New Years Eve Pizza

We have a tradition to bring in the New Year with pizza.  How this got started I can’t remember but I do remember the lobster tails that used to be NY Eve fare.  This year’s crust was the best yet though and so was the sauce according to my daughter who keeps track of these things.

The crust was 12 g of olive oil, 2% salt and 70% hydration including 25 g of yeast water.  The flour was (588g) half KA bread flour and half LaFama AP.  The other leavens were 5 g of rye SD at 66% hydration stored for 6 weeks in the fridge and 3/8th tsp of instant yeast.  No holiday pizza dough is complete without 3 different leavens according to Lucy.

Since I forgot to start the dough the day before, I got up early and mixed everything together making sure to dilute the SD starter un the water and let the shaggy mass sit for 30 minutes.   Then we started in with 3 sets of slap and folds of 8, 1 and 1 minute and 3 sets of stretch and folds from the compass points – all on 30 minute intervals.

We added the 2 cloves of finely minced garlic and 1 T each of minced fresh rosemary and sun dried tomatoes during the first set of stretch and folds.  These 3 ingredients make for our classic Focaccia Romana recipe that is our favorite pizza dough as well.

In between all the manipulations, the dough was kept in a well oiled bowl on a heating pad since it is so cold here.  The sheets covering some for the plants got rained on last might and were frozen stiff this morning.  We let it sit for 3 hours to bulk ferment and then chucked it into the fridge for 3 hours.

When it came out of the fridge, it looked like it had doubled so we immediately shaped (4) 256 g balls and put them back in the oiled SS bowl on the heating pad for another 2 hours when they doubled again.

The toppings included red, green, Poblano, Serrano, jalapeno and yellow Cuban peppers, Monterey Jack, mozzarella, pecorino and parmesan cheese, two different hot Italian sausages, pepperoni, button mushrooms, black olives, red and green onions.

The pizza was perfect for bringing in the New Year and why it is it its own food group around here.  Wishing you all a fantastic 2015 and remember, like Arnold Palmer said, ‘The road to success is always under construction’ – he must have been a bread baker when he wasn’t loafing around playing golf!

And don't forget that salad! Or maybe some French onion soup on a cold day.