Joede;
I seems that I just the other day answered this very question, but it never hurts to do it again.
Dough temperature is the key to successful dough management. The temperature of the dough controls how the dough will ferment. For example, if the dough is too warm, it can become excessively gassy during scaling and balling, it is then a better insulator and it is more difficult to cool once you put it into the cooler. With just a little luck, you could end up with “blown dough”. Not a pretty sight.
In addition to this, you will also reduce the hold time in the cooler. Now, that the dough is warmer, you may not be able to hold the dough as long as you previously had without experiencing flat pizzas…bummer!
If the dough temperature is colder than normal you may find that the dough is tough and elastic when you try to open up the dough balls on the following day…this is a sure fire way to make points with your prep crew.
Getting back to the warmer than desired dough, you might be so moved to reduce the yeast in the dough to correct for the problem, sure this wil help with the blown dough and lack of refrigerated hold time, but when the pizzas go to the oven they won’t rise as they should, not you’ve got flat, low height pizzas, and the real kicker is that since the dough doesn’t rise as it should, it is more dense than desired, making it a better medium for conducting heat, now the heat is readily transported right through the dough/crust to the moist toppings and sauce where it is dissipated as steam. The result is a much less crispy crust and with any luck at all, you will be the recipient of a lovely gum line just under the sauce that will cause you days or weeks or even months of agony and expense as you try to get rid of it, and it won’t go away until you fix the underlying problem by correcting the dough temperature, which will allow you to add more yeast back to the dough , which will open the structure of your crust back up again to give an open, porous cell structure which effectively insulates the top of the pizza from the bottom during baking and as a result, the bottom bakes up nice and crispy, it gets thoroughly baked, and you now have a crispy, well baked pizza without the gum line.
I could p[robably write a small book on the affects of temperature and the importance of temperature control in dough management.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
