How accurate is PizzApp for yeast percentage?

[Yuvalvv]

Actually, the pizzas don't look bad at all, with a nice oven spring!

The dough balls in the first picture look exactly as I'd expect; I don't think there was anything wrong fermentation-wise. But like I said, Italian flours are very extensible and tend to pancake if fermented 100% in balls. What you experienced with the reballed dough balls is the result of the gluten being too elastic with insufficient time to 'relax' and become more extensible.

Overall, your process looks good. For the next bake, I suggest reballing the dough balls at around 50-60% of the total fermentation duration or bulk fermenting it and balling at 50-60% (it's practically the same as reballing). This will help maintain a balance between elasticity and extensibility (given that the dough was properly fermented).

[nanometric]

This talks about starter %. I don't use a starter, so not sure if it's relevant to me... unless I'm being a little slow on this?

The same chart-use technique applies to commercial yeast, AFAIK (I have not actually tried it).

As others have mentioned, there is no clear advantage to a multi-temp fermentation approach, and such is done usually out of necessity, not because it produces a notably different final product.

[Anton1]

Hi,
I'm a novice at all this, but make pizzas in my Gozney Roccbox a bit. I've been using PizzApp and inputting my room temp and cold temp durations to calculate my yeast percentage. Usually 72 hours cold, between 3-8 hours room temp depending on how much time I have. It's been working OK, but I feel like my dough balls don't look the same as a lot of others do before shaping - comparing to photos of chefs online, plus this forum and other places. They don't seem to be as puffed and I can't push much air into the crusts - they seem to spread a bit and are a bit flat and sticky even at the end of proofing (previous post of mine has photos but that batch may have had expired yeast).
I've read in a few places that people think the PizzApp underestimates yeast when a cold ferment is involved, one person said they increase the recommended amount by 30%. What do you think? I've tried bulk room ferment and balling for entire 72 h cold ferment, and I've tried bulk room ferment and bulk cold ferment but balling 24 hrs before baking and continuing in fridge in balls. Not much difference between the two methods. My last batch of dough was quite sticky before it was due to be baked - when pressing the dough ball it clung to my finger and a long strand of dough stretched and came with me when I pulled my finger back.
Using 67% hydration, previously used Caputo Pizzeria and most recently got Saccarosso.
I've seen the table recommended here numerous times, but can't figure out how to use it to calculate yeast when there is both a room temp and cold temp ferment.

Using November's formulas adjusted for HR @ 67%
69hrs @ 3C + 3hrs @ 20C = 0.31% ADY adjust for CY or IDY accordingly.
To use other HR, time or C see reply #6 here: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5028.msg42558.html#msg42558

[P!zzaN00b]

Actually, the pizzas don't look bad at all, with a nice oven spring!

The dough balls in the first picture look exactly as I'd expect; I don't think there was anything wrong fermentation-wise. But like I said, Italian flours are very extensible and tend to pancake if fermented 100% in balls. What you experienced with the reballed dough balls is the result of the gluten being too elastic with insufficient time to 'relax' and become more extensible.

Overall, your process looks good. For the next bake, I suggest reballing the dough balls at around 50-60% of the total fermentation duration or bulk fermenting it and balling at 50-60% (it's practically the same as reballing). This will help maintain a balance between elasticity and extensibility (given that the dough was properly fermented).

Thanks. I guess I am used to seeing dough balls online and videos etc that are very puffed and airy, not liquidy and flat. 

Many posts in this thread discussed not fermenting in bulk - Lehmann method suggests balling and putting straight into the fridge for cold fermentation, so this is what I tried. Would you suggest if I'm doing a long cold ferment (let's say 72 hours) then reballing about 36 hours in?

[Yuvalvv]

Ignore social media, it is heavily focused on aesthetics rather than creating a product that is actually enjoyable to eat. The dough balls should not be completely flat, but they also do not need to be overly puffed up like a large donut. Somewhere in the middle.

Yes, if you are using Italian flour, reballing would be a good practice. You can also try bulk fermenting, although this may affect the rate of fermentation in the fridge. You can try "flattening" the dough (ironic) as much as possible before placing it in the fridge to facilitate faster cooling.

[P!zzaN00b]

Ignore social media, it is heavily focused on aesthetics rather than creating a product that is actually enjoyable to eat. The dough balls should not be completely flat, but they also do not need to be overly puffed up like a large donut. Somewhere in the middle.

Yes, if you are using Italian flour, reballing would be a good practice. You can also try bulk fermenting, although this may affect the rate of fermentation in the fridge. You can try "flattening" the dough (ironic) as much as possible before placing it in the fridge to facilitate faster cooling.

It's not so much social media as photos and video tutorials of actual pies being made. Coming out of a cold ferment they look airy and puffed up, and a very pronounced corniccione can be made when stretching the dough

[Yuvalvv]

Any examples?

If you're referring to the appearance of the dough balls in the tray, that is also influenced by the number of dough balls placed in a single tray. See the picture below for an example: same dough, same tray, but with a different number of dough balls in the tray. When packed closely together, the dough balls support each other and rise vertically instead of flattening out. In your last picture, the dough balls did not have support from the sides, so they spread sideways. Is that what you mean?

[sammyt05]

Interesting topic you've raised here, as I've been looking at a few apps recently. I found this app (https://pizzanavigator.com/) to be more forgiving for yeast calculations. It doesn't include CT (or fridge fermentation), however I have read that the yeast amount adjustments based on CT doesn't really matter, it is more about the amount you allow for the RT fermentation and to consider CT as just pausing (or slowing right down) the fermentation process. That's one thing I noticed on this new app is they don't even include CT as they obviously assume the same thing I mentioned above. I posted in another topic about the results of this app and what people think of them, as they are different to other calculators. I've made two pizzas now using this calculator and both turned out pretty well. One was a 24 hour CT fermentation and the other a 48 hour fermentation I've read that the cold temp time (or fridge time) isn't so important.