Dough Storage

[lsclark205]

Hi,

I am making Chicago Stuffed Pizza and have a question about storing my dough for later use. I want to make several balls of dough that may not be used until the next day.

Here is my dough recipe:

3-1/4 cups bread flour
3 teaspoons sugar
4 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1-1/4 cups warm water, not more than 115° F
4 tablespoons olive oil

This is a great recipe for "on the spot" usage but I'm not sure how or when in the process to store it for later use. I haven't had any success letting this dough "cold rise."

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Laura

[Jet_deck]

With the amount of yeast you are using, I can understand why it makes a great "on the spot" usage dough. If you expect to keep it for any length of time, refridgerated or not, you most likely will need to cut the amount of yeast.  Otherwise it is going to grow very fast and turn into a big ball of rubber cement.

Just my .02

[oversee]

With that amount of flour, I would probably only use 2 tsp. yeast. It may take longer to rise, but it will be better. Cutting down on the sugar will also slow the rising a little. In my opinion, slower rising dough is more uniform and better tasting. Storing the dough in the refrigerator will slow the rising and you can just punch it down every time it rises too much. Put the dough in a plastic bag that has either been dusted with flour or coated with olive oil. Close with a twistie; ziploc will just burst open if the dough rises too much. The dough will start to sour, which for pizza, I think makes it tastier. Alternately, you can freeze dough, but for one day refrigeration should be fine. I find refrigerated dough easier to roll; it doesn't shrink back as much.

[c0mpl3x]

1-1.5tsp of yeast in a trial doughball to see how it sits for next day.  i prefer to let my dough get a jump on rising by giving it a counter top rise until i notice growth, (20m-1hr) depending on yeast, and place it in a metal pan (thermal transference) in the fridge