Hi guys, bit of a problem with par baking that i hope someone with more expertise could help me with. I’m currently setting up a business selling chilled pizzas to supermarkets and local stores. Everything is coming along well… the labels are designed, i have the equipment to seal the pizzas and just today ive sent off 7 pizzas to a food lab to have tests carried out over the next week to determine the shelf life of the product. The only problem i’m stuck on is the par-baking of the crusts. I understand that the bases must be par baked to kill the yeast activity but im unsure as to what temperature the bases should be cooked to. I’ve been using a probe thermometer but im not sure of the temperature the yeast will actually die at. Also the bases seem to really dry out - should i increase the water in the dough? Currently when i remove the pizzas from my deck oven i allow them to cool to 5 degrees c / 41 degrees f. I then apply sauce and toppings then seal them and put them straight in the refrigerater. The bases are rock hard though and the uneven surface makes it very difficult to apply the sauce. Another problem is that the bases bubble up in the oven… perhaps because there there is no sauce, cheese and topping to weigh them down? Should i reduce the yeast %? The bases are cooked on screens. I’ve tried different oven temperatures from 200c/392f to 300c/572f but it doesnt stop it happening.
Thanks guys, any suggestions are very greatly appreciated
Mike
For a small fee I’ll tell ya all you want to know, as I once was a par-baked maker/mfg…lol…
!st it sounds as though the dough is not tempered/proofed (too cold) hence the excess bubbling…are you ‘docking’ the dough as well? How long are you ‘aging’ the dough, from the time it is mixed until it is formed & baked?
How are you forming it? Hand tossed or?
I always used some type of a conveyor oven & can’t imagine using a deck oven to produce any quantity of shells, but if that is all you are doing, it may be ‘doable’…the temps seem right, but perhaps you have too much bottom heat & not enough top heat…350 degrees should do fine with proofed dough…
If you don’t freeze your end product, it will only last a week or so under refrigeration, as the sauce & cheese won’t play nicely after that…
Good Luck!
Thanks dude! The pizzas are rolled out with a pin then docked quite extensively. Its not like a normal bubble that you would see on a pizza during cooking. Its almost like the entire top of the pizza is ballooning up. It means pulling them out of the oven and then going ‘patrick bateman’ on them with a knife lol. Would you recommend setting both top and bottom elements to 350f?
I’ll try extending the proofing time to see if that helps. I was a little apprehensive of leaving the dough out incase there was any build up of bacteria but im probably being too careful. Would you suggest proofing in doughball form or as a rolled skin? I did a little research on the different types of yeast and i found that it will be completely dead when heated to 140f. I’m using instant yeast. I think ive been baking the bases for too long which might be contributing to the very firm end result.
Instant, IDY, ADY & fresh yeast all require a bit of different handling…I believe most on this form use IDY, say 2-4 oz. per 50# bag of flour…
pinning out the dough is more time consuming than a true hand-toss…
keep your dough balls balled up in the tray and they should be @ least 24 old before using them…let them 'floor proof; for a couple of hours (depending on the amount of yeast used…)
if you proof in a rolled state, they will begin to dry out in 30 minutes or so, unless you have then covered…
we devised thru trial & error, a mickey-mouse system, as we used a sheeter and floor proofed them on specially destructed trays & covered them in plastic body bags…
for what its worth, we’d sometimes do 2,000/day during the holiday season…what a trip that was!!!
To answer your question as to what temperature yeast dies at: shoot for 140F , however, that will only kill the yeast, it won’t set the dough structure or for that matter, kill much of any of the other micro-organisms present in the dough. For that, you’re going to need to get the internal dough temperature up to 165F or higher, and even at that, you won’t be setting very much of the dough structure, for that you’re going to need to get the internal temperature up to around 180F or more.
The best way to prevent the pocketing problem that you’re experiencing is to first, brush the dough lightly with salad oil, then apply a light application of sauce. This will control the pocketing situation. As soon as the crust is removed from the oven, place it on a screen to cool to about 100F, then place in the cooler to continue cooling until the crust is at 40F. You can then finish dressing the crust and wrap it.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor