Talee Potter:
Welcome, everyone. And thank you for joining us tonight. My name is Talee Potter, and I'm a member of the Class of '97. And I'm a member of the National Alumni Board. I'm also so proud to say that along with Amy Cohen, Class of '83, co-chair of the Brandeis Women's Network. For those of you who don't know, the Brandeis Women's Network is a relatively new organization.
Talee Potter:
Our mission is simple, to foster and build connections between Brandeis women. Since our formation of June of 2019, our network has grown tremendously. We have a vibrant Facebook group over 1,200 Brandeis alumna and mothers of Brandies Asians, which you can find by searching Brandeis Women, one word. And we have been thrilled to offer variety of programming to the entire Brandeis community such as tonight's piece of making event.
Talee Potter:
Before we hear from Karishma and Rebecca, I have a couple of housekeeping matters to share. First, we'll be reserving time at the end of the discussion, have any specific questions but questions about pizza making. You can put in the Q&A or in the chat. You can type them in and the questions will be answered and addressed as soon as it's possible.
Talee Potter:
We anticipate that there may be a lot of questions, so we ask that you mute yourself while the session is going on, and the questions will be answered in order. This event is also being recorded and will be available to be viewed after the event. And as a reminder, part two of this pizza making event will take place tomorrow evening. And now, I'd like to turn this program over to Rebecca Bachman, Class of 2013.
Talee Potter:
Rebecca is a member of the National Alumni Board and co-chair of BOLD. Thank you, Karishma and Rebecca. And turning it over to you.
Rebecca Bachman:
Thank you so much, Talee. And welcome, everyone. Thank you, Karishma for being here tonight. A little bit about Karishma. Karishma graduated from Brandeis in 2015 and is the founder of the Home Cooking Collective, a community for aspiring home cooks to learn how to make delicious food through high-quality workshops, guides and recipes.
Rebecca Bachman:
The Home Cooking Collective focuses on using science and intuition to build a repertoire of technique-based skills and increase confidence in home cooking. The organization offers both private and group workshops ranging from pizza to bread baking, to Indian dishes, Italian dishes, and more. Karishma also provides data analytics consulting services on the side, so, very well-rounded Brandeis alum. And I'm delighted to turn it over to her so that she can teach us how to make some pizza. Thanks for being here, Karishma.
Karishma Pradham:
Thank you, Rebecca. Hi, everyone. I'm super excited to teach this pizza workshop today. I don't know how many of you have made pizza at home, but really excited to go through this over the next couple of days. The recipe that we are going to be working with today is an amazing recipe from Roberta's Pizza in Brooklyn, New York.
Karishma Pradham:
If you've ever had it before, it's really delicious. It's a thin-crust pizza. And it's made and they're really hot, wood-fired oven. So, what they've done is they've taken that delicious pizza, and they've turned it into a recipe that you can make at home. And so, that's a recipe that I've been teaching in classes for a really long time now. It's great for beginners because you kind of learn all of the steps necessary to make pizza. But they're really broken down simply.
Karishma Pradham:
And so, as we go through the process, I'll explain all of the science and intuition so that you can feel really confident cooking at home and making this pizza. So, the agenda for today is we are going to first start off by mixing all of our ingredients together. Then, after we mix them, we'll let that dough rest, and I'll explain why that resting period is happening.
Karishma Pradham:
During that resting period, I'll also walk through and answer any questions that you have. And I'll really explain what this recipe is doing, all the different ingredients, and how you can achieve a great pizza dough. And then, after the resting period, we will knead our dough and form it into pizza balls that will go into the fridge overnight.
Karishma Pradham:
And overnight, it will develop a really delicious flavor so that it's ready for our baking tomorrow. So, that's an overview, and obviously, we'll go through each of these steps in detail. But to get started, the first thing that you can do is go ahead and make sure that you have all of your ingredients out already. And we are going to measure our ingredients to create this pizza dough.
Karishma Pradham:
So, for pizza dough, most pizza dough recipes use a combination of flour, water, salt, yeast, and oil. And so, that's what we're working with. It's a base of those ingredients. So, I will just show you, I have a medium mixing bowl that I'm going to mix all of my ingredients in. And this recipe makes about two, 12 inch pizzas. So, if you like the recipe, you can always double it in the future or have it.
Karishma Pradham:
But what I'm going to be showing you is enough dough for two pizzas. So, I have my mixing bowl, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to start by adding my flours into the bowl. Now, in the recipe, I've mentioned that you can use either all all-purpose flour, or double zero flour. And so, you might be asking what is the difference between these? Can I use one or the other?
Karishma Pradham:
So, you can absolutely use all all-purpose flour. Double zero flour is a great flour. It's an Italian flour that's used and it helps add a little bit more of like a chewiness, a nice crust that you typically get when you're eating a pizza. But the all-purpose flour on itself, it will also do. It will also make a great pizza. So, to start, we're going to add our flours into this bowl.
Karishma Pradham:
So, if you have all all-purpose flour, you're going to be adding all of that into the bowl. I'm using a mix of the double zero flour and the all-purpose flour. And so, if you're following along with me directly, that's going to be 153 grams of double zero flour in your bowl, which is about one cup and one tablespoon of flour. And then, for the all-purpose flour, we have 153 grams of all-purpose flour, which is about one cup, a tablespoon, and two teaspoons.
Karishma Pradham:
And all of those measurements should be in the chat so that you can reference them. So, again, you can either use-
Speaker 4:
Can I ask you a question?
