How to Make Better Homemade Pizzas based on Science | Tangzhong/Yudane Pizza Recipe

If you've tried baking pizza at home before, you may have noticed that there’s something amiss about homemade pizza when compared to pizza from a pizzeria with a wood-fired brick oven. There are some characteristics that are difficult to replicate at home with an electric oven, one in particular stands out, it's that delicate and soft cornicione of pizzeria-made pizzas.
In this video, we're going to use tangzhong/yudane to help us achieve this characteristic and make our pizza much better. With science behind our approaches, we're going to go over a lot of exciting things in this video, including the step-by-step instructions on how to make a better pizza at home, starting with the dough, its ingredients, its hydration, long fermentation and its benefits, the right temperature for baking, and the science behind tangzhong/yudane for this.
Watch the video for more!
Ingredients

Tangzhong/Yudane
Bread Flour 60g (20%)
Boiling Water 120g (40%)

Final Dough
All of the tangzhong/yudane
Salt 7.5-9 g (2.5-3%)
Instant Yeast 1/4 tsp ( ≈ 1.5 g 0.5%)
Water 100-115 g (33-38%)
Bread Flour 240 g (80%)

Hydration 73-78%

For Dusting
Semolina and Wheat flour

Chapters
0:00 Opening
0:48 How is tangzhong/yudane going to improve our homemade pizza?
1:39 The issue with baking pizza using electric oven
1:56 The cornicione
2:13 Raising the hydration and adding sufficient tangzhong/yudane
2:38 Explanation
3:52 Ideal cornicione
4:29 Tangzhong/Yudane
5:23 The Science facts
7:52 Making the pizzas

#pizza #pizzarecipeathome #tangzhong

References:
1. Naito, S., Fukami, S., Mizokami, Y., Hirose, R., Kawashima,
K., Takano, H., Ishida, N., Koizumi, M. and Kano, H., The
effect of gelatinized starch on baking bread1. Food Sci.
Technol. Res., 11, 194-201 (2005).

[LiefLayer]

I've never used yudane for pizza but I think I'll try it next time because it actually seems to improve the quality of the crust.
However, I want to take this opportunity to also leave some advice: "par baking".
I got the idea from the preparation of modern pinsa which requires a lower oven temperature than pizza. In practice, the base of the pizza is put in the oven without toppings (just with a drop of extra virgin olive oil to avoid excessive swelling in the center of the pizza... in practice to avoid the "pita bread" effect), then proceed to cook the bases for 3-4 minutes and remove them from the oven while still almost completely white but with a light crust.

Here you can choose whether to freeze the bases without toppings or eat the pizza immediately by topping it and finish baking.

When you decide to eat the pizza, add the toppings (for example tomato sauce and mozzarella for a classic margherita) and finish cooking the pizza for another 3-4 minutes (or in any case until the crust is golden and the mozzarella is melted ).

This method has two advantages:
1. The frozen bases are very convenient, you take them out of the freezer, add the toppings and finish cooking them in 3-4 minutes. Being thin they are convenient to put one on top of the other in the freezer and they defrost while you add the toppings so they arrive in the oven ready to be cooked. Much more convenient than frozen dough because they are already almost cooked.
2. Mozzarella does not burn, it does not brown, it does not dry out. It remains nice and soft and stringy like in a good pizzeria. For this reason I also suggest using a classic mozzarella (I know dry mozzarella is a widely used cheese outside Italy but here in Italy only soft and juicy mozzarella is used... obviously for pizza you have to let it drain for a few hours so that it does not release too much liquid on the pizza but a little humidity is necessary to prevent the mozzarella from becoming dry, that is really important for a good pizza).

Ultimately, the pizzas I make with my home oven have always been quite similar to modern pinsas (therefore still very good), high hydration -> crunchy crust on the outside -> stringy mozzarella... but not very soft crust on the inside. The cornicione was not perfect... at least if we are talking about Neapolitan style pizza (there are so many good pizzas).
I hope that yudane helps me take that last step that I was missing.
I hope that my suggestion helps those who want to make pizza at home to keep the mozzarella stringy and to make it more convenient to make pizza whenever you want by freezing the bases.


Ps. Don't show pizzas with ketchup-like sauces anymore, part of me is horrified and dies badly 🤣

....

