By: Ema Kosova, 10-12-2024

Earlier this year, we sent samples of Agrain flour to a pizza chef in the UK who wanted to give it a go. A few months later, the same pizza chef sent us a photo of a perfectly crusted pizza made with spent grain flour.  

“It’s a biga dough made with Agrain,” he said, “and I’m going to be competing with it at the European Pizza Show!”  

Fast forward and we’re standing next to said pizza chef, Daniel Hall, at the European Pizza Show in London. Dan is amongst 40 finalists competing for the prize of best pizza in Europe, and he’s confident that his biga dough stands a good chance. In this short interview, Dan shares his experiences of using Agrain flour, his thoughts on innovative food ingredients in traditional recipes, and the future of sustainability in the pizza industry. 

Agrain: What inspired you to use spent grain in pizza dough?  

Dan: I like trying new things and something that's quite important to me is sustainability and making sure that we're making the most of the ingredients we have. I find there's a lot of wastage and it's nice to find a way to repurpose a new product. But also, I like the actual effect it has on the dough. It gives it strength and it gives a lot of flavour to the dough and that's really beneficial to me.  

So how did you come across spent grain? Have you tried it before?  

I'd never tried it before and I think I saw an advert for Agrain on Instagram and I was really curious about it, and then just kind of reached out. You guys sent me some samples and I just played around with it.   

How does spent grain flour enhance the flour texture in the pizza dough?  

So, I think it adds a lot of strength to it and it also adds a lot of absorbency so you can push the hydration of the dough a lot more. It adds a lot of flavour as well. I think you don't necessarily realise how much flavour it adds. It's almost like a whole grain. You've got a lot of richness and nuttiness to it.  

Have you tested how much more you can hydrate?  

Well, for example with this biga, this is 70% hydration and I think I can probably push that further if I wanted to. I probably wouldn't today, but I probably could have done. I've used weaker flours in combination with Agrain before and been able to increase the hydration quite a bit – definitely by a few percentage points. Since you've got the strength your doughs are going to last longer as well. So, if you're using a weaker flour you normally have a shelf window for let's say 24 hours. You put a bit of Agrain in it and maybe you're getting 36 hours out of it! 

Have you received any kind of feedback?  

Yeah! Well, when I first made this particular biga dough, my wife's eaten a lot of pizza over the years and she said it's the best dough I've ever made. She absolutely loved it. Everyone has tried it and loved it. I think it really enhances the flavour and the quality of the dough in general.  

So why did you choose to compete with spent grain flour?  

I think it's a bit different and it's maybe something people haven't seen before, and it allows me to play around with it in a different setting and also introduce it to other people so they can get into it as well. There's a lot of really talented, famous pizza chefs who are judges. They've probably never heard of it before. And it's going to maybe open their eyes to something with the new products.  

Do you think that the spent grain flour could be a normal ingredient in artisanal pizzas?  

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I don't see why it wouldn't be. I mean, you can quite easily add it to your normal dough and use it all year round. I was talking to someone who had a bit of my sample. He loves it. He wants to get a hold of it. He wants to use it in his dough. You know, everyone I've spoken to about it is really interested in trying it, so there's a lot of scope for it. 

The presenter said that they were looking at innovation and sustainability. I didn't expect them to talk about that in such a traditional area.  

Yeah. I think you've got mixed views, depending on the judges. Some will want to see something very traditional and they won't like any changes. But there's a lot of contemporary chefs as well, who are here today, who will be judging, who will want to see something different, and they'll have questions of, “Why have you done this?” and “What's the reason for that?”. I think that's good, and I think it's an ingredient where you can use it and still be faithful to the tradition, but also you can in a way improve on it and play around with it without going away from that too much. 

Do you have any tips or advice to other pizzaiolos looking to experiment?  

Yeah, I think you just need to take your time with it and work out what's going to work for you, because obviously whatever flour you're using is probably going to be different from what I'm using, so it might be a bit weaker, it might be stronger. Just start slowly and incrementally until you get to the point where you're happy.  

My view about dough is you should always experiment. You don't know everything; things change all year round. A wheat harvest changes, your flour changes, you have to adapt, and the people who are like, “this is my recipe, I won't change from it” are going to struggle. You have to always adapt and play with it. So, you might use a little bit more at a certain time of year and a little bit less at a certain time of year.    

Last question. If you win the competition, what message do you hope it sends about innovation and sustainability in the pizza world?  

I hope it maybe opens some people's eyes to new products and new things that are happening. Hopefully, it will get more interest in this particular product and other sustainable products as well. It shows that there is an absolute market for that. You know, as well as using Agrain I have been using an oil from a company called Citizens of the Soil, which is a small batch, all female-led, sustainable olive oil. I want to highlight that there is an alternative to mass-produced ingredients which are not always the best quality. 

Find Daniel Hall on Instagram at @mozza_fella 🍕