Spots in dough

[ninetwosix]

I made some dough monday afternoon and it says been sitting in a air tight container.  I opened it up today and noticed black dots on the surface of the dough.  The underneath of the dough is fine.  Is that something to be concerned of?

[Pete-zza]

I made some dough monday afternoon and it says been sitting in a air tight container.  I opened it up today and noticed black dots on the surface of the dough.  The underneath of the dough is fine.  Is that something to be concerned of?

ninetwosix,

No, you shouldn't be concerned. I have written on this subject before in the thread at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3985.msg33251.html#msg33251, including at Reply 29 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3985.msg36081.html#msg36081, but see, also, Tom Lehmann's PMQ Think Tank post at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9214&p=67142&hilit=#p67142.

Peter

[c0mpl3x]

unless the dough grows mold or smells funny, it's fine.

[dmcavanagh]

I believe I read somewhere that they were just dead yeast cells, probably of no concern. Can anyone verify this?

[norma427]

I also got dark spots at different times as can be seen at Reply 114 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,11475.msg106153.html#msg106153 and
Reply 248 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3985.msg85966.html#msg85966

I also had other spotting, but the baked pizzas were always fine.  I don’t know if higher gluten flours does contribute to spotting or not.

Norma

[Pete-zza]

I addressed this subject in some depth in Reply 78 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3985.msg41385.html#msg41385. As I noted in that post, the spotting that I experienced was when I was using KASL flour, not weaker flours. I subsequently conducted an experiment, described at Reply 118 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3985.msg42774.html#msg42774, in which I made a dough that fermented in a sealed storage bag in an anerobic environment. After 15 days, when I decided to use the dough, there was no spotting. This experiment led me to believe that oxygen is involved in the creation of the spotting. There is still some mystery surrounding the subject. Even Tom Lehmann, in the PMQTT post referenced earlier at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9214&p=67142&hilit=#p67142, covered all bases by his answer:

There are a number of things that can result in those black spots, reduced iron particles (iron in the enrichment blend in the flour "enriched flour"), or they may also be due to yeast agglomerates, possibly due to use of ady that has not been pre-hydrated, you can discount this if you are pre-hydrating the ADY. It can also be a reaction with the bran particles in the flour too.

Peter

[norma427]

There is still some mystery surrounding the subject.

Peter

Peter,

I also think there is some mystery about spotting in dough.  When I tried out the 25 day cold ferment of the milk kefir dough, which was in a sealed container with KASL, I didn’t get any spotting. At reply 218 is where my 25 day old milk kefir Lehmann dough didn’t have any spotting. http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,12173.msg120993.html#msg120993  I will have to conduct an experiment sometime with the same dough with a hole in the container and see what happens with that experiment.

Norma

[Pete-zza]

There is another, more recent, thread on this subject at the PMQ Think Tank at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9981&p=68665&hilit=#p68331.

Peter

[Pizza3.14]

I just posted a question about this in my introduction.  Then reading about the advanced search I gave that a try and got here, problem solved.  Thanks for the link.