My first pizza with Ischia starter flop

[dimitrios]

So I bought the Ischia starter and had it at room temperature for about 10 days, feeding it every day ( and forgot a couple days in between), anyway, for the first time I made dough with only the starter (dreaming of making a Da Michele pizza).

Here's how I did it:

600 Grams Flour (Gold Medal, Better for Bread Flour)
62% Water (372grams)
2.8% salt (17 grams)
5% starter (30 grams)

method:
placed 90% water in bowl, dissolved the starter, added the flower, mixed all by hand till well incorporated, autolyse 20 minutes. stretch and fold 3 times with 15 minute breaks. Did bulk rise at room temperature for 9 hours, then balled and put in fridge, about a day. Before making pizza tonight, had one ball out at room temperature for about 2 hours.

baked for about 3 to 4 minutes in 600F oven.

this is a simple margherita with some ham on it. fresh mozzarella

The good stuff: for the first time, this dough handled very well to open, very smooth, no sticking, and no rubbery stubborness, very easy to open (happy with that),
the ugly: pizza did not really rise while baking and was very tough chewy.
I usually make great pizza, but with a starter, and starter only is new for me.
Is the starter at fault? Or did I not use enough starter?

Check the pic:

[TXCraig1]

IMO, the fridge is not your friend when using a culture like Ischia. I don't like taking the dough much under 60F.

Did you get much rise in the bulk ferment? What did your dough ball look like before opening it up? Did it rise up at least 1.7X or so vs. the unfermented dough? I doubt if 2 hours out of the fridge was enough time.

CL

[dimitrios]

thanks. Hardly any rise in the bulk, actually couldn't tell if it actually did rise in bulk. The ball itself did not rise either. I am wondering if the starter is dead?

[dimitrios]

Here is a pic of the dough after bulk ferment and the starter.

[Bill/SFNM]

I'm with Craig on the temperature. Also, your Ischia is still very young and unstable. Its behavior will change over the next few weeks, maybe longer, as equilibrium is established in the culture.   

[bakeshack]

Your starter looks extremely wet and does not seem to have much activity or bubbling inside.  Are you feeding it 100% hydration by weight? 

[dimitrios]

Hello Bakeshack, for the beginning days that I had it at room temp I threw away a cup, and added a cup of flower and a cup of water and stirred. Now after making this first dough batch, I placed it in the fridge for not feeding it all the time as I read here. I saw activity only in the first two days.

So, Bill, Craig, you suggest I take the dough ball out many more hours before bake time?
It's 11am now here, I'm going to take one out for tonight around 7pm and see what happens.

[Bill/SFNM]

So, Bill, Craig, you suggest I take the dough ball out many more hours before bake time?

My SOP for Ischia is bulk ferment at room temp - usually 1-2 days @ 60F-65F depending on amount of starter used. If I'm not baking within 5 hours, the dough goes into the fridge. Shape into balls and proof for about 5 hours @ 70F-75F. Very different from your procedure, but you want to give the starter time at temps within it's maximum activity range to develop adequate rise and flavor.

[parallei]

Are you feeding it 100% hydration by weight?

A cup of flour = about 125g
A cup of water = about 237g
So the hydration of his starter is about (237/125)*100 = 190 %

Dimitros,

When you use the Prefement Pizza Dough Calculator it asks you to "Enter your preferments percentage of water" and then states that this is equal to the weight of water divided by the total weight of preferment x 100.

In your case this would be: (237/(125+237))*100 = 65%.  Is that what your are using?  If not, you might be adding the wrong amount of water to the finished dough.  For instance, if you input 50% for the preferment percentage of water, and it was really 65%, the dough calculator would have you add more water to the finished dough to reach your desired final hydration ratio for the overall dough.

[wheelman]

was your starter nicely active?  i always wait until my starter doubles in volume after feeding to make dough.  it should definately float.
bill

[bakeshack]

Dimitrios, as i mentioned above which you also confirmed, you are maintaining your starter at a very liquid state, which I would not recommend.  Try to feed it 100% by weight and you should see more strength and structure in your starter.  I keep my starter for pizza at 60% HD. (i.e 100 gr flour : 60 gr water).

Marlon