What is happening to my dough???

[mjar]

First of all, I want to apologies if anybody is confused with my post.  I never really had the skill in describing something clearly and concise but  I will try my best 

I have been reading a lot of threads and really trying to learn as much as I can.  I am trying to achieve something that is close to an American style pizza.  I have been using a hydration that is not too high but manageable.  With more experience I will move to a more higher hydration.

Flour   315   100%
Water   180   57%
Yeast   1   .3%
Salt   7   2.4%
Oil   4   1.2%

Add water, salt and yeast to warm filtered water
Add 57 percent of the flour, mix  and let it sit for half hour
Add rest of the flour with oil  and kneed for 7 -10 mins.
Make 2 dough balls.


Result:
The one day ferment ball turns out fine
The day two ferment ball:  Not so good.  I let the dough ball sit for 2 days in the fridge,  When I observe the dough ball the physical properties are: bit of a dry, skin  layer  around the outer part of my dough ball (like an equator line).  At the bottom of my ball, the part in contact with the bowl, it seems to part wet and by touch you can see a bit of a milky liquid appear.

Problem 2
I leave my dough ball out for 1 hour  to room temperature and I begin to heat my Pizza Oven (which I have been getting good results with) for 20mins,.  I add my toppings put a little flour at the end and cook the pizza on the pizza oven for 6 mins on at 572 degrees .   When looking at the pizza first I am happy with the results but when I look at the bottom, it is burnt a bit.

What I would like to know is, regardless of how my pizza turned out?

Is a milky formation at the end of my dough ball normal?  If not, why is it happening?
The skin layer forming, is this normal?  If not , why does this happen?
The burnt bit at the end of my pizza, how come this is happening even though the crust not in contact with the stone is slightly brown.

How do I cook a pizza where the dough base and cheese  are cooked at equal pace.  What I mean is, the crust is slightly brown and the cheese is still chewy and stringy.   Lower temperature?
 
Cheers for looking at my post

[dellavecchia]

Michael - is the dough covered with plastic wrap or a top on the container when in the fridge?

John

[mjar]

Michael - is the dough covered with plastic wrap or a top on the container when in the fridge?



John

Hi John,  thank you for the quick response.  It is left in a bowl with cling film covering the top of the bowl.  Again the first dough ball after a 24 hour ferment was fine but after the 48 hour ferment, I got the negative results 

[bfguilford]

Michael: I would suggest using a little olive oil to coat the dough ball. That should prevent the surface from drying. I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say that you "put a little flour at the end" but if you're using too much bench flour, that might account for the burning you're getting.

Barry

[mjar]

Michael: I would suggest using a little olive oil to coat the dough ball. That should prevent the surface from drying. I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say that you "put a little flour at the end" but if you're using too much bench flour, that might account for the burning you're getting.

Barry

Apologies again if im not being very clear, I have that problem    I've put some olive oil around the dough ball.  The dough ball in gerneral is quite moist but there is that dry rim that I cannot understand and that milky texture at the bottom of the dough ball.  It's like the dough ball has given up and just died on me lol.  Do you think it might be that the yeast is dying, that sugar should be added?  I have been reading the NY style pizza's do not use sugar.  How long cold ferment do you have if you use no sugar?

In relation to the bottom of the pizza burning,  I think like you too, that the  bench flour maybe the problem too, but I really try to keep it to a minimum.How do you put your pizza from the pizza peel to the oven without it sticking.  Its like a catch 22 situation.  I'm not using a very high hydration but still have that sticking problem 

I mean the peel I have is stainless steel.  When looking at the peel, its is shiney with no grit to it.  Common sense tells me that the pizza will stick.  How do guys with high hydration doughs prevent dough from sticking?

[bfguilford]

A couple of things, Michael. You should probably use a wooden peel to load your pie. I use a combination of semolina and bread flour for my bench flour, and don't have sticking problems. The other thing to do is to gently shake the dough right after you load it onto the peel, and if you're dressing the pizza on it, to give it a little shake every 30 seconds and again just before you load it onto the stone. You might also be able to cut back on the bake time a bit if your stone is at 572 (my guess is that 4-5 minutes would do, with the last 2-3 with the broiler on to achieve some top browning and good cheese melting... you might also want to drizzle some olive oil on top of the cheese to help it melt more evenly). I find that 2-3 day cold ferments don't really need sugar, but 2% would probably help top browning as well.

I'm having a hard time visualizing what's going on, and (if you haven't either used the dough ball or thrown it out) posting a picture is usually helpful. I'll let others come in on the milky issue.

Barry

[mjar]

Cheers Barry,

Some really usefull tips and I will definitely be making more adustments.  Putting the toppings  on the base of the pizza on the peel makes sense.  I was putting toppings on the pizza whilst on the bench, which probably contributed to the sticking.

I'm going to add a bit of sugar to see will it help with browning.

I'm having a hard time visualizing what's going on, and (if you haven't either used the dough ball or thrown it out) posting a picture is usually helpful. I'll let others come in on the milky issue.

Barry

If only i took a picture?  An obvious mistake I made again.  I think I was so annoyed at how my dough ball turned out, I wasn't thinking.  What  i will do is make the relevant changes that you advised me to do.  Take some pics next time and show you my results.  Fingers crossed it all goes well.  Who would have thought that there was so much to making good pizza and at the same time so addictive.

Barry, appreciate your input again!