My dough kept tearing when I was forming pies last night....what causes this?

[Crusty]

 I make NY Style Street Pies using the recipe below from Pete-zza 9/27/04 which has yeilded great results.
This time when forming the pies and laying the dough over my hands while tossing....the dough kept tearing.

Other facts:
-Dough temp was 62 degrees when forming.
-Just prior to refigerating the dough, after mixing,  the dough temp was 78 degrees not the 80-85 target.


High-gluten flour, 11.80 oz. (about 2 1/2 c.)
Water, 7.70 oz. (about 1 c.)
IDY, 0.20 oz. (1 1/2 t.)
Salt, 0.20 oz. (3/4 t.)
Olive oil (light), 0.12 oz. (3/4 t.)

Thanks,

Crusty

[Pete-zza]

Crusty,

I guess my first question is what did you do differently this time, if you can recall?

Some common causes of tearing are undermixing, insufficient dough fermentation and excessive fermentation. Did you make the dough differently in any way this time and did it look normal when it went into the refrigerator? And how much time did the dough stay in the refrigerator before taking it out to warm up. I don't think it is the slightly lower finished dough temperature. And I don't think the 62 degree forming temperature by itself was responsible for the tearing. Did the crust brown up normally? If it didn't it would indicate the possibility of overfermentaion of the dough. Did you use a different flour by any chance?

Maybe a few more details on your dough management might shed some light on what the problem might be. Usually when a dough fails to perform after several prior successful efforts, something significant changed to cause the poorer results.

Peter

[Crusty]

Peter,  I pulled the dough out of the refrigerator after 20 hours vs the 24 target....things just timed out that way.....same high gluten flour but I did notice that while mixing (I mix 2min on stir, add oil, 2 minutes on stir then 7 minutes on 3 out of 10 setting) the dough stuck to the bottom of the mixer so I added a pinch or two of additional flour to address that issue.  I always weigh my ingredients on a digital scale and no execption this time..  Also, I have been using 1/4t IDY in my recipes.  The dough browned ok and had irregular sized holes and a good taste.

Was it the lack of a full 24 hours ?  Perhaps adding a pinch too much flour ?....mmmmm......

Thanks,

Crusty

[Pete-zza]

Crusty,

I'm beginning to think that it may have been the 20 vs. 24 hours of retardation. Your dough was a little bit on the cool side to begin with and if your refrigerator was operating at a lower temperature than normal, the combination may have set your dough back a bit. Refrigerators tend to fluctuate more in temperature than coolers because of the variability in loading (stuff going in and out of the refrigerator all of the time.) When my refrigerator is fairly empty, the temperature in the main compartment is lower, and a dough will cool faster than normal, and vice versa. When the dough is on the cool side, I usually let it warm up a while longer before forming. But I rarely go under the 24 hour retardation. I may try out a shorter period sometime just to see if I experience what you did.

It also occurred to me that you might have reballed the dough before forming. I know from personal experience that that is a no-no (it messes up the entire gluten network and destroys the extensibility) and can result in tearing once you try to form it. I was aware of the possibility but did it solely as a test. 

I don't believe the addition of a small amount of flour during mixing was responsible for what you experienced.

Peter

[friz78]

One other thought is simple human error in mixing your ingredients.  I know this has happened to me before when you just aren't paying close attention and add too much of this or too little of that or forget to zero your scale before adding the next ingredient.  If this is a one time occurence I would recommend not reading into it too much - stuff happens, as the saying goes...
Friz