?_Lehmann:

[system]

Dear Mr. Lehmann,

My name is Chris, and I work for a new independent pizzeria. Everything we do is basically from our own research and development. We’re having 2 problems with our pizzas, and they both affiliate with the dough. Problem one is too many “Bubbles” during the cooking process (We dock the dough extensivily) and Problem 2 is sometimes the dough rises good in the oven, sometimes its flat as cardboard. Any Insight? Any help appointed would be greatly appreciated.

-Chris

 

[NicksPizza]

Check out tom’s reply in this thread.

http://www.pmq.com/tt/viewtopic.php?t=5022

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Chris;
I’ve written a number of articles on bubbling of pizza crust that you can access through the archives. For openers, the most common cause of bubbling is failure to allow the dough to temper at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes after removing it from the cooler before shaping, dressing and baking. As for the sometimes flat pizzas, this is what we call a “knife edge” crust. This results from excessive fermentation due to either poor temperature controls, or excessive fermentation time. For example, most doughs are best mixed with a finished dough temperature in the 80 to 85F range, the dough should then be taken directly to the bench for scaling and balling, then placed into dough boxes, the top of the dough balls lightlt oiled, and the boxes cross stacked in the cooler for roughly 2 hours, then down stacked and nested to prevent drying. This ensures uniform cooling of the dough balls and allows for uniform fermentation of the dough while in the cooler. When the dough is removed from the cooler for use, it should remain covered, and be allowed to temper at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes before using the dough to form your dough skins. Once you begin using the dough it wil lremain good to use for a maximum of three hours.
Without knowing a whole lot more about how you atr making and managing your dough, I can’t be much more specific, but you might see if any of this fits into what you are doing, and make any necessary adjustments. Keep me posted and let me know what you find.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor