Ruhlman's Twenty (24 page)

Make the dough at least 3 hours before you need to bake it. The dough can also be prepared up to a day ahead and refrigerated, or it can be frozen for a month or so. This recipe will yield enough dough for two medium pizzas. This recipe can be halved, doubled or tripled provided you weigh all the ingredients.

TO MEASURE BY VOLUME

4 cups flour

1½ cups water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 teaspoons kosher salt or coarse sea salt

TO MEASURE BY WEIGHT

500 grams flour

300 grams water

2 grams active dry yeast

10 grams kosher salt or coarse sea salt

Combine the flour, water, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix on medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, 5 to 10 minutes. Depending on the size of the bowl, you may need to stop the mixer and remove the dough from the dough hook if the dough is not developing thoroughly. When the dough looks smooth, cut off a piece and stretch it. If it stretches to the point of transparency, it’s mixed enough. If not, continue mixing until it will.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and cover it with a pot lid or plastic wrap/cling film. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size and does not spring back when you push your finger into it, 2 to 4 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it to release the gas and redistribute the yeast. Cut the dough in half and press each half into a disk. Cover the disks with a towel and allow to stand for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C/gas 8.

Stretch each disk, or roll it with a rolling pin, until it is as thin as desired (the thinner the better). Top as desired and bake on a rimless baking sheet/ tray or baking stone until the edges are golden brown and the bottom is crisp, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Pie dough can be made in a stand mixer, but if you need enough for only one or two pies, it’s faster to mix it by hand. I believe that pastry dough prepared in a food processor results in a tough rather than delicate crust.

The dough can be wrapped in plastic wrap/cling film and stored in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, or in the freezer for up to
1 month.
If frozen, thaw in the refrigerator before using.

2 cups/300 grams all-purpose/plain flour

14 tablespoons/200 grams cold butter, vegetable shortening, or lard, chopped into ½-inch/12-millimeter chunks

Kosher salt (optional)

¼ to ½ cup/60 to 120 milliliters ice water

Combine the flour and butter in a large bowl. If using unsalted butter, add a three-finger pinch of salt. Mix the butter into the flour with your fingers, pinching it, until the butter is in chunks not bigger than peanuts. Add ¼ cup/60 milliliters of the ice water and mix until the dough comes together. Add as much of the remaining water as you need to bring the dough together if the first addition isn’t enough. Shape the dough into a disk about 1 inch/2.5 centimeters thick. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap/cling film, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to a day. If you need a top and bottom crust, divide the dough and wrap the disks separately.

Roll out the dough as needed on a work surface dusted with flour.

This is a favorite dish from childhood when my grandmother visited. Charlotte Addison Spamer was an excellent baker and mostly worked by intuition, so when I asked for the recipe, she told me she made a pie dough and used apples. When I asked for the amount of sugar, she said, annoyed, “Oh, I don’t
know.
” She did most things by sight, which, sadly, she lost at age ninety-four. But she remembers that a bakery not far from her longtime home on Sumner Road in Detroit, Michigan, sold squares of what it called Apple Jack. The family liked it so much that Charlotte started making her own. “Mine was better,” she says. She also made sure to note her apple choice: Macintosh. She doesn’t like cooked apples that retain some bite; she wants a completely soft apple. Macintosh delivers this quality, but I think such sweet preparations need the acidity of a tart apple, such as Granny Smith. Use Macintosh for soft and sweet, Granny Smith for a more balanced flavor and sturdier bite.

I make Charlotte’s Apple Jack in a quarter sheet pan/tray or small jelly-roll/Swiss roll pan, both of which have rims and measure 13 by 9 inches/33 by 23 centimeters. If you don’t have a pan this size, you can also make the apple jack in a 9-by-13-inch/23-by-33-centimeter baking dish.

Pie Dough

10 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced as desired

1/3 cup/65 grams granulated sugar

1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

Juice of 1 lemon

Freshly grated nutmeg

3 tablespoons packed brown sugar

GLAZE

2 cups/200 grams confectioners’/icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ to
³
/
₈
cup/60 to 90 milliliters heavy/double cream, warmed

Preheat the oven to 350°C/180°C/gas 4.

Roll out half of the dough to the dimensions of the pan (see head note). Lay the dough in the pan.

In a large bowl, toss the apple slices with the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Spread them in the pan. Generously sprinkle with nutmeg (I use plenty), then with the brown sugar. Roll out the remaining dough. Lay it over the apples, trim the excess, and seal it as desired. This is a rustic preparation, so if the dough cracks or breaks, patch it as needed. Prick all over with a fork.

Cover the edges of the dough with foil, place on a larger sheet tray to catch any drips, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the crust is golden brown, 30 to 45 more minutes. Allow the apple jack to cool completely.

MAKE THE GLAZE:
In a small bowl, mix together the confectioners’/icing sugar, vanilla, and enough cream to form a thick glaze.

When the apple jack has cooled, brush the glaze on the crust. Serve immediately.

This is adapted from a recipe by my friend Shuna Fish Lydon, a pastry chef and a fine writer. The cookies were originally slated for the sugar chapter because their structure is so dependent on that ingredient, but I found they did such a good job of showing how a cookie behaved that I decided to showcase them here. Shuna uses less sugar, which results in a very traditional cookie. More sugar makes these chewier and thicker. If you want them thin, simply double the butter. These are simple, delicious cinnamon-sugar cookies.

¼ cup/55 grams butter, at room temperature

½ cup/100 grams firmly packed brown sugar

1½ cups/300 grams granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 cup/140 grams all-purpose/plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Kosher salt

CINNAMON SUGAR

¼ cup/50 grams granulated sugar

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas 4.

In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugars. Using a stiff spatula, stir and paddle the ingredients until uniformly combined. Add the egg and whisk rapidly until it is combined into the butter mixture.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, the baking powder, and a three-finger pinch of salt. Stir to distribute the baking powder. Fold the flour mixture, in a few batches, into the butter mixture until completely incorporated.

Scoop out tablespoons of the dough and arrange them about 3 inches/7.5 centimeters apart on a baking sheet/tray. Cover the top of a glass with a damp towel. Press the covered opening of the glass down onto each cookie.

MAKE THE CINNAMON SUGAR:
In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar and cinnamon until the cinnamon is uniformly distributed.

Sprinkle the cookies with the cinnamon sugar (save any leftover for cinnamon toast!). Bake until the cookies are cooked through, and the edges are golden, about 15 minutes.

BATTER IS FLOUR MADE FLUID. YES, WE
can call any thick mixture a batter, such as that for a flourless chocolate cake. But technically speaking, a flourless chocolate cake and its ilk— preparations whose structure relies exclusively on egg and fat—are custards, not batters. Batters involve a starch. Although fine batters can be made with gluten-free flours (rice flour, in tempuras for instance), I focus exclusively on batters that involve wheat flour. Wheat flour brings texture and bite to a cooked batter that no other substance does—tender cakes and muffins, tempura with just a little bite along with the crunch, and crêpes that have a pleasingly delicate chew.