Ray;
Your proofing options are to proof at room temperature or in an a temperature/humidity controlled cabinet. The problem with room temperature as you are wel aware of is the variability in temperature so you never know what the proof time will be. When proofing at room temperature you can use plastic bags to cover the sheet pans containing your deep dish pans, or you can use the aluminum pan spacers (American Metalcraft) between the pans and stack the pans on a shelf or table. Some pans are made with a special top rim which allows the pans to be stacked one on top of another so the bottom of each pan becomes the lid for the pan beneath it. All this does is to prevent the dough from drying out. The real solution is to go with the temperature/humidity controlled cabinet. My own personal preference is the Econo-Proofer from Belshaw Bros., at 206-322-5474. When using this cabinet, with both temperature and humidity control you don’t need to cover the pans as the humidity will prevent the dough from drying out. Since the pans don’t need to be covered, they will warm and proof faster too. Typically, these cabinets are set at 95 to 100F and 80% relative humidity. We use one in our training programs and it works great. Deep dish pizza dough usually requires about 45 minutes proof time to give a finished crust similar to P.H. if thickness.
If you don’t mind keeping your pans covered in some way, you could also go with a heated cabinet (without the humidity control) like they use for keeping foods hot during short time transport. If you already have one, give it a try, if you can get a good used one at a reasonable price, go for it, but if you’re looking to buy new, you will probably be ahead going for a temperature/humidity controlled unit for about the same money.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
