Scott Sandler’s take on using a simple pizza dough method called a straight dough mix or direct mix.

Sourdough? Pre-Ferments, Biga, Poolish? Confused yet? Okay, you watched a few videos, heard some chatter, saw the trends, followed some influencers, etc. and now you want to do “sourdough” pizza. News flash: you don’t need any of these fancy techniques to make great dough. There is a simple method called a straight dough mix or direct mix.

For those new to the industry, this means you throw everything in the mixing bowl and just mix for 20 to 25 minutes until very smooth. I do a blend of local whole wheat, bread flour and 00 flour. You can just use one flour straight out of the bag. Let sit for 15 minutes after the mixing is done and then roll up into balls. After the mixing, let the dough balls sit for about 3 to 6 hours then into the fridge for overnight or longer or leave out at room temp for 12 hours then use. The amount of yeast will vary but typically I’ll do a 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast per 25 pounds of flour. In an emergency you can make dough in the morning for same day use but double the yeast, leave the dough out and use in the evening.

Popularity of these “bread” techniques bleeding into the pizza world started with artisan bread makers realizing they can make pizza on a Friday night and make some good money. Don’t get me wrong when done right these ‘fancy’ techniques can make outstanding pizza and they do. Key word here though, is done “right”.

Without question bread makers have elevated the pizza game. Then during COVID, millions took to making bread and pizza. Oven technology along with so much open-source information available created an environment where the masses could make great pizza. The secret is out, pizza has high margins and sells. Well, it just happens to be the most popular food in the world.

With so much information and misinformation out there, it can get very foggy. There’s a general misconception about what makes good dough. Group thought would have you believe that the only way to do pizza right is “sourdough” or that the longer you ferment your dough or the higher your hydration the pizza is somehow better. I beg to differ.

Let me spell out the advantages of doing a direct mix.

1. Time. To put it together takes minimal time and it is not an involved process.
2. Labor. A not-so-small amount of labor is saved by the direct mix method and training is much easier.
3. Consistency. With this method there are less mistakes, and you are going to get more consistent results.
4. Margins are better based on less product used, labor savings and the avoidance of costly mistakes.

Ultimately, it’s your choice how you want to make your dough. Whatever method you use when executed properly will produce outstanding pizza. The 10,000-foot view is this: it’s the care and attention given to the craft which are more important than any one particular thing when producing an outstanding pizza. However, sometimes simple is just better.

Scott Sandler owns Pizza Via in St. Louis, Missouri.

The post Knead to Know: The Merits of Direct Mix Pizza Dough appeared first on Pizza Today.

Conditioners and improvers can help calm tough pizza dough

Have you ever worked a busy night, and your job is to stretch everything, but it seems like you’re in for the worst upper body workout of your life as opposed to making pizza?

One of the worst feelings is going through a busy service and your dough just doesn’t seem to want to cooperate like it normally does. Dough — that you’ve meticulously worked on that’s meant to be soft and easy to stretch — has now become your worst enemy. Dough snaps back continuously and is super hard, making it that much more difficult to get good results. Enter the dough conditioners and improvers. I’ve always grown up in an environment that promotes less additives are best, but sometimes you just need to fix it.

With today’s diet culture bleeding into the larger food culture, we’ve been taught additives are the enemy even though we do not quite understand them fully. In my definition, dough conditioners are an additive that we add to our dough to help improve upon certain key characteristics like texture, stretchability and softness that go beyond the main ingredients of flour, water, salt and yeast. When I first began, the main dough conditioner I ever heard about was called PZ-44. Over the years, I have learned that dough conditioners take many forms, and they can be as natural as fruit or as complex as man-made lab invented ingredients.

First things first, what is PZ-44 and other conditioners like it?

PZ-44, and similar conditioners are meant to soften and relax dough, reducing snapback as well as reducing mixing times. These are known as PZ-44 and Reddi Sponge.  PZ-44 is made from whey proteins and L-Cysteine, and Reddi Sponge is made from whey proteins, corn, potassium bromate, L-Cysteine, ascorbic acid and monocalcium phosphate (depending on the type of Reddi Sponge).

Some of these names should sound familiar if you pay attention to flour and what’s really in your ingredients. It’s not as simple as listing wheat on a bag of flour anymore because of the process it undergoes to manufacture it as well as storage and transportation. Some ingredients are added in to help with preservation over the course of long travel periods or help slow down the aging process and some ingredients are added in for nutritional value. During the grinding process of flour, some nutrition is lost by the extraction of bran for more refined flours, so companies will add back in certain nutrients like Niacin and Ascorbic acid, a.k.a. Vitamin C, which are found naturally and can help with gluten structure.

Potassium Bromate is an ingredient that gets a bad wrap and is soon to be outlawed in California. You’ve mostly heard about this one when it comes to New York style pizza. Numerous pizzerias still use bromated flour because it strengthens dough and helps with spring. This ingredient is banned in Europe and other countries, such as Canada, because it has been potentially linked to cancer. L-Cysteine is an amino acid that is normally used to help with extensibility. It helps shorten gluten strands, so dough is more easily manipulated and stretched. This ingredient can be derived from plants like oats and lentils but also from animal-based products. Like gelatin, a lot of vegans and vegetarians will steer clear of this ingredient because it can be found in animal hooves and feathers making it cheaper to produce.

Deactivated Yeast, a.k.a. Nutritional Yeast, is a great replacement for L-Cysteine as it contains glutathione — which also cuts down gluten strands, breaking down proteins in dough. The only drawback to this ingredient is it is quicker to change the flavor of dough with the more you use.

The more natural approach to conditioning or improving dough would be to go the fruit route.

Fruits like kiwi, pineapple and papaya, whose juices contain enzymes that help cut gluten strands down, make dough easier to stretch and handle. The tricky part about using fruit is that the concentration within will vary drastically from season to season and it is harder to maintain consistency from batch to batch.

Something that you are probably already using that helps condition and relax dough is fat. A lot of pizza makers use olive oil or animal fat like butter or lard. Fats coat gluten strands which makes them stretchier, but also reduces the length of these strands as fats and most things do not mix well and instead create barriers. A less common ingredient these days that functions very similarly is eggs.

One thing that I found surprising as a dough conditioner was meat tenderizer. Modernist Cuisine mentions trying meat tenderizers in a powdered form that work quite well at softening dough. Since meat tenderizers are derived from natural ingredients like those found in fruit juices — but have been purified and processed— they are more consistent and in a measurable form that helps making dough simpler and more reliable.

Dough conditioners were invented at a time when flour was of poor quality.

During times of war and climate change wheat is increasingly hard to grow, especially with supply and demand ever evolving. Dough conditioners and improvers were created to make it easier on the baker — be them professional or at home to make quality products. Nowadays it is easier than ever to gain access to great quality flour, which may not need a conditioner or improver to create dough that is easy to work with and consistent. Knowing how to read an ingredient label and understand the purpose of each item just adds to your repertoire and ability to make great dough in times of surplus and in times of instability.

There are many ways to make dough that is manageable and easy to work with and conditioners and improvers are nothing to scoff at. Just understand restraint is key and to start small when trying them out.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Relaxing Tough Pizza Dough: Using Dough Conditioners and Improvers appeared first on Pizza Today.

Pizza is the most popular food in the world, and hundreds of millions of pizzas are consumed in the US every year. There is no shortage of great pizza restaurants, but they need support to stay competitive and improve their business. Baker’s Quality® offers business solutions through its products and support.

Crusts Made for Your Business

Introducing premade and parbaked pizza crusts into your business offers several benefits. First and foremost is time savings. These crusts significantly reduce the prep time required to make a pizza, often involving minimal proofing or thawing. This efficiency allows smaller operations to produce larger quantities, easing employee workload.

Premade pizza crusts also help save money in various ways. Bulk purchasing options lower ingredient costs, and the longer shelf life of these crusts reduces purchasing frequency. Additionally, the minimal preparation and easy management translate to lower wage costs in areas like training, expertise, and hours.

Beyond operational advantages, premade crusts are available in several varieties. One of the industries most popular crusts at the moment is the tavern crust because of it’s versatility in recipes and it’s texture and flavor. While crispy crusts like tavern crusts are in right now, self-rising, raised edge, flatbread, and thick crusts are still popular options with customers and businesses.

While some may doubt the quality of premade pizza crusts, they are crafted with high-quality ingredients to ensure excellent results for restaurants.

Dough for Any Product

Premade dough balls offer many of the same benefits as premade crusts but with greater versatility. They provide significant time savings and lower production costs for a restaurant while also allowing for a wider range of menu items beyond just pizza.