Karishma Pradham:
And yeah, sure.
Speaker 4:
If we're only using the all-purpose flour, how much flour should it be?
Karishma Pradham:
So, if you're only using the all-purpose flour, basically, what you're going to do is just... if you see in the chat, just use the exact amount of the double zero flour as all-purpose. So, it says 153 grams of double zero flour. So, if you're using all all-purpose flour, just add an additional 153 grams of all-purpose flour or a cup and a tablespoon of all-purpose flour. Does that make sense? So, just replace the amount of the double zero with all-purpose flour.
Speaker 4:
Okay. Thanks. Sorry about that.
Karishma Pradham:
No problem. All right. So, we have our two flours in the bowl. So, as I mentioned, you're looking for either combination of double zero and all-purpose or just the total all-purpose flour. So, I have my flours in the bowl, and to this, I'm going to add my salt. So, first, we're going to be mixing our dry ingredients. And then, we'll separately mix our wet ingredients together.
Karishma Pradham:
So, for this bowl with my flour, I'm going to add my salt. And for the salt, we're going to need... its one teaspoon or eight grams of fine sea salt. Now, if you have any other type of salt, like if you only have more in iodized salt, you can also use, that's totally fine. It doesn't have to be a sea salt, any other salt will do. The one thing with salts is that sometimes different salts actually taste saltier.
Karishma Pradham:
So, sometimes that will have an effect. But with this recipe, I find, you can just use the one teaspoon. I don't notice any difference between using different types of salts. So, again, I have my flours in my bowl, and then, I've added my salts. And so, now, I have my dry ingredients ready, and I'm going to put that aside.
Rebecca Bachman:
Before we go on, Karishma, we've got a question in the chat about yeast. I have SAF red yeast, is that considered instant?
Karishma Pradham:
Yeah. SAF, actually, yeah, it should be instant yeast. It should say on the package, but I believe that's the one that I have right now. Either way, it doesn't matter too much as long as it's like... and I can show you what my yeast looks like. We'll be mixing that together. But as long as it looks like these smallish particles of yeast, whether it's active dry or instant, it's totally fine for this recipe. But the SAF red yeast should be instant. But it should say on the package as well.
Rebecca Bachman:
Thank you.
Karishma Pradham:
All right. So, as I mentioned, we have our dry ingredients to the side. And then, I'm going to add the... I'm going to make a mixture of my wet ingredients. So, what we're calling as our wet ingredients, is we have water. We have yeast. And we have olive oil. So, for this mixture, you can either get a bowl. I'm just using the mixing jar that I have already.
Karishma Pradham:
What you're going to do is get 200 grams of lukewarm water. If you don't have a scale, the measurement conversion is about scant one cup. But I would actually recommend just doing either 200 grams of warm water or 200 milliliters on a liquid measuring cup of water. I found that's the most accurate way. So, I have my 200 milliliters, 200 grams of lukewarm water, and to that, I'm going to add my yeast.
Karishma Pradham:
So, again, you can be using active dry yeast. You can use instant yeast. They both work for this recipe. And what you're doing here in this process is you're actually activating your active dry yeast. So, by adding your yeast particles to your water, you're activating it and ensuring that it can proof and dries.
Karishma Pradham:
With instant yeast, you actually don't have to do this. But for the purpose of simplifying the recipe, we'll all add these yeast, oil, and water to this mixture. So, again, I have my water here, and I'm going to be adding either two grams of active dry yeast, which is about three quarters of a teaspoon. Or 1.5 grams of instant yeast, which is just like a little over a half a teaspoon.
Karishma Pradham:
So, if you're doing the instant yeast, I would recommend just packing your half teaspoon measure. So, I'm going to add my yeast. Seems like my yeast has stuck to my bowl, which is a bit weird. But I'm going to just mix-
Amy Cohen:
Do you know how much water it is?
Karishma Pradham:
Yeah. So, the water is 200 grams of lukewarm water, not super hot, but just like a little bit above room temperature, or 200 milliliters.
Speaker 4:
Did you say half a teaspoon of instant yeast?
Karishma Pradham:
Yeah, half a teaspoon of instant yeast.
Speaker 4:
Okay. Thanks.
Karishma Pradham:
Awesome. So, I've got my 200 grams or 200 milliliters of water. I've got my yeast in this measuring cup. And I'm just mixing it together. Again, so, with active dry yeast, this is how you're actually activating it. And then, I'm going to add my olive oil as well to this mixture. And so, for my olive oil, it's either four grams of olive oil or one teaspoon of olive oil. So, I'm just going to again, mix this together to make sure it's fully incorporated.
Karishma Pradham:
And I know we've been talking about measurements. And with measuring cups, I've been talking about scales. The thing with baking is that it's just a little bit more accurate when you use a scale. And so, I highly recommend if you get into pizza making, if you get into bread baking, it can be really helpful to have a cheap scale. The one I have was about $10.
Karishma Pradham:
And so, that can help you have the most accurate measurements to really ensure that you're achieving the exact thing that the recipe developer intended for. But if you don't, totally fine, you can use measuring cups. It just that an interesting thing to know is if you get more into bread baking, having a scale can be something that's really, really helpful.
Karishma Pradham:
So, to recap, I have my wet ingredients. I've got my lukewarm water. I've got my yeast. And I have my olive oil in my liquid measuring cup. And so, now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to mix my wet ingredients into my dry ingredients. And the best way that I think to do this, to really ensure that everything mixes homogeneously is I like to form... I can show. I like to form a bit of a well in the center of the bowl. So, it doesn't have to be a perfect well, but I just like to form. You can see, I've created this well.
