Newbie;
The finished dough temperature regulates the rate of fermentation that your dough is subjected to. For example; If the dough temperature is too high, it will ferment more than desired during the “cutting” time (time it takes to cut/scale and ball the dough) which results in a more gassy dough that is better insulated to chilling, hence the dough balls don’t get cooled as quickly as they should be which can result in the dough “blowing” during the refrigerated holding period. If the dough isn’t so far out of spec, temperature wise so as to result in the dough blowing, it can seriously affect the way the dough performs if you are holding the dough for several days in the cooler. To correct for this, if you don’t regularly measure the dough temperature or aren’t aware of the fact that you have a temperature problem with your dough, is to reduce the yeast level. Sure, this helps to control the over fermentation issues, but it also brings its own baggage to the party, because now, with the excessively low yeast level, the dough doesn’t rise as expected during baking, resulting in a flat or flatter than desired crust profile, and if you are really out on a limb, the dough might be so dense as a result of insufficient yeast, that it doesn’t bake properly, and you end up with that dreaded gum line. Colder than desired dough temperatures can have just the opposite affect. The dough may cut and ball just great, and it cools down beautifully (because its already cold), but when you come back to the dough on the following day you find that it hasn’t risen very much, and it is difficult to shape (good way to make points with your crew). So what to do? Again, if you’re not monitoring the finished dough temperature, you may not be aware of the cold dough problem so the knee jerk reaction is to increase the yeast level. With that done, you may or may not see much improvement in the dough, but I can assure you that you wil see the affects of ther increased yeast level both at the oven where your crust might get thicker than desired, or the edges might just come up too high, or if you were really heavy handed with the yeast; Hello bubbles! Where have you been all of my life? So now you can see why I say that temperature is the key element in successful dough management.
As for your water question, hard water is great for making dough. The chloring isn’t as much of an issue as you might think it is, but if you want to get rid of that chlorine smell (I personally hate it) just run over to Home Depot and grab an activated charcoal water filter. For about $50.00 your water will taste decent again.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Thanks Tom…appreciate the response! Thank you also for all of your great posts (and videos)! All very educational and enjoyable.