Looking to improve my dough. I have been open for about a year now and I am content with the dough but I feel like it could be better. Don’t have bakers percentages but this is how I do it:
50lb bag unbleached flour
12 quarts water
6 ounces yeast
6 ounces salt
4 ounces sugar
32 ounces olive oil.
Start with 11 quarts of 80-90 degree water. Add salt and sugar. Get final quart of 100 degree water and add yeast. Let that sit for 5-10 minutes. Then I add flour to the water, salt and sugar. Last I add the yeast on top of flour and mix for a few minutes and add olive oil last and mix for about 10 minutes. We ball up right away and put on aluminum pans that are lightly oiled with olive oil on bottom and dough balls get lightly oiled as well. We usually use the dough anywhere from 8-24 hours after they are made but don’t have perfect set hours because I have no walk in. I have a built in rack system that the dough goes in on one of my 3 door refrigerators. I am just looking for anyone to offer tips/insight on anything to do with actually recipe or procedures that I could be doing better.
Jeremy;
What is your finished dough temperature? It seems to me that it might be quite warm for the way you are managing your dough which could result in inconsistencies in both dough performance as well as crust flavor. Normally when we use a reach-in cooler for holding the dough we recommend a finished dough temperature in the 70 to 75F range due to the greater inefficiency of the reach-in cooler. If you can get away from using the dough as soon as 8-hours that would help a lot too as 8-hours fermentation time just isn’t enough to develop what most of us would call a really good flavor in the finished crust, I’m sure the 8-hour fermented dough would handle differently from your 24-hour fermented dough too resulting in even more inconsistency.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Thanks for the reply Tom. Right now off the top of my head I would say our finished dough is around 90 degrees. I think it’s really just time to invest in a walk in cooler. That way I can really max out my dough and consistently be using it 24 hours after being made at a minimum. Right now I just don’t have the space. What water temps would you recommend to get the dough at a finished temp of 70-75? Also if I do make a batch that gets down to that temp minimum of 24 hours before use right?
Jeremy;
What we are talking about here is dough management and time - temperature control is the key to effective dough management. Without effective dough management you cannot have a consistently performing dough or finished crusts with consistent quality characteristics. you really need to be using your thermometer to check and record the finished dough temperature. Tracking the dough temperature is the first step in achieving effective dough management. I cannot say what your water temperature should be as I don’t know anything about your shop conditions but here is a formula for finding the correct water temperature, or something pretty close. 3 times the desired dough temperature minus the sum of the flour temperature + room temperature + friction factor of your mixer (if you are using a planetary mixer try using (30) for the friction factor). Once you get the finished dough temperature down into the 70 to 75F range allow the dough to cold ferment for a minimum of 24-hours before using it. When you get a walk-in cooler that finished dough temperature can be adjusted upwards to 80 to 85F due to the improved cooling efficiency of the walk-in cooler. With the lower finished dough temperature you will also be able to hold your dough in the cooler for up to 72-hours without significant change in the dough or finished crust quality characteristics.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Thank you so much for your guidance Tom. I really appreciate it. I will let you know the results in the next few days. Also wondering if there is anything I can do to make my dough crispier. Is there anything I can add to the dough to achieve this or do I just need to reduce cheese and toppings on pizzas to get a crispier crust. Right now to get a crispy crust the crust is browning up to quick in my deck ovens. Cooking at 500 degrees. I am worried about decreasing sugar because we also sell a ton of beer nuggets and they get perfectly golden brown and we use the same dough for that as well.
I am also having the same problem with calzones. They brown up to much on outside and inside the cheese isn’t melting. We cut slits in the calzones and we have tried reducing the amount of cheese in them as well. Right now we are capping them with a pan to make sure they are not burning. That becomes a pain on a busy night.
We don’t mess with our temps any more… but when we did, if the problem was too brown on the outside before the product was fully cooked the solution was lower temp, longer bake.
Jeremy;
That’s an indication that your oven is too hot and not allowing you to bake the calzones for a sufficiently long time. Eliminating the sugar from your dough formula might help but from your description it really sounds like your oven is too hot. Have you confirmed the actual operating temperature of your oven using an infrared thermometer?
If the problem is mostly on the bottom of the pizza (doesn’t sound like it though) placing a screen under the calzone will help. Also, the thicker the dough the better of an insulator it will be so making the dough skin from which the calzones are made thinner might also help. You could also try spritzing the top of the calzones with water as you place them in the oven. Can you attach a picture of your calzones baked both with and without the pan covering? Also be sure to cut it in half so we can see it from the cut side too. This would help us in identifying what the problem might be.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Ok I will try lowering the temperature a little on the ovens. Right now I just have standard oven thermometers in each deck right now. I will have to look into infrared thermometers. I will start with a ten degree drop. Just want to be careful because of the volume we do I am concerned about slowing down the line. I will send some pictures later tonight. Thanks for the tips guys.
Jeremy;
I look forward to seeing the pics.
If you look for an IR thermometer they are really quite inexpensive. One for your application can be had for under $50.00. If you have a Harbor Freight or something similar that is a good place to begin looking or go to <www.harborfreight.com> , I’ve seen them advertised there for around $25.00.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Jeremy;
I just received a sale flier from Harbor Freight and they have the laser/IR thermometers presently on sale at only $19.00 and change. They max out at just under 1000F so it’s perfect for just about any pizza oven. Send me an e-mail at [email protected] and I’ll forward you the link.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