Karishma Pradham:
And inside the well, I'm going to add my liquid ingredients. So, now, you can see most of my liquid is in this well. And what I'm going to do is use a spoon and just gently mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. And so, I find that forming a well and having the liquid be separated makes it a little bit easier to ensure that I don't get massive dry bits.
Karishma Pradham:
So, what we're doing right now is we're mixing our wet ingredients into the dry just until the dough comes together. It'll look shaggy. It'll be sticky, which is totally fine. It's going to continue to hydrate as we let it rest. But the key is to just make sure that you don't have any really big clumps of dry bits after mixing this dough together because those are a little bit harder to get out later.
Karishma Pradham:
But really, what you're looking for is something that's shaggy, and it'll be a little bit sticky. So, once I've mostly started to mix and incorporate my wet ingredients into my dry, I like to switch to my hand. You don't have to, if you would prefer to use a spoon. But I find it a little bit easier to really incorporate the flour into the rest of the liquid and get rid of those dry bits.
Karishma Pradham:
So, what I'm doing is I'm essentially just taking a corner of the dough, lifting it up, and then, folding it over into the center. And I find that that helps really bring the dough together. So, you're not kneading here, you're really just mixing the ingredients together until you get somewhat of a homogenous mass of dough. And this should probably take you anywhere from two to three minutes before your dough is that shaggy, sticky, homogenous texture that you're looking for. And I'll show you as well what my dough looks like when it's done.
Rebecca Bachman:
Karishma, can you remind the group if you're using all-purpose flour, what the quantity is?
Karishma Pradham:
Yeah. So, if you're using the all-purpose flour, I would just recommend, basically, you can just substitute the amount of double zero flours, the one cup plus a tablespoon with an equivalent one cup of... and one tablespoon of all-purpose flour. So, it's going to be two cups, two tablespoons, and about two teaspoons. And the thing about making pizza dough, especially, is that we're all using different flours.
Karishma Pradham:
And different flours have different rates of absorption of water. And so, everyone's dough, even if you're using the exact same ingredients, sometimes looked a little bit different. So, what we're going to do is we're going to assess at each stage that we are making this dough, does it look like I expect to and if not, do I need to adjust it? So, start with those measurements, and then, we'll take a look. And I can answer any questions if people are concerned about their dough at all, at any point.
Speaker 4:
Is there any risk of overworking the dough at this stage?
Karishma Pradham:
That's a great question there. No. I wouldn't worry about it. So, the reason that we're doing a quick mix, and then, we're letting the dough rest for about 15 minutes is that in that time, we're going to kick-start some new information, which I'll talk about. If you end up over mixing, doing some kneading now, it's totally fine. The real thing is sometimes you need a little bit of time for your dough to rest and relax before you can knead it really fully.
Karishma Pradham:
So, nothing will really happen if you overwork it at this point. I mean, it's really hard to do that. If anything, it might start resisting you. And you'll say, "Okay. I feel like it's time for my dough to rest." So, no worries on that. All right. So, I have my dough. And you can see it is quite sticky. It's sticking to my hands, totally normal. It's not very wet at all, but it is sticking to my hands. I'm getting some of the dough on my hands and it's fully incorporated.
Karishma Pradham:
So, I'm not feeling any dry clumps of bits as I as I touch and feel the different parts of the dough. So, my dough is now ready to rest. So, I'm going to keep it in my bowl, and I'm going to keep my head covered for this 15-minute period to let it rest. You can use either plastic wrap. You can use any lid or container, or tea towel, just something to cover your dough so that it doesn't dry out.
Karishma Pradham:
And if anyone has questions on what exactly this looks like, I'm also happy to show it to you again as you're working through your dough. But essentially, you're really looking for something that is shaggy. It's going to be a little bit sticky, but you're not seeing any huge clumps of dry bits. And the reason that we are letting this dough rest, as I mentioned, is when you incorporate your water into the flour, the flour starts to hydrate.
Karishma Pradham:
And sometimes that takes a little bit of time. And so, if you start kneading your dough now, you'll notice that it'll actually look and feel differently than after the rest period. So, there's a couple things at the rest period does. It hydrates the dough, which means it's quite sticky now, but in 15 minutes, it'll look smoother, and it'll look softer. And the second thing is that it kick-starts gluten formation.
Karishma Pradham:
So, with your flour, there's two proteins that help form a gluten matrix. And when you add water to your flour, its first starts off is this very... again, it's this shaggy mix. And these proteins are just arranged randomly. But as you start kneading your dough, as your dough starts resting, as that water hydrates, it forms this interconnected matrix, which is these nice gluten bonds, which is what creates a really nice dough.
Karishma Pradham:
So, that's what gives you a chewy crust. That's what gives you this nice area crust is that gluten formation. So, letting the dough rest kick-starts that period, so that once you knead, your actual knead time after that period is shorter than if you could just start kneading your dough now. So, we're essentially saving you time and effort by letting your dough sit, kick-starting this gluten formation, so that when you knead your dough, you only have to knead it for a few minutes.
Karishma Pradham:
So, I see there's a couple of question.
Rebecca Bachman:
There are a couple of questions in chat box. First question is can I add dry seasonings like garlic powder or basil to the dough?
Karishma Pradham:
That's a really good question. So, I haven't done that myself. My only concern with adding seasonings like that to the dough would be that when it goes into the oven, they could burn but. But I mean, I've definitely made like a focaccia dough, for example, with different dried herbs.