Areas of a menu that can be enhanced with dough balls include:

• Appetizers
• Sides
• Main courses
• Desserts

Although premade dough balls require slightly more prep time than premade pizza crusts, they still save considerable time compared to making dough from scratch. Additionally, premade dough producers supply optimal instructions to help you create the best products for your customers.

Bread Made Easy

Restaurants can utilize various styles of premade bread, with sandwich bread being one of the primary options. Premade sandwich bread, though simple in concept, offers versatility in preparation. Typically available in sheets or flats, these bread pieces can be baked to achieve either a crispy and flaky texture or a softer, pita-like consistency. This flexibility allows restaurants to create unique sandwiches tailored to their specific style. Additionally, the bread can be cut into different sizes, which is suitable for sub-like sandwiches or small slider sandwiches.

One of the main benefits of using premade sandwich flats is their convenience. They come in large quantities and take up minimal space in a kitchen, making them ideal for smaller establishments with limited storage capacity. For larger kitchens, having a substantial stock of sandwich flats on hand reduces the need for frequent orders, saving on costs.

Another popular form of premade bread is breadsticks. These are a crowd favorite and a perfect addition to any restaurant menu. However, they are often underutilized in terms of creativity. Premade breadsticks come in sheets of precut dough, allowing restaurants to add a variety of toppings beyond just cheese. This flexibility enables the creation of unique and appealing breadstick options, much like creating different flavor combinations for pizzas.

All Around Savings

Introducing one or all of these types of premade products can significantly improve the efficiency of a kitchen and enhance a business’s offerings. These products can speed up the preparation time for menu items, reducing stress on employees and lowering operational costs. With premade items, you benefit from a longer shelf life, allowing restaurants to order less frequently and take advantage of bulk purchasing options. Beyond the operational advantages, these products also foster creativity, enabling restaurants to focus on what truly matters: the food.

Find Your Next Pizza Crust Partner

Discover the tradition of excellence that defines Baker’s Quality®. Quality has been baked into our name since 1997, and our dedication to superior customer experience starts with providing small-batch, custom pizza crusts supported by outstanding customer service. We only use the finest, freshest ingredients in our products, ensuring superior taste and quality with every bite. Join us in creating food to be proud of.

The post Pizza Dough and Crusts Made for Business Success appeared first on Pizza Today.

Question from a Pizza Today Reader: How do I fix pizza dough that is too soft?

I received a question recently asking about how to correct dough that is too soft. My first question is: is it too soft on the table in its raw state, or too soft out of the oven? Two very different things and lots of factors to consider.

Pizza Dough that is too soft

For dough that is too soft I would first ask, what is your hydration and flour and what is your process from start to finish, including temps, if you know them? Any time I encounter a problem with my dough, my first reaction is not to blame the ingredients first, but to analyze the process and any circumstances that may stand out.

If my recipe has been tested and I have made it many times before, then I know there’s an error somewhere in the process as opposed to the ingredients. When I opened my restaurant, I started with a planetary mixer and developed my recipe considering this. After a bit, I invested in a spiral mixer and had to completely change my mixing process to accommodate the new piece of equipment. The way I was incorporating the water had to be changed, which greatly affects how the flour absorbs (which changes the final texture and gluten structure). Where my mixer sits in the prep area also played a large factor.

My prep area does not have the greatest ventilation, and the large dish machine is nearby. Knowing the humidity from the dish machine was going to play a factor, I decided to lower the temperature of the water going into the recipe by a few degrees. This small change helped keep the consistency of the dough in place. Bench resting the batch after the mix was another element I added to ensure full absorption and to be certain the temperature was right before cutting and balling.

Addressing Most Common Contributors to Soft Dough

The two most common reasons for too soft of a dough I’ve encountered are rushing the mixing process and not letting the flour hydrate and absorb completely and not mixing thoroughly enough. Not all flour is the same. The types and combinations of wheat going into a bag of flour are going to change from season to season and year to year. Although millers are aiming for the same recipe every time, flours change. I’ve also seen a bag of flour off by close to a pound which can drastically change the final product since all ingredients are based off total flour weight. Considering transportation and handling, this isn’t always one person or one company’s fault. Mistakes happen, and sometimes delivery drivers are just a little too tough on our products.

During the mix, how you add your water is important. For higher hydrations or for a flour that I’ve noticed isn’t absorbing well I would recommend an autolyse. After adding the majority of your water, pause for 20-30 minutes and let the flour fully absorb. Then go back and add the rest of your water and ingredients. You’d be surprised how different your dough will feel after an autolyse. I’ve had to catch myself at the restaurant and also in competition because I was trying to rush the process (whether it’s because I’m pressed for time, or I’m just nervous) — and usually an autolyse fixes that issue.

If my dough was consistently too soft and not absorbing well, I would consider blending a different type of flour. Most pizzerias are using strictly 00 but 00 flour has had as much of the bran and germ removed as possible. The bran not only contains a lot of nutrients, but also absorbs more water. Adding in 5-10 percent of a type 0 or type 1 would be a nice change without feeling like your dough and flavor has changed too drastically. If looking for a bigger changeup I recommend a small percentage of Rye flour.

Rushing the process and not mixing the dough enough can result in the dough being too soft. My mixers have multiple speeds, and if I’m toggling up and down between them I sometimes go too fast. Hence, the gluten hasn’t developed enough before pulling it out of the mixer. If I notice this before scaling out the dough, then a bench rest or bulk ferment will help the gluten develop and ensure the dough remains soft but elastic. If I’ve already balled my dough and when I come back to it hours later or the next day it’s flat instead of raised and airy, then I would re-ball the dough and let it rest again for a few hours before attempting to use it. I’ve had this happen on numerous occasions and it always seems to be when I need the dough the most. Re-balling is one of your best tools that a lot of people forget about. Most dough is not a lost cause, but time is not always on your side.

Lastly, when it comes to the mixing process, how are you measuring your ingredients? If you are not using the same unit of measurement for everything, I can assure you there will be inconsistencies in your final dough. Volume measurements are notoriously inconsistent and switching to weights is the best practice.

If the Finished Pizza Crust is Too Soft

If you find that your dough is too soft coming out of the oven, there are a few things you can do. Lower the temperature of your deck and slow down the cooking process. If using an electric oven, you’ll want to play around with the top and bottom settings as well. The higher the hydration the slower you’ll need to cook it if you are looking for a crunchy base. If your oven has internal vents, check that they are at least halfway open. Some people don’t realize their vents are closed and trapping all the moisture inside.

When taking your pizzas out of the oven, some don’t cut them right away but place them on cooling racks first to let some of the steam dissipate. Using trays with dimples also elevates the pizza so it is not sitting in its juices after it has been cut. Each of these measures can help ensure your dough is not too soft.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post How to Correct a Pizza Dough that is Too Soft to Work With appeared first on Pizza Today.

Common pizza dough problems and how to fix them

This extensive guide for troubleshooting your pizza dough and pizza crust answers common pizza dough problems to help you make a better pizza. Whether you are a professional pizza maker and pizzaiolo or an at home pizza maker and pizza chef, answers to common dough questions can help you perfect your pizza. Pizza Today has spent four decades providing solutions to pizza dough issues that pizzerias face. Through Dough Doctor, Knead to Know and Kitchen features, we have helped pizzerias learn more about pizza dough productions, management and fixing pizza dough problems. We have a section of PizzaToday.com dedicated to Dough Production & Development. Bookmark that link and browse through recent articles.

Here, we are addressing common dough problems and how to fix them. Before you dive into specific pizza dough questions, go ahead and bookmark this page. We will continue to add more dough questions and solutions.

What’s wrong with my pizza dough?

There are many things that could be wrong with your dough. Maybe your pizza is sticking to the peel. Maybe your dough is too soggy or your dough is undercooked. Maybe your pizza dough is overproofed. Maybe your pizza dough is too touch or stick or dough won’t stretch… this guide has answers to all of these common concerns and more

Explore the following common pizza dough questions with many resources to help solve each issue:

How do I get rid of the gum line on pizza crust?

Why is my pizza crust soggy?

Why does my pizza dough keep snapping back when I try to stretch it? Why does my dough not stay stretched?

How to prevent my pizza crust from bubbling in the oven?

How do I stop getting my pizza stuck on the pizza peel?

What do I do if I ruin my batch of pizza dough?

How do I keep the ingredients from sliding off my pizza crust?

Why is my pizza dough weak and tears when I stretch it?

Why is my pizza crust undercooked?

Why is my pizza crust too tough or chewy?

Why is my pizza dough too soft?

