The reach-in cooler under your prep table will be at the same temperature as your walk-in cooler. The dough balls should be stored at room temperature for about 90-minutes after they are removed from the cooler. This tempering procedure will improve the handling of the dough and also reduce bubbling during baking. The only time that I ever like to store dough under the prep table is when I use it for making take and bake pizzas where I want to have a cold dough. I’ve written a number of articles on the different forming methods, but in a nutshell, pressing v/s hand tossing; pressing will require a more relaxed dough than hand tossing if dough memory/snap-back are to be held to a reasonable level. Pressing also results in a flatter overall finished crust appearance. Hand tossing results in a lighter textured finished crust, and a finished crust with a higher , more pronounced raised edge, but hand tossing done wrong can result in overly thin center section to the skin which results in soft crust character or even a dreaded gum line in the center section.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
