Ask Tom Lehmann a Question

Well, I measured the temperature of the dough both yesterday and today. You were right in thinking that I was coming out a bit high - yesterday measured 88 degrees. This morning came out right on 80 degrees. And I only achieved that by actively telling myself to use cooler water, so it’s safe to assume that my typical batches were in the 90’s to low 100’s.

Today we’re working with some dough that is now 27-28 hours old, and there is no noticeable difference. The smell is exactly as it should be, the texture is as it should be, too. I have noticed a slightly longer cooking time, it could be coincidental?

I have not used your second recommendation on oiling the dough balls yet. Admittedly, I was a bit curious to see how much of a difference monitoring the temperature would make.

Is it safe to think that dough, made properly and stored properly should have a usable shelf life (without any real degradation) of 72 hours?
 
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Yes. Yesterday, in our pizza class we were working with a dough that was three days old (72-hours) and it performed beautifully all day long. Normally we don’t see any difference in baking time.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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So procedure was a majority of my problem this whole time. And I’m convinced that storage will be the final piece of the puzzle. Thank you so very much Tom. I may need to monopolize your message board again someday, but hopefully not too soon! 🙂

Have a great weekend.

-Jeff.
 
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Hello Tom

Hey Tom

I am trying to find a dough recipe that would allow for me to make cold spinach pockets with… I am trying my current recipe that is big daves old faithful… but the taste after chilled is a little off along with a somewhat tough dough

do you have any suggestions???

thank you
 
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I was wondering if it makes a difference in the type of dough hook used to mix pizza dough.

I have an 80 qt Hobart mixer and have always used a “spiral” hook. Through some testing we have found that a “J” hook makes better dough. Is this possible?

Thanks
 
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How to get the Jets Pizza Chain’s exact square pan pizza dough.

I am trying to achieve the Jets Pizza chain’s square pan pizza. It has a dominate hard fried golden crispy crunch on the entire bottom (with a thick chewy top layer) dough. You can hear the crunch when you bite it.

I have worked out the chesse melting timeline vs the fried bottom, but I can only achieve a softer flakier fried, but more “baked”, crisp; and, only on the edges with a soft middle (even to the point of finally burning the bottom). I also have a more cooked breadlike layer and less chewy top layer.

Jets claims no one but them can do it. Some of their personel say its in the custom made pan thickness, but they look normal to me. They use a Middleby conveyor oven that says 500 deg. for about 8 to 9 minutes.
Their alergens web site claims flour and corn oil no milk or cornmeal etc? But the franchisor furnishes all the flour themselves.

Can you duplicate their recipe or secret to achieve this exact dough; or, refer me to a source that will do so for me? If not, can you advise in any way?

I can send you a sample of a Jets if necessary. Just reheat and the crunch will return even harder.

Thanks
Bob

PS Jets has a separate burnt top edge crisp that is done with cheese to the edge. I have gotten that easily.
 
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Tommy;
To get a more tender eating finished product I’d recommend doing two things. 1) Change over to a lower protein content flour. Try an H& R type of flour, or a typical bread flour with about 11% protein content, and 2) increase the oil content to 5% of the flour weight (flour weight X 5 then press the “%” key and read the amount in the display window).
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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314;
The type of dough hook used will not have any influence on the flavor of the resulting dough, but, it will affect the way you think about mixing a dough. With a “J” hook you will need to be continually cutting the dough off of the hook to get uniform mixing action. To me, this seems like a lot of extra work. With the reverse spiral dough arm, the dough is forced back down into the bottom of the mixing bowl, resulting in shorter mixing times, more uniform mixing of the dough, and, most importantly, because I don’t need to be there cutting the dough off of the hook and turning it over in the bowl, I can use theRon Popiel method of dough mixing; “Set IT, and Forget IT”. This frees me up to do other things while the dough is mixing.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Debbie;
Much of the “commercial” salt, that is, the salt used by commercial manufacturers is non-iodized. It’s mostly the salt used in the home and salt shakers that is Iodized. You won’t see any difference between idoized and non-iodized salt. The main reason for having iodized salt in the first place is as a preventative measure for goiters.
Is there a reason why you want to get away from using iodized salt?
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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No reason, except that it is the only type that one of my supplier supplies, and I picked it up not thinking and knowing until I returned to the store, so before opening and using was curious if it would change my dough. Now knowing this is all that they carry, I will get salt from my second supplier…But if it will change my dough I will return it
 
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Debbie;
You won’t see any difference in the performance in any of your applications, so go ahead and use it, not a problem.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Hi,
I have been running 2 pizzerias for 3 years. I couldn’t figure out a way to stuff the crust. I would like to have cheese stuffed crust. Can you please tell me how to do it?
 
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Sure, the easiest way to do it is to place the dough into a pan. Be sure to sheet the dough about 2-inches larger in diameter than the pan diameter, or if you don’t sheet the dough, place the well fermented dough ball into a greased pan and press it out to completely fill the bottom of the pan. Set the pans aside for about 10-minutes, then come back to them and begin pulling the dough up the sides of the pan. Place a ring of string cheese around the bottom of the pan and fold the sides of the dough, that you just pulled up down over the cheese and tuck in in to seal it. Dress the dough and bake in the normal manner. For a thick crust, allow the dough to proof/rise for 30 to 45-minutes before dressing and baking.
If you are making a thin crust, again, open the dough up about 2-inches larger in diameter than you need, and place the cheese on the dough at the diameter you want, now fold the dough up and over the cheese and crimp it well to seal it closed. Dress and bake.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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How’s the roto flex pizza oven
Have u ever been hands on with it
I’m lookin to purchase a few
 
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Tom: Having a problem with black dots forming on top of our dough balls. They show themselves as early as 12 hours after production and are plainly visible within 2 days. What do you think? Any suggestions to stop this? We use active dry yeast.
 
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EJG;
There are a number of things that can result in those black spots, reduced iron particles (iron in the enrichment blend in the flour “enriched flour”), or they may also be due to yeast agglomerates, possibly due to use of ady that has not been pre-hydrated, you can discount this if you are pre-hydrating the ADY. It can also be a reaction with the bran particles in the flour too. Normally, a light coating of salad oil on the dough balls after they are placed into the dough box is all that is needed to prevent the black spots from appearing. They are not harmful, and yes, they do disappear during baking.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Tom: Knowing that these black dots aren’t a health hazard, disappear while cooking and don’t effect taste, I am not sure that this is worth my time to fix. My question to you is: Do you think this is worth fixing? We oil our dough balls and follow all of the storage/prep instructions for the yeast. Our dough is sold within 3 days and if it is not, we throw it out.
 
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EJG;
If it were me, I’d be spending my time putting out bigger fires.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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