Why is my pizza dough so sticky?

How do I fix overproofed pizza dough?

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How do I get rid of the gum line on pizza crust?

What do you do when your pizza has a dreaded gum line? First, what is a gum line? The gum line is the doughy section of the crust, basically undercooked dough of the crust under its sauce, toppings and cheese.

4 causes of the gum line on finished pizza crust

The late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann identified four common factors that contribute to the development of the gum line. They are:

1. Excessive thinning of the sauce. A thin watery sauce that exhibits a tendency to separate upon standing will develop a wet soggy area just below the sauce, leading to the development of a gum line.
2. Pre-saucing of the pizza skins ahead of time for in-store use or in making take and bake pizzas. Pre-saucing of the skins should be avoided whenever possible, but when it must be done, either to help keep up with orders during busy periods, or when making take and bake pizzas, the pizza skins should be given a very light application of oil prior to saucing.
3. Too much sauce used on the pizza. When too much sauce is used on the pizza, it becomes more difficult to bake out thoroughly.
4. Insufficient yeast level. This can result from a number of things. Incorrect dough formulation (not enough yeast), but more commonly it is the result of action taken to address blowing of the dough.

A few other solutions to reducing a gum line is to cross stack dough balls when they goes into the cooler. Keep adequate temperature control over your dough-making process to make sure the dough has cooled properly before cooling.

Read all about the dreaded gum line — What causes it and what to do about it.

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Why is my pizza crust soggy?

A myriad of factors can contribute to a soggy pizza crust. Here are a few common causes to start your trouble shooting:

The main culprit could be your pizza sauce. Audrey Kelly says, “It is also important to tailor your sauce to fit the style of pizza you are making. You don’t want a super heavy sauce on a delicate Neapolitan pie just as you want something more substantial on a Sicilian crust.”

It could also be your toppings, especially fresh vegetables. The late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann provided an interesting solution. “I solved that problem by using a Japanese breadcrumb. I find it best to sauce the dough first, then sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of the coarse, plain, white crumb on top of the sauce. Then add the cheese and the vegetable toppings. The crumbs will absorb the moisture from the veggies, and the texture blends right in with the cheese. It really does work and prevents soggy bottom pizza!” Another option to roast vegetables slightly to expel excess water content.

Check that your oven temperature is correct. Thoroughly inspect your oven temperature. The late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann goes into what to look for in troubleshooting oven temperature issues.

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Why does my pizza dough keep snapping back when I try to stretch it? Why does my dough not stay stretched?

Also called dough memory, pizza dough snapback occurs when a stretched pizza will not stay stretched – snaps back – no matter how much you stretch or how much pressure applied to the stretch.

Dough Expert Laura Meyer addresses pizza dough snapback or dough memory in a Knead to Know column. She says, “To better understand why dough snaps back we need to have a basic understanding of gluten development. Mixing time and the type of mixer used is extremely important when it comes to gluten development. If not done properly this can lead to your dough snapping back. Over mixing is a thing. When it comes time to mix your dough, having a game plan and all your ingredients weighed out and ready to go is important. I have seen many operations weigh as they go, which translates to dough mixing for too long in the mixer and the gluten becoming too tight.

“Cold dough is another factor here,” she continues. “Cold dough will not only cook poorly but will not stretch well and will continue to snap back. If you were to try and run a marathon without warming up you’ll most likely pull a muscle within the first few miles. Dough is no different, warming up your dough means the dough will stretch nicely and be less likely to tear.”

4 ways you can address pizza dough snapback

The late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann identifies four ways you can address dough snapback:

1. By changing to a lower-protein content flour, we can generally reduce the amount of snap-back (though, in severe cases, this will not totally eliminate it).
2. Dough fermentation. One cause of snap-back is insufficient dough conditioning through fermentation, so anything which will increase the amount of fermentation the dough receives prior to opening into a skin will help to reduce or eliminate the problem. This might include any of the following: increasing the yeast level; increasing the finished (mixed) dough temperature or increasing the total fermentation time. Any of these actions will result in an increase in dough fermentation that will weaken the wheat flour proteins and result in a softer, more extensible (less elastic) dough that exhibits less of a tendency to snap-back.
3. Dough absorption. In some cases where only a slight amount of snap-back needs to be addressed, a slight increase of two to five percent in dough absorption might be sufficient to address the problem without any other changes being necessary.
4. Reducing agents. Reducing agents are ingredients that act on the flour proteins by breaking them down or weakening them. Some will even destroy/denature the proteins entirely. Reducing agents are what one might call the “silver bullet” or “magic ingredient” when it comes to excessive dough snap-back or memory. These are ingredients that you just add to the dough formulation and — poof! — no more snap back.

Read on in a Q&A with the Dough Doctor.

An easy fix may be using PZ-44 Dough Conditioner. In a Dough Doctor story, the late Tom Lehmann says, “This ingredient is what we call a “reducing agent.” When used in a dough, it will cause the dough to become softer and more extensible (less elastic). What this means is that it will not exhibit the snap-back characteristics during hand, or machine forming. When adding any type of reducing agent to your dough, care must be taken to prevent using it in an excessive amount.” Read more.

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How to prevent my pizza crust from bubbling in the oven?

Fermentation is one of the keys to reducing bubbling in our pizza doughs. The Late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann looks at solutions to preventing bubbling crust.

With normal yeast levels (0.375 percent instant dry yeast, 0.5 percent active dry yeast, or 1.25 percent compressed/fresh yeast), and a finished (mixed) dough temperature in the 80 to 85F range, the bubbles are minimized after 2.5 hours of fermentation time at ambient temperature (approximately 70F).

If you take the proper storage steps, you can pretty much eliminate bubbles. Start by taking the dough balls immediately after scaling and balling and place them in dough boxes, cross-stacked for two hours. Be sure to wipe them with salad oil to prevent them from drying out in the cooler. After two hours, downstack them and allow them to ferment overnight. Allow them to sit at room temperature for two hours before you use them and you’re ready to go.

The second main cause of bubbling crusts, and possibly the most common today, has to do with both temperature and tempering of the dough balls after removal from the cooler. If the dough is at cooler temperature when taken to the oven for baking, an open invitation has been extended for bubble development.

Some prefer to allow dough balls to warm 5F above the cooler temperature. “We have found that by allowing the dough to temper at room temperature for 2 hours prior to opening the dough balls up into skins.”

Dough dockers are designed to help control bubbling. But they don’t do anything to prevent it, or address the problem at its root cause. If you do happen to have one of those doughs that just seems to have a penchant for bubbling, the dough docker might prove to be your salvation.

The Late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann explores Bubbling Pizza Crust further.

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How do I stop getting my pizza stuck on the pizza peel?

Pizza sticking to a peel as you put the pizza in the oven is common pizza dough problem While some may think maker error, the real answer may lie in dough science. The late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann addressed the cause of this dough issue in Pizza Today. “If you are using malt in your dough, make doubly sure that it is non-diastatic (non-enzyme active) malt. If the malt is diastatic malt (enzyme active), it will convert starch in the flour to sugars, making the dough sticky or tacky to the point where it will stick to almost any surface it comes into contact with, including a prep peel,” he said.

“If the dough is over absorbed (contains too much water) it may feel clammy or even exhibit a slight tackiness when touched,” he added. “Over absorbed dough tends to be difficult to work with as the dough is just too extensible and is easily over stretched during the forming operation. While some of the traditional doughs are fairly high in absorption and difficult to handle during forming, they can still be peeled into the oven without much of a problem if they are well floured for ease of handling, and either fine cornmeal, or semolina flour is used as the peel dust to aid in sliding the prepared dough skin off of the peel. Be sure to use a wood or wood laminate peel for your prep peel.”

He continued to offer this simple solution: “just make sure once the dough is placed on the peel it is dressed and peeled into the oven without interruption. Of course, a good peel dust doesn’t hurt either.”

From the Pizza Today Test Kitchen, we learned that if you give the peel a little shake after you top the pizza, it’s a good check before you attempt to slide a pizza off the peel onto a hot oven deck.

Go even more in depth into dough sticking on pizza peels.

Understand why certain flours are good peel release agents in Prep Peel and Dough.

Learn everything you ever want to know about pizza peels. Read Tools of the Trade Part One, Part Two and Part Three from Tony Gemignani:

Tools of the Trade

Peel Off on Different Types of Pizza Peels

Pizza Peels, Part III

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What do I do if I ruin my batch of pizza dough? 

Blowing a batch of dough happens. What’s important is that you have a plan in place to replace the pizza dough that has blown and maintain pizza service with the best pizza dough. That is where emergency dough comes in.

