Finally went to a Papa Johns for the first time today to test out the pie and watch them make the pizzas (as everthing is all wide out in the open for everyone to see). I will not comment of the taste of the pie, i rather want to know about how they make their crust so “springy”. I wanted them take a dough ball, smother it in corn meal, press it by hand and streach it a bit, totaly dock the crap out of it, then streach it by hand… then place it on the screen and see it spring back to a perfect non-holey round form.
I’ve seen Dominos and Pizzahut crust do this as well but not as super springy as Papa Johns.
I believe the texture of the crumb of the Papa John’s crust is because of large quantities of oil (soybean) and sugar in the dough. The dough balls also are a few to several days old before using (PJ makes twice a week deliveries from their commissaries to their stores). BTW, PJ does not use cornmeal. They use a product called “Dustinator”. It is made up of semolina, white flour and soybean oil.
i’m suprised at how little oil they use in the dough. But I dont see any big factor differences from doughs that I have made before, they all come out with very little “spring” and easily create holes on the crust when not handled properly.
Thoughts on why that is?
Also, the “Dustinator”. I assume that is just to keep the dough from sticking to anything… right now I just use regular flour… as I do not use a LOT, it does not effect the flavor. Can i assume that Dustinattor has almost no flavor to it? And why would they use that instead of just straight flour or corn meal? I’m sure that has to be more expensive then flour.
