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Elongating the shelf life of my dough

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UncleNicksPizza

New member
Hey everyone, I was hoping someone could give me a little advice on what I can try to make my dough last longer.

Currently, my dough procedures are as follows:

7qt (Approximate) Refrigerated Water
Add in 6oz Oil, 8oz Sugar, 7oz Salt, whisk for approximately 30 seconds
Add in 25lb Flour
Top with 1oz of Fleischman’s IDY
Mix for 6 minutes
Store cross stacked in walk in for 2 hours
Cover up and let proof inside walk in

Following this method my dough usually sits for 48 hours before use. (We’ll call it day 1 and day 2 for proofing)

On day 3 the dough is ready for use, and bakes a nice crispy crust (I use a Lincoln Impinger). Day 4 same result. On day 5 however, the dough is blown up and had a bit of a fermentation smell to it. In addition, when it bakes it comes out very soft now.

I would like to try to get at least an extra day, if not two, out of my dough. How can I achieve this?

I have thought about reducing the yeast to .7oz but I do not know if this will affect the overall bake of the product.
 
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My recipe. %'s are quite similar, but I use no sugar…

I don’t cross stack my trays either…

But after 5 days, my dough is gone/used…

I believe the shelf of 5 days is a reasonable limit…
 
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Patriots,

Thank you. I come from a background managing papa johns so I am used to their shelf life. Thought something was wrong with mine.
 
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Same here…ours “can” be used on day five most of the time, but it doesn’t mean it should be used! Our dough is best on day 3, really good on 4…but starts to blow on day 5. Toss it, dough is cheap, losing a customer by not selling your best product isn’t.
 
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I just have to ask as inquiring minds have to know, what is your finished dough temperature? As I’ve said so many times, “dough temperature is the key to effective dough management” Your dough formula looks good, and if you are taking the dough DIRECTLY from the mixer to the bench to the cooler, and cross stacking the dough boxes (I would suggest that you cross stack for 3-hours in view of what you are trying to accomplish). Make sure you have lightly oil those dough balls after placing them in the dough boxes as this will help to prevent a skin formation on the dough balls. Make sure the dough is going into the cooler during a time when the cooler will be operating at peak efficiency, which typically calls for making the dough in the evening hours so it can sit in the cooler being chilled after most traffic into the cooler has ceased. With all of this in place, we now need to know what your finished dough temperature is. For what you are trying to accomplish, the finished dough temperature should be in the 60 to 65F range. If it isn’t, you will need to use ice water, or perhaps even replace a portion (about 1-pound to start with) of water with shaved or crushed ice. Remember, in this case you probably will NOT be able to use the dough inside of three days after putting the dough into the cooler, but you should be able to keep it for up to 6-days in the cooler. We do this with a lot of the smaller commissary operations quite successfully.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Tom,

Thanks for the great advice. On average, my dough is between the 65 - 70 degree mark when going in to the walk in (when I do the dough by myself).
 
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Our dough is usable on day 1, great on days 2 and 3 and quite usable on day 4. If we reach day five we mix it back in with new batches one tray per batch. Since we make dough every day anyway I can not see any use for a longer shelf life than that.
 
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UncleNicksPizza
I’d be willing to bet you, that if the dough you used on day 5 were balled on day 3 or 4 instead of day 1, your product would be as amazing as it is on Days 3 and 4 at present. It should be very easy and cheap to test this…the only concern might be the low hydration rate, but it sure is worth a try.

John
 
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John;
You are correct in that some doughs will respond favorably to being reworked, however other doughs (formulation and dough management technique) do not respond favorably as they only become “bucky”, this is a condition where the dough becomes very tight and elastic making it very difficult to open into a pizza skin without problems with excessive dough memory. The best way to find out is to try it to see how it works for you in your specific application.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Tom
As to your point on re working dough…I’ve been playing around with the concept of scaling my dough without balling it, and fermenting it that way…kind of a hybrid bulk fermentation. That way, the dough only gets worked once…it works very well with higher hydrated doughs, and the quality of the pizza remains very high for a longer period…since I can ball my doughs as I need them during the week. I’m not doing this commercially, just at home, but I think it certainly would be doable in any situation with proper dough management. Any thoughts??
John
 
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John;
I totally agree. In fact, many of the artisan breads we have come to know so well are made from a dough that is made exactly as you have described, the reason being to promote an open, porous crumb structure in the finished bread. I’ve made pizzas by this method quite successfully using plastic bowls to hold the scaled dough pieces. The bowls help by forming the dough into a round shape for easier opening into a round pizza skin, and ther dough opens super easy. The onl;y reason why we round the dough balls in the first place is to 1) Get a round format. 2) hold the dough together so the dough pieces don’t form a single large blob in the plastic dough boxes. 3) Reduce space and cost to inventory the dough as you don’t need all of those bowls (think 300 to 500 bowls for an average pizzeria). To some extent it also improves the way the dough handles, or should I say the handling properties of the dough as it is much easier to toss the dough if it has been rounded unless you really cut back on the dough absorption.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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