Help: Keep burning base of pizza

[jamieg]

I am having problems burning the base of the pizza - when I increase the temp of the oven too much.

The oven temp reads about 300 C - although this is very subjective - the floor could be 400 C - I don’t have an accurate way to measure it at the moment.

The base has a yellow tinge - on the side closest to the burners at the back of the oven.  There are no dark burn marks. It doesn’t look that bad - but actually the taste of the dough becomes very bitter and unpleasant as a result.

I have researched the issue.  There seem to be 4 likely causes - however, unfortunatly, none seem to apply to me in this case.

- Hydration
If the dough is too dry it will burn at high temperatures. My dough has 79% hydration - so it’s difficult to believe this is the case.

- Spinning technique
Once the pizza has settled - it might be necesary to keep it off the floor as much as possible by spinning it with the paddle. In my case - the burning actually occurs straight away - by the time the pizza has settled - and I can actually begin to move it with the paddle - it already has the strange yellow burning colour.

- Even spread of temperature
For WFOs pre-heating the oven slowly to get an even spread of temperature is important. My oven uses gas burners. I do heat the floor with the burners for over an hour - before blocking them with a thick sheet of iron. But, in reality the burning can occur at any moment - if and only if -  I have the gas burners too high and the overall temperature of the oven increases too much.

- Bench flour
If there is too much bench flour on the paddle or the underside of the pizza - the flour will burn and in turn - burn the pizza. For a long time I thought this could be my problem.  However  - although I do tend to use a lot of bench flour - I have tested for this using almost no flour and the base still burns.

So, if none of the above are the cause of my problem - what else could it be?

Below is a summary of my dough receipe and methodology with some photos.  

Thanks in advance if anybody can shed light on this :-)

Ingredients

flour 2400 gr - 100%
water 1800 gr - 75%
water 100 gr - 4%
salt 80 gr - 3%
IDY 125 ml - less than 1%

Method

- mix flour, water and IDY for 3 or 4 minutes by hand
- cover and rest for 30 minutes
- add salt and 100gr of water and mix until even distributed
- gently stretch and fold dough for about 10 minutes until the dough is silky smooth to touch
- cover and rest for 8 hours at room temperature (about 70 F)
- ball up and refrigerate (about 15 C) for between 24 and 72 hours

Flour

Flour (wheatflour with the following properties)
protein 12%
grease 1.10%
fibre 0.45%
carbs 76%

[dellavecchia]

One scenario you have not explored is the possibility that your dough is overfermented. You have the dough at room temp for a significant amount of time before putting it in the fridge for up to 3 days. That being said, I do not see that much burning, but if the bitterness is coming through, I would cut your yeast back, cut the room temp to 2 hours, and see if that helps.

The yellow tinge is most likely raw flour - which contributes to bitterness.

John

[Redshirt]

have you tried using the same dough recipe with different oven scenarios, and vice verse with the dough? maybe you really need to fine tune your oven, meaning without a way of measuring the heat (infrared thermometer) it is hard to say where you  may have hot and or cold spots

[ringkingpin]

it doesn't look close to the point of unacceptable charring.  You WANT some char to occur.  I don't think it's an issue.  In my opinion, you don't have enough char on the bottom.

FYI, I have run experiments and have found that too many ingredients (too much weight) will cause excessive char on the bottom, kind of like pushing down a burger patty with a spatula on a flat top. 

[jamieg]

One scenario you have not explored is the possibility that your dough is overfermented. You have the dough at room temp for a significant amount of time before putting it in the fridge for up to 3 days. That being said, I do not see that much burning, but if the bitterness is coming through, I would cut your yeast back, cut the room temp to 2 hours, and see if that helps.

The yellow tinge is most likely raw flour - which contributes to bitterness.

John

Thanks John.  Well, I hadn't considered that over-fermenting could cause the dough to burn.  I will do a test this week and let you know the results.

[jamieg]

have you tried using the same dough recipe with different oven scenarios, and vice verse with the dough? maybe you really need to fine tune your oven, meaning without a way of measuring the heat (infrared thermometer) it is hard to say where you  may have hot and or cold spots

I have tried one other oven - where the floor temp was set to 400 C and the results were exactly the same.

:-)

[jamieg]

it doesn't look close to the point of unacceptable charring.  You WANT some char to occur.  I don't think it's an issue.  In my opinion, you don't have enough char on the bottom.

FYI, I have run experiments and have found that too many ingredients (too much weight) will cause excessive char on the bottom, kind of like pushing down a burger patty with a spatula on a flat top. 

I couldn't agree more about the need for at least some char. I love char.  I often get told off for too much char. 

However, in this case, I think there is a difference between some nice sporadic charred spots - and a strange yellow ting that covers most of the base and which tastes bitter.

Actually, this base was pre-cooked - without any ingredients.

[Bill/SFNM]

The yellow tinge is most likely raw flour - which contributes to bitterness.

+1. Looks like too much bench flour.

[jamieg]

I've tried to minimize bench flour and it definitely seems to be a factor - but hasn't offered a complete solution.

I should emphasize that I'm not using Caputo 00 flour.

I have read elsewhere that 'normal' flours may burn at high temperatures - perhaps I just need to work at lower temperatures.