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How did you learn to make pizza dough?

M

Missy_PMQ

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One of the things I regret about going to work for Domino’s was that I never learned how to make pizza dough for a store. We got it delivered from the truck right into the walk-in a couple days a week.

How did you come up with your recipe and technique?
 
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One of the things I regret about going to work for Domino’s was that I never learned how to make pizza dough for a store. We got it delivered from the truck right into the walk-in a couple days a week.

How did you come up with your recipe and technique?
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I started in the industry as a delivery driver I delivered for most of the pizza shops in town. I watched how each one did their dough and copied what I felt was the best.
 
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I always made dough according to job helpers at corp. stores. Now that i have my own store i use a similar recipe but with our special little tricks that make it ours. Its definetly a trial and error process that takes time and patience
 
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I made over 150 dough variations at home just for the thin crust. Used a digital scale and filled a notebook
 
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With my trying to teach others how to scale/ball dough at my place, I have come to the conclusion that some people simply have the inherent skills needed to do it properly, but many do not.

I learned from a 3rd generation pizza shop in Milwaukee nearly 30 years ago.
I developed my own dough recipe through experimenting with different flours/hydrations to get the finished product that I wanted, and I now blend 2 different types of flour to get the properties that are preferred by myself and our customers in our pizza.
 
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I don’t know about a gene, but experience is very helpful. Dough performs radically different in differing temperature/humidity conditions. Additionally, scaling does not always yield the same results. So, even if you control the basic variables (water temperature, ingredient weight, etc.) it is very helpful to know what the dough should look and feel like and what the fermentation conditions will yield. I was luck enough to grow up in a commercial bakery my parents owned and discovered how dough feels and performs. Before opening, though, I too tried hundreds of variants of dough. I would make 3-5 pizzas per day and hop on my skateboard delivering to my neighbors to get feedback. I literally burned up 3 kitchen aid mixers with our low-hydration formula before opening. Even today, after five years in business, we are learning about how our dough performs under varying conditions. It really is possible to be a dough-geek. Just don’t expect to meet a lot of women (or men) with pickup lines about proofing and rise-time. 🙂 #pizzaislife
Patrick Cuezze
Next Door Pizza
 
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@GotRocks , do you reckon there is a “dough” gene?
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No, But some people just do not possess the skills needed to perform certain tasks.
Sort of like cooking in general, I’ve always said “Cooking is not something that can just be taught, you either have the skills, or you don’t”

Sure, I could teach almost anyone to make a specific recipe, if said recipe adheres to strict times/temps, but if there is any variances involved, they are lost.
Maybe that is why most all chain places use conveyor ovens set at specific speeds and temps, right? They make it so the lesser skilled people can still be employed by them.
 
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GotRocks said:
I’ve always said “Cooking is not something that can just be taught, you either have the skills, or you don’t”
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Well if it’s something inherent that’s not taught… it MIGHT be genetic. Right? Maybe it’s not the skills as much as the passion that gets passed dough which make people really WANT to understand.

Anyone learn how to make dough online?
 
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