Through my pizza testing Ive been using the famous Caputo 00 Flour. This has worked very well, bloody great really. But in my striving to make a purely Locavore style pizza Ive had to make some changes. Luckily Adelaide has one of the best mills in the country and with Laucke’s recent major upgrades they now do a quality 00 flour.
After several slow starts trying to replicate a Neopolitan style base from Laucke flour, I feel that I now have cracked the Locavore ‘pizza code’. It turns out that the Laucke Flour doesn’t take up as much water as the Caputo leaving the dough with a wet and sticky consistency. It also tore a bit, no matter the fermentation time. With some experimentation, Ive cut back the water by 15% and added 5% Olive Oil to help with the elasticity.
The first test worked a treat. Im very excited – it’s so much better being able to use a local product that delivers 95% the result of the imported stuff! Now Im just waiting for them to sell in bulk, instead of the 2kg boxes currently on sale. Im told by Laucke themselves, that they are waiting for the bags to be printed and then it will be available in 14kg lots from Goodies and Grains in the Central Markets.
Chuck’s Locavore Dough (makes 4 pizza bases)
675 grams Laucke 00 Flour (Foodland)
375 grams Water
33ml Olive Oil
13 grams salt
1 teaspoon of instant dried yeast
Place flour, water and yeast in KitchenAid or similar device with dough hook. Knead for 1 min, slowly add salt and knead for another minute. Once mixed add the olive oil and knead for a further 8 minutes until a smooth ball is shaped.
Cover bowl with cling film and place in warm place until doubled in size (up to 4 hours). Remove dough and punch out air. Divide dough into 4 equal balls – each should be 275 grams. Work the dough into balls, keeping the seam facing away from you. Finish off by rolling in a circular motion on a very lightly floured surface. Place dough balls into a large container leaving room around the edges for dough expansion. Place in fridge for 18hrs; and up to 48hrs. Remove the dough balls from the fridge approximately 90 mins before you need to use. Flatten and stretch with your hands onto a smooth surface dusted with semolina, not flour to help you work the discs. Dust a pizza peel with semolina and transfer the base, give a short couple of slides / shake motions so that the base moves before next step. Cover with your favourite sauce and toppings.
