We did a series of Calzones a month or so ago and there is certainly a trick to getting the dough just right. A pretty slack pizza style dough work quite well but there seems to be a very fine line between to thick and to thin. Somewhere right around 1/8" +- was in the ballpark.. I started making them like my pita which start out almost paper thin and that oddly enough made the crust kind of tough (not to mention the risk of blowouts
). Making them to thick and they turned out doughy, but of 6 I got one juuuust right.. and it was really good
Not sure if you've made a lot of dough. Slack means that its well.. soft and floppy... Somewhere around 5 parts flour to 3 parts water by weight is pretty close. You can use the ingredient mix that Rhulman uses and get really close:
http://ruhlman.com/2010/05/homemade-pizza-2/
Repeated here for posterity:
- 10 ounces flour (two cups)
- 6 ounces water (if it’s warm the yeast will work faster, if it’s really really hot you can kill the yeast)
- Big pinch of yeast (1/2 teaspoon)
- 2 big pinches salt (1 teaspoon)
- A drizzle of olive oil for flavor
I prefer to make the dough one or even two days ahead of time. This is because I'm lazy and don't like to knead (it also tastes better so bonus).
- mix ~most~ of the flour with the dough and other ingredients (yeast, salt, maybe a dash of olive oil) into a thick batter... mix it real good with a heavy spoon..
- go take a nap for 30m or so. While you're not doing anything the flour is taking up all the water and doing a lot of the work that you'd have to do to knead it.
- After you've woken back up, gotten a coffee and checked your email add in the rest of the flour a bit at a time until it makes a wet sticky dough.
- Turn it out onto the counter (lightly floured) and .. stretch and fold. Don't bother trying to knead it but just kind of flop it out until it gets big enough to easily fold back on itself and repeat this about 10-12 times. If it starts getting hard to stretch go check your email for 5 minutes and give it a little rest to relax or call it good enough for now.
- It should be getting a bit springy by now if you poke it (i.e. it will bounce back a smidge from your finger).
- Now form it up into a ball and wrap with saran wrap and stick it in the fridge (or put it in a bowl and push one layer of saran wrap down onto the dough and the stretch another layer over the top of the bowl.
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- Leave it in the fridge for one, two, three days. Generally I think white breads hit their peak at about two days and whole wheat at three (but varies a bit).
- If it gets to big and starts to escape take it briefly out and give it one or two folds to degass and stick it back in the fridge.
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- When you're getting ready to cook, take the dough out about 30-40m ahead of time (while the oven is heating). You can pinch off what you need and stick the rest back in the fridge (as above)
- either pinch off or cut off with a dough knife approximately the right sized pieces and roll them out and use them now.
The reason this works without much/any kneading is that the long hydration period allows the gluten to self activate. The folding makes sure the ingredients are fully integrated and incorporates some air into the dough (yeast uses oxygen during its growth phase which is what produces the CO2.). I originally learned how this works from "Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads" book (
https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Reinharts-Whole-Grain-Breads/dp/1580087590) where the long rest also softens the whole grains (but the technique works well with white flour as well). As a bonus some other changes happen in the chemistry of the dough with a long rest that improves the flavor (or makes it more complex and deep anyway) and increases the Maillard reaction during cooking (making a browner crustier tastier bread).
You can also use this same dough for:
- pita; roll out 1/16" thick rounds maybe 4-5" in diameter - smaller is easier build up to larger ones. Flip carefully onto a hot pizza stone. The key to an even getting them to puff is wet dough, evenly rolled thickness, and don't pinch them while in transit to the oven. Cook around 450F (preheated).
- Focaccia - roll out to around 3/8" thick. Put on a well oiled sheet pan, Dimple deeply (pretty much all the way through) then cover with a damp towel or saran wrap and let rise for 20-30m. Drizzle heavily with olive oil and prinkle with coarse salt, herbs and optionally cheese, etc.. Cook at 425F or so.
- I also use this (or dough very like this..) as a base for a variety of other breaks like baguettes, etc.. but that gets a smidge more complex.