I tricked my KA into hydrating my dough

[Pizza Napoletana]

I think there's something to this effective hydration...  my dough was probably the best i've made tonight.  10 hour preferment with 10 hour autolise.  7 hour bulk and 3 hour balled up.  i kneaded the dough a little after bulk before balling and it seemed to cure my too soft dough problem.  i got great spring in the WFO and nice texture and flavor.  pics are: filetti, guanciale and peppadews, and margarita. thanks Omid.
bill

They look illustrious and tasteful!

[wheelman]

Very nice leoparding Bill.  So are you noticing any textural differences from your normal pies?

Chau

thanks Chau.  these are softer.  my dough was stronger like i've been looking for so that really helps with stretching.  i didn't have to deal with a mess when sliding it onto the peel and adjusting the shape.  the balls held their shape really well too, maybe partially because i only left them for 3-4 hours. 
these were cooked at about 850 for 60 sec.  I tried not to burn them up.  i think i like a little longer bake, maybe 80 or 90 sec at 800 or so.  I'm going to work with this method for my next few bakes and see where it takes me. 

thanks Norma!

and thanks to you Omid, you have been a great addition to the forum. 

[wheelman]

still working with the biga naturale/eff. hydration dough.  i'm a little confused as to why, but it was better again this time.  i didn't do any additional kneading after bulk but had to mix a little longer to bring the eff. hydrated flour and the biga together.  i hope i can make this consistantly in future bakes.  going to try again wed.   
i used a different buff. mozz. this time.  holy buffalo, it was $15!  good though. really good. 

[Jackie Tran]

Bill you paid $15 for how many ounces?

Chau

[wheelman]

that one ball, just about 8 oz.!  it was double the cost of what they used to carry. WF still has garofolo for about $8.  i'll go there next time. 

[Jackie Tran]

Yeah my WFs has one for $12 for 7-8 oz and I've been just too cheap to try it.  TJ's is about a dollar an ounce which is tolerable but the quality is just okay.  I've heard good things about the garofolo brand.

[wheelman]

yesterday i used the paddle instead of the hook on my KA when mixing the preferment and the hydrated flour.  Before - with the hook, this step left me with such wet dough that i would have to add a good bit of flour to bring the dough together.  with the paddle, it worked fine without extra flour.  i'm guessing that the hydrated flour, which looks like a dense dough, wasn't dispersing as well as i thought.  this dough was perfect on the bench after mixing during a couple of short kneads.  i'm thinking about a different mixer now...
here's a couple shots of the pies:

[DannyG]

I always use the paddle on the initial mix. The hook just doesn't bring everything together as quickly.

[wheelman]

i tried this effective hydration method again but this time, after reading one of Omid's comments about 12hr. being excessive, i tried only a 1 hour hydration of the flour.  same everything else.  i noticed that the dough was much stronger and not as easy to open.  less pillowy. the crust was tougher.  not sure where this leaves me on this experiment, but i think i like the longer way better.  my next experiments will involve a different mixer. 
first pic is homemade pesto and ricotta with padrones, manchego and peppadews, we really liked the way the manchego cooked.

[wheelman]

I'm reading Wild Bread by Lisa Rayner and came across a reference to "Soakers."  She states that this is a technique from Peter Reinhart's New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor.  it sounds exactly like the long effective hydration flour/water autolise that i've been trying here.  it says that: "this method allows the malt sugar to accumulate in greater amounts before the sourdough lactobacteria get a chance to start eating it. Thus, more malt sugar ends up in the finished bread, adding sweetness and enhancing the Maillard browning reactions during baking. Salt must be added to prevent runaway enzyme activity.  Soakers are left at RT for 8-24 hours or up to 3 days refrigerated." also " because these breads contain a higher than normal percentage of malt sugar, they must be baked at temperatures 25-50F lower than other breads to avoid over-carmalization(browning) of the crust."

can anyone help me understand this better? it seems that these pizzas have shown nice browning but i'm not sure what the runaway enzyme activity might be doing - i've never added salt to the eff. hydration part of the dough (yet). 
thanks,
bill