I’d like to sheet & form my skins ahead of time (on screens) for big events. The problem is that the skins dry out. I was thinking of brushing with either eggwash or olive oil to keep them from drying out so quickly. Yay or nay? Any suggestions?
I had success in the past stacking sheeted screens in a tree holder and then covering with a garbage bag. I would tuck the bag underneath the screen to keep them totally covered. Worked pretty well.
We do this everyday with our roll out. 40 large go on to the 5 tiered overhead rack above the prep bench and the remainder large, smalls and Family sizes go on tree holders covered with garbage bags, They stay mosit for hours and cook up brilliantly
Dave
Stay away from the egg wash/egg white wash as the food safety and cross contamination issues will pose a constant threat. I’m in total agreement of using a wire tree rack to hold the skins and covering it with a food contact approved plastic bag. Works great!
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Thank you for your responses. I am a mobile pizza truck, so keeping the pizzas stable in the rack is also a major issue. (Yes, I can get there early and make skins but, the heat (and time) drys it out)
I have tried storing them in my proofer/warming cabinet (Turned off) which is GREAT for travel but depending on weather (humid, hot or mild etc) they get gooey and sometimes stick to the screen when I bake them. (A waste of money if this happens!) Fridge works great but no room. Ive tried dry ice in the cabinet, which didn’t work so great. I guess another cabinet that was refrigerated would work but I am completely out of room! Oh the joys of having a micro mobile kitchen!
Thanks again for the response on egg Tom. I only asked because we used to eggwash skins back in the day at a place in SLC (My first pizza job) nowadays people are really weird about what’s in the dough or on the dough.
Is there any way you can par-bake the skins?
Going out on a limb, here is something to try;
Make your dough using only 0.2% IDY.
Process/manage the dough in your normal manner (may need to change that but let’s go with it for now).
Open the dough balls up into skins, place onto screens, using a hair dryer dry the top of the opened skin to form a leathery, dry crust on the dough, then flip it over (dry side down), lightly brush the top with oil and place into a wire tree rack, cover the entire rack with a bag for storage.
If you bake on the screens be sure to gently lift the dough skin off of the screen and re position it so and screen marks are now out of register. Don’t worry about the dry skin/crust on the bottom of the skin as it will add to the crispiness of the bottom of your pizza.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor