Dough question from new owner/operator

Pizza Shop Talk The Think Tank
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Hello folks. I’ve been lurking here taking in as much info as possible for the last few months. I took the plunge, and opened a new restaurant, (my first) a couple of months ago. Things are going pretty well.

We started with a 20 quart mixer ( I know, very small, but it was what I could afford), outgrew it, and I recently bought a Hobart hl-600. What a difference. No more 8 batches of dough per day!

Here’s my issue: we don’t have a walk in, and I’m storing my dough in a 4 door pizza prep station. What’s happening is that the dough in the bottom dough boxes starts to blow out too soon. Say I make it on Sunday night, it is fine on Monday, but by Tuesday, it is blown in the lower stack. The prep station is at 34-36 degrees.

I’m using 1 oz of instant yeast in a 26 lb batch with 16 lbs of Water. I cross stack for two hours before covering. Any ideas?

Thanks so much!

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Hi,
I had a similar problem and started cross stacking overnight just to fully chill it down. Also, I label the batches a, b, c etc. You may need to rotate your boxes so the first batch you make is the first batch you use. Hope this helps.
Susan

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Food stacked in contact with what is essentially the floor of the cooler will not chill as well as that elevated off the floor. The walls are generally warmer than you want (40+) meaning it never really gets cool when sealed off. Add to that, the door opens and drops all that cold air out of prep coolers.

We never got any good performance/longevity with dough on the floors . . . raise it up . . . or rotate bottom to the top immediately at the start of shift and use from bottom up.