Yeast, autolyse and final dough temperature

[Jack]

Last week I figured out that when using an autolyse, it should be done before the yeast is added.  I’m not sure how I missed this initially, but I just caught it while reading another post.  Also, I[m not sure what effect it has on the final dough.

I cranked out four pies yesterday at out pool.  While I forgot a thermometer, so I have no firm knowledge of what temperature the barbeque grill was running, the pizza was great.  It had nice oven spring, medium brown beginnings of char on the bottom of the crust and near perfect cheese cooking.  Based on my experience making pizza on barbeque grills, I suspect the grill temperature was about 500F.  I allowed just under an hour for the stone to warm up and about 10 minutes between pies.

While I’ve been happy with the taste of my pizza previously, this crust rocked.  Getting the autolyse right may have resulted in me taking another step upward in my skill set.

I used KASL, a 20 minute autolyse, 48 hour retard, and a slightly modified Lehman formula.  Kneading time was somewhere around 6 minutes in a KA Professional (Costco), with a dough hook, then about one minute by hand.  The oil was added during the final minute of KA kneading.

Water   63.0%
ADY   0.25 % (edit: yeast is Rapid Rise)
Salt   1.75%
Sugar   1.0%
Oil   1.0%
Thickness Factor 0.10

The only question I have is about my finished dough temperature.  I used cold water from the fridge, resulting in a 72F and 74F finished dough temperatures in my two batches.  One batch was prepared with the dry yeast mixed into the flour and one had the yeast “proofed” in 95F water first.  The baked results were almost identical.  The only difference being the separately proofed yeast may have yielded slightly more oven spring, but the difference was sufficiently small that I question whether there was any difference at all.  I cooked four pies, alternating the doughs.

What are the ramifications of such a low finished dough temperature?

Overall, it was a very good cooking day.  I fed my family and many friends enjoyed the leftovers; about two full pies.  Sorry, there are no pictures.  I was tired from a late night the day before and forgot the camera, thermometer, EVOO, Parmesan cheese, etc.  We spent the day before at a County Fair (Monroe, WA), staying late to watch the Demolition Derby.  I had not been to a Demolition Derby since I was a kid.  We had a blast.

jack

[Pete-zza]

Jack,

I think your finished dough temperature was just about perfect. With a 20 minute autolyse, I am guessing that the temperature where you made your dough was quite moderate (in the 70's?). Tom Lehmann recommends a lower finished dough temperature--about 70-75 degrees F--for doughs that are to be kept in a home refrigerator because a home refrigerator typically operates several degrees warmer than a commercial cooler.

You might be interested in knowing that you can add yeast during an autolyse. In the classical autolyse as developed by Prof. Raymond Calvel, the sequence of ingredients was essentially water and flour (most of the flour), autolyse, yeast, the remaining flour, and salt. The reason for leaving the yeast out of the autolyse was because yeast acidifies the dough. But if the autolyse period isn't too long, and the amount of yeast isn't so much as to cause the dough to rise quickly during the autolyse period, the yeast can be added to the flour and water at the beginning. I believe that even Prof. Calvel came to acknowledge this approach. The same applies to natural preferments, because they are slow acting. Adding the oil toward the end, as you did, is consistent with the approach recommended for oil by Tom Lehmann.

Overall, I would say that you did very well. I can even see the engineer in you  .

Peter

[Jack]

I can even see the engineer in you  .

Ha, for better or worse, a blind man can see the Enginerd in me!

Thanks for clarifying a few details too,

Jack