The late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann provided a blue print for you to create an emergency dough fast. “Every shop should have an emergency dough formula and procedure tucked away for these not-so-special moments,” Lehmann said. “I like to make my emergency dough from my regular dough formula because I’m already familiar with it. Still, we need to make a few changes to our dough formula to allow it to be made quickly and be ready for making pizza skins in not much more than two hours.”

He continues, “I have found that increasing the yeast content to double the normal level helps to speed things up a bit. Increasing the finished dough temperature to something in the 90 to 95 F range really helps to get the dough on line within the two-hour time limit as well. The quickest way to do this is to just increase the temperature of the water that you are adding to the dough by 15 F (assuming you are presently targeting a finished dough temperature of 80 to 85 F). If you are not targeting your finished dough temperature in that range, give it your best estimation for water temperature to get your dough to come from the mixer within 90 to 95 F.

I also like to have a bag of reducing agent, such as PZ-44, on hand for these occasions. By including a reducing agent in the emergency dough formulation you will have a greater assurance that the dough will handle well without excessive snap-back during the forming procedure.”

Go deeper into creating an emergency dough.

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How do I keep the ingredients from sliding off my pizza crust?

There are several causes of ingredients sliding off your pizza crust. The first component you need to examine is if your pizza crust is strong enough to support the weight of the toppings that you are putting on the pizza. Pizza Master John Gutekanst dives into types of pizza crusts and the toppings they can support. “Too much hydration, wet toppings, weighty meats and cheeses, and insufficient thought about how the heated foundation will support all these assets can lead to your downfall. To avoid this, let’s look at the styles of pizzas and the topping support they offer.

Pizza styles and the weight of toppings

• Thin and crispy pizza: Low tolerance for weighty toppings unless an extremely low-hydrated, high-gluten dough is baked at medium temperatures, creating a hard, crisp crust that will not “flop” or crack. Examples are the East Coast Hot Oil pizzas, the Roman Scrocciarella and the St. Louis thin. A lot of these styles are made with less sauce and cheese and cut in the Chicago “Tavern Style” squares to accommodate multiple toppings.
• Medium thick brick-oven crust: Mid-level tolerance for heavy toppings depends upon hydration. Below 70 percent and a lower temperature bake at 500 F will dry a dynamic high-gluten crust out enough for plenty of sauce and cheese. The more steam remaining in the crust will soften the dough, and higher heat will only crisp the outside of the cornicione (crust.) If you try drying out the gluten scaffolding in the center at this high temperature, it will only burn the outside.
• High Hydration Crusts: Believe it or not, high hydration crusts are the perfect platform for dressing with multiple toppings. Pizzas like the Pizza in Teglia are baked in pans because of that high moisture, but they create a crisp crust and large cell structure at temperatures in the mid 500 F range. These pizzas also have a lot of oil in the mix because the oil coats the gluten strands eliminating moisture saturation. This technique creates strong alveoli, or “lungs” when filled by carbon dioxide. Many high-hydration pizzas are par-baked much in the same pans that the smaller-celled Sicilian Pizzas are, like the wonderful Sfincione.

Read his article: Heavy Lift: Crusts to Support Loaded Pizzas

Secondly, the dreaded gum line can be the culprit of toppings sliding off your pizza. Whether the pizza is over-sauced, under cooked or insufficient yeast levels, you’ll want to address these problems right away. Take a look at how to fix gum line issues. 

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Why is my pizza dough weak and tears when I stretch it?

Laura Meyer addressed dough tearing. “If your dough tears easily or is unable to stretch, then it has not developed enough gluten and could use a little bit more time mixing,” she says… “If my dough is high in hydration and I am using a planetary mixer, it can be hard for the dough to reach full gluten development purely because of the style of mixer and the way it is constructed. This is not necessarily a flaw by any means. Planetary mixers are great work horses and for some operations the best choice because it can accommodate attachments for cutting and shredding. Knowing that this mixer is not as well suited for high hydrated doughs, bulk fermentation as well as incorporating a few folds before refrigerating the dough will ensure that the dough absorbs all the water and develops to full gluten development. A good rule of thumb when using bulk fermentation is the shorter the mix time the longer the bulk fermentation and vice versa.

Autolyse is another technique used by bakers and pizza makers to make sure flour is well hydrated and to ensure full gluten development. Autolyse is a rest period during the mixing process.

Read her article: Knead to Know: What Comes After the Mix for your Batch of Dough.

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Why is my pizza crust undercooked?

Laura Meyer knows the ins and outs of proper pizza cooking. To address an undercooked pizza crust, she says, “One of the most common errors I see in kitchens is not enough dough has been pulled out of the refrigerator before service. Just as you should never put a cold steak on a grill, you should never put cold dough in a hot oven. If you are cooking Neapolitan pizza, cold dough tends to blister more giving it that leopard spotting everyone loves but at the same time is that much harder to cook all the way through. No matter what style you are cooking, your oven is going to have a set point and a specific cook time. In every kitchen I have worked in there is always that one cook or new person that loves cold dough because it is easier to stretch and harder to tear. The downfall of this is an improperly trained cook. During the cooking process your dough is rising in temperature to cook the toppings, cheese and dough. If your dough is cold, it is harder for it to cook all the way through while your toppings cook and the dough browns. When the pizza enters the oven, the water in the dough begins to boil and evaporate. If the dough is cold, it will not cook all the way through leaving too much moisture in the dough resulting in a gum line.

“Another flaw I see repeatedly is improperly cooked bottoms. On busy nights it can be hard to keep up with dine-in as well as take-out and delivery. It can become overwhelming and adding on people constantly asking where their food is can be anxiety driven and frustrating. Most cooks try and compensate by putting as many pies as they physically can in the oven thinking they’re going to push food out faster that way. What really ends up happening is the oven cools down to a point where the stones cannot recover with each new rotation of pies. As pizzas cook, the heat from the stones is absorbed by the pizza. By putting pizzas in the same spot, those areas completely lose their heat meaning the bottoms never cook. To combat this, I recommend leaving at least one spot where nothing is cooking leaving it as a “hot spot”. By keeping a hot spot in the oven, you will always have an area to rotate your pizzas into towards the end of the bake to finish off the bottoms. If you are using screens, it is smart to remove the screen halfway through so the pizza can finish on the physical stone. The contact with the stone will ensure a well-done bottom as well as ensure you get the desired crispiness.”

Read her article: Knead to Know: Avoid an Undercooked Pizza and Unhappy Diners.

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Why is my pizza crust too tough or chewy?

There are many factors that cause a pizza crust to be too chewy or too tough. The Late Tom Lehmann dives into the topic and provides cause and ways to fix the issue. He said, “When we encounter an excessively tough and chewy thin-crust pizza, the problem might be due to improper dough management techniques (such as a finished dough temperature that is too low, which therefore results in insufficient dough fermentation). Another cause for a tough and chewy crust characteristic is trying to sheet the dough too thin, thinking that it will make for a crispier finished crust. Just the opposite is true. Our dough formula and dough management procedure can be “spot on,” but if we sheet/roll the dough too thin we end up degassing the dough, making it more dense. The heat then passes right on through the dough without ever getting it hot enough to fully bake it and we end up with a crust that might have some resemblance of crispiness when it comes out of the oven but soon progresses from crispy to tough and chewy. The answer here is to use a different method to open the dough into a pizza skin (hand formed or pressed) or to open the sheeting rolls slightly to give a thicker pizza skin better able to create a heat/thermal block.

Read Lehmann’s article: Dough Doctor: Tough Sell — Causes of too tough, chewy crust.

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How to prevent my pizza crust from burning?

The first thing to examine: Is your pizza crust burnt or is that part of the pizza style and pizza characteristics? Blistering, also known as leoparding, is common with many high-heat, wood-fired pizzas. Char is a common characteristic of pizza styles, like New Haven and many artisan style pizzas.

Laura Meyer says, “At times what appears to be burnt areas are thin spots on the crust that formed during the stretch but were never degassed before entering the oven.  A simple fix is to pop thin bubbles before cooking or using a bubble popper to deflate enlarged bubbles inside the oven before they firm up.”

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Why is my pizza dough too soft?

The Late Tom Lehmann answered this question based on a two-day cold fermentation. “Your dough formula likely contains too much oil. Keep in mind that both water and oil contribute to the soft and extensible handling properties of the dough. It’s most likely that this is where the problem is. To correct the problem, I would suggest reducing the oil content to a level where it does not exceed four percent of the flour weight and to where the combined water and oil do not exceed 56 to 60 percent of the flour weight.”