Karishma Pradham:
So, if you want to experiment with it, definitely, go ahead. And I know that there's... I'm thinking about like a Domino's pizza crust or something, definitely has seasonings in it. So, I haven't tried it myself, but I definitely recommend any experimentation that people are into.
Rebecca Bachman:
Another question. If you want to make Sicilian pizza instead of thin-crust, how would you modify the recipe?
Karishma Pradham:
Okay. That is a great question. So, I think that'll bring me into the different styles of pizza dough. So, the dough that we're making today, as I mentioned, it's this recipe from Roberta's. And their dough is like a wood-fired, crispy, thin-crust pizza. So, their dough that we're making today is a mix between a Neapolitan style dough, which is that very classic Italian dough, really bubbly crust, chard bubbles.
Karishma Pradham:
It's really moist inside, and you have to almost cut it with a fork and a knife. And then, New York style which is a little bit crispier, a little bit punchier, and you can pick it up, and eat it with your hands. So, that's the mix between this dough. So, the Sicilian dough, for example, is a little bit different in that, first of all, it's baked in... I have actually a pan. It's baked in a rectangular baking pan.
Karishma Pradham:
It's a thicker crust. It's an airier crust. So, for a Sicilian crust, for example, what I typically do is I would use something like a Focaccia dough recipe. Focaccia recipes, they're similar in the sense that they use more water. So, this dough, again, is like we're really trying to get a thin-crust. It's a little bit crispy. With Sicilian, we're looking for something that has... it's thicker, and so like we want more moisture when it goes into the oven.
Karishma Pradham:
So, I don't have a modification for this particular recipe. But either today or tomorrow, whenever we send out an email, I'm happy to send a Focaccia recipe that you could use as a base for a Sicilian pizza.
Rebecca Bachman:
So, this question isn't in the chat, but I think that it would be awesome if you could share a little bit more about the Home Cooking Collective, and why you started it so that everyone can learn more about what you do aside from leading us in this awesome workshop.
Karishma Pradham:
Yeah. Absolutely. So, I started cooking about 15 years ago. I was 12 years old. And I didn't really have anything to do one summer. And so, I started watching Food Network, and I started really getting into cooking. And so, during the pandemic, I was evaluating how much I had learned in that 14, 15 years. And I realized that a lot of my cooking learnings were through trial and error.
Karishma Pradham:
So, I would approach, for example, like a pizza recipe. And I would make it over and over again, and try to learn why is my pizza failing? Why is it ending up kind of like... why is it to crackery? Why is it too crunchy? Why is it dried out? Why isn't it more moist? All these questions that I would ask myself, I would learn through trial and error.
Karishma Pradham:
And I realized that... I felt like this isn't the most efficient way to learn how to cook. And there are so many delicious recipes that I think are more intimidating, like pizza or different types of bread making, or Indian cooking. Where I felt like, well, what if I created guides and workshops that really walked through all of these techniques and explained what a recipe is doing, and why it's doing that.
Karishma Pradham:
So that folks at home can feel confident cooking on their own. They can feel confident riffing and experimenting. So, that was the idea for the Home Cooking Collective is really breaking down recipes into a set of techniques based on science and intuition.
Rebecca Bachman:
What is your favorite thing to make?
Karishma Pradham:
Oh, of all time? Oh, my gosh, wow, that's a really good question. Well, I feel like in the last year, if I didn't say pizza, it would be kind of sad, because I probably made over 100 pizzas, maybe more than that, maybe like 150, 200. But I think I don't know if this really count as like a food, but what I realized, at the end of the day, is what I really actually love making is I love just going into my fridge and finding ingredients, and making a delicious dinner at home.
Karishma Pradham:
I feel like that to me is really, really satisfying more than making something that's super complicated, just making something that's simple and delicious at home.
Rebecca Bachman:
Awesome. Another question in the chat, do you have a flour suggestion for a gluten-free crust?
Karishma Pradham:
Oh, that's a great question. So, I have not worked myself with gluten-free ingredients. But I'm also happy to send a suggestion from somebody else's blog that has some gluten-free grant. But definitely, gluten-free crusts are tougher. But I know that there are good recipes online. So, I'm happy to send over a link too.
Rebecca Bachman:
Awesome. Another question in the chat, what... so, this is day one where we're making the dough and learning about that process. And then day two, tomorrow, actually making the pizza and going to be able to eat it. What should people do... I know that we're going to go through more here, but just so people start thinking about what they need to have ready supply wise for tomorrow. Can you share that?
Karishma Pradham:
Yeah. Sure. Yeah. So, for tomorrow... we can go through it again, later. But basically, you're going to need something that you can cook your pizza on. So, what we're trying to do, and what all also emphasizes for going through this is, as I mentioned, a lot of restaurant pizza ovens cook at much higher temperature like a wood-fired oven is 900,000 degrees.
Karishma Pradham:
Even in New York sell, oven is a little bit higher than a home oven, which only gets to about 500, 550 degrees max. So, what we're trying to do is we're trying to set itself up so that we have something that we can put our pizza on that's preheated, that's really hot, so that we can get our oven as hot as possible. So, in terms of what equipment you can use, obviously, if you have a pizza stone or... I use a baking steel, which is a really thin, really heavy piece of metal that gets a ton of heat on it.
Karishma Pradham:
That would make the most sense for pizza. But you can also bake your pizza on top of a large baking sheet as well. Or you can bake it on top of a cast iron pan. And either the cast iron pan or the baking sheet, what I recommend doing is you're going to essentially preheat your oven, for whatever equipment you want. You're going to preheat your oven for at least 45 minutes before our class starts so that it gets really, really hot.
