Sour Jack,
I took a stab at downsizing the Tony G. acrobatic dough recipe for a single 8-oz. practice dough. Before getting to the math, I suggest that the version of the Tony G. acrobatic dough recipe posted at the PMQ recipe bank be replaced by the version posted at the following website:
http://www.worldpizzachampions.com/dough.html#Acrobatic. The newer version is the same as the PMQ version but is more specific in that it specifies the yeast to be ADY and it also separates the water into two portions, one for proofing the ADY and the remainder for the dough itself. Before anyone panics when they see the downsized recipe, there are a few points to keep in mind about acrobatic doughs. They are not the same as doughs intended to be made into pizzas for someone to eat. They are quite dry (with a hydration level of around 46%), use very cold water, and contain minuscule amounts of yeast and sugar as compared with normal doughs. They use a reasonable amount of oil, for increased extensibility, but, most notably, use a great deal more salt than would ever be used in a normal dough.
The Tony G. acrobatic dough recipe, with some general conversions to specify all the ingredients in ounces, is as follows:
High gluten-flour (13.5%), 32 lbs., or 512 oz. (32 lbs. x 16 oz./lb.)
Water (at 75 degrees F), 1 qt., or 33.33 oz. (1 qt. x 2.083 lbs./qt. x 16 oz./lb.)
Water (very cold), 7 qt., or 233.33 oz. (7 qt. x 2.083 lbs./qt. x 16 oz./lb.)
ADY, 1 oz.
Sugar, 2 oz.
Salt, 20 oz.
Vegetable oil, 1 c., or 7.90 oz.
Adding up all the weights, in ounces, yield a total dough weight of 809.56 ounces, or enough to make around 100 8-oz. dough balls or 80 10-oz. dough balls.
With the above numbers, the baker’s percents are as follows (using the standard 100% for the baker’s percent for the flour and dividing the amounts, by weight, of the remaining ingredients by the weight of flour to get the respective baker’s percents):
100%, High-gluten flour (13.5%)
6.51%, Water (at 75 degrees F, for proofing the ADY)
45.57%, Water (very cold, for the dough itself)
0.195%, ADY
0.39%, Sugar
3.91%, Salt
1.54%, Vegetable oil
Total of all percentages = 158.115
The Tony G. recipe mentions using 8-oz. or 10-oz. dough balls, and combining two of them for tossing use. The recipe presented below is for 8 oz., which, if doubled, would yield a 16-oz. dough ball. That would be enough to make a roughly 14-inch skin. To make multiples of the 8-oz. dough balls, all one needs to do is multiply the quantities given in the recipe below by the desired number of dough balls. In the recipe, the amount of flour needed is determined by dividing the weight of the dough ball, 8 oz., by 1.58115 (158.115/100), which yields 5.06 oz for the amount of flour. Each of the remaining quantities is determined by multiplying the weight of the flour (as calculated above) by the respective baker’s percents for the remaining ingredients. So, the final recipe shakes out as follows:
Tony G. Acrobatic Dough Recipe (One 8-oz Dough Ball)100%, High-gluten flour (13.5%), 5.06 oz. (or about 1 c. plus 3 T.)
6.51%, Water (at 75 degrees F, for proofing the ADY), 0.33 oz. (about 2 t.)
45.57%, Water (very cold, for the dough itself), 2.30 oz. (1/3 c.)
0.195%, ADY, 0.010 oz. (about 3 to 4 pinches between the thumb and forefinger)
0.39%, Sugar, 0.020 oz., (a bit over 1/8 t.)
3.91%, Salt, 0.20 oz., (1 t.)
1.54%, Vegetable oil, 0.08 oz. (a bit less than 1/2 t.)
The instructions that one should follow for making the acrobatic dough are those mentioned in the instruction section posted at the abovereferenced website.
After going through all the work to get to a (hopefully) usable recipe, I hope that someone (maybe even Sour Jack) will actually give the scaled-down recipe a try to see if it has any real value and actually improves anyone’s dough tossing skills.
Peter
