As we’re sure you know by now, we’re adding wood-fired pizza to our menu at Border Brewery. We’re excited for you to try our new pizzas because we’ve taken our time to craft something special that is different from what you’ll find at your run-of-the-mill pizzeria. Wood-fired pizza is different from other pizzas in a few different ways, but one of the most important is the dough. Because of the high heat and short cooking time, we have to make some adjustments to the standard recipe.
Let’s take a look at the science of pizza dough and what needs to be different to cook in a wood-fired oven.
Higher Moisture Content
Using the right amount of liquid in the dough is essential for getting the texture of the crust right. The dough for wood-fired pizza needs more moisture than dough cooked in other ovens because it is cooked at high temperatures, typically 700º to 900º F. If there is not enough liquid in the dough, it will dry out. The extra moisture keeps the dough chewy, even after such high heat.
Using the Right Flour
Dough for wood-fired ovens needs a higher protein content, so we use special flour, such as tipo 00 flour or bread flour. The added protein makes the dough strong and elastic, which allows it to keep its shape and results in the right consistency when cooked at high temperatures.
Shorter Rise Time
When cooking in a wood-fired oven, you want a denser crust to get a crispy exterior and chewy interior. To keep the dough dense, we don’t let it rise as long as the dough we use for different purposes. Limiting the rise time keeps the yeast from fermenting too much and creating an airier dough than we want.
Thin-Crust Pizza
Typically, wood-fired pizzas are thin-crust pizzas. All of the characteristics we’ve covered help to make a dough that we can stretch thin without the crust becoming too hard and dry. Because we cook the pizzas for just a few minutes, the thickness of the crust is essential to ensuring that the dough cooks through.
Try Your New Favorite Pizza at Border Brewery
Wood-fired pizza is a new undertaking for us at Border Brewery, and we can’t wait for you to try it! We’ve carefully crafted a menu of delicious pizza options, and we’re sure one of them will be your new favorite.
