What makes these pizzas better…
FLOUR: We use the finest gluten flours which are milled both in the US & Caputo fours imported from Italy, using only non-bromated & non-bleached: meaning zero chemical additives (unlike most other frozen pizzas).
For gluten-free we use Caputo Gluten-Free flour which is imported from Italy at a considerable premium, and is considered the “Ferrari of Flours”. Look it up!
SOURDOUGH PROCESS: this is where my pizzas and bread shine the most! I firmly believe that the foundation to all good pizzas are it’s crust, without getting that right nothing else matters. This is why I employ a meticulous and complex 48-72+ hour / 5-step process that involves using a wild organically grown yeast, making a separate pre-fermentation batch (before the main batch), using only filtered STL water & sea salt, and a pinch of diastatic malt (gluten version only) to enhance enzymatic activity, browning, & bread rise. This recipe has been constantly tweaked and finally perfected to provide the ultimate crust in taste & texture. (more info below about the overall benefits of sourdough)
SAN MARZANO & ITALIAN TOMATOE’S: these are tomato’s of the highest quality & known for their bright taste, without being too sweet or acidic. And the San Marzano’s that we use are grown in a nutricious volcanic soil (from Mount Vesuvius) in the Campania region in Italy.
CHEESES: Fior De Latte (Fresh Mozzarella) on our Neapolitan pizzas, while mixtures of Whole Milk Mozzarella, Provel, and Wisconsin Brick cheeses (from DiGregorio’s Italian Market on the Hill) are used on our Detroit Style pan pizzas (over a half pound of cheese on each DSP!) - all hand sliced or shredded from the block. NO pre-shredded cheeses (which all use an additive called cellulose which is an anti-clumping agent and filler (that most other frozen pizzas utilize). Google it or check the INGREDIENTS label!
TOPPINGS: when possible we use locally sourced meats & vegetables. For example our basil is grown in-house, and our sausage is homemade from DiGregorio’s Italian Market on the Hill.
CHEESE CRISP RIMS: this is our signature flavor-enhancer on our Detroit Style Pizza’s! We line the outer edges with cheeses that crystalize while baking in the pan’s high heat.
GLUTEN-FREE ’ZA SOURDOUGH: another signature of mine that no one around is doing! Created from complex GF flour mixes of the highest quality & standards.
We use GF Caputo flour, which contains a gluten-stripped wheat starch, but is tested at 4ppm (the safe limit for celiac disease is 20ppm or below). US FDA approved and certified for gluten-free
The feedback I’ve received is that you can’t tell a difference from the gluten & gluten-free crusts (both in texture and crunch).
NEAPOLITAN PIZZA: the original pizza style created hundreds of years ago in Naples, Italy. Baked at extreme temperatures of 700-900 degrees to give it’s crust that soft & fluffy interior, with the outer charred leopard spots, that people have come to love.
DETROIT STYLE PIZZA: originally baked in rectangular motor-oil pans in the mid 1900’s, this style changes things up by placing the toppings and sauce on top of the cheese, and possesses a thicker crust which is incredibly light and airy (similar to a focaccia bread) with an addictive outer crunch. These pizzas are loaded with copious amounts of cheese and toppings all the way to the outer edges, and get over a half pound of cheese each!! We cook our DSP’s in high-quality Lloyd pans (the DSP standard) to get that extra fried crispness.
INGREDIENTS COMPARISON
For a standard cheese pizza: our ingredients are listed below, and a very popular brand-name frozen pizza’s ingredients are shown here in this image. Ours has zero preservatives/additives, theirs has 15 of them.
Dough-flours (soft wheat, organic rye, malted barley, starch based sugar), filtered water, sea salt, organic yeast; Cheese-pastruerized milk, vinegar, salt, enzymes; Sauce-whole peeled tomatos, tomato puree, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt
SOURDOUGH: Is it really healthier for you?
1,000% YES
These are excerpts taken from a recent scientific study on probiotics in sourdough, and posted on the MDPI website:
“When sourdough is used, rather than Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a typical baker’s yeast, for the bread dough fermentation, superior properties in bread quality and technological value are achieved.
Probiotics are safe for human consumption and can produce metabolites that positively influence gastrointestinal and bone health diseases. Beneficial effects in eczema, allergies, respiratory tract infection, obesity, and cognitive and mental health are also described. Probiotics act as gut microbiota, stimulating a complex communication with the body that is mediated by the metabolites generated. Some LAB (lactic acid bacteria) and yeasts present in sourdough fermentation are considered and presumed to be probiotics.
The probiotics and postbiotics of sourdough provide health benefits in addition to the essential nutritional components of the bread itself.
There is both a growing demand from consumers for additive-free, safe, and nutritious foods and for bread with a longer shelf-life and less staling due to microbial spoilage, and sourdough offers some advantages.
The antimicrobial effect reduces the salt content in bread. Helping reduce sodium consumption to the recommended level of 5–6 g/day will benefit health, particularly regarding blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Taking into consideration that bread and cereals represent the major sources of salt in the human diet, microbial bioprocessing has been proposed to reduce salt content while keeping the flavor.
In addition, the hydrolysis of flour proteins leads to the production of amino acids, organic acids, and other metabolites, improving the nutritional and functional values of sourdough bread.
Several strains of LAB can carry out activities that promote human health, such as modulating the immune response, preventing cancer, reducing chronic intestinal inflammation, and cholesterol levels. Other functions include improving the intestinal barrier, inhibiting pathogenic organisms, and beneficial interactions with the endogenous intestinal microbiota. These bacteria are present in sourdough and liberate bioproducts in bread dough, such as vitamin B12, folate, and riboflavin.
The glycemic index (GI) is the speed at which sugar enters our body’s bloodstream and this parameter is affected by probiotics from sourdough. It is reported that sourdough bread has a lower GI than yeast bread. Bread with carbohydrates and starches, which are rapidly assimilated, increase the GI. An explanation of the decrease in the glycemic index is the higher level of lactic acid produced under these fermentation conditions. Lactic acid effectively diminishes postprandial glycemic and insulinemic responses, whereas acetic acid brings out a delayed gastric emptying rate. Moreover, the starch availability is reduced under baking heat, thus allowing the breakdown of sucrose to form EPS such as glucans which contribute to the rise in dietary fiber content. …the authors concluded that the consumption of sourdough bread has a lower influence on blood glucose compared to that of industrial bread or glucose.
In addition to the health effects, sourdough brings flavor, aroma, and better texture of bread due to LAB enzymatic hydrolysis processes. Flavor from volatile compounds in sourdough are due to peptidases conversion of glutamine released from cereal proteins to glutamate, and conversion of arginine to ornithine by LAB during baking. Microbial and enzymatic reactions, such as lipid oxidation by cereal enzymes, improve flavor and texture. LAB and yeast in sourdough produce aroma precursors such as free amino acids, which lead to the generation of aldehydes or corresponding alcohols. It was demonstrated that sourdough bread fermentation conditions considerably influence bioactive compound viability.”
To read the full study (warning - its super technical) you can check it out here:
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