April 6, 2011, Toronto – Italian pizza master Maurizio Leone
educated an eager-to-learn group at Moretti Forni Canada’s Pizza Days opening session.
Pizza Days run April 5 to 7 at Moretti Forni’s Dupont St. location
in Toronto. The four hour educational program began with a lesson in dough
science, including flour, yeast, salt and water. Chef Leone then provided a
practical demo making dough using an Italian recipe he shared. Participants
were then able to taste a variety of different pizzas and Focaccia products. Here
are five tidbits Canadian Pizza picked up for our readers:
1.
1.
For pizza, 00 or 0 flour is recommended. This
number indicates how refined the flour is. The “W” number measures the strength
of the gluten shield and thus the quality of the flour. Only some companies in
Italy put the W value on the flour. A strong gluten shield slows the rising
process. A W of at least 230 is needed for pizza. Two hundred and eighty to 330
is better. Chef Leone offers this simple test you can do yourself to figure out
the W of your flour: Combine 1 kilo of flour and 1 litre of water, mix for 10
minutes. If dough is consistent, then you have W 280 flour. If it is still soft
and you need to add more flour, you have a lower W, likely 200. If the dough is
really strong, you have a very high W – 320-330.
2.
All purpose flour is comparable to 0
3.
Chef Leone has two pizzerias in Italy in
addition to his role as an instructor with Moretti Forni. He keeps his dough in
the fridge for a minimum of 48 hours and up to five days before using. Allow
dough to rest for four hours at room temperature before stretching.
4.
Always use cold water to make your dough: 4 C
5.
Salt should never come in direct with yeast.
When you hear popping or slapping in your mixer, then it is time to add salt (Chef
Leone mixes for 15 minutes, adds salt in last five minutes).
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