Can't get dough to pass window pane test

[spazster]

At this moment, I am currently trying to make a ball of dough just to practice pizza stretch, tossing, and shaping. I've only recently heard about the window pane test and haven't used it that much on my previous pizza doughs. I've kneaded this dough for an hour and I still can't get it to pass the test.

Since this is only to practice shaping the pizza, I've done things a bit differently for this dough.  First, it is an emergency dough which should only take about two to three hours to make. Also, I used all-purpose flour instead of bread flour and lowered the hydration level to 62% (usually I start off at about 75% and add flour if it is too sticky).

I started out putting in 2.25 tsps of ADY and a tsp of sugar in a warm bowl of water (310 g) and proofed for 15 minutes. After that, I measured out 310g of flour. I mixed in maybe about 75% of the flour along with 2 tbsp of olive oil and let it rest for 15 minutes after mixing.  After the 15 minutes were up, I started kneaded and used the other 25% to cover the working surface and the dough.  I kneaded by hand for an hour and I still couldn't get it to pass the window pane test. About 20 minutes ago, I said screw it and just decided to cover the dough up and let it rise for and hour and a half.

So, what could I be doing wrong?  Could it just be the flour? Should I have added all the flour in during the mixing? Should I have not let it rest after the mix? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Pete-zza]

spazster,

It sounds like what you are looking for to improve your dough handling and tossing skills is an acrobatic dough. Such a dough is characterized by the use of an exceptional amount of salt (plus little yeast and a fair amount of oil). The salt strengthens the gluten structure of the dough, making it ideal for practice purposes. The salt level is too high to produce a crust for consumption purposes, so you wouldn't want to make such a dough to serve dual purposes--playing and eating. I note that you did not use any salt in your recipe. I think that is the main reason why you did not get a good gluten structure to use for practice purposes.

For an example of an acrobatic dough formulation, see Reply 5 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1399.msg13697/topicseen.html#msg13697.

If you are interested in the PMQ dough formulation for an acrobatic dough, see http://pmq.com/tt2/recipe/view/id_159/title_Acrobatic-Training-Dough/.

Peter

EDIT (3/22/13): For the updated link to the PMQ Recipe, see http://www.pmq.com/Recipe-Bank/index.php/name/Acrobatic-Training-Dough/record/57732/

[spazster]

Actually I did use a tsp of salt, but I forgot to mention it. Thanks info about the practice dough.