Using Lehmann dough for a tailgate pepperoni roll - hardness advice

[Grilling24x7]

Hi guys,

I have a question about using the Lehmann dough as a calzone/pepperoni roll. 

I'm a big griller and tailgate fanatic.  A few years ago I found a John Madden tailgating cookbook which has an awesome recipe for a pepperoni roll:

store bought pizza dough in the blue pop open can;
genoa salami
pepperoni
mozz
prov
sliced banana peppers

Lay out the dough, layer the ingredients and fold it into a calzone/stromboli style rectangle.  Bake at home then reheat it on the grill at the stadium in foil.  Then slice into 1 inch wide pieces all along the whole rectangle.

Well I've been real successful with this recipe for the past couple of years.  Now that I have grown to love the Lehmann NY style dough I wanted to make my own dough for it so I used the dough calculator to scale my normal 62% hydration recipe into one that matches the size of the Pillsbury store bought blue can dough.

Anyway (yes I am long winded today) this year I've made it with the Lehmann dough about 4 times and it has been a HUGE hit.  You can certainly notice.  People comment that it tastes like a real street pizza (with meats of course).  I've even started adding a layer of my homemade pizza sauce in the middle of the layered meats and cheeses. 

But - I have noticed that using the Lehmann dough makes quite a crust.  Its difficult to cut into 1 inch slices while at the stadium.  Can you think of any modifications that I can make to the dough to make it just a bit softer?  I could probably bake it less at home to avoid so much of a crust forming, but I was thinking maybe an oil addition or something?  Any thoughts are welcome. 

The recipe for an 8 x 18 dough that I'm using is:

bread flour - 259.5g
water - 160.9 g
ADY - 0.33 tsp
salt - 1 tsp
olive oil - 0.6 tsp

w/ an overnight fridge rise.

I just want to be able to cut it easier while at the tailgate.

John

[norma427]

Grilling24x7

I have used the Lehmann dough for many things.  Although the Lehmann dough I use is the Preferment Lehmann dough, my friend Steve (Ev), uses the regular Lehmann dough to make stromboli, calzones, and many other things.  He also uses a hydration of about 62%.

I make many things at market from the Lehmann dough.  It you don’t want your outside to brown too much,  you could put your roll on a pan lined with parchment paper and then bake until you think it looks slightly less brown.  I use this method to make pizza rolls, garlic knots, pepperoni pizza pinwheels and other items from dough. I usually bake a little less, because I then need to reheat the items in my oven.  I also roll the pizza rolls and pizza pinwheels, that are dressed first, then baked on parchment paper on pans.

You also could try baking for less time, because you reheat on the grill.

Best of luck,

Norma

[Grilling24x7]

Yes I think you are right.  Bake for less time and use a sharper knife!

Thanks

[Pete-zza]

John,

You could also increase the amount of oil and add some sugar to the dough. Both of these ingredients, especially in combination, help produce a more tender crust. By retaining moisture in the dough, they will also help keep the finished crust from drying out too much or too fast. You could try using up to 3% oil and about 1-2% sugar and see if that improves matters. If you think the crust might burn on your grill, you can leave out the sugar.

Peter