PJH - I hope you didn't think I was suggesting that you or your effort above was absurd, not at all. I apologize if you got that impression. I was saying that the recipe provided by Lahey is absurd as a pizza dough, because it is unnecessarily high in hydration. Clearly the method works, and I'm sure that it was tasty (what pizza isn't?). But pretty it ain't, through no fault of your own. Anyone who as worked with super high hydration doughs knows they are a pain to work with, especially when you want to shape them at all (ciabattas are shaped like flat shmoos for a reason). Even you had to add a significant amount of flour (bumping down its true hydration level significantly anyway) to make it shapable. "My" method is just a middle-of-the-road folded bread dough recipe, provided to show that making decent pizza takes little effort, and one needn't turn to high hydration doughs to do so. No-knead is fine (though as I said, adding no more than 10 minutes extra work with 4 folds gives one much better gluten development), but it is totally superfluous in this instance, and only adds new complications when it comes to shaping. That is why I suggested that Lahey most likely doesn't follow this recipe himself. Do you know what ISN'T absurd? People anywhere, anytime, making and eating pizza! Ah, thanks, Andrew. I misunderstood you. I think perhaps to survive as a NYC restaurateur, you need to be constantly fiddling with proven stuff to find the next hot thing, the new method, the quirky adjustment... in order to remain "front page." I'm sure most of us are glad we're not under such constant pressure to succeed, and can simply bake what we like, by our favorite method, even if we've done it a million times before. Thanks for writing back- PJH

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