Could my pizza dough just be normal for once, please?

[Michael_in_TX]

If you remember, about a week ago I posted about the saddest Detroit-style pizza, in which my dough simply did not rise and I ended up with flatbread.

I did a different recipe last night and put the dough balls in the fridge for an intended three-day ferment. This morning, as I opened the fridge, I saw this.



From one extreme to the other, it seems!

The part of the dough that was exposed dried out a little. The bottom container's was the most affected and a think part of it was almost saltine-like. I did my best to crumble it all up and re-roll the balls making sure the exposed parts were inside and hopefully will rehydrate.

I placed both balls in much larger bowls, covered with plastic wrap. Onward to Friday!

As a side note, other than this little hiccup, I am hoping that this will be my best dough so far. Using my stand mixer I really took the time to knead the dough properly, such that it had that desired elasticity: I could grab a piece of it and pull and it would stretch significantly, but not tear or break. I was never that patient with my previous doughs.

Pizza, always an adventure!

[captainlee]

I would get variations too but I switched to measuring everything in grams. Was your starting water temp too high? I use the exact same brand flour and yeast every time. Some say barometric pressure can change thins too especially at altitude here. I have to say I have never seen a rise like that before, maybe that's the way to do it. Interested in your bake results.

[Michael_in_TX]

That is what I should have done. This recipe is done in volume. I should have done the volume as listed then weighed it in grams so I knew exactly how much I used, so I would have a baseline.

Those are two 18 oz balls (I did weigh to split accurately) with about 1 tsp of yeast in each.

[captainlee]

That is more yeast than I use but I have used more than that without your results.

[GolfGeezer]

Looks like you have found the Son of The Blob!!

[Michael_in_TX]

I loved that film when I was young. I have absolutely no idea why lol.

[GolfGeezer]

Yup, Steve McQueen's big breakthrough role!

[RonB]

Michael_in_TX - and it was scary as a kid, but just funny now...

[Sid P]

That’s way too much yeast - as you found out. My "go to" 48-72 hour dough uses 1.2 GRAMS of instant dried yeast, which the author approximates as 5/16 TSP. That’s in a 64% dough that makes three 280gr (12") dough balls.

[jfmorris]

Yeah - I am with the others in that 1 teaspoon of yeast might be a lot unless you plan to bake in an hour or three... for that amount of dough anyway. My yeast based recipe has 2 tsp of yeast for 2 pizzas, but only rises for 1.5 to 2 hours before making the pies. That said, I always do my cold ferments in a really big mixing bowl that has a lid, as the dough normally will double or triple in volume.

Let us know how it turns out!

[shify]

Is the weight of the dough ball 18 oz or is that the weight of the flour? If its the weight of the flour, the amount of yeast is maybe a bit high but not obscenely so - a little bit more if you used 1 tsp of yeast (~3 grams) for 300ish grams of flour. For a comparison, I use 0.3% instant yeast for my NY style pizza with a 3 day cold ferment which would be about 1/2 of the amount of yeast you used (assuming it is 18 oz of flour).

But that sort of volume raise makes me thing it is more likely that the dough temp being too high either by using warm water and/or by mixing it too long. So the yeast went crazy and started overproofing before it cooled down in the fridge.

[captainlee]

You can definitely heat up dough in the mixer. My water temp is 110 F and I mix for 8 minutes using a spiral dough hook. The batch is for 2 12" pies.

[Richard Chrz]

So, I know I use wild yeast, and many don’t. But a general rule of thumb, is to never use more yeast than you need, your time frame can determin that. Also, mix your commercial yeast with warm water, but then feed the dough, ice water. Also, pizza dough does not, maybe even should not rise much, if barely at all. It’s not bread. Just my $.02, ignore or explore, that’s your journey. P.s.i used to be in the dough should rise camp.

[Steve B]

Sorry. But.,

[RonB]

I am also interested in what happens. When water evaporates from the dough, (and you mix the dry dough back in), it lowers the water's %. I don't know if the change will be enough to affect the dough though. I guess we will see.

[Michael_in_TX]

I'll be baking this tonight, so I will let everyone know.

[Henrik]

IT'S ALLIIIIIIIVE! Run and hide!!

Lol, looks like it's gonna take over the fridge.

Too much yeast I guess. I am not experienced in baking pizza (making my own dough), but one thing that came as a (good) surprise to me when baking is that this is where my Thermapen really shines. When I check the water temp with the Termapen to make sure it's the right type of luke warm then the dough rises like a champ. My previous attempts at checking temps with my finger was obviously WAY off. (My) lessons learned: don't trust my fingers, use the tools at hand.

Let's see how this comes out, I hope all that dough can be put to good use.

[MBMorgan]

Michael, first of all, your pizza is going to taste great. Second, a good rule of thumb when attempting delayed fermentation is to use as little yeast as possible. More tends to mess things up. I'll dig around for some detailed references that I can link you to.

[Donw]

I’m going to suggest that your AR Secret Santa think about sending you some bigger containers for your doughs. 🙂

[captainlee]

Maybe a sea chest.