ekang,
Before I respond, can you tell me whether you are operating in a commercial environment or a home environment?
Peter
Hi Peter,
It would be for a commercial outdoor environment. We will be using gas conveyor ovens as that is the only option for us at this point. We are looking at an American style pizza recipe because of the limitations of the oven (500F), am I correct in saying this? We would like to make a NY style but from what I've read it is tough to do with conveyors.
Operating outside we are limited to space and refrigeration that is why we are looking for room temp fermentation and keeping the dough in bulk batches and portion out on the go as needed. The desired crust for us is something that is fairly thin, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside without being too "bready". I understand American style is more on the soft and chewy side but it seems as though I can add less oil (2.8%) to get a crispier crust, is this true? Our initial calculation is to use 200g of dough for a 9" pizza.
We are looking for mass production but we don't want to sacrifice quality. We want to produce a crust with great flavour and it seems as though a natural preferment is the way to go. I've read about ones using raisins and seems as though it would add a unique flavour to the crust. However, all the posts I've read use high temp ovens 700F +, can a preferment be used for conveyor ovens and produce a nice browned crispy crust?
Also, is there a limit to how many times one can punch down a dough. From what I've read once the dough reaches double in volume it should be used or punch down to prevent over-fermentation. If it is being used throughout the day and kept outside it could potentially double multiple times, can the dough be constantly punched down and still produce the same quality pizza?
I know this is a lot to ask and I appreciate any input you can give.
Kind regards,
ekang