Dough question

[jlp16au]

When making multiple pizza's from the same batch, do you make multiple balls to rise or let it all rise as one ball and then split it up prior to making the skins?

Thanks,
Josh

[Jet_deck]

Either way can work.  Most let the mass of dough rise for a while, then ball it, then let it rise/rest in ball form in the fridge or at room temp.

[jlp16au]

Thanks.  I made some dough Thursday night (2 pizza's worth) and made one big ball.  I want to cook the pizza's tonight.  What would be the proper way to proceed?

[Pete-zza]

Josh,

You didn't indicate what type or style or pizza you are trying to make, but since you started the dough on Thursday night and want to use it tonight, it sounds like you cold fermented the dough. If that is so, you perhaps should have done the division of the dough up front, right after you made it. Bulk rises are used for Neapolitan style doughs that are fermented at room temperature (or a controlled temperature) or for doughs that are to be divided and run through a sheeter or roller. If your dough was cold fermented, you will have no choice but to do the dough division at soon as you can, at least several hours before you plan to use the dough balls to make pizzas. Otherwise, the dough balls will be hard to open and the skins may become overly elastic and possibly result in tears or holes forming in the skins as you try to shape and stretch them. Pending use, the dough balls can be held in the refrigerator but you want to be sure to give the dough balls a fair amount of time at room temperature before using them.

Good luck. Please let us know how things turn out.

Peter

[jlp16au]

I am making a Lehmann style crust.

Two 14 inch pizza's

TF .11
flour     100%      587 g
water     63%      370 g
IDY         0.4%     2.35 g
salt        1.75%    10 g
oil          1.0%      6 g

I just went ahead and separated the dough into two balls, covered them back up and put them back in the refrigerator.  Hopefully it won't be too bad.  What is the downside to separating the balls this late in the rise?

Thanks,
Josh

[Pete-zza]

I just went ahead and separated the dough into two balls, covered them back up and put them back in the refrigerator.  Hopefully it won't be too bad.  What is the downside to separating the balls this late in the rise?

Josh,

The downside is that it is hard to do the division when the dough is cold and, in so doing, you may end up overhandling the dough balls and disturbing the gluten structure so that the dough balls are harder to open up and form into skins. If the dough balls are overly worked, it can take several hours for the gluten to relax again. Also, it is sometimes hard to get nice round balls when the dough is cold. This is much easier to do when the dough is warm and soft right out of the mixer bowl. You also don't want to rework, or reshape or re-knead the dough balls just prior to using. That will almost always result in the dough balls becoming harder to open and the resulting skin will usually be overly elastic.

Peter

[jlp16au]

The pizza's came out ok for the first ones.  I am cooking them on my Big Green Egg.  The stone temp was ~650 F and they cooked for ~5 minutes.  The bottoms were a little more done then they should have been.  I may need to do some experimenting to get the stone higher in the dome. 

I also need to work on my stretching skills.  I was trying to get to a 14" pizza but I was closer to 12".  The dough seemed to be a little too elastic.

Anyway, I have attached some pics.  Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.

Thanks,
Josh

[Pete-zza]

Josh,

Under the circumstances, I think the pizzas turned out pretty well. I don't have any experience with BGE's or their ilk but I agree with you that you might want to raise the stone or to take other measures to get more top heat.

As for the stretching problem, you will get better with practice. Also, doing the division of the dough up front should help.

Peter

[Jackie Tran]

jlp16au, those pizzas look FANTASTIC!  Okay so the bottoms are a little burnt but that can be remedied.

I don't have any specific knowledge of the BGE, but I have baked many a pies in the Primo Ceramic grill and the 2 are more alike than different.   I would say that all you need is a little more buffering on the bottom of the pie.  You can do this in 1 of 2 ways.

The simplest, would be leave everything as is and slip a pizza screen after the 3 or 4 minute mark.  That will even everything out.

2ndly, you can either double up the stone to thicken it a bit or use an air buffer under the stone.  You probably already have an air buffer under there but I'm not sure so that's why I mentioned it.  Use 2 stones separated by 1.25" copper tubing pieces. 

Peter, what don't you like about the ceramic cookers?  It's an age old cooking vessel found all over the asian countries dating back 3000 years or so. 

Chau

[Trinity]

The pizza's came out ok for the first ones.  I am cooking them on my Big Green Egg.  The stone temp was ~650 F and they cooked for ~5 minutes.  The bottoms were a little more done then they should have been.  I may need to do some experimenting to get the stone higher in the dome. 

I also need to work on my stretching skills.  I was trying to get to a 14" pizza but I was closer to 12".  The dough seemed to be a little too elastic.

Anyway, I have attached some pics.  Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.

Thanks,
Josh

Damn that looks good!!!

[jlp16au]

jlp16au, those pizzas look FANTASTIC!  Okay so the bottoms are a little burnt but that can be remedied.

I don't have any specific knowledge of the BGE, but I have baked many a pies in the Primo Ceramic grill and the 2 are more alike than different.   I would say that all you need is a little more buffering on the bottom of the pie.  You can do this in 1 of 2 ways.

The simplest, would be leave everything as is and slip a pizza screen after the 3 or 4 minute mark.  That will even everything out.

2ndly, you can either double up the stone to thicken it a bit or use an air buffer under the stone.  You probably already have an air buffer under there but I'm not sure so that's why I mentioned it.  Use 2 stones separated by 1.25" copper tubing pieces.  

Peter, what don't you like about the ceramic cookers?  It's an age old cooking vessel found all over the asian countries dating back 3000 years or so.  

Chau

I used the big green egg feet to create an air gap.  The copper tubing is a good idea.  Do you do this?  If so, how high do you raise the stone?  Here is a pic of my setup.

[Jackie Tran]

jlp, your set up looks good.   If you want to try the copper tubing, that will increase that air gap and also elevate your stone a bit more.  If you find that it is elevating it too much, I would just use a pizza screen and slip it in there after the baked crust has set.  

You can also try adding some screw bolts under or above the green feet to add height to the stone.  A few quarters under the feet might work well too.  

Seriously, your pizza looks good.  You are almost there and that is probably the upper crust as far as pizzas that will come out of your BGE.  I'm not saying don't experiment with different doughs and such, but what you have is a keeper right there.  

I no longer cook pizza in my Primo, as I also cook pizza in my LBE, home oven, and WFO now.  Someday I'll go back to tinkering with the primo for fun.   If you are interested you can see the different set ups I tried in my Primo oven.  You may also be able to see the copper tubings in this thread (reply#3).  You can buy them at Home depot or Lowes for a buck each I think.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=10974.0

Jlp16au, here is a Papa John's clone pizza i baked in my Primo.  Reply #157
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=6758.140

You can't tell by the picture, but I did dome this one too high as part of the crust ended up touching the top dome.

Chau