Test screening · Dough

New York Slice Shop

Big street-slice dough, 62.5% hydration with oil, 48–72 hours cold, for a steel at 550°F. Water goes in two stages.

Test screening Still being tested. Amounts and steps may change.

My formula, worked out with AI research and still being tested. Each ball makes a 15-inch pie (14-inch for a thicker bite, 16-inch for thinner). No diastatic malt: Sir Lancelot already has malt in it. If the bottoms come out pale, see the Lab below.

Mix

Mixer speeds: low = 15% (~90 RPM), medium-low = 20% (~105 RPM), medium = 25–30% (~120–135 RPM) of the mixer’s top speed. On other mixers, start from the slowest kneading speed and step up from there, and go by the signs in each step more than the clock.

Aim for a finished dough of 76–78°F. With the room and flour around 70°F, water at about 78°F gets you there. Keep the two waters in separate cups, and stir the two oils together.

  1. Water and yeast first (low, ~2½ minutes). Pour the [[water]] water into the bowl and sprinkle in the [[yeast]] yeast, then add the [[lancelot]] Sir Lancelot and [[bread_flour]] bread flour. Water first keeps dry flour from packing under the hook. Mix on low (15%). Stop when it’s a firm, shaggy mass with no dry flour.
  2. Rest (10 minutes). Mixer off, bowl covered.
  3. Salt (medium, ~1 minute). Turn to medium (25%) and sprinkle in the [[salt]] salt. Stop when the dough tightens up around the hook.
  4. Reserve water (medium, 2–3 minutes). Still on medium (25%), trickle the [[water_late]] reserve water down the side of the bowl a splash at a time, waiting for each splash to disappear before the next. Pouring it on top of the dough makes it slip. Keep mixing about a minute after the last splash. Stop when the dough wipes the sides of the bowl clean.
  5. Oil (medium, 3–5 minutes). Turn up to 30% and drizzle the [[oil]] neutral oil and [[evoo]] olive oil down the side of the bowl over about a minute. Stop when the dough pulls off the bottom of the bowl into a smooth, glossy ball around the hook.
  6. Finish (low, 30 seconds). Drop to low (15%) to let the dough relax. Stop when it reads 76–78°F and stretches into a thin, see-through window without tearing.

Ferment

  1. Rest (30 minutes). Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled counter, give it one gentle fold from all four sides into a smooth pillow, and cover it with an upside-down bowl. One fold only: the mixer already did the work.
  2. Ball. Divide into [[count]] pieces of [[weight]]. Fold the edges underneath 4–5 times to make a tight skin, then drag each ball toward you on a clean, unfloured spot of the counter to seal the bottom.
  3. Into containers. Put each ball in a lightly oiled round container (1½–2 quarts, about 7 inches across) and mist the top with oil. Leave them on the counter for 15 minutes to seal the bottoms.
  4. Cold ferment (48–72 hours). Refrigerate at 36–38°F with the lids cracked open for the first hour, so condensation doesn’t drip on the dough, then snap them shut. 48 hours gives the most spring; 72 hours stretches easier and tastes deeper.
  5. Warm up (1¾–2¼ hours). Take the balls out and leave them at room temperature. Stop when the inside of a ball reads 60–64°F. Colder than 55°F snaps back; warmer than 65°F thins out too fast in the middle.

For stretching, sauce, cheese and the bake, see the pizzas below.

Lab

Things to try once the base dough is working. Change one thing at a time. Amounts are for the batch as written (4 balls).

  • Diastatic malt. The original formula had 8g of 20° Lintner diastatic malt powder, whisked into the flour. Only worth trying if the bottoms stay pale. Never go over about 10g: too much turns the dough slack and sticky.
  • Thinner, crisper crust. Swap the flours for 759g Sir Lancelot, 152g 00 flour and 101g bread flour.
  • Home-milled wheat. Swap the flours for 810g Sir Lancelot, 121g bread flour and 81g freshly milled whole wheat, sifted. Add 10g to the reserve water, because bran soaks it up. Keep fresh-milled wheat at 10% or less (15% if sifted fine), or the tip starts to sag.
  • Poolish. The night before, stir 300g bread or 00 flour, 300g water (~70°F) and 0.6g instant yeast in a lidded container. Leave it out 1 hour, then refrigerate 14–16 hours. Next day, mix it with 283g water, 2.4g yeast and 712g Sir Lancelot (no bread flour), then carry on from step 2 with the salt, reserve water and oil as usual.
  • Sourdough spike. Add 150g active, peaking starter (100% hydration) with the water in step 1. Take 75g out of the Sir Lancelot (735g) and 75g out of the first water (508g), and cut the yeast to 1.5g.

Pizzas using this dough