sugar in crust

[blueeyes7718]

Hello I'm new here and I wanted to see of anyone could help me. I like a sweet pizza crust, and it is very hard to roll out. I don't know if it's from the high sugar level or what. This is my recipe I use.
3 cups all-gluten flour
2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbl. sp. oil
1/2 tsp. yeast
right under 1 cup of water

I know 1/2 a cup of sugar is alot and I'm pretty sure thats why the dough is so hard to roll out, what can I chang to make it easier for me to roll out. The overall outcome is very good and it makes a great pizza, but I just want to be able to roll it out easier. Thanks for your help

[Pete-zza]

blueyes7718,

Your dough recipe is more like a pastry dough than a pizza dough because of all of the sugar. I estimate that you are using about 25% sugar as a percent of the weight of flour. I also estimate that your hydration (the weight of water divided by the weight of flour) is around 58%. Because of all of the sugar, it is possible that you will need more water to be able to absorb all of the sugar.

Your yeast level is also very low, especially with all of the sugar that you are using. You didn't indicate whether you are using instant dry yeast (IDY) or active dry yeast (ADY) but, in either case, I estimate your usage of yeast to be around 0.40-0.49% of the flour weight. The low usage of yeast may also be contributing to your problems because your sugar level, at around 25%, will overwhelm the very small amount of yeast and that might be manifesting itself in the form of a dough that has little volume. As you will see from the section entitled "Osmotic Pressure" at http://home.earthlink.net/~ggda/The_Artisan_Yeast_Treatise_Section_One.htm#Dough%20Development, once the amount of sugar exceeds 5%, it exerts an inhibiting effect on the yeast. If increasing the amount of water in your case does not solve your problem, then you perhaps should be using a lot more yeast--many, many multiples of what you have been using.

I am not a pastry maker but as background for what you are doing you might also want to read this thread from the PMQ Think Tank: http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?p=23370#23370.

If you adopt any of the above suggestions, I hope you will report back to us on your results. I personally would like to know how very high sugar levels affect dough behavior and performance.

Peter

[blueeyes7718]

I'm using instant dry yeast. I have also used 2 1/4 tsp. of yeast before not having any better results either, so I went back to the 1/2 tsp I was normally using. I was also considering using karo syrup, I'm not sure if that would be better or not, being that karo syrup is so sticky.

[blueeyes7718]

nobody has any answers for me??

[Guts]

blueeyes7718 I had a similar question, are formulas are not thet far off but as I'm finding out a gram of some ingreadent can make a diffrence. here is the one that helped me maybe it will help you also.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9590.0.html

[Pete-zza]

nobody has any answers for me??

I think it is unlikely that you will be getting many responses on this one because your dough recipe is so unorthodox with a half-cup of sugar for three cups of flour. In fact, I have been on this forum since 2004 and read about pizzas all the time and I don't recall ever seeing a pizza dough recipe with as much sugar as yours (around 25%) for the amount of flour involved. The dough recipe with the highest sugar content that I have worked with is one with raw sugar and honey at a combined value of 9.8%, at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1707.msg15310.html#msg15310. However, if your question now is whether you can replace the sugar with corn syrup (Karo), I believe it is possible but I can't tell you whether that will be a good thing or a bad thing. Professionals who use corn syrup, in some cases for frozen pizza dough, are more likely to use corn syrup solids, which are easier to handle.

There are places that tell you how to substitute corn syrup for table sugar and in what proportions and how to adjust the amount of water in the recipe. An example is this one: http://www.foodsubs.com/Sweeten.html.

Peter

[November]

nobody has any answers for me??

You're also unlikely to receive answers to questions you already indicated knowing the answer to.

I know 1/2 a cup of sugar is alot and I'm pretty sure thats why the dough is so hard to roll out, what can I chang to make it easier for me to roll out.

You essentially answered your own question.  Don't use a lot of sugar.  Knowing the solution to your problem as you do, you might ask "What can I use in place of table sugar to sweeten my crust so that it's easier to roll out?"  That question has many answers.  I would start with ingredients that are common and typically used to enhance sweetness without actually adding much bulk to the dough.  Vanilla extract for instance is used in baking to heighten the sense of sweetness.  Extracts and herbs from the apiaceae family (e.g. anise, fennel, coriander, caraway) are also useful if you're not opposed to those subtle flavors.  Extracts from the stevia genus are also now available.

I would suggest that not only for improving dough handling characteristics should you figure out how much less sugar you can add and still be satisfied with the flavor, but also for the sake of avoiding type II diabetes.

- red.november