Masa de Pizza Yucateca de Charola

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •13x18-inch rimless or low-rim sheet pan (charola)
• •Stand mixer with dough hook, or strong forearms
• •Pizza stone or baking steel (optional but better)
• •Bench scraper
• •Pastry brush for the manteca
• •Box grater for the queso de bola

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the dough

   In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, salt, yeast, and sugar. Pour in the warm water. Mix with a wooden spoon or the dough hook on low until a shaggy dough forms. Add the softened manteca, 60 grams, and keep mixing until it disappears into the dough. The lard is what makes this a Yucatecan tray pizza and not a Neapolitan round. La manteca es el sabor.

2. 2

   Knead until smooth

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead by hand for ten minutes, or run the mixer on medium for six. The dough should be soft, slightly tacky, and pull cleanly off your fingers when you stretch it. If it sticks to the counter like wet masa, dust with a little more flour. If it feels dry and tight, wet your hands and keep kneading. You want the windowpane: a piece pulled thin enough to see light through without tearing.

   The Peninsula is humid. In a Mérida kitchen, the dough will absorb less water than a recipe written for a dry climate. Add the last splash of water slowly and stop when the dough comes together.
3. 3

   First rise

   Form the dough into a ball. Place it in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a clean cotton servilleta or plastic wrap, and let it rise at warm room temperature for an hour and a half to two hours. It should roughly double. In a hot Yucatecan kitchen this happens fast. In a cold kitchen, give it the full two hours and find the warmest corner of the house.

4. 4

   Grease the charola

   Take a 13x18-inch sheet pan, a charola without a high rim, and grease it generously with manteca. Rub the lard into every corner and up the shallow sides with your fingers. The lard is not optional and it is not interchangeable with olive oil. The crust crisps differently in pork fat. That difference is the dish.

5. 5

   Stretch the dough into the pan

   Turn the risen dough onto the greased charola. Press it out with your palms and fingertips, working from the center toward the edges. If the dough resists and snaps back, let it rest five minutes and try again. Push it all the way into the corners. The dough should reach every edge of the pan in an even layer about a quarter inch thick. No rim. This is not a Neapolitan crust. The edge crisps and curls on its own.

6. 6

   Second rise in the pan

   Brush the surface of the stretched dough with the two tablespoons of melted manteca. Cover loosely with the servilleta and let it rise in the pan for thirty to forty-five minutes. The dough will puff up softly, not dramatically. Dimples should hold when you press a finger gently into the surface. While it rises, heat your oven to 230C (450F) with a rack in the lower third. If you have a pizza stone or steel, put it on that rack now.

7. 7

   Top the pizza

   Spread the tomato sauce in a thin even layer, leaving the very edge bare. Scatter half the grated queso de bola over the sauce. Lay down the torn pieces of pierna or jamon de pavo. Distribute the jalapeños en escabeche and the white onion rings across the surface. Crumble the dried oregano between your palms as you scatter it over the top. Finish with the second half of the queso de bola. Queso de bola, not cheddar, not mozzarella. The Edam wheel arrived with Dutch traders through the port of Sisal and stayed. It is the cheese of the Peninsula.

   If you cannot find true queso de bola, look for aged Edam at a serious cheese counter. Mozzarella will give you a different dish. Cheddar will give you a wrong dish.
8. 8

   Bake on the lower rack

   Slide the charola onto the lower rack, directly on the stone or steel if you have one. Bake for eighteen to twenty-two minutes. The cheese should be melted and patched with deep gold spots, the edges of the crust should be brown and pulling away from the pan, and the underside should sound hollow when you tap it. The undercarriage is the test. A pale, soggy bottom means you pulled it too early.

9. 9

   Brush, rest, cut

   Pull the pan from the oven and immediately brush the exposed edges of the crust with more melted manteca. The hot crust drinks it in and finishes glossy. Let the pizza rest in the pan for five minutes. Slide it onto a wooden board, cut into eight squares with a heavy knife or a wheel, and serve. Pass extra jalapeños en escabeche at the table. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •The queso de bola is not negotiable. If your market does not carry it, ask for aged Edam at a serious cheese counter and remove the wax rind yourself. Mozzarella turns this into a different pizza. Cheddar turns it into a mistake.
• •Use jalapeños en escabeche from a jar, the Mexican brand with carrots and onions floating in the brine. Fresh jalapeño is too sharp and changes the balance. The vinegar in the escabeche cuts the richness of the queso de bola, and the carrots add a faint sweetness you will miss if you swap them out.
• •The charola matters. A rimless or low-rim sheet pan lets the edges crisp the way they should. A deep-walled pan steams the crust and you end up with a soft brick instead of a Yucatecan pizza. If your sheet pan has tall sides, flip it and bake on the underside.
• •Manteca de cerdo means rendered pork lard, not vegetable shortening and not the hydrogenated white blocks in the baking aisle. Buy it from a carniceria or render your own from pork fatback. The flavor lives in the fat.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made the night before. After the first rise, punch it down, cover tightly, and refrigerate. Pull it out an hour before you want to stretch it. The cold ferment deepens the flavor and the crust will brown more evenly.
• •The tomato sauce can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated. It actually improves overnight as the oregano and garlic settle into it.
• •Once baked, the pizza is best within the first thirty minutes, while the crust is still crisp underneath. Reheat leftover squares on a dry comal over medium heat for two minutes per side, never the microwave. The microwave kills the crust.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 220g)