How to Work With Trending Inclusions in Pizza Dough

So you’ve finally mastered your dough recipe and now you want to jump outside of the box and kick it up a notch. There are a lot of creative ways to have fun with your dough, just like the bread world does. Think different colors, added flavors, textural inclusions and more. It’s actually a lot easier than you think, but it does take a little practice.

Color And Style

Before deciding which direction you want to go, consider the style of pizza and the thickness of the dough. I’ve seen some colorful doughs in competition or on menus that look cool but lack flavor, or the inclusion is just wrong for the style.

For thin-crust pizzas, I would be hard pressed to do a puree for color or flavor because the dough just isn’t thick enough to really be able to see it or taste it in contrast with whatever toppings are on top. In a thin or cracker crust, seeds, nuts or other grains could be a great way to highlight the flavor and texture of the inclusion while staying within the parameters of the intended dough.

Thicker doughs such as Sicilian or Roman – or those with a large crust or cornicione – could be a great way to highlight tasty and colorful purees.

Now, how do you do it?

If you’re looking for color and not necessarily flavor, straight food dye added during the mix could be a way to go, but I would lean toward food dyes that are more paste or gel-like than liquid food coloring. A little goes a long way here. For those looking to go the natural route, there are a million options – but prepping them in advance is key.

Squid ink is the first thing that comes to mind in terms of great saturation of color with minimal quantity. This would be diluted with the water for even dispersion during the mixing process.

For food purees, the sky is the limit. The first thing I think about is how much water is in the puree or liquid? For those that are similar in viscosity to water, the liquid or puree can be substituted 1:1 for the water in your dough.

A great homemade stock could be a tasty way to add a savory/umami flavor to your dough without having to overthink anything. Tomato water is another great way to not only use everything and avoid waste, it also will tint your dough a nice light shade of red and add a subtle tomato flavor.

A word of caution when playing with colors: The outside of any colored dough is going to look very different than the inside because it has dried out. If dabbling with squid ink, dark beer or anything that darkens your dough, it can be hard to tell when your pizza is done cooking based purely off color. Pay attention to your cooking times and other visual cues like your toppings to tell you when it’s done. Knowing ahead of time how long your pizza should take to cook helps take the guesswork out of it.

For thicker purees, you’ll want to dilute them with water for ease of incorporation, but these can be added in quite large percentages. I’ve seen some as low as 15-20 percent and some as high as 60-70 percent.

For vegetable purees or those that do not have a lot of fat in them, the point of incorporation will be toward the beginning – either with your water or while your dough still has low gluten development.

Purees like a nut or seed butter are higher in fat and need to be incorporated later in the mixing process, similar to an olive oil or animal butter. This would be at medium gluten development and then mixed until full. This ensures you are not impeding gluten development, as fat coats your gluten strands and can create a barrier.

Borrowing From Bread

An inclusion is known more commonly in the bread world and is something that is added to dough to add flavor and texture but remains apart from it. It is incorporated with the dough but does not become one with the dough. For instance, seeds, nuts, herbs, etc., are folded in but still maintain their structural integrity. For nuts or anything chunky, I would recommend chopping them into smaller pieces because the dough will tend to rip when stretched.

Inclusions in or on the dough can be a fantastic way to add texture and flavor. My great friend Audrey Kelly of Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage in Boulder, Colorado, has a sesame seed-bottomed crust called Patty style, and it’s fantastic. You’ll want to be careful of fat content and moisture when it comes to inclusions. Grains or oats, for example, will want to take moisture away from your dough, creating a drier product. So, you’ll want to soak these in advance.

Pretzel Crust

Lastly, the pretzel crust can be a fantastic way to do something super creative and blend two styles. Pretzel dough has some of the same elements that some pizza doughs have, like a preferment and a fat. But the big defining factor that makes a pretzel a pretzel is the lye solution that dough gets dunked in before baking, giving it the deep-colored hue and iconic large salt crystals that sit on top and do not melt into the dough. Lye can be a very dangerous substance. If you are considering trying it, make sure to read all directions before using and ensure all containers are properly labeled and stored away. Wear gloves and protective eye wear while using any lye solution.

My dear friends at Modernist Cuisine figured out they could “pretzelize” many different breads and developed a par-bake lye dip that could be useful for pizza. The lye would be brushed onto the par-baked dough and then returned to the oven to finish baking, giving it the classic texture and color of a pretzel. …Don’t forget the salt!

A German-inspired pretzel pizza sounds fantastic and could even be a contender in the non-traditional category at Pizza Expo!

Pizza should be fun, so don’t forget to play from time to time and step outside of the box.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, California.

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