He continued. “Also, keep in mind that the flour needs to hydrate the water in order to form “gluten”. With the high level of oil that you’re using it is entirely possible that a good deal of the flour is absorbing oil rather than water if the oil is not added in a delayed manner. To do this, do not add the oil until the ingredients have had a chance to mix together at a low speed for a couple of minutes. When you cannot see any dry flour in the mixing bowl, the oil can be added and blended in by mixing for an additional minute at low speed. Then, the dough can be mixed in your normal manner. This should give you more consistent dough performance, especially after a couple of days in the cooler.” Read on in Knead to Know: Soft Sell.

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Why is my pizza dough so sticky?

The minute you pull your dough from the dough box, you know when you have a sticky situation. The late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann said, “The number one reason for a wet, sticky dough is covering it when you put it into the cooler. After mixing, the dough is going to be at least at room temperature or above, making it quite a bit warmer than the inside of your cooler, which should be operating at 36 to 40F. When you lid the container of dough balls, the moisture that is being held in the warm air condenses onto the inside of the container (the top where there is head space above the dough) as it cools due to exposure to the cold air. Since the dough retains a lot of heat (latent heat) it continues to generate moist air within the box and the moisture continues to condense onto the inside of the container until the dough and box eventually equilibrate at the same temperature. By this time, though, the box is flooded with water that drips onto the dough surface. This water is slowly absorbed back into the dough, but under most conditions the dough is removed from the cooler for use before it is fully absorbed. What we experience is a wet, sticky dough. To add insult to injury, these doughs also tend to have a strong propensity to bubble during baking as the water in the outer portion of the dough is vaporized into steam.

He provided a few step-by-step solutions to solve the sticky dough problem in Knead to Know: Sticky Situation.

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How do I fix overproofed pizza dough?

First, how do you know if your pizza dough is overproofed? John Gutekanst, dough expert and owner of Avalanche Pizza in Athens Ohio shares how tests to see how his pizza dough is proofed. “There are certain ways you can tell how far along your proofing has gotten. One way is to use your finger. Note: these examples are for dough that is not cold. Refrigerated dough may act differently.

• If the dough ball bounces back right away when pressed with your finger, it is not ready for prime time and needs to proof longer.
• If the ball is poked and the dent answers back in a slow, even fashion, it is ready to bake.
• If the dough ball has puffed up tremendously and your finger dent stays in the dough with no bounce back, the dough is borderline over-proofed.
• If the dough looks completely deflated like a wrinkly beach ball and deflates when poked with your finger, it is over-proofed.

One solution that Gutekanst shares is this: “This is a secret that many great pizzaioli and bakers hold tight to their chests, ‘The Re-knead.’  It is used extensively in the airy, Roman style Pizza in Teglia, as well as high-hydration sourdough bakers. The re-knead is a dough resurrection that stretches already mixed and relaxed dough. This procedure strengthens the gluten matrix and introduces new feeding opportunities to the yeast. Most re-kneads are part of a calculated dough schedule which takes highly hydrated, cold fermented dough, brings it to room temperature for a short period of time, and re-forms a new, stronger dough ball. This technique can also be used for dough that has become over-proofed. It gives you a chance to use that secondary rise that a rehabbed gluten matrix and new yeast activity affords you.” He offers other tips to help correct an over proofed pizza dough.

Read his full article Overproofed Pizza Dough: Deflate Gate.

Check back as we will add more common pizza dough problems. Explore more pizza making how-to and advice articles from master pizza makers and dough experts in Dough Production & Development.

The post Troubleshooting Your Pizza Dough — A Guide to Making Pizza Better appeared first on Pizza Today.

When is a pizza dough overproofed and how do you fix it

When you knead to rise above over-proofed dough.

t has happened to all of us. You’re working in your busy pizzeria, the line in the lobby snakes to the door, all your ovens are full, increasing the internal temperature of your kitchen to 103 degrees. The dough that you brought out an hour ago has been proofing in the boxes for way too long and you promise yourself to get right to it, but that hour turns into 90 minutes in the frenzy.

Once the rush is over, you cautiously look in the dough box and you see dough balls that are flat, wrinkled and spent. You know there are two avenues to take; either throw the dough away or correct this over-proofed dough. You must first find out how old the dough is because this over proofed dough you’re looking at could be on its last rise. Or you could have a dough ball that has just become proofed too much and has a second rise in it.

Role of Yeast in Overproofed Dough: Feeding Frenzy

We all make a living using dough recipes that rely upon time and temperature. Time affords a period for these small natural and human-made yeast enzymes and bacteria to interact with natural sugars to create a rise in our dough. This is also regulated by the temperature at which this dough is subjected. When everything in your dough schedule goes swimmingly, you can pat yourself on the back, stand back and gaze upon the finished pizza product with pride. When you over-proof your dough, there is that sinking feeling that all that time making, resting, balling, storing and proofing your dough is wasted. There are certain ways you can tell how far along your proofing has gotten.

One way is to use your finger. Note: these examples are for dough that is not cold. Refrigerated dough may act differently.

• If the dough ball bounces back right away when pressed with your finger, it is not ready for prime time and needs to proof longer.
• If the ball is poked and the dent answers back in a slow, even fashion, it is ready to bake.
• If the dough ball has puffed up tremendously and your finger dent stays in the dough with no bounce back, the dough is borderline over-proofed.
• If the dough looks completely deflated like a wrinkly beach ball and deflates when poked with your finger, it is over-proofed.
  

Dough Management: Dough Nuts

As a pizza manager, your dough schedule is calculated to use the limitations of your refrigeration space, oven type and knowledge of your dough personnel. Your physical plant reflects and intermingles with the way you want your pizzas to look, taste and feel like. Dough is the platform that holds and melds with all the other flavors on your proprietary pizza and therefore is the spine of your operation. To gain more control over the way your dough is mixed and aged, you can set up a plan to make sure everyone in your pizzeria is on board. This can be a dough schedule printed and attached to a clipboard near the mixer and proofing tables. It should contain times, temperatures, mixing speeds, weights and proofing times for each batch. In a perfect world, this detailed dough production works well, but some of us with high volume pizzerias opt for a simpler dough production with small date and time stickers on the dough. These also have the names spelt, thin crust, regular, Detroit, Roman, sourdough, etc. on them. This also frees the dough people to keep a flow of dough rolling and if they have questions, they can match the type of dough to signs and recipes kept near the dough station.

What to do with an overproofed pizza dough? The Proof is in the Pudding

When you are staring at an over-proofed dough ball, you must not despair because there is a way to rehabilitate an over-proofed dough ball besides making mediocre focaccia or breadsticks out of it.

This is a secret that many great pizzaioli and bakers hold tight to their chests, ‘The Re-knead.’  It is used extensively in the airy, Roman style Pizza in Teglia, as well as high-hydration sourdough bakers. The re-knead is a dough resurrection that stretches already mixed and relaxed dough. This procedure strengthens the gluten matrix and introduces new feeding opportunities to the yeast. Most re-kneads are part of a calculated dough schedule which takes highly hydrated, cold fermented dough, brings it to room temperature for a short period of time, and re-forms a new, stronger dough ball. This technique can also be used for dough that has become over-proofed. It gives you a chance to use that secondary rise that a rehabbed gluten matrix and new yeast activity affords you.

To begin the re-knead, make sure there is no oil or hard crust on your dough ball. Take the over proofed dough ball by two opposing horizontal edges with the bottom of the dough ball toward you. Pull your hands away from one another stretching the dough until taut. Then close the dough like a book. Turn the dough ball 90 degrees and use this stretch/fold method again. Now start tucking the dough under the dough ball with your fingers and tighten the dough ball using a table if necessary. This dough ball can be sent back to the refrigerator to relax for later use or covered at room temperature to use in 20 to 30 minutes.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Overproofed Pizza Dough: Deflate Gate appeared first on Pizza Today.

Pizza Today creates hub for common dough questions

Pizza Today has built a vast vault of dough articles in our 40-plus years. Through Dough Doctor, Knead to Know and Kitchen features, we have helped pizzeria operators and pizza makers learn more about pizza dough production, management and fixing pizza dough problems. We have a section of PizzaToday.com featuring Dough Production & Development. This month’s Knead to Know is dedicated to common dough issues. We scoured through the archives to get the answers from the brightest minds in pizza dough and put them in one convenient spot on the website. Through our archives, we also remember the great Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann and his impact on the industry and progress of pizza making. Through features like this and PizzaToday.com, his dough knowledge will carry on to a new generation of pizza makers and pizzeria operators. Let’s examine just a few of the questions we have highlighted in our Troubleshooting Pizza Dough Hub at PizzaToday.com:

How do I prevent my pizza crust from bubbling in the oven?

