the flavor of the shallot and garlic steep into the blend.  I stir for a while cover and let stand for an hour so everything steeps together.  Once at room temperature my wife and I fill up plastic containers that are 1 1/8 cups or 9 oz and put in the freezer.  You have to make the decision if one of these is enough for the pie you are making.  I generally make a 12 to 13 inch pie.

When I put the sauce on the pie I take a large spoon and  and spread it out.  I use a soft mozzarella and sprinkle a very small amount of olive oil.  Most Italians do not use fresh oregano, instead we buy dry (see the below photo) put it on a countertop and take what I want (very small amount) and put on the pie.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the recipe. I always try to use San Marzano tomatoes if I can. I assume that is what the Cento can is?

My recipe is ultra simple.

Open a can of San Marzano and throw in a bowl. Slice up garlic cloves real small - the number you use is totally personal, I use 3-4 but use more if you want. Throw them in the bowl. Add 1-2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper and drizzle of olive oil to taste. Smoosh everything together and that's it.

Thanks Tidepool and Fedsbackhand I have two recipes to try 

My two loaves from this morning- Organic All Purpose Flour/ 85% Hydration/ Sesame Seeds. Much better results today compared to my last effort, and really nice taste and texture as well. This is my highest hydration percentage used to date and the results were really nice. I changed a few things in my routine, going to build on this going forward to see if I can get mine to look perfect like Max’s Sourdough  .

I started a new sourdough bread today so you can tell how it progresses after adding the starter, the salt and the developing of the dough through the sequence of stretch and folds all the way to the bulk fermentation. 

Starter is ready

Adding the starter

Always thoroughly mix for at least 5 minutes

Added the salt and mix thoroughly

First Stretch and Fold

Ready for the lamination where I add all my ingredients.
For this one I added rosemary, caraway seeds and bagel mix. Next I will go through 3 or 4 stretch and fold sequences depending the proofing result.

Final stages. Did a few more coils followed by the final shaping for the banneton. Now it'll sit in the fridge until tomorrow morning when it will get baked.

Final stages. Did a few more coils followed by the final shaping for the banneton. Now it'll sit in the fridge until tomorrow morning when it will get baked.

Max, Thank You for posting some step by step of your process, I learned a lot. I wasn’t familiar with the lamentation or the coil process and was able to find some good videos online. I also hadn’t been thoroughly mixing my starter into the dough, I had just been folding it in. Lots of good steps to try out next time I bake a few loaves!

Max, Thank You for posting some step by step of your process, I learned a lot. I wasn’t familiar with the lamentation or the coil process and was able to find some good videos online. I also hadn’t been thoroughly mixing my starter into the dough, I had just been folding it in. Lots of good steps to try out next time I bake a few loaves!

Glad you're learning. I can tell you're slowly getting the hang of it. Once you fully master the sourdough I'll start teaching you proper ironing, fitted sheet folding and floor mopping. That way you can send the wife battle the wildfires and you can stay at home :-)