Rich;
For yeast levels, go with 0.375% for IDY or 0.5% for ADY (be sure to prehydrate the ADY in 100F water for 10-minutes before adding it to the dough. Adjust the douygh water temperature to give you a finished dough temperature of 75 to 80F (this is a little cooler than what is normally recommended for walk-in coolers. Since you don’t have room for the dough boxes, don’t use them, instead, oil the dough balls and drop them into individuasl plastic bags (bread bags work great), twist the open end of the bag to close, and tuck it under the dough ball as you place it onto an aluminum sheet pan (18 X 26). You should have shelving ledges in the reach-in to accomodate these pans, or if yours is like one of ours, it is designed to take a rack, so you just put the trays of dough into the rack in the reach-in cooler. We have used this process very successfully at many of the pizza shows where all we have to use is a reach-in cooler.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Why would you suggest “individual” bags for each dough ball rather than one plastic dough bag that fits over the entire tray? Have you found this to have an effect?
Rich;
Since we’re dealing with a reach in cooler, the operating efficiency of these unite leave more than a little to be desired, especially whenb trying to cool down something like raw dough. By putting each dough ball into its own bag, you increase the surface area exposed to the cold air, making for greater operaing efficiency as it pertains to cooling the dough. All that dead air space created by slipping one large bag over an entire tray of dough balls creates a gread deal of inefficiency, but with the individually bagged dough balls, there is little of no dead air space, hence you get better cooling/operating efficiency.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
I’m so behind times. We see using metal dough pans not trays. So if I read correctly just cut the dough and ball it up. Then put it in the walk in. My current procedure calls to let it rise on the bench prior to cutting
If you are making dough to be used the same day I could see letting it rise on the bench a bit before cutting and rolling. I think you will find most of us here make dough to be used 24-48 hours later. It makes for a more tasty developed dough and has the added benefit of giving you two days worth in the cooler which covers you if you get unexpectedly busy. If you do not use as much as you thought you just don’t have to make as much the next day.
We make our dough as cold as we possibly can, cut and roll immediately and cross stack in the cooler right away. We use fresh yeast (comes in 1 lb bricks) at a rate of .5% (2oz for a batch based on 25lbs of flour). It is ideal 36 hours later, very usable at 60 hours and still usable at 84 hours but not fun. It can also be used the same day if you have to. Very flexible program. For the most part, if we have not used it by the end of the second day we roll it back into the mixer with new dough on day three.
When you have a reach in cooler, and that’s as good as it gets, I’ve found that reducing the target finished dough temperature to 70-75F helps a lot to keep the dough from blowing only if you can allow for some ventilation of the dough trays/boxes. The best way to do this in a reach in cooler where cross stacking isn’t an option is to stack the boxes off-set from front to back. This leaves about a two inch opening at the end of each box for ventilation. When conbined with the lower finished dough temperature we have found this to work quite well. This is the method that Jeff Zeak and I use at all of the pizza shows where we need to make dough for two or more days of demonstrations and it works quite well. As for the off set time, we normally add about 30-minutes to that which we would use if we were cross stacking the boxes in a walk in cooler.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
I too have a reach in cooler but have tried this stacking method to the best of my abilities and find that the dough balls tend to dry out even when I oil them…is this common?
By2Day;
What is your finished (mixed) dough temperature? A dough that is quite warm, say in the 90F range would tend to evaporate more water than a cooler dough, and how long do you allow the dough boxes to remain open for ventilation?
I have seen a few cases where the dough was stored in one side of the reach in and “other stuff” was stored in the other side, as a result the door was being constantly opened and closed leading to a loss of relative humidity (RH) in the entire reach in cooler which can have a dessicating effect upon anything in the cooler, including the dough. There is also a possibility that what you are seeing is the development of a pliable skin on the dough balls as opposed to the development of a dry, crusty skin. The pliable skin is normal in this case and doesn’t harm the dough in any way.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
I try to keep finished dough temp around 80 deg and lately even a bit less. We ball on the table and rise under plastic, do a first press into pans, cover and rise again then final press to the edges of the pan, cover with plastic lids and put in the cooler for use the next day. You have suggested to me in the past about bins but just never seems to work for me with the reach in. Are you supposed to press and use or press to pans then restore in cooler?
Thanks!
We use dough pans also. The way we do it, is after removing from the bowl to the bench. The dough will sit on the bench covered with plastic wrap and oil to keep it from drying out. We then cut it about 30 to 45 minutes later. Place in the pans and press again in about 30 minutes then put in cooler. But we have a walk in so storage is a bit easier.