First KASL Pie and now some questions - pics

[derbow]

Hello Everyone,

Tonight I ate my first pizza made with KASL flour and it was great.  I cannot say that it was the best pizza I have ever made, but it was very close.  Being the first dough ball I have made with KASL, I have some questions.  The dough ball I made seemed more sticky than the dough ball I make with KABF.  I did not do anything different in my process except for using KASL instead of KABF.  My dough is 64% hydration.  Normally my finished dough ball is smooth and what I would consider perfect dough.  This dough was manageable, but it was very sticky.

I have read that KASL absorbs more water.  Can anyone tell me why it would have been more sticky than normal.  I was standing by with increments of water to raise the hydration level 1% at a time, but I obiously did not need the water.  In fact, I added another 1 to 1.5 tsp. of KASL.  I also found that I needed more flour than normal when I was shaping the pie.

As far as the taste goes, it was wonderful.  It was very flavorful and very chewy.  I made the dough about 8:00 pm on Thursday night, and the pie went into the oven at about 6:00 on Saturday night, so it was basically a 46 hour rise.  Just for kicks, I also took an old KABF dough ball out of the freezer.  It had been there about 2 months.  I have to say that it turned out pretty well itself, but it was no match for the KASL pie.

Here is a picture of the KASL pie.

thanks for the help guys,

Derrick

[Pete-zza]

Derrick,

Congratulations on your first KASL pizza. It looks good.

It’s hard to nail down the cause of differences that are small like you experienced. The other day I made a dough and found that it needed another teaspoon of flour to overcome what I thought was excessive stickiness. And I had no explanation for the need for additional flour. I had used the Lehmann calculator to calculate all of the ingredient quantities, and I believe I weighed out the flour and water correctly on my digital scale. But after the fact, I had no way of knowing if it was pilot error on my part. What you experienced could have been something as simple as using new, fresh flour. Flour when it comes from the mill can have around 14% moisture. Over time, as it ages in storage, the moisture will usually drop. Maybe your new KASL flour hasn’t had a chance yet to give up some of its initial moisture. The problem could also have been related to changes in humidity in your kitchen with the change in season, where more people are turning on their air conditioners. Tom Lehmann discusses this type of change, and others as well, in an article at http://web.archive.org/web/20100326065639/http://www.pmq.com/mag/2006march/lehmann.php (click on the link Impatient?). The article is in respect of winter arriving, but you can turn the matter around for the arrival of summer.

In terms of relative absorption rates, the KASL, at 63% +/- 2%, is just a bit higher than the KABF, which is around 62% +/- 2%. But I have found that I can squeeze the same amount of water into each of those flours without any difficulty. Just using an autolyse can do that, as can altering your mixing regimen.

Unless you can pinpoint something that you did with the KASL dough that was materially different than what you did with your KABF dough, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. You might find that the “problem” goes away when you make the next KASL dough batch.

Peter