Fermentation is one of the keys to reducing bubbling in our pizza doughs. The Late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann looked at solutions to preventing bubbling crust.

“With normal yeast levels (0.375 percent instant dry yeast, 0.5 percent active dry yeast, or 1.25 percent compressed/fresh yeast), and a finished (mixed) dough temperature in the 80 to 85 F range, the bubbles are minimized after 2.5 hours of fermentation time at ambient temperature (approximately 70 F).

If you take the proper storage steps, you can pretty much eliminate bubbles. Start by taking the dough balls immediately after scaling and balling and place them in dough boxes, cross-stacked for two hours. Be sure to wipe them with salad oil to prevent them from drying out in the cooler. After two hours, downstack them and allow them to ferment overnight. Allow them to sit at room temperature for two hours before you use them and you’re ready to go.

Explore more pizza crust bubbling prevention tips in the Troubleshooting Your Pizza Dough Hub.

Why does my pizza dough keep snapping back when I try to stretch it?

Also called dough memory, pizza dough snapback occurs when a stretched pizza will not stay stretched – snaps back – no matter how much you stretch or how much pressure applied to the stretch.

Dough Expert Laura Meyer addressed pizza dough snapback or dough memory in a Knead to Know column. She said, “To better understand why dough snaps back we need to have a basic understanding of gluten development. Mixing time and the type of mixer used is extremely important when it comes to gluten development. If not done properly this can lead to your dough snapping back. Overmixing is a thing. When it comes time to mix your dough, having a game plan and all your ingredients weighed out and ready to go is important. I have seen many operations weigh as they go, which translates to dough mixing for too long in the mixer and the gluten becoming too tight.”

Explore more snapback prevention tips in the Troubleshooting Your Pizza Dough Hub.

What do I do if I ruin my batch of pizza dough?

Blowing a batch of dough happens. What’s important is that you have a plan in place to replace the pizza dough that has blown and maintain pizza service with the best pizza dough. That is where emergency dough comes in.

The late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann provided a blueprint for you to create an emergency dough fast. “Every shop should have an emergency dough formula and procedure tucked away for these not-so-special moments,” Lehmann said. “I like to make my emergency dough from my regular dough formula because I’m already familiar with it. Still, we need to make a few changes to our dough formula to allow it to be made quickly and be ready for making pizza skins in not much more than two hours.”

Find more of Tom Lehmann’s emergency dough strategy in our Troubleshooting Your Pizza Dough Hub.

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Question from a Pizza Today Reader: How do I incorporate more alternative/whole grains and what’s its effect on gluten development?

Whole Wheat Wander

So, you want to make whole wheat dough? When I first started, whole wheat was terrible. It was dense and dry and was for the older generations or for those who were dieting. A lot has changed since then — and once you learn what whole wheat really is, making it doesn’t seem quite as daunting.

What is whole wheat to begin with?

It’s exactly as it sounds. This is flour that comprises the entire part of the grain.

Depending on the baker or pizza maker, some breads and doughs are labeled as “whole grain” but really the flour only consists of a small portion of whole wheat. The label is not strictly defined or regulated, so the amount of whole grain can vary widely from product to product.

The amount of whole grains can vary for a number of reasons, but the main one is that the higher percentage of whole grain the harder it is to make a light and airy loaf. Most 100-percent whole grain breads and flours tend to produce doughs that are denser than those made with refined flours because the gluten percentage decreases the more whole grain you use.

Flour is made by grinding kernels of wheat, sifting (also known as refining), and then packaging. There are many steps in between but the main goal is to breakdown the kernel from its three main parts. For whole wheat flour, you mainly hear a lot about the bran and the germ. One of the biggest selling points in the commercial bread industry, cereal industry and even in the larger health industry are the buzz words of wheat bran and wheat germ that tell consumers a product with these two things is healthier.

Wheat bran is the outer coating on a kernel of grain. It is this part that is more nutrient dense and contains fiber but is separated from the other two parts of the grain and then added back into the flour at varying amounts. Bran can have a large effect on the volume of your dough as it does not contain much gluten and can be physically jagged (which can damage gluten formation).

The germ is the reproductive part of the grain. Like bran, this portion is normally removed from the other parts and processed separately. This portion only makes up a small percentage, less than five percent, but contains a larger quantity of fat. Having a larger quantity of germ in flour can be tough as the higher percentage of fat/ oil means the flour will go rancid faster because of oxidation. The germ contains no gluten, so a high percentage of germ can have a large effect on the final rise of your dough. A tip when adding germ to your dough is to toast it separately, bring it to room temperature and then add it in to your dough. This will help keep oxidation at bay.

The endosperm is the largest part of the grain and is the main component in a bag of flour. For whole wheat flour, the germ, bran and endosperm are processed separately but then mixed back together. The five refinements of flour will help you determine how much bran and germ is still in your flour.

00 – The most refined. Contains as little bran and germ as possible.

0 – Contains some bran and germ, but is not super noticeable.

1 – Contains a decent amount of bran and germ and you can really see the flecks within the flour. The color is now a mix of white with flecks of brown.

2 – The color of this is on the browner side as this contains the most amount of bran and germ without being considered whole wheat.

Whole grain contains all of the grain. As little as possible has been removed. The components may have been
processed separately but have been added back together.

Incorporating Whole Grains in Pizza Dough

Learning to incorporate different refinements and increasing amounts of whole wheat can have dramatic changes on your dough. The colors deepen and it is easy to smell the sweetness as well as the nuttiness that is held within wheat. The hard part is learning how much is too much, as the more you use the more it will affect the gluten structure (which ultimately will affect the rise of your dough).

A great way to dabble with whole wheat is to start small. Whether you introduce a different refinement to learn your comfort zone or blend whole what flour into your main 00 flour, I would recommend staying under 20 percent at first. Nothing says you can’t go for it, but staying around the 20 percent will ensure you build a gluten structure giving you the rise you want while still incorporating the other benefits of adding whole wheat like flavor, aroma and texture.

A tip when adding in bran to your doughs is to grind the germ down to a smaller size. This will help with water absorption as well as add to better gluten formation (leading to a lighter less dense dough).

One of the great things about today’s industry is the blurring of lines between bread and pizza. Techniques that were once specific to bread baking are now being used regularly in pizza making. The incorporation of ancient grains like Khorasan, Spelt, Emmer, Einkorn and others, like Rye and Buckwheat, mean the options are endless. But finding the right balance is key. Some of these grains will not have the same gluten forming proteins as the wheat you find in your 00 bag of flour, and others are used for gluten-free baking because they’re predominantly starch. So, the amounts you will use to blend will vary.

Whole wheat is nothing to be afraid of. But understanding gluten formation and the need for certain proteins will help you understand the correlation between flavor and rise and how much to use.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

The post Knead to Know: Whole Grain Pizzas appeared first on Pizza Today.

Learn how to make the year’s biggest pizza styles: Detroit, New York, Grandma, Sicilian, Chicago Thin

We’re predict which pizza style will be the year’s trending pizza style. During our recent pizzeria operator survey, we asked which pizza styles pizzeria owners looked to add in the next year. We included those pizza style findings in our 2024 Pizza Industry Trends Report. You can see more of this year’s biggest trends in the report.

Let’s dive a little deeper into the five most popular trending pizza styles and get into the pizza dough formula and pizza dough recipes so you can test a new pizza style in your restaurant.

Top 5 Trending Pizza Styles Dough Recipes

Detroit Style Pizza is proving it has staying power as the hot pizza style to add. A mover and shaker is New York-style pizza making its debut in the Top 5 Pizza Styles to add. Pushed out of the Top 5 by a paper-thin margin is Roman style. Here are the Top 5 Pizza Style trending this year:

1. Detroit
2. Grandma
3. Sicilian
4. New York
5. Chicago Thin

Now let’s explore each dough style and find out how to make Detroit, New York, Grandma, Sicilian and Chicago Thin pizzas with tips and advices from the pizza industry’s top pizza masters and dough experts.

Pepperoni Detroit-style Pizza, Via 313, Austin, TX

Detroit Style Pizza Dough Recipe

Detroit-style pizza is the top pizza style on the rise two years in a row. Detroit pizza came on the national scene a decade ago and growing to mainstream status within the past few years. The square pizza is distinctively unique down to how its dough is proofed, the baking process down to ingredients used and how to apply toppings.

