Authentic Pizza Dough Recipe like Dominos

 AUTHENTIC PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE LIKE

 DOMINOS AND  PIZZA HUT

There are many recipes of pizza dough recipe out there in YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. But all have same basic ingredients. I am sharing this recipe, its just not recipe but all my five years of experience.  A perfect pizza dough implies some science and  some art work. I am currently running a  pizza outlet and have an expertise of more than 5 years in this field. When I step into this field I was not aware of  any pizza dough recipe. I simply hired 2 bakery chef's who knows just the basic recipe of pizza  dough. I started my business  working  with these two chef's and learnt some basic concept like kneading a dough. But I was not satisfied with the dough recipe, then plan to do some research over the  internet. Gone through so many pizza  dough recipes and experimented around 20 dough recipes. Every day I was experimenting with some or the other recipes but not getting satisfaction. Day and night I was just rolling over the internet, YouTube looking for the perfect pizza dough recipe. Learn't about the pizza flour like 00 flour. In India its difficult to get 00 flour and have to look for substitute. 

Main ingredient of Pizza Dough relies on the type of flour you use. In Italy pizzeria's use 00 flour because it is high in protein and have a grainy texture. Amount of protein 00 flour has around 16% while in India we use all purpose flour or so called MAIDA which has a protein content of 10%. So there is quite a difference of protein percentage in both the flour.

 

Now there arise a question does Dominos is importing 00 flour? 

Answer is No. To fill this protein gap there are many ingredients which can be just added to the flour to increase the protein content.

Now arise the question, why to increase the protein in flour?

Protein is needed to increase the elasticity of dough which we called as gluten. The gluten gives strength to the pizza dough while stretching or rolling. Below is an image of pizza windowpane test which is mandatory to test for any bread dough. This show the elasticity of dough.

If the dough stretches and does not break from the center then you have a perfect pizza dough.

LETS APPLY SOME SCIENCE TO PIZZA  DOUGH

Now we all know what ingredients we require to make a pizza dough, flour, water , yeast, salt, sugar and oil. Yes we require these ingredients but few more ingredients are also required to create a perfect texture pizza dough. Lets discuss about the ingredients  first and apply some science to all of it.

1. Flour The most basic ingredient of any dough is flour. When it comes to pizza dough we need high flour which is high in protein and gluten. In India we all use Maida or all purpose flour which is low in protein. Low protein flour can be used in making cakes, biscuit because there we do not require flour strength. Will let you know how can we fill the flour protein deficit while making the dough. This is where we need to apply some science.

2. Water  Another most popular ingredient of all the dough is Water. There are different methods of adding water to pizza dough. Some uses 50%, 55% , 60% 70% of flour weight. If baking in wood fired pizza oven then you need to add 65-70% of water to the flour, because when it bakes the water gets dry out from the pizza base as the temperature of wood fired oven is much higher as compared to other ovens. So here also we have to apply some science, in how much quantity we should take water?

3. Yeast  Without this ingredient you cannot make any bread dough. This is the most important ingredient of any dough. There comes three variants in this, Fresh Yeast, Active Dry Yeast and Instant Dry Yeast. There's huge difference between these variants but functionality is same. These helps dough in fermentation. Local bread bakery uses fresh yeast as it is cheap compared to others. Fresh Yeast quantity added is 3 times more than Instant Active Yeast.

4. Sugar Sugar plays an important role in helping yeast to gets activated. When yeast mixed with sugar it gets activated and multiplies with each other to increase the fermentation process.

5. Salt  Can be termed as taste enhancer in the dough. But have to be put in certain quantity as it kills the activation process of yeast. If salt is added more to the dough, it will lower the fermentation process.

6. Oil Oil brings glaze and improves the texture of the crust. It has to be added in limited quantity, also it depends which type of oil you are using like olive oil, sunflower oil, refined soya oil.

Secret Ingredients to be added in Pizza Dough

Apart from the above mentioned ingredients, there are some secret ingredients which must be added  to the pizza dough to make it perfect. Following are the essential ingredients 

1. Vital Wheat Gluten This is the vital key ingredient of pizza dough. To fill the protein deficit percentage, Vital Wheat Gluten is added  to the Maida or all purpose flour. It is completely pure form of gluten. Now question comes in how much quantity to add to the flour. Lets take an example, suppose we have 1kg of flour with 10% protein which means it have 100gms of protein in 1kg flour. Now for the pizza dough we need flour that have 16% protein content which means 160gms protein in 1 kg flour. Now what's the protein deficit? Its 160 - 100 = 60gms of protein deficit. Now to fill this gap in 1kg flour we have to add 60gms of Vital Wheat Gluten. By adding this your flour will become high in protein. So don't forget to add this key ingredient in your flour.

2. Bread Improver This is another key ingredient of any bread dough. Worldwide big bakery chains uses this ingredient which gives bread a volume and chewy effect. By adding this ingredient your pizza crust will get volume and makes its crust soft as well and enhance the color of the crust. Now in how much quantity to use? Suppose we take 1 kg flour, then we have  to add 1% of the flour weight which comes to 1gm. It has to be first dissolve in water and then add it to the flour.

3. Milk Powder You cannot neglect this ingredient as it brings gold brown color in the crust. Milk powder contains natural sugar which brings the browning effect  in the crust. Also enhances the taste of the flour. Now in how much quantity it should be added? In 1 kg of flour, you have to add 5% which comes to 50gms.

PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

Ingredients

Flour 1kg

Vital Wheat Gluten 50gms

Milk Powder 50gms

Bread Improver 1gms

Sugar 20gms

Salt 20gms

Instant Active Yeast 4gms

Oil 50ml

Water 600ml

Method or Direction

1. Combine Flour, Vital Wheat Gluten, Salt, Milk Powder, Instant Active Yeast in a bowl. Mix well.

2. Heat 600ml water and bring to a temperature of 40 degree Celsius.

3. Now mix Sugar, bread improver into the water. Dissolve completely.

4. Add water solution to the flour and start kneading the dough. You have to knead the dough for atleast 10-15 mins if kneading it by hands to activate gluten. Once gluten is activated you will notice that it is easy to stretch the dough. You can check the windowpane test as shown in the above image.

5. Now cover the dough and rest it for atleast 2 hours in the fridge. Your dough will get fermented in 2 hours.

6. Now take the flour out of the fridge and make desired balls out of dough. Again cover and keep for at least 30mins at room temperature before baking.

Above mentioned recipe is the commercial recipe which is mostly used by big chains like Dominos, Pizza Hut. They might be adding  some more ingredients to the dough but these are the key essentials which is definitely added by these companies. These ingredients are enough to make perfect pizza dough.