How to tell under-proofed vs over-proofed

[Arnaud]

Hi expert Doughmakers (Pete, Craig, Alex et al)

I have been making quite good hope made, domestic oven 275c Neapolitan style pizzas at home but have recently lost my way.

Using Craig's fermentation table using IDY and performing a 24hr fermentation at on average 16c with 65% hydration.  Balling for 2-4 hrs.

For the last couple of months, my dough seems very sticky and not springy making it very difficult to transfer to the peel.  I cannot work out whether this is due to under or over proofing. 

Could you recommend a simple way to determine whether my dough is under or over proofed please?

Appreciated

Arnaud

[amolapizza]

Photos of your dough (in various stages) and pizza would help people here offer an opinion!

[Loarina Vega]

It's Really a TIME  thing for me anything over 80 hrs . CF doesn't bake well for me I know is over proofed because i use poolish and yeast you can tell when it's over blown too many holes it gets yellow Pillowy  degassed it loses its  circle roundness gets wrinkles and kind of  flattens out ....under proofed is  TIMMING Again ...I  don't use any dough under 32
34.  hours of CF.

[Heikjo]

How does the dough behave these days compared to before? Does it rise as much? Does it rise less or more? Any other changes you can think of? Using the same flour and IDY? It can also be caused by something else, but an overly sticky dough is more likely to be underfermented than over. Humidity and indoor climate can also have an effect, and maybe it becomes more noticeable with higher hydration doughs.

What about the other characteristics of the dough? Has the elasticity changed or does it behave and open as usual? Have you changed the way you store the dough for fermenting? If you drop the ball into flour before opening, does that help eliminate the issue?

Any changes on how the dough feels when balling? You ball quite late in my opinion. The dough is almost fully proofed at that point if it’s only in balls 2-4 hours. Should be quite airy and floofy then.

Where do you keep it during bulk and do you know that the temperature is stable at the same levels as before?

Photos would also be helpful.

[Arnaud]

Thanks all.  Heikjo, in answer to your questions: my dough seems very sticky and not springy making it very difficult to transfer to the peel recently. It rises less.  Dropping the ball into semolina/flour before shaping the pizza does help a bit but I end up with raw semolina/flour on the bottom of my pizza.  When balling, the dough feels sticky and sticks to the counter which it did not before. It has some air but is sticky.  Temperatures are fairly stable +-2 centigrade. 

Made 3 balls yesterday. 20hrs at 18centigrde with 0.056% IDY.    Recipe in grams:  F 531  W 345  S 15  Y 0.35 and I took some photos at various stages.  First photo of bulk rise is after 10 hrs.

Is it under or over proofed?  I think under but am uncertain as it remained sticky throughout.

[Wario]

Perhaps they've been in balls for too long.

[Pete-zza]

Thanks all.  Heikjo, in answer to your questions: my dough seems very sticky and not springy making it very difficult to transfer to the peel recently. It rises less.  Dropping the ball into semolina/flour before shaping the pizza does help a bit but I end up with raw semolina/flour on the bottom of my pizza.  When balling, the dough feels sticky and sticks to the counter which it did not before. It has some air but is sticky.  Temperatures are fairly stable +-2 centigrade. 

Made 3 balls yesterday. 20hrs at 18centigrde with 0.056% IDY.    Recipe in grams:  F 531  W 345  S 15  Y 0.35 and I took some photos at various stages.  First photo of bulk rise is after 10 hrs.

Is it under or over proofed?  I think under but am uncertain as it remained sticky throughout.

Arnaud,

Somehow, I missed your opening post. I apologize for that. Now that I have read your posts, you might want to take a look at a post in which I discussed similar problems as you did although in my case I was only making a single dough ball and my room temperature was several degrees greater than yours. The post I am referring to is at:

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=7225.msg62332#msg62332

If the above post is of any value to you, then you might also want to take a look at these posts also since they are in same ballpark as the above post and in some cases closer to what you have been doing:

Reply 58 at https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=7225.msg78689#msg78689

Reply 127 at https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=7225.msg92094#msg92094

Peter

[Arnaud]

Thanks Peter, I will check them out