55lbs of Supremo Italiano"00" for practice

[capamando]

John,

I appreciate that ...really. I am hoping that John will be willing... we are about an hour or so apart. 

Thanks

[capamando]

Hello,

My question after 25 pounds of Supremo Italiano "00"  is ....have I come up with a full proof formula that can be manipulated to give me a reliable product regardless of environmental conditions? ..... no fricking way! I can't even duplicate the same skin from one ball to the next!   ... and you know what? as much as it creates a degree of uncertainty, I love the unpredictability... and I have not even tackled putting the skins into a wfo! This is one of the main reason why I am so looking forward to the day that my wife and I can serve our pies to the public. Each pie will be an original! It is a work of art that can be eaten and becomes part of you. I can not express how much I enjoyed looking at the photos of pizzas made by the master pizza makers in this forum. The day will come when I will share my own creations with all of you.... they will be a work in progress for the rest of my life. So, I will stop posting my dough experiments for now until the time that I can share the pizzas made in our brand new mwfo. As always I will look forward to your constructive critique.

Thank you for all of your help.

[capamando]

Hello Again,

We have been practicing all along even though we have not posted our dough shots. However, John Dellavecchia has given me some homework and we intend to experiment with it. We will include photos of every step for his critique and the rest of you are welcome to comment too. Be back later this evening.  Check my window panning ... it is a bit scary but I was happy with the results...   ( the holes were done for effect)

[capamando]

Hello,

The sequence of photos will include the steps up to the point where we let the dough rest for 30 minutes after mixing the ingredients by hand. The % used in grams were not exact since my scale does not go less than 1 gram so I try to be as close as possible. The water temp dropped almost 5 degrees after dissolving the salt and yeast.. probably had to do with the room temp in the kitchen(70)... I will have to take that into account next time.

[capamando]

Hello,

Photo 1: Dough after 30 minutes rest (covered with a towel)

Photo 2: Fold and turn four times (rest for 15 minutes)

Photo 3: Dough after 15 minutes rest.

[capamando]

Hello,

Photo 1:  Dough after 15 minutes rest

Photo 2: Dough after fold and turn

One more fold and turn and one more 15 minutes rest before balling.

[capamando]

Hello,


Photo 1:  Dough after second 15 minutes rest

Photo 2: After fold and turn

15 more minutes of rest before balling

[capamando]

Hello,

Well, the final step before the cold fermentation(24-48 hrs) is done.

Photo 1:  Dough after last 15 min rest

Photo 2: After last fold and turn

Photo 3: Dough balls ready for cold fermentation

[dellavecchia]

Great job Armando. Somehow you need to get these dough balls smoother. Maybe someone can chime in that has used this flour before - either the flour needs a higher hydration, or the stretch-fold technique needs attention.

John

[capamando]

John,

The dough was kind of sticky which tells me that the hydration was ok right?  We were wondering if we needed to give the mass a few more folds and turns...


Thanks

[dellavecchia]

The dough was kind of sticky which tells me that the hydration was ok right?

Actually, that may mean the hydration is a little too high. Drop it from 62 to 60 and see if that helps.

John

[capamando]

John,

Ok... will do with our next batch... and still do one round of fold and turn in between the 15 minutes rest periods.

Thanks

[capamando]

Hello,

 So... let's try this again per JDellavecchia.... 60% hydration...knead the mass a few more times between the two 15 minutes of rest . I decided to mix the ingredients in my doughmate proofing box...that worked better than in a bowl...I forgot what youtube I was watching but I watched an Italian pizza maker using a wooden box to mix his ingredients....so..why not try it? right?

Photo1: Dough mass after mixing... followed by a 30 minutes rest (covered)

[dellavecchia]

Armando - Maybe you should let the group know why you are doing this dough development experimentation by hand.

John

[capamando]

Hello,

In case you are wondering, the reason for this hand workflow was to cut out 17 passes in the KA that it would take to make 100 balls of dough. My old KA would die in a very short time. So John suggested doing one or two big bulks of dough by hand instead. One more thing... If my KA was able to do the job, there is still the issue of the machine generating too much heat thus affecting the dough temp before cold proofing.

So.... the photos below will show the dough ball after the last kneading and the dough balls ready for cold proofing.. One note, if you look at the balls one of them is smaller than the rest (180 grams vs. 240 grams) I am not sure why...I did include 1.5% waste in the formula...maybe I need to make it 3%. I put the proofing tray in the fridge partially open for fifteen minutes to help the cooling and slow down the fermentation.  One question for those that are reading this.... do you prefer to work on marble or stainless steel?

Thanks

[capamando]

Hello,

Here is what my dough balls look like after 48 hrs in the fridge... I will allow them to warm up for 2-3 hrs. more or less...my room temp is around 72.

[JConk007]

They look nice Armando!

[capamando]

Hello,

Thanks John C. but as you have told me before...the real evaluation of one's dough is after you fire it!

Okay, so we pulled the proofing tray out of the fridge and left it at room temp (70-72 degrees) for an hour.  After that first hour, in order to raise the ambient temperature, I decided to place the tray in the oven with the light on.  In the past I have been able to create an ambient temp in the oven of 85 degrees by leaving the oven light on for at least an hour. I did not wait that long so I don't believe that I was able to raise the temp any higher than a few degrees above the room temp.

The result was that I found the balls to be kind of sticky which made it difficult to keep their round shape when I took them out of the tray.  I am not sure why this happened.... hydration? not enough time proofing at my particular room temperature? The dough balls were around 68 degrees when I initially tried to form the skins...not sure what is the ideal dough temp.  After experiencing some difficulties shaping the skin, I decided to wait up to ten minutes to see if it would make a difference..... it did make it easier to form the skins. I did bake one pie using a screen.....I included a photo but keep in mind that I am using "00" flour which requires more heat than what I can get from my electric oven. I usually just throw the skins in the garbage..until the day that I can bake them at the right temp in our wfo.

Photo 1: dough balls two hours out of the fridge
Photo 2:  what can you tell me about my dough by this photo?
Photo 3:  the skin that I waited 10 minutes before forming it
Photo 4:  the not for prime time pie....


40 pounds of practice done... 15 more to go!