Dough Recipe Disaster

[FirePie]

This afternoon I made a 16-inch pizza using the following formula posted by Pete-zza:

Flour (100%):
Water (61%):
IDY (0.17%):
Salt (2.5%):
Total (163.67%):
Single Ball:
377.59 g  |  13.32 oz | 0.83 lbs
230.33 g  |  8.12 oz | 0.51 lbs
0.64 g | 0.02 oz | 0 lbs | 0.21 tsp | 0.07 tbsp
9.44 g | 0.33 oz | 0.02 lbs | 1.69 tsp | 0.56 tbsp
618 g | 21.8 oz | 1.36 lbs | TF = N/A
309 g | 10.9 oz | 0.68 lbs

I made a batch of this dough two days ago and kneaded it entirely by hand. For this batch I used KAAP Flour and Saf-Instant Yeast, along with a bottle of refrigerated spring water brought to slightly below room temperature, still slightly cool to the touch but not chilled. After a 48 hour rise in the refrigerator the dough hadn't increased in volume by much, which I took as a good sign. I had planned on partially baking it on a VERY lightly greased flat tapered pizza pan on the lowest rack of my electric range before removing it to heated tiles on the second highest oven rack. As it was baking, I noticed that the yeast was not active and the resulting texture was very spongy, not at all crisp and I could not remove it from the pan. The expiration date on the package of yeast was 01/25/10, even though it hadn't been opened at all until yesterday when I made the dough. Up until that point, it had been kept at a cool temperature. So it's most likely that the yeast itself was defective, or perhaps the temperature of the water in the dough was not warm enough. Either way, tonight's pizza did not turn out as expected. Any thoughts?

[Pete-zza]

FirePie,

The dough recipe you posted is one that I revised for hotsawce at Reply 172 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7761.msg89797.html#msg89797, using data provided by hotsawce and based on a Glutenboy recipe.

If your yeast was in an unopened packet when you decided to use it, I tend to doubt that your results were due to the yeast. I think it is more likely that the problem was insufficient fermentation. I say this based on having tried a version of Glutenboy's recipe. In my case, I used a blend of King Arthur bread flour and vital wheat gluten in lieu of a high-gluten flour but it was otherwise very similar to Glutenboy's recipe (it was almost identical from a baker's percent standpoint). I discussed my results at Reply 78 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7761.msg72399.html#msg72399. As I noted in that post, I used the dough after eight days of cold fermentation and felt that it could have held out even longer. The dough ball you made had less yeast than mine, which could well have had the effect of extending the fermentation window even further than with my dough if you had allowed the dough to go out that far. In my opinion, it would have been highly unlikely that your dough would have been ready to use after only two days.

If you decide to repeat the recipe, you might want to let the dough go out several days before using. This should be possible even if you hand knead the dough. To shorten the fermentation window, you could increase the amount of yeast.

I can't explain why the dough stuck to your pan. Can you describe your pan in terms of its type and characteristics or, even better, post a photo?

Peter

[FirePie]

FirePie,

The dough recipe you posted is one that I revised for hotsawce at Reply 172 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7761.msg89797.html#msg89797, using data provided by hotsawce and based on a Glutenboy recipe.

If your yeast was in an unopened packet when you decided to use it, I tend to doubt that your results were due to the yeast. I think it is more likely that the problem was insufficient fermentation. I say this based on having tried a version of Glutenboy's recipe. In my case, I used a blend of King Arthur bread flour and vital wheat gluten in lieu of a high-gluten flour but it was otherwise very similar to Glutenboy's recipe (it was almost identical from a baker's percent standpoint). I discussed my results at Reply 78 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,7761.msg72399.html#msg72399. As I noted in that post, I used the dough after eight days of cold fermentation and felt that it could have held out even longer. The dough ball you made had less yeast than mine, which could well have had the effect of extending the fermentation window even further than with my dough if you had allowed the dough to go out that far. In my opinion, it would have been highly unlikely that your dough would have been ready to use after only two days.

If you decide to repeat the recipe, you might want to let the dough go out several days before using. This should be possible even if you hand knead the dough. To shorten the fermentation window, you could increase the amount of yeast.

I can't explain why the dough stuck to your pan. Can you describe your pan in terms of its type and characteristics or, even better, post a photo?

Peter

Peter,

Thank you for directing me to your previous thread. When I made the dough according to the listed formula by Glutenboy and hotsawce I was using solely King Arthur AP flour and I now realize that 48 hours was not even close to the amount of proper fermentation time needed for that recipe. I will try it again with what I learned based on your reply.

Just one quick reply to your question about the pan I used: it was a 16" round, approximately 7/8" deep aluminum pan that had been ever so slightly greased with vegetable shortening. The reason I had trouble removing the pizza from the pan onto the tiles placed on the rack above was not because the dough stuck to the pan but because it would have folded or even dropped while trying to remove it.