Doug's Revised WWW Pizza Dough


 
I use instant ("bread machine") yeast, which is made to be mixed in with the dry ingredients. Regular ADY is supposed to be proofed. I nuke my water for about 15 seconds to bring it to about 110°. Also, dough is going to tear from time to time-- just depends on how much, how often. As good as my pizza guy is, he still gets the occasional hole, even on his regular dough-- he just patches them up on the board. My dough comes out of the refrigerator about 5:30 and starts getting worked about 60-90 minutes later.
 
So if I proof the yeast and add sugar will that maybe keep the dough from tearing and make it more stretchable?
 
My guess would be your problem lies more in protein level or hydration. My old dough recipe would stretch without tearing, but it wouldn't always stretch enough-- the pizza guy would have to bring out the rolling pin, and even then sometimes I'd end up with only a 13" pizza, instead of a 16". I upped the hydration from 67% to 83%, and am using almost exactly the same amount of gluten I was before, and now it works great. I used to make the mistake of thinking if the dough was too sticky when I was kneading it, it was too wet. I now realize that resting it before kneading solves that with the higher hydration.
 
Doug, will try one step at a time. Will increase the protein level by adding more gluten. If that doesn't work I'll try the hydration. By the way I use about two ounces of whole wheat flour. The total weight of the flour is a little over 15 ounces so were talking about 10% is whole wheat.
 
If you're only using 2 oz of WW flour, I think gluten may not help you, unless you're using a low-protein regular flour. Reading your base recipe in the other thread, I would try bumping up the water a couple ounces, and a little more yeast and oil. Get it all mixed, formed into a big ball, and cover the bowl with a towel for 30 minutes. Then come back and split it into whatever size pieces you want, and just hand knead each for a few minutes before putting in the refigerator.
 
Doug, SUCCESS!!!! I added extra water and a little bit more yeast. The ball didn't form as well in the bowl when mixed. I had to add a little extra flour. Even when kneading it by hand it was sort of sticky and never really firmed. She sat in the frig for 24 hours and I cooked the pizza on the grill. Nice crust. End crust was thick, center was thin, no rips or tears while stretching. Good taste. So I'm on the right track. I think. Thanks again
 
There is a bit of a paradox-- the mix of dry ingredients, water, and oil become relatively more sticky as you work in the additional bench flour. That was what would mess me up in the old days-- I would think the dough was too wet, so I would work in more flour to firm it up, but it would become even stickier the more I did. Resting dough is a valuable technique-- I even find that switching off between doughballs is preferable to finishing kneading one, and then starting on the other.
 
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