Karishma Pradham:
And as you're preheating your oven, what you're going to want to make sure is that you have whatever piece of equipment you're baking your pizza oven, that's in the oven preheating with it. So, if you're using a baking sheet, you're going to want to put your baking sheet in upside down on the middle rack of your oven so that it preheats with your oven and gets really, really hot.
Karishma Pradham:
Same with your cast iron pan, same with your pizza stone, or your baking steel. So, any flat surface that you have or something really hot like a cast iron, anything that can get really hot in the oven is really important. And then, what we'll do is your oven's preheated, the equipment that you're going to cook it on is preheated. We will take our dough out. We'll stretch our dough. We'll top our dough. And then, we will put it on directly on top of this equipment in the oven.
Karishma Pradham:
So, again, your pizza is going into a really hot oven, on top of a really hot piece of equipment. Now, I have, for example, a pizza peel, which is I will show you. But I have a wooden pizza peel or a metal pizza peel. This is a device that you can use to slide your pizza in the oven. So, I would build my pizza on top of this peel and then, shimmy my pizza onto my equipment.
Karishma Pradham:
But if you don't have that, you can absolutely use parchment paper, that's what I recommend. So, you basically build your pizza on the parchment paper directly. And so, then, that really allows you to then just very easily transfer it with the parchment on top of your baking sheet, your baking seal, whatever you're using.
Karishma Pradham:
So, I'm basically having something that can get really hot in the oven that you can bake your pizza on, either having a pizza peel or some parchment paper. And then, obviously, having whatever toppings that you want to use. That's also the key pieces of equipment.
Rebecca Bachman:
And one other question in the chat is a pizza pan with holes in it good?
Karishma Pradham:
Yeah. So, that's a good question. So, when you use a pizza pan with holes, it doesn't get as... first of all, it's a little bit trickier to preheat and transfer your pizza to it. If you feel comfortable just putting your parchment paper on this pan, that's totally fine. So, I would say that it works. But it doesn't get as hot as some of the other pieces of equipment that I mentioned. But if that's all you have, it's totally fine. I've had people make great pizzas with it.
Rebecca Bachman:
Awesome.
Karishma Pradham:
Great. And then, the other piece that I'm going to talk about is I mentioned temperature. So, typically, some of these pizzas that you get at restaurants are cooked in a really hot oven, we're trying to mimic that at home. So, temperature is really, really big thing. The other thing that we're doing, which I haven't really talked about is the fact that we're going to be putting our pizza in the fridge overnight.
Karishma Pradham:
So, you may have followed a recipe in the past where you make your pizza dough on the same day, and it's ready on the same day to bake. This is obviously a different recipe. It's sitting in the fridge overnight. So, what's happening there? So, when your pizza is sitting in the fridge overnight, because it's at a lower temperature, we're actually slowing down the amount of time it would take for your yeast to double and therefore for your dough to rise.
Karishma Pradham:
And why we do that is that by slowing down this period, we're allowing the dough to get more and more flavor. And so, you'll notice for a same day dough versus this 24-hour dough, or even if you had a sourdough pizza, that longer time that your dough is sitting and is in the fridge, it's getting more flavor, and it's also getting a little bit better of a texture. You're going to get a better crust from that.
Karishma Pradham:
So, that's why we're doing this overnight dough. And I have a recipe actually, for a 48-hour dough or a 72-hour dough. It lets you do a longer dough period. And so, you can really play around with this. You don't have to do 24 hours. You can do a longer period. But conversely, if you ever wanted to, for example, make a shorter dough, really the thing that you have to think about is temperature and then, the amount of yeast that you have.
Karishma Pradham:
So, basically, for a dough that's sitting in the fridge longer, you're going to use a smaller amount of yeast at a lower temperature to really slow down that process. For a same day dough, you might use two or three, or four times the amount of yeast to get your dough to double so that it's ready to use in that time. Cool. All right. So, I think my dough has been sitting for just about 15 minutes. I'm just going to quickly wash my hands, and then, I'll come back and show you how to knead the dough.
Karishma Pradham:
All right. So, my dough has been sitting. And you can see that in this time, it's not sticking to me as much and it's smoothed out a lot, and it's softened up. So, we are going to knead our dough. And like I mentioned, this kneading period is much shorter than if you had just started kneading it from the beginning because we let it rest.
Karishma Pradham:
So, you can just knead it on any work surface, a wooden cutting board, or a wooden board is best for kneading dough, actually because it absorbs moisture really well. And so, it's going to act a little bit less sticky. But you can also just use your countertop. So, just in terms of kneading your dough, if you find that your dough is feeling quite sticky, it's sticking the board, you can always take a little bit of flour.
Karishma Pradham:
You don't want to use too much, but you can take a little sprinkle or so and just sprinkle your board down so that your dough doesn't stick to it. But in terms of kneading, the way that I like to do it is I like to just put the dough down and pick up the corner of the dough that's farther away from me, and just fold it over, and then, stretch the dough.
Rebecca Bachman:
Karish, now, we've got a few questions about kneading. Can I knead on parchment paper, is one question.
Karishma Pradham:
Oh, that's a good question. I've never done that before. You might have trouble if it's rolling around. It might be just easier to do it directly on your counter or something. But you can definitely try that. But I feel like the parchment paper might roll around if you do that.