Detroit-style pizza features a medium-thick crust that’s light and airy on the inside, yet crispy on the outside, a signature of authenticity that’s achieved by a high moisture content (between a 68- and 72-percent hydration level) and the proofing process. Preparing your Detroit-style pizza dough takes care and attention to detail. Other identifying characteristics include: Pizzas is baked in square steel pans. Cheese is spread evenly across the entire pizza, edge to edge. Brick cheese is commonly used. Sauce goes on the top. Check out a complete Guide to Detroit Style Pizza.

Now to the Detroit Style Pizza Dough Recipe. We have three recipes for you to try from some of the biggest names in the pizza business. They are:

Smoke’s Detroit-Style Pizza Dough Recipe. Jeff Smokevitch is a World Pizza Champion who brought Detroit Style Pizza to Colorado — first to Telluride at Brown Dog Pizza, then to Denver and beyond with Blue Pan Pizza. Follow this Detroit pizza recipe. Jeff Smokevitch leads a demonstration at Pizza Expo to teach how to make a Detroit-style pizza. You can also watch him as he created a Detroit pizza in his home kitchen.

Detroit-Style Pizza Dough by John Arena. Co-owner of Metro Pizza in Las Vegas, John Arena is a go-to pizza dough expert. He shares his Detroit pizza recipe that includes a Poolish for Detroit-Style Pizza Dough. His recipe walks you through the dough process, dough fermentation and room temperature proof.

Tony’s Trending Recipe: Detroit Pizza. Tony Gemignani is a world-famous pizza master and restaurateur with over 30 restaurants, most notably Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco. His recipe pays tribute to Shawn Randazzo.

Grandpa Pie, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, San Franciso, California

Grandma Pizza Dough Recipe

Grandma Pizza (aka Grandma Pie) is New York’s famous other pizza style. In a 2015 Respecting the Craft Column, Tony Gemignani made this prediction about the grandma pie that has come to fruition: “this unique style will soon gain momentum in the Midwest and on the West Coast.” What made the style gain momentum? He went on to say, “They are cooked in a half-black reinforced sheet pan, are heavily oiled and feature sliced mozzarella (sometimes shredded or fresh mozz). These pizzas are topped with tomato sauce and cooked in a gas brick oven. You could finish it with Grana Padano, herbs, pecorino, olive oil, Parmigiano and chopped garlic. Sometimes the dry cheese can go on before. This pizza is typically shorter/thinner than your typical Sicilian. It’s great for delivery, dine in and by the slice. Typically, this pizza is slightly fried more than a Sicilian because of the excess oil and thinness.

“Some of these pizzas have a very simple tomato sauce comprised of puréed or hand crushed tomatoes. Others have a super-sweet sauce or are a bit over-spiced. For example, you could use sugar, onions, onion powder, oregano and other dry or fresh herbs in the sauce. I’ve seen it several ways. Italian families always remember their grandma or mother making pizzas at home. It was always pushed out in some well-oiled pan, and they would add ingredients like anchovies, olive, crushed tomato, onions or cheese. The name literally originated from our collective grandma. It was simple, memorable and fun.”

Now, let’s get into the Grandma Pie pizza dough recipe. Tony Gemignani shares a recipe can be made from your pizza dough. Try the Grandma Pizza Dough Recipe.

Sicilian Pizza by John Gutekanst, Avalanche Pizza, Athens, Ohio

Sicilian Pizza Dough Recipe

To get to know this pizza style, let’s turn to our dough expert Laura Meyer in her Knead to Know: Sicilian Style Pizza. “Nowadays when you see Sicilian-style pizza on a menu, it generally means a thick-crust pizza made in a rectangular pan cut into square slices. Besides that, the range of toppings and application of toppings varies just as much as any other style of pizza. In addition, like other styles the line between bread and Sicilian “pizza” has blurred tremendously with techniques associated with other styles blended into it. But Sicilian pizza traces its inception back to sfincione.”

The dough is where the differentiation shines for Audrey Kelly, owner of Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage in Boulder, Colorado in an article exploring the difference between Grandma and Sicilian pizzas. “They are risen for hours and then par baked. The bottom should always be crispy, providing a nice crunch to contrast the pillowy, light middle. They are rectangular in shape as opposed to the traditional square shape of a grandma. All of our pizza is naturally leavened, AKA sourdough. The Sicilian is where you can truly taste the beauty of this method. The long rise and fermentation really accentuate the flavor and strengthens the texture. I think of Sicilians as a cloud that carries a light amount of toppings. Some people might think that since the Sicilian is thicker in structure it can hold up to more toppings.

Dough Expert Laura Meyer, owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, California, expands further. “Sicilians land between focaccia and the Roman pan style in that focaccia is very closely related to the Sicilian in its original form. Roman techniques and flours have begun to creep into the Sicilian style turning it into a sort of hybrid. Roman can take upwards of three days and have a high hydration leading to a very thin, crispy crust with a very large and airy open crumb structure. Since a lot of toppings are put on after the cooking process in Roman pans, it makes sense to have a large, open crumb structure as it does. The Sicilian style is meant to carry a heavier, wetter ingredient load so having a spongier texture that can hold everything without deflating it is ideal. Using long and controlled fermentation times, like Chris and John do, give the Sicilian a lightness to the interior. Hydrations into the 70s and above are more common with Roman styles and breads although can be found with some Sicilians. When it comes to higher hydrations, cook temps and whether doughs are topped and baked from raw or par baked then topped and cooked lends to very different finished products. The debate over par bakes or cooked form raw extends into Sicilians. For those looking for a slight crisp and a very soft interior, cooking from raw will give you that texture albeit a longer cook time. Par baking is going to give you a soft interior but the double bake is going to cook out more of the moisture giving you a firmer outer crust.”

Check out a basic Sicilian Style Pizza Dough Recipe to test in your kitchen.

New York Style Pizza, Joe’s Pizza, West Village, New York City

New York Style Pizza Dough Recipe

New York Style Pizza is the No 1. most popular pizza in America. The first licensed pizzeria to open in the U.S. was Lombari’s, which opened in New York City in 1905. Dough uses flour, water, yeast, salt, olive oil. Typically, it requires a two- to three-day cold ferment. The crust is crispy, yet light and foldable. Crust should be about 1/8-inch thick through the middle with a raised edge. Slices should be cut into triangles. The signature way to eat a New York pizza slice is to fold it in half from crust edge to edge. Toppings are dispersed evenly and not too heavy to weigh down the pliable slice.

International Pizza Consultant Anthony Falco contributed a Knead to Know Column all about NY pizza. In the article, he says, “a NY-style pizza is big, it’s thin but not paper thin, crispy but still flexible enough to fold without cracking, and the toppings should be a cohesive amalgamation and applied with restraint and simplicity. It shouldn’t be too fancy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use quality ingredients. It should always be cooked directly on the stones of the oven floor, be that gas, wood, electric or coal.” Falco also provided his New York Pizza dough recipe. Try Anthony Falco’s New York Style Pizza recipe.

In John Arena’s Knead to Know column, he conducted a Q&A with 2017’s NY-style Caputo Cup winner Dr. Derek Sanchez, who owns MiaMarcos in San Antonio, Texas. Derek provided a New York Pizza Dough formula using Baker’s Percentage. Check out Derek Sanchez’s New York Style Pizza dough formula.

For a traditional, basic New York style recipe, try this New York Style pizza dough recipe.

Chicago Thin Crust Pizza, Eno’s Pizza Tavern, Dallas, Texas

Chicago Thin Style Pizza Dough Recipe

Notice all the super thin crust pizza that many are referring to as Tavern style lately? The original tavern style is from Chicago, a city also known for its Deep Dish. Chicago Thin Crust Style Pizza is far from its thick sibling. It has recently experienced an explosion in popularity. It’s something that the late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann saw coming in the early 2010s. He said, when it comes to Chicago Thin, “any good, patent grade bread flour with 10.5- to 11.5-percent protein content should work well.” There are also a couple specifics he discusses. “A planetary type mixer will work best for mixing this dough. You will need to use a dough sheeter/roller to form the dough into skins. You could roll the dough by hand, but you will soon find this to be a lot of work. Hot and cold presses are just not suited to this production method.”
The Dough Doctor provided his dough formula for Chicago Thin with step-by-step instructions. Follow Tom Lehmann’s Chicago Thin Crust Pizza Dough recipe.

