Description

*Slow Rise Pizza On-Demand courses may be viewed as many times as you’d like for 60 days, starting from the time you sign up.*

​​On-Demand Pizza Bianca alla Romana in a Professional Electric Rotating Rack Oven Online Pizza and Bread Class with Italian Artisan Master Baker Stefano Tulipano – Advanced Level 2

This class is the perfect follow-up to our uber popular Advanced Level 1 Expert Class where we introduced high hydration mixing with the intensive mix. However, in that class we mixed a “straight” or direct dough with no preferment and followed up with a lengthy deep-dive conversation about a variety of preferments. In this Advanced Level 2 Expert Class, Stefano Tulipano of BABALAB FORNO will show you a variety of traditional and non-traditional techniques to prepare the most popular high hydration Italian pizza and bread to come out of Italy in the past few decades: Pizza Bianca alla Romana.

This class is perfect for both professional and advanced home bakers; Stefano will be mixing in a professional spiral mixer and Noel will be mixing at home in a consumer Kitchen Aid tabletop consumer mixer. Also, the spiral mixer works perfectly with a traditional artisan mixing technique which Stefano will demonstrate called double hydration, where a portion of the water is withheld at the beginning and added later for a number of reasons. Whatever your level of expertise, the main idea we hope you will come away with is to learn from traditional regional recipes, and more importantly techniques, first and foremost. And then, and only then, can you innovate.  

As a high hydration dough, the go-to preferment of choice for Italians is traditionally the biga. Besides adding strength and depth of flavor to the final product, Stefano will discuss why the traditional Italian low hydration biga pares so well with the high hydration Roman family of doughs. And, for those of you who have little or no experience with a biga, Stefano will show you how to create and hand mix a traditional biga from scratch.  

We’ll also cover a very specific, traditional and important Romana pre-shape technique, which differs widely from other styles like focaccia and most American pan pizzas. And, of course, we’ll discuss Pizza at Taglio, the pan pizza style served “by the cut” all over Rome specifically and Italy in general and has become a cult favorite in the US and is a direct descendant of Pizza Bianca alla Romana. And finally, speaking of pans, Stefano will demo his pizzas on a standard Italian “blue” steel pan as well as a perforated pan to show us some of the pros and cons of each.  

With regard to ovens, Stefano will be baking his pizzas in an electric rotating rack oven at his bakery while; others will be baking in home ovens, some with pizza stones and others not. Whatever set up you have, we’ve got you covered.

Here are just a few of the qualities people love about the style of pizza covered in this class:

• Variety of textures:  crunchy on the bottom, crispy on the top, and light and airy in the middle due to the high percentage of water (hydration) this style demands
• The crunchy bottom: a product of a longer, less intense bake.
• The intensive mixing style: allows for more air in the dough for a very light texture
• Extended fermentation: improved flavor, aroma, and shelf life.
• The toppings: both traditional and modern; light, season and fresh; and often served Bianca-style (without tomato sauce)

 

As a high hydration dough, the go-to pre-ferment of choice for Italians is traditionally the biga. Besides adding strength and depth of flavor to the final product, Stefano will cover a wide variety of reasons why the traditional Italian biga pares so well with the high hydration roman family of droughts. We’ll also cover the Romana pre-shape technique, which differs widely from other styles like focaccia and most American pan pizzas. Of course we’ll discuss Pizza at Taglio, the pan pizza style served “by the cut” all over Rome and has become a cult favorite in the US, after attaining its exhausted status decades ago in Italy and throughout much of Europe.

Once you learn the basics of Pizza Bianca, you will be ready to innovate, adding preferments like polish, biga, and sourdough into the mix! If you’re interested in high hydration, light, and extremely airy bread, this is the class for you!

More About Stefano:

Italian Master Bread Baker Stefano Tulipano, born in Novi Ligure (south of Piemonte), started his culinary career at the age of 14 years old at a culinary school in Genoa where he specialized in bread and pastry. Climbing the culinary ladder, he worked in high end pastry shops, luxury hotels, and finally alongside superstar chefs like Italian master baker Piergiorgio Giorilli. He later landed in Chicago where he simultaneously ran the artisan bread programs for eight high-volume, chef-driven restaurants for the mega restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You, including RPM Steak and RPM Italian. Currently, he is living in the North of Italy, running a small but high-volume family bakery in Genoa and has recently launched of his own nano-bakery, named BÀBALAB.  Needless to say, it sells out almost everyday.

Noel Brohner is a Los Angeles based pizza consultant who offers both Live Zoom and Video On-Demand online pizza classes for professionals and home bakers alike. These online pizza classes will allow you to progress to Neapolitan, New York Pizza, Detroit-Style Pizza, and even Sourdough and high hydration pizzas.

After you Register:

We will send you an email with a link to login to our site and access your dashboard. All class materials and recipes are available on the video page, and you can begin watching immediately after registration.

Suggested Pizza Class Prerequisites: Intermediate Level 1 and Advanced Level 1

Don’t hesitate to email us at classes@slowrisepizza.com if you have any questions.