| Ingredient | 1 Pie | 3 Pies | 5 Pies | Baker’s % | Grams Per Liter of Water |
| Filtered Water | 110.00 | 330.00 | 550.00 | 65.50% | 1,000 |
| Bread flour or Caputo 00 | 168.00 | 510.00 | 850.00 | 100.00% | 1,527 |
| Salt | 6.00 | 18.00 | 30.00 | 3.50% | 55 |
| Sourdough yeast culture (as a battery poolish) | 15.00 | 45.00 | 60.00 | 9.00% | 136 |
| Instant Dry yeast - Optional | 0.50 | 1.50 | 2.50 | 0.25% | 4.50 |
| Total | 299.50 |
Autolyze the dough:
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Pour all the ingredients into the mixer, except just use 75% of the flour for now. So all of the water, salt, poolish, Instant dry Yeast (if used) and 75% of the flour are put into the mixer. Everything should be room temperature or a bit cooler.
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Mix on lowest speed for 1-2 minutes or until completely blended. At this stage you should have a mix that is drier than a batter, but wetter than a dough. Closer to batter probably.
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Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
Mix and Knead:
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Start Mixing on Low speed for 8 minutes. 5 minutes into it start adding flour gradually.
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This very wet part is critical and where MOST of the kneading occurs. The gluten IS working at this point even though it’s not a dough yet.
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After the first 6-8 minutes increase the speed of the mixer slightly. You should add most of the remaining flour. But you still want a very wet dough, so don’t go crazy.
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At some point during this process the dough should be getting much firmer and should form more of a ball. Mix another minute or so a this stage You may find that the dough is sticking to the roller /hook and not really working too much at this point. This is why it’s so important to do most of the mixing at the earlier, wetter stages. Once the dough is at this point, it is done. In the end you need a wet dough. In fact, even the dough has formed more of a ball, if you let it sit, it should spread out a little and look a little limp. This is what you want, not a tight ball, but a slack, wet soft dough.
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One of the best ways to see how your dough is doing is to sprinkle a little flour on in and just feel it. It should feel baby bottom soft. If you don’t sprinkle flour it will just feel sticky and not look smooth. But sprinkle a tiny bit of flour and now its soft and smooth. This is what you want. This is a much gentler recipe than most and it shows in the final dough.
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With Hi Gluten flours a commercial mixer and a dry dough, you will find that the dough is tough to work and consequently both the machine and the dough will get very hot. Commercial bakers compensate by starting with cool water and by measuring the temperature of the dough as they go. The procedures I’m outlining don’t require this. The wet knead technique and the lower protein all but eliminates the friction. You can expect the dough to heat only about 3-4 F while mixing, so it’s not an issue.
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Let it rest for 15-20 minutes.