
Originally Posted by
snowquest
I am just starting to experiment with homemade pizza and have a few questions for the culinary gurus…
-I am trying to make a whole wheat crust, the first one turned out crispy/hard on the bottom, undercooked in the middle and top. Any ideas what the problem is? (wheat flower, oil, honey, salt, let rise at room temp. about 3 hours, cooked on preheated stone at 550)
Whole wheat is a PITB at first. I would recommend to learn with white flour first. In any case, it sounds like you might've under-hydrated your dough. What hydration percentage are you using? I'd say for an 'easy' first whole wheat dough I'd shoot for ~70% hydration, little change of messing that up. And I would also give the dough more time to develop, 3 hours isn't much for the yeast to do it's work.
-Where is a good place to start with the sauce? Fresh tomatoes, canned whole, crushed, chunked, paste?
I rarely start from fresh tomatoes, since most fresh tomatoes you get at most grocery stores are crap, IMHO. I like starting from canned whole peeled San Marzano's ... canned whole romas or crushed romas work too, no problem. Lots of olive oil in your sauce pan, fry up some garlic, throw in the tomatoes, salt & pepper, let it simmer for 1-2 hours to reduce it to optimal thickness. You can add other spices, too, but i rarely do, I like tasting the tomatoes as strong as possible, so I usually only add a dash of Oregano on top.
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