Rebecca Bachman:
Then, another question. How about using a KitchenAid with a dough hook?
Karishma Pradham:
Oh, that's a good question. Yeah. So, you can also use a KitchenAid mixer, for sure. And if you are doing that, I probably need medium speed for maybe five minutes. At the end of this meeting process your dough should be completely smooth. It should be quite soft. One thing I would say is that I like to prefer to actually use my hands to knead and work with the dough.
Karishma Pradham:
And the reason for that is that I find that it's easier to then learn exactly what texture I'm looking for if I'm able to really play with it and see it. And I can see it change over time. But totally, if you want to use a KitchenAid mixer, absolutely, you can.
Rebecca Bachman:
Another question. Are there any store-bought ready-made doughs that you recommend in a pinch if you don't have time to make your own pizza dough?
Karishma Pradham:
Yeah. That's a great question. I actually buy the Whole Foods pizza dough quite a bit. And that one thing I would say about that dough and maybe other pizza dough is that just... what you're going to want to do is you're just going to make sure that if you're trying to make, for example, a pizza dough, that's 12 inches, some of those doughs are like come in huge quantities.
Karishma Pradham:
So, the Whole Foods dough, I think, it might even be more weight than these two pizza doughs combined. And so, I would just make sure how much weight there is. So, typically, for a 12-inch pizza, you're looking for dough that's about 230, 240 grams. And so, if you noticed when you buy your dough, it'll say the number of grams, so just like divided into that number.
Karishma Pradham:
And then, I recommend, actually, re-balling the dough into the each individual pizza doughs and letting that actually sit at room temperature because what I find with the Whole Foods dough, for example, is I really liked the flavor, and I really liked the crust. But sometimes it's really hard to stretch out. It doesn't feel relaxed. And so, you end up with a really big, poofy crust in a small pizza.
Karishma Pradham:
So, letting your pizza dough sit at room temperature, especially if you re-ball it, it will allow that food in to relax and allow to come back to room temperature.
Rebecca Bachman:
We've got another question or statement from Michelle Letter My dough ball looks a lot smaller than yours, even though I used a scale. Michelle, I invite you to... if you're not already on video, feel free to show your pizza dough on video so that Karishma can-
Karishma Pradham:
Yeah. I'm happy to take a look. Also, I do have really small hands. So, I don't know if that's creating some perception of it. But I can take a look. Yeah. Michelle, I think that looks right. I think my hands are just like... they looked really small in scale right now because I have small hands. I think you're fine. It is pretty small. You can see it fits in... almost like the palm of my hand.
Michelle Letter:
Thank you.
Karishma Pradham:
Yep. Okay. So, you can see I'm sort of... once I get closer to... and I see that the ball is getting a little bit smoother. What I like to do is I just roll with my palm. I just roll the dough back and forth, which helps smooth it out. I'm still kneading the dough, but it's not as harsh as like a stretching method. So, I like to stretch in the beginning. And then, towards the end, just roll the dough back and forth.
Rebecca Bachman:
Another question about kneading. If the dough is sticking to my hands as I'm kneading it, can I add more flour?
Karishma Pradham:
Yes. So, you can sprinkle a little bit of flour on your board. And you can sprinkle a little bit of flour on your hands if the dough is sticking. And so, hopefully that helps. As I mentioned, depending on the flour that you're using, depending on the measurements, sometimes it's not like exactly the same. So, definitely, if your dough is feeling really sticky, at this point, you can add a little bit of flour at a time as you need it.
Karishma Pradham:
All right. So, I can see that my dough is quite smooth, and it's very soft. So, if I have my dough ball, I'm almost done kneading. I'm just going to very gently shape it into a ball. We're going to cut this in half and form them into balls. So, it doesn't need to be perfect, but just sort of... so that it's in one homogenous circular mass so that we can cut it.
Karishma Pradham:
Again, it should feel smooth, at this point. It should feel soft. And it shouldn't be sticking to your board. I'm leaving mine on my board and it's not sticking. So, that's how you know it's done. And if it is sticking, you can add a little bit of flour at a time too kneaded in. The other thing is the more you knead the dough, the more your dough is getting exposed to the air.
Karishma Pradham:
So, it's going to naturally dry out as you work with it as well. So, you can always just wait a minute or so if it's feeling just a tad sticky, you can need for another minute or so, just let it sit. And it will get a little bit less sticky. But if you need to use flour, absolutely, you can use a little sprinkle of it.
Karishma Pradham:
So, hopefully, people are feeling pretty good about their dough. It's looking smooth. If there are questions before we ball it, I'm happy to answer those.
Rebecca Bachman:
One other question, does it matter if I add the bread flour or the all-purpose flour?
Karishma Pradham:
Like if you're adding more flour. So, what I would say is basically, maybe just use a half and half. So, if you're only adding like a tablespoon or so, it doesn't really matter which one. But if you find that you're adding a little bit more, maybe just make sure that you're adding equal amounts to stay true to that ratio of half and half.
Rebecca Bachman:
There are no other questions in the chat. You've answered them all.
Karishma Pradham:
Okay. Awesome. And what I will say as well is that, the more you get used to and work with the dough, it also just ends up feeling less sticky. It's a little bit easier for you to handle. And I actually have a story of somebody that they made this pizza dough the first day with me, and they were so nervous about their dough because it felt sticky.
Karishma Pradham:
So, they ended up making another batch. And the next day when we made the pizza dough, their family and that they loved the stickier dough. So, part of it is I wouldn't feel too nervous about stickiness. It's okay if there's a little bit of it. You don't want something that feels really, really wet and is sticking all over. But also, stickiness is just... there's nothing that inherently bad about it more than it's just harder for you to handle.