Among other things I tried to make mantou.
Obviously they didn't come out very white because I didn't have the right flour on hand but it was a very interesting experiment... I had never steamed but I had a suitable container inherited from my mother that I didn't use and I think that from now on I will try to make steamed food more often.
This channel is giving me a lot of new ideas that I hadn't considered and I'm having a lot of fun trying them out, thank you

[iuy.design]

just finished making some! it was really easy to prepare and its the first dough to make friends with my pizza shovel without being too clingy. tastes great obviously. for the record the science talk convinced me to give it a try

[julieblair]

you dancing and twirling behind the pizza made my day

[seasaltwaves]

Excited to try these tips! My home pizza game has been slowly improving over the years but I think the yudane might be the missing piece. I always learn something new from your videos and always appreciate your clarity of thought 💛

[zander]

i tried this today and it actually does make pizza more moist. i noticed my pizzas tend to be dry inside so i gave this a go and am very happy with the results. thanks!

[thesandwichfreak]

The pizza dough came out great using the yeast bloom, the poolish, and the Tangzhong. Both the Tangzhong and Poolish were refrigerated overnight before incorporating them into the dough. Once incorporated I also let the pizza dough cold fermented overnight. Unfortunately, I messed up converting U.S. measurements into grams. So I am not sure what the true hydration amount of the pizza dough really is. In my original recipe, I used 3 1/4 cups of flour and 1 1/3 cups of milk with salt, yeast, and sugar to make the dough. I would also allow it to cold ferment for 72 hrs. In the modified recipe I used 406g of flour, 327g of milk, salt yeast, and honey to make the dough. The Tangzhong and Poolish were allowed to cold ferment for 24 hrs. and once incorporated into the dough, I allowed it to ferment an additional 24 hrs. The taste and texture of the pizza crust of the modified recipe were surprisingly better. So my mistake in converting cups to grams worked out great. Thanks for sharing your videos and baking insight!

[sucredulce]

14:52 gecko in action. Just lovely 🥰 amazing video.

[ZenonZolek]

You are an amazing baker, and now my go to, thank you

[MikiCab]

Another Great video. I am making Pizza for Friday so just the right video for me. Thank you again for your indepth explanations.

[dimitristergiou]

I use 65 to 70% hydration.
That’s for Detroit style pizza.
I use 55 to 60% hydration for New York style pizza.
Without tangzhong or yudane.

[thesandwichfreak]

After watching your Tangzhong vs. Yudane video, I tweak my pizza dough recipe where I bloomed the yeast (milk, honey, and yeast), incorporate both a Tangzhong (water + milk + flour) and Poolish (flour + water + yeast + honey) which was added to my dry ingredients (flour & salt). Note: I also added 35g of butter. Now using the baker's percent starting with 406g of bread flour, I was able to figure out the amount of flour and liquid needed to form each separate part ( yeast the bloom, Tangzhong, and Poolish) needed to create my pizza dough. Cross your fingers because the true test will be on tomorrow when I make the pizza. Thanks for sharing all of your insights!

[Shelby-]

Miamm.... 🤩🤩 j adore la pizza et je fais la pâte maison depuis très longtemps, mais je suis tentée d essayer votre pâte avec du Tangzhong, je me réjouis de voir la différence de la texture de la pâte, merci beaucoup pour ce partage 🙏🙏🙏

[cohoanglervancouverwa]

Thanks for the great explanation! My pizza dough will benefit greatly. Also, the cameo appearance by the gecko at 14:53 was hilarious.

[gideonamare]

This was a fantastic & well presented video great job! you've got yourself a new subscriber, keep up the good work.

[Hoakaloa]

if climate scientists had your ability to teach we would be on a much better path. thank you for being a teacher.

[sallyhu]

Thank you for this video.

After storing in the fridge for later use, does the dough have to be brought to room temperature first ... and then ferment for 1.5 hours?

Or by bringing to room temperature, the dough is also already undergoing the 1.5 hour fermentation so that is no longer needed?

Thank you for the clarification.

[DeeBeeStudioSabah]

Hey ive been making pizzs for a while self thought. If you try let your dough bulk ferment to 5 hours at around 24-26c, ball it then let it proof for another 3-4 hours before baking, I can ensure you your pizza will have more air pockets and much lighter in taste.

[rafaqmr]

Amazing video!! Will be trying today 😊

[msponer]

I find this video very interesting. I am going to try it soon. I do have a question….Is there any limitation on time to cold ferment the pizza dough? I seen that you left the other half cold ferment for 24 hrs. Can you let it ferment longer?

[jormamannikko]

Nice done, do you have ideahow to calculate appropriate mold to pullman mold Volyme/ dough mass, what ratio to be used?