I want to know what oil or lubricant people are using for their dough recipe. I have tried olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, eggs, butter, buttermilk, a lot of the different blends like la Padilla-which is what I’m currently using. What is your go to? I’m using my dough for all sorts of styles of pizzas. We do thin crust, double dough, stuffed pizzas, calzones. I used corn oil for the longest time and recently switched to la padella. Haven’t noticed a huge difference- just a little crispier. We always scale and ball up our dough right away and coat the tops with extra virgin olive oil. That is one thing that has never changed. Just looking to get the best dough.
It’s my personal opinion that EVOO is just wasted when used IN a dough. On the finished pizza is a totally different matter. My preference for over 35-years has always been a pomace grade olive oil for use IN the dough. The stronger, more robust flavor does a much better job of flavoring the dough than EVOO where the flavor notes are lost. From a commercial stand point a blend of 20% pomace grade olive oil and 80% vegetable oil provides an excellent flavor at a reasonable cost. In cases where we really want to have a pronounced olive oil flavor in the pizza, calzone or bread product I like to brush, spritz, or drizzle EVOO onto the baked product immediately after removing it from the oven as the heat in the product will “pop” the olive oil flavor allowing the customer to really appreciate that wonderful bouquet of aroma provided by the EVOO.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
I do everything Tom Lehmann says except the part about not using EVOO in the dough. I use the TRULY Corto EVOO. Corto reps have called a couple times in the past couple years and asking how I am liking it and what do I use it for. I tell them I use it in the dough and they both were surprised.