My first dough with questions

[alan081954]

This is my first dough,the recipe I used is in part from a post by "pete" (my dough smells like beer)

4 cups gold medal better for bread flour
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
1 packet active dry yeast
2 tablespoons ev olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup milk or 1/4 cup water

I have let this rise in the fridge for 24 hours "see pics" what concerns me though is that the dough has a "skin" on the top. I plan on taking it out of the fridge and letting it set for a couple of hours to reach room temp. Do I remove this "skin"first? I did oil it prior to putting it in the fridge yesterday. Also, when I go to roll it out, do I dump it out so the skin hit the surface first or do I scoop it out of the bowl? This "skin" has me worried. I plan on making a 15" pie, heat my stone at 500% for an hour on lower rack, then transfer to the oven with my yet to build today "peel" I'll post a pic of the "peel"  later.

[Mad_Ernie]

Well the dough certainly looks promising.

Using a little oil to coat it was a good idea.  Did you cover the bowl with plastic wrap as well?  I know Petezza uses bread bags and I am thinking of trying that technique myself since I the plastic bags I've used don't tend to keep the dough in its ball shape.

I think you should have more than enough dough to make a 15" pizza depending on how thick you were planning on  having crust come out in the final product. 

As to whether or not to leave the skin on or not, when this happened to me in the past I would go head and just use the dough anyway, but realize the toughened dough portion will not spread out or rise in the oven as well as the more moist part of the dough.  Take that for what it's worth.

[Pete-zza]

alan081954,

Like Mad_Ernie, I also wondered whether you covered the bowl while the dough was in the refrigerator? Even if you didn't, I wouldn't worry too much about the "skin". I would just make the part of the dough ball with the "skin" serve as the bottom of the pizza round that you make from the dough. That should actually make for a more crispy bottom crust. To remove the dough from the bowl, I would either turn the bowl upside down and shake it so that the dough flops onto your work surface or just reach in around the edges of the dough and scoop the dough ball onto the work surface, with the "skin" side of the dough ball in contact with the work surface.

I would not let the dough sit for two hours or such other time as it takes to reach room temperature. I did a weather check for Adams, TN and it looks like it is going to be a warm day today--close to 85 degrees F. Unless you have your air conditioning cooling to below 75-80 degrees F, you shouldn't need two hours of warm-up time at room temperature. I think that even one hour may be too long, especially with the amount of yeast you used (one full packet), the warm water temperature you used, and the hydration of your dough, which I estimate to be between 60-65%. With this combination, you can expect that the dough will be quite extensible (stretchy) and may require careful handling to shape and stretch it out to the desired 15". Whatever you do, don't re-knead, re-ball or re-work the dough once you get it onto your work surface. That will only make the dough elastic and very difficult, if not almost impossible, to work with.

I estimate that the dough batch weight in your case is around 31-32 ounces. That is a lot of dough for a 15" pizza. It corresponds to a thickness factor of around 0.175. That would be considerably thicker than a Papa John's crust. I think I would reconsider using that amount of dough for a single 15" pizza. If the dough round is too thick, you may have problems adequately baking it and having the top and bottom of the pizza being done at the same time.

For the record, I am not the "pete" mentioned in the last post.

Peter

[alan081954]

alan081954,

Like Mad_Ernie, I also wondered whether you covered the bowl while the dough was in the refrigerator? Even if you didn't, I wouldn't worry too much about the "skin". I would just make the part of the dough ball with the "skin" serve as the bottom of the pizza round that you make from the dough. That should actually make for a more crispy bottom crust. To remove the dough from the bowl, I would either turn the bowl upside down and shake it so that the dough flops onto your work surface or just reach in around the edges of the dough and scoop the dough ball onto the work surface, with the "skin" side of the dough ball in contact with the work surface.

I would not let the dough sit for two hours or such other time as it takes to reach room temperature. I did a weather check for Adams, TN and it looks like it is going to be a warm day today--close to 85 degrees F. Unless you have your air conditioning cooling to below 75-80 degrees F, you shouldn't need two hours of warm-up time at room temperature. I think that even one hour may be too long, especially with the amount of yeast you used (one full packet), the warm water temperature you used, and the hydration of your dough, which I estimate to be between 60-65%. With this combination, you can expect that the dough will be quite extensible (stretchy) and may require careful handling to shape and stretch it out to the desired 15". Whatever you do, don't re-knead, re-ball or re-work the dough once you get it onto your work surface. That will only make the dough elastic and very difficult, if not almost impossible, to work with.

I estimate that the dough batch weight in your case is around 31-32 ounces. That is a lot of dough for a 15" pizza. It corresponds to a thickness factor of around 0.175. That would be considerably thicker than a Papa John's crust. I think I would reconsider using that amount of dough for a single 15" pizza. If the dough round is too thick, you may have problems adequately baking it and having the top and bottom of the pizza being done at the same time.

For the record, I am not the "pete" mentioned in the last post.

Peter

I covered it with a dish towel while in the fridge. The amount of dough I have was per the instructions in my post. I will not use all of it though. I am shooting for a semi thin/thick (medium) crust with air pockets and a not to crispy crust. And yes,I was referring to a different "Pete" Thanks for the advise and sorry for posting in the wrong area.

[alan081954]

Well, It all went well. I hand rolled it, topped it with ground sausage and cheese and boy is this thing good! Thanks for the tips folks!

[Pete-zza]

alan081954,

For your first effort, you did well. Was the dough overly stretchy or difficult to work with in any way?

Also, how much dough did you end up using? And did you use any milk in the recipe?

Peter

[alan081954]

alan081954,

For your first effort, you did well. Was the dough overly stretchy or difficult to work with in any way?

Also, how much dough did you end up using? And did you use any milk in the recipe?

Peter

It was not difficult to work with at all. I used the whole thing but cut off the "skin" as mentioned in the first post. I did use milk a 1/4 cup. The next batch will be covered in plastic in stead of a towel. I think the towel let air in and that made it skin.