When to ball 24hr room fermented dough?

[Catcher]

I'm doing a 24 room ferment dough based on the yeast proportions provided in the tables in this forum (sorry forgot the author).

At which point should I be balling the dough? For reference the average temp in the part of the house the dough is in is 60F and I'm already 16hrs in (not balled yet).

[foreplease]

5-6 hours before the bake, or more. Any closer to bake time and you may have a hard time getting them stretched as easily and as much as you would like. That’s another way of saying once you ball them, given your timeframe, do not do anything else to them until you are ready to make pizzas. Good luck.

[amolapizza]

I'd say a minimum of 4 hours in balls, I'd probably do 16/8 or 12/12 depending on my schedule and when it's going to be eaten.  When you ball you tighten the gluten and it needs to relax again,  too short of a timeframe and it might be difficult to stretch, too long and it might lack elasticity.  I'm sure that there are many other aspects to this though, but then you are entering expert territory..  You need to find a balance that depends on how the dough was made, how high the hydration, how long and at what temperature you are fermenting, etc..

At this stage you are setting up the conditions for having balls that are nice and easy to open, but also not too extensible, and that are being able to hold the toppings well without deforming.  It probably also influences the structure of the final cornicione.

[Heikjo]

Try eight hours and see how that works out. There’s no one-size-fits-all for this topic. You’ll just have to start somewhere, make notes of the result and adjust as needed.

How tight you ball them will affect the strength when opening.

I typically do 4/20 or 6/18 these days. That’s 18-20 hours in balls. If going by rate of fermentation, I want to ball before it has gotten past 5-10% increase.