OK - for the life of me, I cannot understand why everyone has their undies in a bunch over how we make dough...but I will attempt to clarify and then vanish from this board before I blow my brains out:
Rob is correct...I misspoke earlier. The CURRENT Workflow is that we mix dough in many batches starting at 9am. Each batch rests for about an hour or so...then we ball it up...then leave it in our dough room or outside our dough room at room temperature all day. If we look like we are running low at the pizza station, we will use some of the "same day" dough generally between 9-11pm at night. Otherwise, we roll it into our walk in, then pull it out first thing the next morning and when it comes to room temp, we'll use it all day. The workflow has changed dramatically from when we first opened - we always dipped into same day dough at the end of the day and I hated the pizzas. Now we have a bigger staff and more dough trays, so we don't have to dip into same day as much...it's pretty rare.
To further complicate things...Rob & I sometimes do not think the dough gets to temp quick enough for the lunch shift which begins at 11am. So on the day before, we MAY make a batch that will proof at room temp all day and all night to be used for lunch the next day - if we have time and space. Workflow: mix at 3pm with FAR less yeast, let rest in bulk all day (just for you Scott123) and then ball it up at 11pm. Holds in dough room overnight at 65 degrees. We're trying to figure out the logistics to be able to consistently do this every day, but there are a lot of moving parts. I guess the point is that between Dino, Rob and me...we constantly tweak the workflow of how/when we make dough to come up with a pizza that we all like.
When I was on DDD with a million people staring at me, lights in my face and HD cameras doing proctology I may have said that after 8 hours or so the dough is ready...technically it is, but it is better with the other 2 ways.
No, most of our customers can't tell the difference between same day, refrigerated, or room temp dough - but we can, along with a handful of other regular customers (and of course all of the seasoned, internationally traveled Yelpers and other bon vivants that have "had pizza exactly like this in Venice and Rome"). The dough is a critical component of our pizza for sure, but we also are looking at the big picture of house made fior di latte (is it salty enough, creamy enough, too hard, too wet, too soft?), the sauce (is it ground too fine, is there enough salt, not enough salt?), toppings (is the soppressata sliced thin enough?), pizzaioli (are they opening the dough properly, stretching too much, too little?), Oven (too hot, too cold, is the wood wet?). So the dough is a critical component - but it is one of many.
At the end of the day, regardless of how/when/who made the dough, I think our pizza tastes really good. Not sure who here has had it or not. But if you like it, great. If you don't like it, I'm sorry.
Peace out (drops mic).
