Actually, if your “recipe” works well, converting it to a formula should have no effect upon how it performs, or the quality of the finished pizza. What it does do for you is to allow you to easily review the dough formula to see if it is in correct balance. This is very useful in addressing any dough or product issues you might be experiencing, and more importantly, it allows you to manipulate the size of the dough without the need to make any formula/ingredient changes/tweeks. It can also help you when making ingredient changes, such as when changing the type of yeast used. if you are changing from ADY to IDY, how much IDY should you use? In a “recipe” with volumetric portions, you might be using 1/2 cup of ADY, so how much IDY should you replace it with? Now, lets look at the same question using a “formula” given in bakers percent. You are using ADY at 0.5% of the flour weight, how much IDY do you replace it with? Use IDY at 75% of the weight or percent of ADY and you come up with 0.375% IDY based on the flour weight. If you were to reduce the 1/2 cup portion by 25% when using IDY your conversion to IDY would not be correct.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
