This is a pizza with a different kind of crust. There is in my opinion a little more work involved than a traditional crust but the finish results make it well worth it.the ingredients have to be followed really closely or you could have a major mess on your hands with a gooey dough attacking you. Just a bit of humor from the farside.
Ingredients:
See below
Directions:
Bianca Dough
Rested and Forked
Starting to bake
After 15 minutes
Done
Pizza Bianca
The Pizza Bianca has a different kind of crust. It's much like that of a Foccia. It's a type of crispy flat type bread baked with lots of olive oil and can have toppings like sauteed onions. If you have never had Foccia you don't know what you are missing. It is very light and airy and has a very fine thin outer layer of crispness. You get a nice crunch in every bite.
The ingredients for the Bianca dough is as follows.
3 cups of flour
1 2/3 cups of water
1 1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 teaspoon of yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon of sugar
5 tablespoons of olive oil
To make the dough.
In a mixer bowl add the flour, salt and water and mix for 5 minutes making sure to clean the sides of the bowl several times. Mix and make sure there is no dry flour left in the bowl. let the mixture set for about 20 minutes.
Sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the mix and then let the machine knead it for about 6 minutes. Scrape down the bowl sides and bottom several times. The best way I found to tell if the water and flour mixture is right was to allow the dough to knead for several minutes. This is a very wet dough. The dough should pull from the sides of the bowl. Mine was a little wet so I added 1 more tablespoon of flour and I had what I needed.
Coat the bottom of a bowl with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Coat your hands and a spatula too. When ever you have to handle this dough oil your hands. Do not dust or add more flour. Olive oil is your friend here. With your hands and the spatula, place the dough into the bowl turning it and coating it well with the olive oil. Cover the bowl tightly and allow it to rise to 3 times it's size. 2 1/2 hours.
During the last hour of rising preheat the oven with a stone on the center rack to 450*.
After the dough has risen, brush a 13"x18" backing sheet with a rim on it with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. With oiled hands remove the dough from the bowl to the baking sheet. Work from the center out and gently push the dough to the outside edges. If it keeps springing back, let the dough rest for a few minutes and then push again. After the dough is shaped allow it to rest again for about 10 minutes. The dough will get very bubbly. After the dough has rested poke the surface of the dough with a fork across the surface about 40 times. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, add sauce and toppings and bake for 10 minutes or so more until the cheese is a nice golden brown.
Enjoy, IC
