Exciting news! VIVA, Our Best Lard, is now available in a convenient 2.5 lb tub on Amazon!

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Cooking & Baking | January 07, 2023

For Your Next Pizza Dough, Try Lard

For Your Next Pizza Dough, Try Lard

What’s better than pizza?  How about homemade pizza?  You can use this dough recipe with any of your favorite toppings, sauces and cheese, and it’s amazing with all of them.  One of my personal favorites is Tarte Flambée.

But what does lard add to pizza dough?  Why not use olive oil, which is so popular these days?  Pizza dough typically calls for high gluten flour, such as “00” Italian pizza flour or bread flour.  That’s because pizza dough should be a little chewy and have that bread-like quality.  The dough should be capable of being stretched until it’s nice and thin, and to achieve a Neapolitan-style crust, you need good gluten structure.  Adding fat to dough can improve its texture and enhance its flavor.  But when you add a liquid fat such as olive oil to flour, you may prevent the water from properly hydrating the flour, which makes the dough hard to stretch and, ultimately, results in poor gluten structure. Because it is solid at room temperature, lard won’t prevent water from properly hydrating the flour; you’ll end up with a consistent dough that is well hydrated and contains all the textural and flavor benefits of adding a little fat. Better still, the flavor of lard is delicious, especially when factoring in the bacon forward flavors this recipe delivers.    

Link to the recipe here: Pizza Dough with Lard Recipe

Use it with our white pizza recipe: Tarte Flambée Pizza

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