Dave;
I'm very familiar with the problem that you are having. Pressed pizza doughs require a VERY relaxed dough in order to press out without the dough snapping back excessively. Our normal approach is to add a reducing agent to the dough to weaken it, thus reducing the snap back. Reducing agents that are commonly used are L-cysteine at 20 to 60 parts per million (based on total flour weight), PZ-44 <
www.foremostfarmsusa.com> which is a blend of dairy whey and L-cysteine, and because it is diluted into the whey the use level is typically given at 1 to 2% of the total flour weight, and then there is "dead yeast" this is a commercial product made up of dead yeast which contains the amino acid glutathione, a substance very similar to L-cysteine. Many yeast manufacturers offer this product. The normal use level is about 2% of the total flour weight. While sulfites and protease enzymes can also be used as reducing agents we don't normally recommend their use in this application. The sulfites also impact yeast activity by slowing it down and the enzyme approach can't be turned off, so the dough just keeps getting softer and softer until it is finally baked. Other options that could be explored are the use of milk to replace the water. Do not scald the milk prior to use. The unscalded milk contains specific proteins which can also impact the dough by making it softer and weaker, and that's what we're looking for. But be aware that the milk may cause the crust to bake out to a darker than desired color. Possibly the least offensive action that you can take would be to maximize the dough absorption (use as much water as you can while still being able to handle the dough, and then rounding the dough into balls , coating the dough balls with salad oil and placing into individual plastic bags, like bread bags. Twist the open end of the bag to close and tuck the pony tail under the dough ball as you place it into the cooler to cold ferment at least overnight. On the following day, remove the dough balls from the cooler and allow them to temper AT room temperature for about 2-hours, then turn the dough ball out onto the press platten and press the dough ball out into a pizza skin. As you pick up the pizza skin from the platten and transfer it to a screen, disk or peel you can adjust the final shape and size of the skin pretty easily. The key here is to make sure the dough has been well fermented and receives a minimum amount of handling after the fermentation period, this is why the bag method works better in this application than the dough box procedure since you run the risk of over handling and tightening the dough ball as you work it out of the plastic dough boxand transfer it to the press platten.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
