Pizza Dough & Pizza Sauce


 
Bob, thanks for posting your success. I'm glad it worked so well for you. Eight 12-inch pizzas! You were one busy dude!

I suspect that your dough would have puffed a bit more if you had stretched an hour or so earlier. It's preferable to stretch a little short of totally proofed than overproofed. But now that you have a timing set from experience, you can play with it a little, say reduce proofing time by 30 minutes and see what happens.

Another thing you can play with is to add a tablespoon more water to the dough each time you make it. That should puff up the dough some too.

Remember, your proofing time will be slightly longer in the cold weather than in summertime depending on the ambient temperatures.

Rita
 
I figured since I was starting with cold dough from the fridge that a little longer proofing wouldn't hurt.

I'll be trying again next week so will try a little extra water. I'm also going to try freezing a couple of the proofed balls to cut down on the lead time if I want pizza. I'm a spur of the moment kind of guy.

Once again thanks for everyones help. Sourdough bread next.
 
Bob, I understand about wanting to cut down on the lead time. With proofed dough, you want to handle it somewhat gently so that it doesn't deflate much, even during stretching. You want to retain as many of those bubbles as you can.

Would you please let us know how freezing the proofed dough works? I'm a little skeptical about that but since I've never tried it, I'm curious to see how it will work. It would be a nice time-saver, and handling cold dough is easier too.

Rita
 
Bob,

I'm not completely convinced you can overproof pizza dough, as the final dough is smashed flat and stretched. My reasoning is based on hundreds of doughs that I've fermented at room temperature in the Florida summer.

How are you shaping your dough disks? If you smash the rim of the cornicione while shaping, you won't get as dramatic a puff. As long as your grill was 500F or higher, you should get a fairly good puff on the cornicione unless it's been smushed in handling.

Stan
 
Originally posted by StanHenson:
Bob,

I'm not completely convinced you can overproof pizza dough, as the final dough is smashed flat and stretched. My reasoning is based on hundreds of doughs that I've fermented at room temperature in the Florida summer.

How are you shaping your dough disks? If you smash the rim of the cornicione while shaping, you won't get as dramatic a puff. As long as your grill was 500F or higher, you should get a fairly good puff on the cornicione unless it's been smushed in handling.

Stan
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I have been starting with the ball and pushing from the inside out. I try to leave a nice ridge around the outside. It usually puffs up nice if my kettle is hot enough.
 
So I finally got around to trying frozen proofed dough. It worked out well but I don't think it was quite as good as frozen and then proofed. It's hard to say since it didn't come from the same batch of dough.

I think I'll do it again since I can decide on the spur of the moment, almost, to have pizza.
 
Bob, did the frozen proofed dough give you good oven spring in the outer edges of your pizza? That would be one area you would notice a difference.

How long a time period was it from the time you took the proofed dough out of the freezer to the time you shaped and topped it, and immediately put it into the oven?

Rita
 
In my case I have frozen proofed pizza dough several times now. Used BryanS's recipe. I haven't really noticed any difference in quality after the cook in my case.

I have used it pretty quickly though. It defrosts in about an hour (or less). I just let it sit for about 30 minutes or so while I'm prepping stuff and used it right away. It had the shame qualities, during stretching and shaping as when made right after proofing.

This is a cold ferment dough though.
 
Originally posted by Rita Y:
Bob, did the frozen proofed dough give you good oven spring in the outer edges of your pizza? That would be one area you would notice a difference.

How long a time period was it from the time you took the proofed dough out of the freezer to the time you shaped and topped it, and immediately put it into the oven?

Rita
Click to expand...

Rita it sat for about an hour or so on the counter. I don't think it was as puffy or as chewy as the fresh dough. I did cook it in the oven which doesn't get as hot as my kettle so that may have made a difference.

All in all it was better pizza than what we get from our local pizza shops so I think I'll freeze it this way again but if I have the time I will definitely do it fresh.
 
Ray and Bob, that's very interesting. The next chance I get, I'll set aside one dough ball, proof it before freezing, and try it myself. I've been freezing 11 dough balls from 5 pounds of flour for 12-inch pizzas. Since I bake 2 at a time, it will be a good way to compare the results.

Rita
 
Rita, yeah, let us know. I would be interested. My results were like Bob's. Not impressive but ok in a pinch.
 
Finally got around to making my first dough. Thanks for this thread Rita. 1 of my first 2 came out great, the other was a little deformed since I placed it too close to the other while proofing.

I froze the other 2 to make later this week.

Thanks again!
 
Just wanted to say that I made my second batch of this sauce on Friday and it is just fantastic. I'm hoping to try the dough this week. Thanks for sharing Rita.
 
I tried this dough recipe this weekend and I was really impressed, especially considering I had to cut some corners to fit my situation.

I used:
500 g King Arthur AP flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast from Sam's
2 tsp kosher salt (didn't read the recipe fully. Still came out well.)
330 grams filtered water.

Mixed by hand until shaggy. Let rest for more like 20 minutes (trying to dress children, clean up breakfast, and get to church on time while making pizza dough will do that to you) and then hand kneaded to about 5 minutes.

The first thing I noticed is that this is a higher hydration than any other pizza dough I've ever done. I was able to knead it on the counter with no additional flour and no bench flour, but you had to move quickly. It got superbly stretchy (better than any hand kneaded dough recipe I've ever tried) and I divided it into 2 dough balls. Put on counter, covered with plastic wrap, and let proof for about 3.5 hours (hungry toddler=shorter proof). Topped with leftover sauce from last pizza, sliced mozz, and pepperoni.

I cooked it per the instructions with a Fibrament stone heated for one hour @ 550 at the 2nd to highest oven rack.

All I can say is that this is wonderful dough. Even with the short proof, great flavor development and excellent oven spring. I have a problem with the middle of my pies being soggy but this "popped" up and was nice and chewy. I hope Bryan S doesn't read this because this dough has officially taken the place of his as my go to crust. Thanks!
 
Rita just curious if you ever tried the frozen proofed dough and compared it to frozen unproofed dough?
 
Sorry, Bob, but I haven't tried it yet. I've had some priority projects lately and I can't seem to get to pizza making. I need to time it for when I am using my last frozen dough balls. Thanks for reminding me and for spurring me on!

What is is your current approach?

Rita
 
@ Rita, I've pretty much been making it fresh every time. I have cut the salt back to 11/4 tsp and proofing for 7 hours. I also add 1 tsp dry rosemary and 1 tsp dryed oregano, my fresh herbs are under 2 ft of snow right now.
I've also been adding some garlic powder and gradually increasing the amount,I'm at 1/2tsp + a pinch. When my wife notices it I'll know I've got enough.
 
OK, so I'm all out of my reserves of Byan's recipe so why not - after all I have the cookbook.

Made up a recipe of this pizza dough. To spec/weight except I added some dough relaxer.

I'm taking two of the 1/4's and have them in dough tins in the beer fridge to cold ferment now. Probably going to leave them there for 48 hours.

The other two 1/4's went straight into the freezer after the prep before proofing. We'll see how they work out out of the freezer at some future date.

The ones in the fridge I'm going to use my own standard sauce that I make/like and work up some anchovy pizzas. Had some in Italy and have been wanting them since. A big key is using white anchovies.

We'll see how things turn out as I report back.
 
Ray, I don't suppose the dough relaxer will hurt anything, but I find the dough from the first page of this thread very extensible after the 5- or 6-hour proof. Save your money. But you'll see. Have fun with it.
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Rita
 
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