63% Lehmann with Varasano "Autolyze"

[duegatti]

46 degree water in the bowl, 1.5% salt.  Add 622.2 g (75% total) and 0.6 tsp IDY.  Mixed for 2 minutes at low speed, removed the paddle, and covered for 30 minutes.  Poured 1% oil on top of this, and began 8 minute mix at low speed, with dough hook.  Begin adding remaining flour after 4:30.  Continue mixing past 8 minute mark and add remaining flour.  Up to this time, the mixing was better than I had observed previously, whereby the dough went straight up the stirrer.  I did stop once, pull it off the hook, mush it a little by hand, and resume. 

But something seemingly significant happened right as I completed the flour add:  while the bulk of the dough was associated with the hook, it began to repeatedly extrude a portion oriented parallel to the wall of the bowl, and then hit into it later to recapture it, form another extruded piece, etc.  Seeing this behaviour, I thought - it looks like that hook is kneading that dough, and I imagine that is just what a dough hook is supposed to do.  Is this correct? 

I mixed in this fashion for 2 minutes.  Temperature was 76 degrees, and I did not note that it felt warm, as I had previously.  I removed, hand worked the dough minimally - just folded it over a couple of times and formed a ball.  Cut into three and refridgerated. 

I am loath to lower my cooking temperature from the circa 650 I had achieved, though this would probably go far in reducing the burning of the bottom relative to the top.  I have, however, formulated other configurations within the Egg which should help, and may even be compatible with a gasket, if and when I replace the one destroyed last week. 

As I observed that my third ball was short by 2.3 % of the total (residue on bowl, hook, paddle, hands), it occured to me that this was comparable to the amount by which I had diverged last week by additional adds of water and flour: 1406 g vs. 1375.  But if we had considered unrecovered residue, this would indicate that my adds were in fact twice what those numbers suggested. 

What I'm getting at is this - what kind of effects would varying hydration levels, in the vicinity of 63%, have on how susceptible the bottom of a pie would be to burning, in a 650 deg oven sitting above 1100 degree flames?  Could some, any, of my burning be due to a mathematically accesible hydration lower than the intended 63?  If the true overshoot in my first dough was 31+32=63 grams, that would give a hydration of about 59%, were it all flour.  How sensitive to hydration level is crust bottom burning?

[ThunderStik]

I recently prepaired a recipe almost exactly as yours. I used 60% as opposed to your 63% with mixed results.

I also sifted the flour for the first time wich made a huge difference in water absorbtion. I baked them in my home oven which gets cycles between 595 and 625. Average cook time was around 4.5-5 min.

I have never had a problem with burning the bottom crust as my setup which can be seen in the link below evenly browns the top and bottom.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8516.msg73660.html#msg73660

I know for a fact that if I did not have the big cast iron skillet on top that the bottom would burn before the top was ready, been there done that. I have moved around from 60%-66% with similar results so I would say finding a way to brown/cook the top is a major factor.

[duegatti]

I sift my flour as well.  How would you characterize the difference that this makes in water absorption?  Are you saying that, from your data, you do not see a correlation between hydration level and burning, over the range of 60-66%?

I am using a Big Green Egg, which would seem to suffer from the same problem as your oven, when sans skillet.  I will add the concept of an overhead heat sink to my list of techniques to solve this problem - I had only considered raising the pizza stone further from the fire, and closer to the dome (a fixed, baseline heat sink).  One potential issue would involve the loss of ability to observe the progress of the cook through the top of the dome - that might be a killer.

Many thanks,

Joe

[ThunderStik]

I would say that the sifted flour hydrates much much better. The dough feels like a lower percentage hydration (more dry than the %'s would lead to believe). But I did not see that in the final crusts. It just seems that it more thoroughly hydrates the flour.

I have not had any instances of burning at all since the introduction of the cast iron pan. Since its black it absorbs a radiates so much heat that it acts like broiler on top. It seems to cook the top about the same rate that the stone cooks the bottom.

 Most people judge when the pie is ready to come out by looking at the pie itself and not the bottom so if you dont have a radiation source on top and wait for it to get brown and crusty you will indeed have a burnt bottom.

You may also look at putting some type of buffer between your fire and the bottom of your stone so you can block some of the direct heat.

When I first incorporated the cast iron pan I was going to modify one of my oven racks to be able to hold and adjust the height of the pan but encountering a bit of luck all I had to do was just put it up on the next rack.

So no I have had no burning at all because when the top looks done the bottom is done perfectly also. If you try this method I would go to the local bass pro and get you as big a cast iron pan as will fit in your egg. They are fairly cheap so if you need to cut a handle off to make it fit then do so. The one I use is a large 17" pan that just fits in the oven. Then get you a timer and use it. I have one on my fone that I use and that method works well.