Karishma Pradham:
So, I think adding flour for you to be able to handle it is totally fine. But also just that you shouldn't be nervous that the recipe is not going to come out perfectly. Don't worry about that. Your dough is going to come out great regardless. Okay. Awesome. So, hopefully people are feeling pretty good. The last step is to ball your dough. So, again, we have this ball of dough, and I'm going to divide it into two pieces, which is going to make two 12-inch pizzas tomorrow.
Karishma Pradham:
So, I have a bench scraper, which... by the way, I really love this. It's really great to scrape up any bits of dough. It's great to divide dough, but you can also really easily use a knife. So, I'm just going to divide my dough in half. If you have a scale, you can be really precise and divide it into two equal portions as well. Or you can just eyeball it. So, I'm just going to take one half. And as you can see, this is not a circular ball of dough.
Karishma Pradham:
So, the first thing that we're going to do is we're going to shape it into a rough sphere again, and then, we're going to really make sure... when we're balling our dough, the biggest thing is to make sure that you are creating tension that keeps the gas bubbles from the yeast inside of this dough. So, if you were to just, for example, very loosely ball up your dough, what happens is that those air bubbles that are created by the yeast can escape.
Karishma Pradham:
They don't have anywhere... they're not trapped. And so, your dough can flatten out. But if you create this nice tension, which I'll show you, what happens is you get these nice bubbles that stay in the dough. And then, when you stretch out your pizza dough and you bake it, you can get that nice round bubbles that you would traditionally associate with pizza.
Karishma Pradham:
So, the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to take my long blob of dough, and I'm going to take each... you can see there's... imagining that there's maybe four corners, I'm just going to bring the corners into the center so that I've formed like somewhat of a circle. And again, we're going to be doing a couple different ways of getting into a circle. But generally, you want to form it into a rough circle.
Karishma Pradham:
So, I'm going to grab my ends and bring them to the center, and then, grab my other two corners and bring them in. And as I'm bringing these corners in, I can start getting a little bit more precise of bringing any... like can see that there's this crevice here, I want to make sure again that the ball is tight. It's smooth. And so, what I'm doing is I'm actually creating a pouch.
Karishma Pradham:
And so, I'm just bringing any gaps here, bringing them to the center, the top of the dough, and creating this pouch. And I can start sealing the top of the pouch. And again, you can see I'm pinching any of these corners to the top to create this pouch. And then, I'm rotating it in my hand to make sure that I've sealed this dough ball as well as possible.
Karishma Pradham:
I've never made mozzarella, but I'm told that this is like a simpler process. And you can notice here is like all of that weight of that dough is held and there's this gravity intention. So that I know that all these gas bubbles will stay in my dough. So, I have my pouch. And then, what I'm going to do is I can see I have a little flap here from the pouch that I've created.
Karishma Pradham:
So, I'm just going to tuck it in, ensuring again that all of these corners are sealed. And then, I'm going to turn my dough over so that I have the smooth side on top. And I'm going to essentially take my two hands, and I'm going to rotate and cut the dough with my hands. So, what I'm doing is I'm basically... if you see with one hand, I'm taking my pinky finger, and I'm essentially moving and rotating my hands so that my fingers go under the dough and rotate it.
Karishma Pradham:
So, by doing this, I'm also creating some tension. So, I'm just basically taking my hand, put my... pinkies are barely under the dough. They're grazing the dough. And I'm rotating it. And my other hand is going in the other direction and rotating. So, the easiest way to do it is just start, again, taking your two hands and cupping the dough while rotating it. And then, if you get more comfortable with this cupping rotation, you can then bring your pinky fingers and make sure that it really gets under the dough to seal and create that tension.
Karishma Pradham:
And then, I just have my dough ball. So, we can see that it's nicely sealed. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to put it in a container, loosely coated with olive oil, which prevents it from sticking with when it's in the fridge. And in terms of containers that you can use, so, you can see I have this circular. It's just a Tupperware container that I'm going to be putting my dough in.
Karishma Pradham:
You can use anything like this circular container. You can use a bowl like this that you cover with plastic wrap. You can use, for example, like if you had a dough proofing box, you could use that. I have a nine micro thin pan, you can also put your dough in here. One thing I would say is that what happens is that your dough really expands to, conform to the container.
Karishma Pradham:
So, my dough is going to expand, to conform to this circular container. So, for example, if you're using a square Tupperware, your dough will turn into a square. And because we're trying to keep it into a circle, it's easier to use a circular container or a large enough container, what like this, where my dough is not going to conform as much and it's just going to spread out.
Karishma Pradham:
For oil, you just really want to make sure that you use enough. You can be more generous here. So, I would use probably like a teaspoon or so. And you want to make sure that you generously oil bottom as well as the size of the container so that your dough is going to expand. But you want to make sure it's really, really well-loaded. I would say, yeah, you can go more generous on oil here because it's the worst thing to have your dough stick.
Karishma Pradham:
And the other thing about containers is that, again, your dough is going to probably expand in doubles. So, you want to make sure that your dough has enough room to expand if your container is too small, if your container, for example, is the size of the dough right now, it can expand out of the container and explode out. So, just make sure that you have enough space for your dough.
Rebecca Bachman:
Another question, if you're going to freeze one of the two dough balls, should that be done now or the day after rising?
