?_Lehmann:

Hello I have been going through a lot of dough recipes and I just can’t find the right one. I get everything from sysco even the flour. It’s just that I need help on a good dough recipe and then I also need proofing instructions and also cooking times. I have a doughpro for pressing the dough balls and we have a Lincoln impinger. Can you please help out? Thanks in advance.

Current Issues with Pizza:
Current flour being used: Gold Medal Superlative Bakers enriched flour

-The dough doesn’t rise properly sometimes explodes all over the tray when proofing
-Sometimes it cooks perfect and at times it doesn’t its still dough at time when it comes out of the oven but it looks perfect until you eat it.
-We also sometimes get a gummy surface right under the sauce after it’s cooked.
-We have a 30 qt mixer and get 25lb flour sacks

Too many inconsistencies

Moe Muthana
661.978.9283
Pizza Joint

Ple3ase do give us the recipe you are using (including finished dough temp) and the handling you are doing when the dough is done . . . like where you store, what size you portion, and what temp it is cooled at.

On the baking side, please give the temp and time of the bake. These guys here are dead on trouble shooting, if they have enough info. These questions will be a good starting point.

Moe:
As you have the inconsistencies, I’ve got the questions. I will need to get information from you on hoe you’re managing your dough and on how you’re baking it. I’m betting that the bulk of your problems are in these two areas. I’ll give you a call later today to discuss these thing with you.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Moe;
I rang your chimes but didn’t hear back from you yet, so here are a few things to consider:

  1. Are you weighing all of your ingredients?
  2. What kind of yeast are you using and at what amount?
  3. What is your finished (mixed) dough temperature?
  4. After mixing, do yo uimmediately scale the dough and put it into dough boxes and then take every couple dough boxes to the cooler?
  5. How long does it take to scale and ball all of your dough?
  6. Do you cross stack the dough boxes in the cooler for 90 to 120 minutes before down stacking and nesting the boxes?
  7. do you always put the dough boxes in the same place in the cooler?
  8. when you remove the dough from ther cooler for use, do you allow the dough to temper at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes before beginning to shape it?
  9. What is your bake time and temperature?
  10. What are you baking your pizzas on? If a pan or disk, what is the color?
  11. If you are using an air impingement oven, do you know what the finger configuration is?
    These are the questions I have for you. We don’t need answers to al of them, but anything will help.
    Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Thanks for the reply I have tried to answer all the questions as precisely as possible.
I will also try to contact you tomorrow did get your message think I was still asleep from long night at work :wink:

1)Are you weighing all of your ingredients?
Yes we are weighing everything each time using a digital scale2) What kind of yeast are you using and at what amount?
Instant Yeast 0.80 ounces
3) What is your finished (mixed) dough temperature?
80 degrees Fahrenheit
4) After mixing, do you immediately scale the dough and put it into dough boxes and then take every couple dough boxes to the cooler?
As soon as its out of the mixer we start cutting and forming dough balls currently at 35 ounces for a 17-18 inch we do not take the first two trays we just stack them on the cart then at the end we move them to the walk-in cooler where they are held at 40-42 degrees Fahrenheit.
5) How long does it take to scale and ball all of your dough?
We only do small batches of 25lb flour since it’s a 30 qt mixer so it takes about 15-20 minutes I’m guessing
7) Do you cross stack the dough boxes in the cooler for 90 to 120 minutes before down stacking and nesting the boxes?
No, we just take them in stacked never crossed
do you always put the dough boxes in the same place in the cooler?
Most of the time yes its in the same place
9) when you remove the dough from the cooler for use, do you allow the dough to temper at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes before beginning to shape it?
Yes we do and we sometimes leave it out longer
10) What is your bake time and temperature?
5min.50 seconds @ 450 degrees Fahrenheit
11) What are you baking your pizzas on? If a pan or disk, what is the color?
We use Screens
12) If you are using an air impingement oven, do you know what the finger configuration is?
Absolutely no clue on this one???

Dough Recipe currently using

30 qt mixer

Flour – 25 lb Gold Medal Superlative Bakers enriched flour
Water- 6.5 liters “at about 70 degrees Fahrenheitâ€

that is a lot of dough 4 that size of pie, cooking that quick…

for a thin crust in a MM360 we use 21 oz.

What kind of pizza are you trying to make? At 35 ounces of dough for a 17"-18" pizza, that represents a thickness loading factor of about 0.138 to 0.154. That seems high to me for just about any type of pizza. It may be that the “gummy” dough is really uncooked dough because of the dough thickness and the temperature and bake time you are using. In any event, you perhaps should get the finger settings set properly for the type of pizza you plan to make, especially if you are using an oven that may have a finger setting that was set for another type of pizza. This sometimes happens when using used equipment.

If you are using dough boxes as opposed to trays, you should cross stack them before down stacking.

Your yeast (IDY), at 0.8 ounces, or 0.20%, may be too low. It’s also possible that your 6-minute knead time is too short.

I’m sure Tom will straighten things out.

I saw this one right away, too. Unless doing a pan, or thick crust pizza, this seems high. I use a .115 dough factor for my hand tossed pies. It is neither the crackery, nor a thick crust. That would give me about 29 to 30 ounces of dough for an 18" pie (23 oz for my 16" largest one)

As the “guest” said, you may want to recheck/rest your oven fingers for the pie you have and/or reduce the amount of dough to get the oven and fingers together on the same cooking page.

Moe;
Wow! You are really efficient!
Everything looks to be in order except for one thing. The fact that you are not cross stacking the dough boxes, especially when combined with your fairly heavy dough weights. You had mention earlier something about the dough over fermenting, growing too big, etc. This would certainly cause that type of response in the dough. It will also result in inconsistent dough performance as your fermentation is not consistent when the dough is not cooled uniformly. The first thing I would like to ask you to try is to just cross stack the dough boxes for 2 hours after putting them in the cooler. Then down stack (rebuild the stack by putting the top box on the bottom and each following box on top of it in a nested fashion) and kiss the dough good night.
Let me know what affect this has.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Thanks all for the replies. Tonight I have done exactly what you told me I kneaded the dough a little longer and also the dough balls are at 30 oz for an 18 inch pizza. I have cross staked the trays for 2 hours then stacked them back in order in the walk-in cooler. I will leave them over night and in the morning I will post the results.

Dough Temp going into walk-in cooler was 87 degrees Fahrenheit

“I don’t have a deep dish pizza or anything we some how just came up with the weight of the dough ball a while back and have just stuck to it never thought about changing it, but tonight we have and we will see the results in the morning…looking for a standard size crust nothing to big nothing to thin.â€

we use 18 oz dough for an 18" pie, but we also are doing NY style

Sorry for the delay after making already a few dozen batches everything has been consistent. I think it was a combination of both the storing process and dough size. Once again thanks for the help.