AY Honors/Pizza Maker/Answer Key
1. Do a short research on the history of pizza.
Reference - History of Pizza
2. Make a list of the basic ingredients for the pizza dough.
The basic ingredients for pizza dough are:
- Flour
- Water
- Yeast
- Sugar (to activate the Yeast)
- Oil
- Salt
3. Find out at least one biblical text about each single ingredient. Explain at least 4 of these texts and their symbolic meaning.
4. Describe the leavening process.
A leavening agent (also leavening agent or leaven agent; /ˈlɛvənɪŋ/ or /ˈlɛvən/), also known as a raising agent, is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that causes a foaming action that lightens and softens the finished product. Formation of carbon dioxide is induced by chemical agents reacting with moisture, heat, acidity, or other triggers.
The leavening agent incorporates gas bubbles into the dough. The alternative or supplement to leavening agents is mechanical leavening by which air is incorporated by mechanical means. Most leavening agents are synthetic chemical compounds, but carbon dioxide can also be produced by biological agents. When a dough or batter is mixed, the starch in the flour mixes with the water in the dough to form a matrix (often supported further by proteins like gluten or other polysaccharides like pentosans or xanthan gum), then gelatinizes and "sets"; the holes left by the gas bubbles remain.
Found on Wikipedia.
5. What is the difference between Neapolitan style pizza and Roman style pizza?
Roman pizza is thin and usually stretched with the help of a rolling-pin. It is baked for a longer time at a lower temperature. Neapolitan pizza instead is thicker and softer. It is formed by hand – that’s why its outer edge is also thicker. It must be cooked for a much shorter time.
6. According to its shape and size, how many kinds of pizza do you know?
1. Neapolitan - Many pizzas are variations on the original pie of Naples — a flat, hearth-baked, chewy crust topped with tomatoes or tomato sauce and mild cheese. A few of the most common variations are New York-style pizza, which is bigger and flatter than the original pizza of Napoli, designed to be cut into large, flexible wedges that can be folded and eaten while walking or working.
2. Sicilian - True Sicilian pizza is a rectangular slab of bread with toppings — which typically do not include cheese — pushed into the dough before baking. The American version is radically different, usually with a thick layer of cheese encasing all the toppings.
Most pizzas are based on these first two types, with the the follow most common variants with New York Style mentioned above under Neapolitan:
1. Chicago Pizza Pie - Around the world, Chicago-style pizza usually refers to the deep-dish, multi-layered pizzas first created by Ike Sewell in the mid-twentieth century. That pie, almost a casserole, offers a unique pizza experience. It usually includes a thin crust in a deep dish, with toppings on the bottom, covered in cheese and tomato sauce on the top. It has also spawned some lesser pizzas, generally called pan pizzas. Pan pizzas are round with a thick, well-oiled crust — somewhat similar to a Sicilian crust — with an indentation to hold more toppings.
2. California-Style Pizza - California-style pizza is characterized by a plate-sized, very thin cracker-like crust and a range of unusual toppings.
3. Sourdough Pizza - San Franciscans have long adored their hearty sourdough-crust pizzas topped with the freshest ingredients.
It has evolved into many different variations like deep-dish pizza, stuffed pizza, pizza pockets, pizza turnovers, rolled pizza, pizza-on-a-stick, all with combinations of sauce and toppings limited only by one's inventiveness.
Here are some good references to pizza styles - Pizza Styles or Wikipedia
7. What are three different ways to bake a pizza. Describe the differences in detail.
In order, a Brick oven, wood fired or coal fired, is the best as described in the reference below, followed by a Grill so you are closer to a brick oven type of baking and then followed by a electric oven using a pizza stone to help simulate a brick oven.
1. Wood fired brick oven - Web Page Reference
2. Grill (Electric, Gas or Charcoal) - Web Page Reference
3. Electric/Gas oven (Home or Industrial) - Using a pizza stone will help to more evenly distribute the heat to the pizza in a Home oven, so you get closer to a brick oven type of baking.
8. What is the ideal temperature if you use a wood oven to cook pizza? What is the ideal temperature if you use an electric oven?
Wood or Brick Oven 400°C / 752°F
Home ovens 280°C / 450°F to 500°F
Industrial ovens 330°C / 626°F
9. Prepare a Pizza Margherita.
It’s made with tomato sauce and cheese and topped with tomatoes and basil. The type of each ingredient can vary, such as the type of tomato sauce used, the type of tomatoes used as well as the type of basil used. Experiment and research different types and see what others use and what you like best.