Karishma Pradham:
Oh, that's a good question. So, I would recommend actually doing the day of rising first and then freezing your dough on the second day, once it's fully risen so that when you take your dough out of the freezer, all it has to do is then come back to room temperature. I will say that sometimes freezing your dough can change the texture of it. But I've definitely done it before. And so yeah, I would just recommend letting your dough rise that first day in the fridge and then doing the freezer.
Karishma Pradham:
So, I have my second dough ball here. And you can see again, I'm forming that pouch. And if anyone has questions about the balling process, definitely, let me know. Again, the key here is to make sure that your dough is sealed as much as possible so that it stays this really nice ball. It will then stay as a circle when you stretch it out. And you keep those nice air bubbles.
Karishma Pradham:
And I'm as I said before, definitely go more generous with oil then you might think just in case because again, the whole point that we're doing is we're really trying to make sure that our dough ball stays intact. And so, if it does stick when you're pulling it out, you can lose some of that air, and you can lose some of that shape of the dough. I see a question about during the balling process again. So, I will do that.
Karishma Pradham:
This dough is a little bit oiled but I think it should be fine. So, essentially what we're doing is we're first taking our piece of dough, and we're making sure that it forms a circle. So, again, I'm going to grab the corners, the four first four corners of the dough. And so, now, I'm feeling it's like holding like a pouch. And then, I'll go around and grab any sort of other crevices of that dough and seal them together into the pouch.
Karishma Pradham:
It's a little tougher to show it just because it already has oil on it, but your dough should pretty seal pretty easily. So, you can see that I have this pouch. And then, once you have the pouch, you're going to seal the dough and press it down. And then, you're going to do this rotation process, which again, involves taking both of your hands.
Karishma Pradham:
And first, just taking each hand and rotating the dough, which helps form it into that circle. And as you're doing this, if you're able to get your pinkies under this dough, that also really helps seal and keep in that tension. And then, you have your dough ball.
Rebecca Bachman:
Another question, if I refrigerate it for more than one day, does it improve flavor?
Karishma Pradham:
Okay. So, this is a good question. So, this depends on... so, the answer is yes, but you want to be careful about refrigerating your dough for more than one day depending on the recipe that you're using. So, as I mentioned, when you use a recipe, and if it's intended for a certain amount of time, that means that they're using a certain amount of yeast.
Karishma Pradham:
So, with this recipe, for example, if you leave it in the fridge for more than 24 hours, sometimes it can get a little bit too acidic from the yeast, or it can overproof. And so, if you were wanted to, for example, refrigerate your dough for more than one day, you would want to use a lesser amount of yeast. And that's also why, for example, if you were making a same day pizza dough, and you were using three tablespoons of yeast, for example, if you put that in the fridge for three days, it would taste really, really sour from the yeast, and it would probably overproof.
Karishma Pradham:
So, you always really want to be able to control the amount of yeast, and then, the time that you're sort of keeping it in the fridge.
Karishma Pradham:
So, any other questions? So, basically, you're just going to... your dough balls should be nice and covered. You don't want any air to get in because it'll dry it out. You're going to stick those in the fridge and then, tomorrow... and I have more detailed instructions in the recipe document. But tomorrow, before the class-
Karishma Pradham:
Did somebody have a question? Okay. So, tomorrow before class, you're going to want to preheat your oven to the highest temperature that it can get. So, that might be 500 degrees, 550 degrees, whatever the highest temperature is, you're going to want to preheat it for 45 minutes to an hour, at least so that it gets really hot and make sure that whatever piece of equipment you're using.
Karishma Pradham:
So, if that's your baking sheet upside down, or cast-iron pizza upside down, or you're baking steel, or your pizza stone, make sure that that's also in the oven 45 minutes to an hour before so that also preheats. And then, the last thing that you're going to do is also make sure that you take your dough out of the fridge 45 minutes before class starts so that it is able to come to room temperature, and you can stretch it out really easily.
Karishma Pradham:
So, oven preheated with equipment inside, and then, also, taking your dough out of the fridge, 45 minutes to an hour before.
Rebecca Bachman:
Anything else that needs to be known before tomorrow's class Karishma?
Karishma Pradham:
Those are the biggest things. And then, we will make sauce together. If you wanted to make a meat version of our pizza, it's going to be a Margherita style with tomatoes and basil. But if you want to make a meat version, you can precook sausage or something like that. Or you can also pepperoni. So, anything that you want to precook, you can and you can add any other toppings as well like any veggies.
Karishma Pradham:
Just make sure if it's something like a mushroom, for example, you might want to precook it just so it has enough time to cook.
Rebecca Bachman:
If you're using the large pan, is that enough for one dough ball or two?
Karishma Pradham:
Is that for balling the dough or for baking it?
Rebecca Bachman:
I think for baking it. So, in order to prepare for tomorrow, if you're using the backside of a cookie sheet.
Karishma Pradham:
Yeah. So, great question. So, we are going to do our pizzas one at a time. So, the large sheet is just going to be for one pizza at a time. It's a little bit tricky to do two at a time. It's easier to do them one at a time. And then that way, you can also kind of practice with the first one and really nail it the second time. So, as long as you... whatever equipment you're using is at least 12 inches for your pizza to slide on to, you're totally good.
Rebecca Bachman:
Fantastic. Thank you so much, Karishma. I'm going to pass it over to Amy for some closing words.
Amy Cohen:
And again, I'm just going to say thank you to Karishma. And thank you to you, Rebecca for facilitating tonight. This was fantastic. And thank you to everybody attending.