Crust didn't rise and was tuff.

[Jeep Pizza]

I made pizza today with some dough I made last Sunday and proofed in the fridge. This is a recipie that I have used many times in the past with no issuesbut this time I have no idea what went wrong.   This time the pies were flat and tuff.


The formulation I used for four 300 (plus a gram or 2) gram dough balls is as follows:

AP Flour -      760 g
Water (room temp) -   464 g 
IDY -                        2.15 g   
Sea Salt -                   19 g

Protocol-wise, I started with about half the flour and all the IDY in the Bosch.  I added all the water and mixed with the dough hook until thoroughly combined.  Rest a couple of minutes.  Then I added about half the remaining flour and kept mixing.  A couple of minutes of this on settings 1  and I could see the webbing forming.  Added the salt and mixed a bit more.  Rested a couple of more minutes and added the remaining flour as I mixed for the final time.  Just a couple of minutes.  A bulk room-temperature rise for an hour.  The rise was good but not out of control.  Then I scaled and pulled the dough balls tight, oiled the containers and put them in the fridge for a week. The dough was put out to come to room temp for and hour and a half.  The skins formed out nicely and were easy to shape. I cooked them on the same stone as always at 550F in my home oven.

Can anyone give me an Idea on what went wrong.      Sorry I didn't take any photos.

[Pete-zza]

Jeep Pizza,

In your past efforts, did you always bulk ferment the dough for an hour at room temperature and did you always cold ferment your dough for a week?

Peter

[Jeep Pizza]

Yes to both. 

[Jet_deck]

Do you "always" add the salt last?

[TXCraig1]

How long are you preheating your stone?

[Jeep Pizza]

Salt added before the last 1/4 flour and stones heated for 1 hour.

[Jet_deck]

Is it the flaky sea salt or the not flaky kind?

[Jeep Pizza]

It is the fine grind like table salt.

[Jet_deck]

I am not sure what happened.  I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination, the 1 week ferment seems long; but if you've done it several times before and it worked, who knows.  Try again is all I can suggest.  Good luck. Maybe the pizza gods were sleeping when you were cooking.

[Pete-zza]

Jeep Pizza,

I'm not sure what happened either. So, maybe it was a fluke.

I thought that with a one-hour bulk rise at room temperature and a five day cold ferment the yeast might have run out of food. Usually, with a long cold ferment that is to exceed about 2-3 days it is common to add about 1-2% sugar. In your case, did the crust have decent color?

You might just want to try again with your recipe.

Peter

[Jeep Pizza]

The crust did not have good color. i was thinking thru it while sleeping last night and realized that I used water temp less than 90F. I usually use 100F water, so that is one variable. I may need to add sugar to be able to help the long ferment. i would do a shorter ferment but my travel schedule usually means making the dough on the weekend before we want pizza.

[Jeep Pizza]

any suggestions on where to start on how much sugar to add?

[Pete-zza]

any suggestions on where to start on how much sugar to add?

Jeep Pizza,

I would go with 1-2% sugar, and I think I would skip the room temperature bulk ferment and divide and go directly to the refrigerator. You might leave the dough balls uncovered in their containers in the refrigerator for about an hour, and then cover the containers with their lids.

Peter

[Jeep Pizza]

Thanks I will give it a try. I am wondering why skip the bulk rise, I am always interested in the reasons so that I can get a good understanding of the cause and affect in baking.

[Pete-zza]

Thanks I will give it a try. I am wondering why skip the bulk rise, I am always interested in the reasons so that I can get a good understanding of the cause and effect in baking.

Jeep Pizza,

If it is warm where you are this time of year, then your dough will start to ferment fairly quickly and use up some of the natural sugars released from the flour by amylase enzyme activity, and maybe a bit from the added table sugar. By skipping the room temperature bulk rise, you preserve more of the sugars for the yeast to consume during the cold fermentation of the dough and to leave enough residual sugars to add to crust coloration. You want to end up with a lot of residual sugar in the dough at the time of baking to contribute to that crust coloration. My suggestions are calculated to enhance the residual sugars as much as possible.

I hope you will report back on your results.

Peter

[Jeep Pizza]

It makes sense, I can see how the yeast may have run out of food giving me the poor results. How critical is the water temperature? I try to have my water at 100F when making dough.

[Pete-zza]

It makes sense, I can see how the yeast may have run out of food giving me the poor results. How critical is the water temperature? I try to have my water at 100F when making dough.

Jeep Pizza,

In a home setting where you are using a standard home refrigerator, ideally you want to use water at a temperature that will achieve a finished dough temperature of around 75-80 degrees F, as measured by a basic probe-type thermometer. As you might expect, that water temperature will be lower in the summer than in the winter. The higher the finished dough temperature, the faster the dough will ferment, and vice versa.

Peter