UPDATE:
I am so dismayed about this business of blowing air into the dough! I just closely examined all the dough balls:
1) The air-blown dough balls are susceptible to tears upon being stretched into dough discs. In addition they are of tough texture, like rubber.
2) On the other hand, the non-air-blown dough balls pleasantly stretch into dough discs without any tears. And, they are gratifyingly soft and extensible.
I need to find out how much air-blowing is enough during kneading in order to keep the dough temperature low enough and keep the dough texture agreeable enough. This has been an enlightening experiment: the effects of air on dough during kneaing. Very interesting! As our friend Alex_chef put it, "This is a fantastic World of trial and error. . . ."
Last night, I made another "air-blown" dough mass with my Kitchen Aid mixer:
1000 grams of Caputo Pizzeria Flour (Datum Point) (72.4° F)
600 grams of water (60%) (59.9° F)
1.00 gram of fresh yeast (1%) (43.3° F)
27.70 grams of sea salt (2.77%) (75.1° F)
I used the same, exact percentages as the day before yesterday, except I increased the hydration level to 60%. Unfortunately, since I did not have my friend's Kitchen Aid mixer and his assistance, I did not make an identical non-air-blown dough batch to compare with my air-blown batch. I followed the same procedure (described in Reply #467) in making the dough:
1. I hand mixed, not knead, all the above ingredients.
2. I let the mixture rest for 1 hour.
3. By the end of the rest period, the mixture had an internal temperature of exactly 71.9° F (wow, just like the day before yesterday!).
4. Using my Kitchen Aid mixer (Professional 600) and its spiral dough hook, I kneaded the dough for 11 minutes (9 minutes, the day before yesterday) while the USB fan blew air into the mixer bowl for only the first 5 minutes of the 11-minute kneading period.
5. After the kneading was over, the dough mass reached an internal temperature of 77.4° F and a surface temperature of 79.5° F.
6. After a short rest period and 1 hour of initial fermentation, I formed dough balls out of the dough mass. (See the first picture below.)
The dough did not feel like having a 60% hydration; it felt like a 56%-hydration dough. It was neither runny and loose, nor sticky and gummy. Great texture and constitution! However, according to an old proverb, "Chicks should be counted by the end of autumn!"
The second picture below (shot today at 9:12 AM, Pacific time) exhibits the dough balls, which have been undergoing fermentation since 9:11 PM last night. I believe the tiny bumps on the surface of the dough balls, in the first picture, were due to the air-blow. Obviously, blowing air during kneading has significant impact upon dough.
