Recently, in furtherance of the objectives of this thread, I decided to make a long-kneaded version of the basic Lehmann NY style dough. In this case, I use a final knead of 20 minutes, using speed 2 of my basic KitchenAid stand mixer with the C-hook. That was for a dough ball weight of about 15.4 ounces, so I would consider the 20-minute knead time to be quite extended for that amount of dough. The dough formulation that I used was the following one as prepared using the expanded dough calculating tool at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/expanded_calculator.html:
King Arthur Bread Flour (100%):
Water (62%):
IDY (0.25%):
Salt (1.75%):
Olive Oil (1%):
Total (165%):
| 268.46 g | 9.47 oz | 0.59 lbs
166.45 g | 5.87 oz | 0.37 lbs
0.67 g | 0.02 oz | 0 lbs | 0.22 tsp | 0.07 tbsp
4.7 g | 0.17 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.84 tsp | 0.28 tbsp
2.68 g | 0.09 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.6 tsp | 0.2 tbsp
442.96 g | 15.62 oz | 0.98 lbs | TF = 0.1015
|
Note: Nominal thickness factor = 0.10; dough is for a single 14” pizza; bowl residue compensation = 1.5%
To prepare the dough, I started by combining the IDY and flour. I then added the water to the mixer bowl of my KitchenAid stand mixer, then the salt, which I stirred to dissolve, and finally the oil. I then gradually added the flour/IDY mixture to the mixer bowl and, using the flat beater attachment at stir speed, mixed the ingredients until they pulled away from the sides of the bowl, about 1-2 minutes. There was a little flour that did not get picked up by the flat beater attachment so I simply incorporated that loose flour into the dough mass by hand when I removed the flat beater attachment. I then secured the C-hook and kneaded the dough for 20 minutes at speed 2. The knead was continuous but for stopping the mixer twice because the dough ball had reformed into two balls that I had to rejoin. I added a bit of time back on the clock so that the dough was kneaded the full 20 minutes. The dough at both of those times was soft and smooth and malleable. At the end of the 20-minute knead time, the dough was still soft and smooth and malleable. I normally don’t use the windowpane test, but I did use it this time and the dough passed with flying colors. After lightly oiling the dough ball and placing two poppy seeds on the dough ball to monitor its progress during the course of fermentation, all in accordance with the technique as discussed at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,6914.0.html, I placed the dough ball within its lidded storage container (a glass bowl) into the refrigerator. I should note that the water I used to make the dough was directly out of the refrigerator, at 48.2 degrees F, and that the finished dough temperature was 83.7 degrees F. Room temperature was around 82 degrees F.
I decided that I would use the dough once it doubled. For a Lehmann dough with the above formulation, that meant more than one day of cold fermentation. In fact, after the first day (24 hours), the dough had not risen visibly at all, based on the spacing of the two poppy seeds. After 48 hours, the dough had expanded by about 42%, and after 78 hours, by about 68%. Thereafter, the dough seemed to stabilize and not rise much more. So, after 96 hours, by which time the dough had risen by about 82% and was noticeably quite gassy (as evidenced by the multiplicity of small fermentation bubbles around the sides and bottom of the storage container), I decided to use the dough. I allowed the dough to warm up at room temperature for about 1 hour and then opened it up to form a skin (14”). The dough was very extensible and evidenced signs of excessive fermentation, but I did not have a problem forming it to the desired final size. After dressing the pizza in basic pepperoni style, I baked the pizza on a pizza stone that had been placed on the lowest oven rack position and preheated for about an hour at around 525 degrees F. The pizza was baked on the stone for about 6 minutes, at which time I moved the pizza off of the stone to the topmost oven rack position where the pizza baked for another 2 minutes to get increased top crust browning.
It is always difficult to make much of an isolated experiment, but here are my observations. First, the dough skin itself, while more robust than many of my dough skins, was still “webby”. No doubt, the extended fermentation may have led at least in part to that result. Second, the finished crust had good oven spring but the rim of the crust was underbaked and “pasty” in places. That condition might have been avoided by using the dough sooner or by baking the pizza at a lower oven temperature for a longer time in order to drive out more of the moisture in the dough. The crumb away from the rim was quite normal, albeit breadlike from a softness standpoint, but not with a tight cell structure. It was open and airy. Third, the bottom of the finished crust was on the soft and chewy side, not crispy. Fourth, the color of the finished crust was a bit lighter than usual, perhaps reflecting a loss of residual sugar because of the extended fermentation. The crust flavors were good.
It is difficult to assign what role the long knead time may have had on the above characteristics and attributes. There were both positive and negative effects, some of which no doubt would have been different had I used the dough sooner. That suggests conducting a follow-up experiment but with a shorter window of fermentation, maybe a couple of days. I think it would also be useful to conduct an additional experiment in which the knead time in its totality, including the preliminary mixing time using the flat beater attachment, is kept as short as possible to better understand the effects of a very short knead time.
The photos below show the finished product.
Peter
