Hey all!
I've been making small batches of pizza dough at home with some success over the past two years and decided to scale up my dough process for my first pizza pop-up at a local venue. At home, I mix by hand because it's easier for me to tell when the dough is properly kneaded. However, for the pop-up, I had to mix nearly 50 pounds of dough, so I opted to use a friend's Hobart commercial mixer. Scaling the recipe up brought on a handful of new challenges that I wasn't entirely prepared for, with the commercial mixer being the largest.
I followed my standard process of mixing the flour, water, and sourdough starter until incorporated and let it rest for 30 mins. Then I added salt and olive oil and again mixed till incorporated. Once incorporated I mixed on the lowest setting for 7 minutes. I was afraid of over-kneading so I decided to shut it off and go into the bulk ferment. I still decided to incorporate stretch and folds for the next two hours as I normally do at home but the dough did not feel right. It was shaggy, and quick to rip.
I'm thinking the dough was over-kneaded because when I balled the dough I tried to knead a ball to see if it would come together, but it seemed to get worse. I'll leave a picture below of the crumb so you can get a look at the gluten structure. Any help would be appreciated, and any advice on scaling dough for pop-ups (especially naturally leavened) and commercial mixers (I used a Hobart H-600T) would be appreciated!
Thanks y'all!
