The First Year of Our Lord, A.Y.

When it comes to home pizza making, I am still very much a novice struggling to find the path to great dough.  So far, my seven month journey has all been in the years B.Y. or Before Yeast. This is about to change, and hopefully in a big way.

Most of us home pizza makers face limitations due to the highest temperature attainable by most standard kitchen ranges, which is almost always 550°F.  You can make very good pizza at this temperature, but never a great one. The crust will not have quite the same wonderfully airy texture made possible by a high temperature (800°F plus) oven or the char which many of us find pleasing.  There is of course a way around this which involves your oven’s self cleaning cycle and potentially a Dremel or pair of bolt cutters, but you didn’t hear it from me and Mrs. Blogger put the kabash on such a workaround happening in the Blogger household!

I may not have a hot enough oven to get a quick rise and a good char, but I can strive to increase the flavor of any crust I make. Enter my Italian wild yeast cultures obtained from Sourdoughs International. It’s time to enter the realm of the tang, the realm of deliciously flavorful crust which is another notch up from crusts made with the ubiquitous Bakers Yeast. Saccharomyces cerevisiaewill hold me back no longer! I am ready to step into the light, into the first year of our lord After Yeast.

(Note: to be fair, an incredible crust can be made from dough using everyday instant yeast. Flavor is primarily derived through the skillful manipulation of the fermentation process, regardless of the quality of dough or type of yeast used. An adequately fermented dough made from cheap, all purpose flour using instant yeast WILL taste better, potentially much better, than a dough made with the highest quality Italian 00 flour which has not been adequately fermented. Flour quality being the most important factor in the quality of the finished pizza crust is a myth. All things being equal, I just happen to personally prefer the unique flavors of a sourdough)

Armed with my copy of Ed Wood’s Classic Sourdoughs, my first step was constructing a proofing box. It is important to have the wild yeast starter activated from its dormant state while at a warm temperature (around 85°F). The lactic acid bacterias (lactobacilli), which give breads made with a wild yeast starter such a wide depth of flavors, prefer an acidic environment.  A warm temperature helps promote an acidic atmosphere, which the lactobacilli want and which most airborne yeasts looking to add their own flavor to the mix do not like.

Home Depot provided the parts to construct my first proofing box, which is essentially a light bulb put inside of a Styrofoam cooler, along with a quart canning jar containing the wild yeast starter and additional flour and water neeeded to activate it. The parts list for the proofing box was simple and relatively inexpensive:

• Westinghouse 8ft lamp cord set (cable SPT-1) $5.98
• GE Crystal Clear 25 watt auradescent decorative bulb, Type F, 2 Pack $2.67
• Leviton porcelain light socket/lampholder with pullchain $3.39
• 4 11/16 square junction box 3/4″ x 1″ $4.75
• AcuRite indoor/outdoor thermometer & hygrometer $2.98
• One Styrofoam cooler $4.98
• Total $24.75

Proofing Box Supplies. A copy of the Una Pizza Napoletana menu for good luck.

After a quick ten minutes unwrapping everything, wiring the cord into the light socket and covering everything in electrical tape, I had my light socket in the junction box and the proofing box ready to go. The light socket and bulb, quart jar for the yeast and thermometer fit under the Styrofoam cooler, which rests upside down over these items.

Completed Yeast Proofing Box

The next step was to activate the dormant wild yeast culture by feeding it a mixture of flour and water. The culture was captured by Marco Parente on Camaldoli Hill in Naples, Italy and the starter is referred to as the Camaldoli Culture. Marco Parente is a recognized pizza expert on authentic pizza Napoletana and consultant to pizzerias around the world.  Marco can be found giving informed advice on Pizzamaking.com, which is the internet’s definitive resource for home pizza making.  Marco, known as pizzanapoletana on the forum, along with people in the pizza business and home pizza making experts like the invaluable Pete-zza, can help you craft any type of pizza you want at home.  These people are the true experts, and a few people involved with this site have gone on to launch their own pizzerias.

Molino Caputo Italian Type 00 Flour, Calmaldoli Starter and Ed Wood's "Classic Sourdoughs". A lit candle of the Madonna bestows a blessing on the viability of the yeast culture.

After mixing in the dormant wild yeast culture with 3/4 cup of Molino Caputo Italian Type 00 pizza flour and 1 cup of warm distilled water, I gave the mixture a vigorous stir to incorporate some air and loosely sealed the top on the canning jar. With care and regular feedings, this yeast culture could last for my entire lifetime.

Hopefully a tangy, true sourdough crust is in its infancy in the Blogger household, ready to usher forth a new era of better pizza and shed light on my previous trollings in the dark ages Before Yeast.

I’ll update this post with results and pictures of the first pizzas made with this new Italian sourdough culture. Take care!