Last week we were feeling playful and decided to pour a bottle of Sprite into our pizza dough. A little science experiment, so to speak. We substituted sprite for the water, one for one. We were curious what would happen by adding all that sugar and carbonation into the pizza dough. The final answer? Not a heck, of a lot.
We used Mexican Sprite: one, because we like the cool glass bottle and two, because it's made with real cane sugar, not the artificial stuff. The sugar definitely added a subtle hint of sweetness. Because of the extra sweetness, we decided to cook the pizza, New York Style. That is a slow and low bake on the Baking Steel. That's 500F for approximately 5-6 minutes. After pulling our pie from the oven, we noticed slightly more browning-another result of the added sugar/sweetness.
Using Sprite in the dough wasn't overly exciting, but it did give us some ideas of other liquids we could experiment with next. Stay tuned for more mad science!
Slowly add Sprite, using a wooden spoon mix thoroughly.
Remove from bowl and knead for 2-3 minutes to remove any clumps. Or gently push the dough into the counter. Trying to remvoe the dry clumps of flour.
Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap, and let rest or bulk ferment for 24 hours at room temperature.
Lightly flour a work surface, remove dough and place on floured work surface.
Divide dough into equal portions. Next we're going to make dough balls. Place one dough between your hands and fold two sides into center. Rotate 90 degrees and fold into center and continue this process until a ball is formed. Place smooth side into palm and swiftly pinch the seam closed. You can be aggressive with the pinch.
Place dough into highly oiled plastic cylinders, date cylinders and place in fridge for 48 hours.
Remove from refrigerator at least 1 hour before you use. You want to let the dough rest for at least an hour at room temperature to relax the glutens....
Recipe Note
You have your dough ready, now make a pizza. Just remember to preheat your oven at 500F with your Baking Steel on the top rack. Get creative and share your creation on Instagram with a #bakingsteel. We want to see it.
