dough storage

[BobbyS]

Hi everyone, have been lurking and reading and trying out many new things. My latest adventure, is Peter Reinhart's New York style dough. I made this up on Tuesday evening, meaning to let it rest 2-3 days but life got in the way, so I'm looking at making the pies Sunday afternoon (tomorrow). This means the dough has been in the fridge for 4.5 days. Is this dough too far gone ? Is there some thing I should do before making the pies, besides taking it out 1.-2 hours before using ?
thanks

[dellavecchia]

Hello Bobby - It is hard to determine if your dough is over fermented without knowing your formulation and workflow. That being said, many people on the forum have made NY pies with dough that has been up to 9 days old (the most I have personally read about). The fun part will be seeing and tasting the dough to find out if it went too far. The worst case scenario would be a slight sour taste and little rise during the bake. But the pizza should still taste great.

John

[scott123]

Bobby, a lot of factors are involved with fermentation, but I would say that the two biggest players are protein level of the flour and amount of water. More water and/or lower protein flour = faster fermentation.  How much protein does your flour contain and what hydration (total water grams divided by total flour grams) is your dough?

[BobbyS]

this is the recipe I followed: http://www.fornobravo.com/pizzaquest/instructionals/59-written-recipes/169-ny-style-pizza-dough.html

5 cups (22.5 ounces) unbleached high gluten flour or unbleached bread flour
1  1/2 tablespoons (1 oz.) honey or 2 tablespoons (1 oz.) sugar
2 teaspoons (0.5 oz.) salt (any kind)
1 1/2 teaspoons (0.18 oz.) instant yeast or 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 tablespoons (1.5 oz.) olive or vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups (14 oz.) water, lukewarm

I mixed and kneaded by hand and the dough was pretty tight (dry?) I'm not sure of the protein content of my flour. I use 3 cups all purpose flour and 2 cups of 00 flour.
thanks again.

[c0mpl3x]

if you press it with a finger and it leaves a dimple, it's fermented enough.

if you press it with a finger and it dimples very softly and doesn't stretch back at all, you're overproofed.

[BobbyS]

if the dough is over proofed, can any thing be done ?

[Jet_deck]

Yes.  Cook them and post the pictures.  Overfermentation is still probably better than the local delivery.  Make sure you have some flour on the bench when you push them into skins.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[BobbyS]

Well cooked up the 2 16" pies today, sausage, bacon, onion, and peperoni. The dough had a good taste but a little tougher than I like.
Here are a couple of pics. Overall though very tasty, no regrets.
(sorry the pics are not the best quality)

[Jet_deck]

 I am glad you followed through and posted the pictures.  What will you different next time?  The pizza looks very good!  Tough could call for more gentle handling.  Keep the forum posted with your next results...