Dough expert Laura Meyer offers advice for those looking for a super crispy Chicago Thin Crust Pizza in her article Tavern Style Pizza is Sweeping the Nation. “Par baking the dough is another way to add crispiness to a thin-crust pie. As much as I love crispy thin-crust pizzas, they lose that crunch very quickly as the pizza cools down. Maintaining that crispiness is one of the hardest traits to keep. Utilizing cornmeal and a par bake or double bake method helps ensure your pizza stays crispy for a longer period of time. How would you do this?

Coat your dough ball in cornmeal and roll it out with a rolling pin or use a sheeter. Once you’ve reached your desired size or thickness, dock it, place it on a peel and slide it into the oven. Without any sauce, cheese or toppings, par bake it just for two minutes or just until it’s no longer raw and the bottom is just beginning to show some spots of color. Remove it from the oven and stack them until ready to use. When an order comes in, top it as you normally would and then finish the bake until it’s crispy and the toppings are cooked.”

Want to go even crispier, Tony Gemignani says in a Respecting the Craft column, “You can actually achieve a crispier crust by cooking in a well-seasoned pan. And doing so also is great for texture and flavor. Different types of oils can be used if you settle on this method. Play around with olive oil, cottonseed oil, canola or fats such as Crisco, butter or lard.”

Let’s not forget a Chicago Deep Dish Dough Recipe

Often thought of as the Windy City’s only pizza style. Deep Dish, joins Chicago Thin and Stuffed Pizzas as region’s pizza styles. Particularly popular in the Midwest, this style of pizza speaks for itself. It’s a close cousin to the Chicago-stuffed pie — the obvious difference being that all the toppings are placed on top and there is only one layer of dough. This unique pie stands out with a crisp, biscuit-like crust that comes up the sides of a three-inch pan. It’s thick with cheese and other ingredients, and then topped with a chunky tomato sauce and baked for 30 to 45 minutes.

Here’s a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Dough Recipe.

This should get you started testing a new trending pizza style. Have fun and let us know what you learn in your test kitchen.

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A Pizza Today Reader asks: I add old dough to new dough but have noticed it’s more acidic. When is it too much and what makes it ‘too much’? What does PH do to dough?

You asked so you shall receive! Let’s talk about pH or acidity in dough. Now, I don’t want you readers to think I know every little thing about the molecular chemistry that makes up fermentation. The one thing I am most certain about is that the more I learn about dough and fermentation the less I really know. That to me is the most fun part about learning in that it never stops.

This is meant to be more of an introduction to pH. As with anything dough related there are a bunch of factors that go into the change and evolution of flavor and performance and as soon as you change one thing you change everything. At the end of this you will find a few names and resources that I use when I find myself in a pickle. These are the people and places I go to when I am trying to figure out nuance as more brains with more experience are always better than one.

In my restaurant my dough uses instant or dry active yeast so pH and acidity is on my mind in relation to flavor, but I’m not as preoccupied with it is as when I am making sourdough. The techniques and manipulations I use to coax flavor out of my dough are the same but are even more necessary when it comes to controlling a sourdough and the final product.

What is pH and how do I know what my dough is doing?

PH is the acronym used to measure acidity. The acidity, especially in sourdough, is where the sour comes from. There is a scale or range that is used to determine how acidic something is or the opposite known as alkaline. You hear the word alkaline a lot nowadays in regards to bottled water. The pH scale runs from 0 — the most acidic to 14 — which is alkaline. Right smack in the middle at 7 is neutral. It might seem counterintuitive but the lower the number the more acidic something is. To test the pH of your dough or preferment you can purchase a meter easily on Amazon or other retail stores that look, and are, as compact as a kitchen thermometer. Just like your handy kitchen thermometer, pH meters need to be calibrated but there are usually instructions on how to do this and how to care for your meter inside the box when you purchase one. To use a pH meter, you’ll want to insert the probe end into your solution, dough or preferment, wait a few seconds and the meter will give you a reading. Usually, these readings contain decimals as pH is not measured in solid absolutes but can be measured to a decimal point. The sweet spot for sourdough I’ve found to be around a level of 4 to 5.

Where does acidity come from?

The flavors and aromas we are trying to achieve are actually byproducts of fermentation between yeast and bacteria within dough or preferments. With a sourdough starter this would just be from the flour, water and yeasts that naturally live in your environment. The main strain of yeast we care about most is called Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, and the bacteria we are most concerned with are Lactobacillus (a.k.a. Lactic Acid) and Acetobacter (a.k.a. Acetic acid). These two acids are crucial when learning at what time has your preferment or dough gone past the point of no return, becoming too acidic or not acidic enough for maximum flavor and performance.

Now, the growth of a sourdough in a general sense is like the growth and expansion of a city over the course of decades. The original settlers, yeast and bacteria, move in and fight for dominance and survival. Over the course of time and generations (feedings), new flour and new bacteria move in. They either blend with the older generations becoming something new and evolved or they don’t survive. This happens over the course of multiple feedings with a sourdough and what was created in the beginning is always a newer, slightly different version of itself after every feeding. Yeasts and lactic acid go hand in hand because they can survive each other’s defense mechanisms. Both eat simple sugars, but the byproduct they excrete are different. As lactobacillus eats, they give off acid. As yeast eats, it gives off ethanol. Lactobacillus has a high tolerance for alcohol, so they’re like two roomies cohabitating like peas in a pod. But, if you’ve ever made sourdough and forgotten about it then you’ve probably come in contact with a product that is overly sour or not sour enough. There is a balance that is needed.

Role of time, temperature and hydration in dough production

Time, temperature and hydration play into finding the balance of how much sour or pH content you are looking for. When it comes to feeding a starter, there is such a thing as too much. Over feeding of a starter will result in overwhelming it and it can either die or dilute it to a point where it doesn’t have much flavor. Over feeding lowers acidity but feeding less often will increase acidity.

Temperature plays into that as yeasts are more active in warm environments, so finding a warm but not too warm place is crucial. There are incubators available that can help regulate temperature that will fit on a counter or try and find that sweet spot in your kitchen. Too warm and you increase leavening because the yeasts are active, but acid production is low. The reverse is true when flipped. Colder temps slow down leavening but increase acid production.

What can you do if you’ve reached a point of too sour? Speed up the feeding schedule a bit by a few hours over the course of 1-2 feedings and see if that does the trick. Too much alcohol production results in forgetting about a feeding time or maybe going on vacation and forgetting to leave your starter in good hands. When this happens the other bacteria, Acetbacter, finds its time to shine. This bacterium moves in feeding on the surplus of alcohol giving off a different kind of acid which is more astringent like vinegar. This is normally when people find their sourdoughs to be too sour.

Hydration will change which acid takes charge. With higher hydration you tend to see lower quantities of lactic acid production, a more gentle sour flavor, but an increase in leavening power. Lowering the hydration, on the other hand, increases acetic acid production, giving off a stronger more vinegar like sour flavor but decreases the leavening power.

Dough Resources

These are just a few of the resources I use but don’t be afraid to ask or search where these expert go to learn too!

Audrey Sherman- Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage, Boulder Colorado IG: audreyjanespizza

Will Grant- That’s a Some About Pizza, Sourdough Willy’s, Seattle and Bainbridge, Washington IG: sourdoughwillyspizzeria

John Gutekanst- Avalanche Pizza, Athens, Ohio IG:jgutekanst

Leo Spizziri- Chicago, Illinois IG:askchefleo

Karl De Smedt: IG: sourdough_librarian

Books by Modernist Cuisine: Modernist Bread

Bread Science by Emily Buehler

The Bread Bakers Guild of America- website: https://www.bbga.org/

Podcast: The sourdough podcast by Michael Hilburn

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

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Crust Encounters of the Third Kind

There was a time on the Italian peninsula where gruel-eaters ruled. The ancient Etruscans of Italy ate a thick porridge of spelt and hot water called Puls. Then three things happened to evolve this gruel. The first was that the Puls was increasingly cooked on the stones beneath the ashes of fireplaces. This unsalted ash cake was called Panis Focacius and was the ancestor of modern focaccia. Secondly, by 170 B.C. Greek bakers, who were brought to Rome as slaves, taught the Romans how to make a flatbread topped with “relishes” of herbs, onions, garlic and vegetables and had raised edges for better handling. And finally, unlike the Panis Focacius, this dough was cooked immediately after being formed and was called Picea, meaning “Black ashes on the floor of the fireplace.” Many generations of pizza-making have passed and the Picea is now known as “Pizza,” with crusts ranging from the soft mottled high-heat crust to the deep, dark golden crusts using refrigerated maturation.

Baby Steps

No matter what style, great pizza crusts are made by their creators with purpose, not by accident. There are several starting points, but the first step is to open your mind to all the different possibilities of baking pizza, then research and match your desired crust to your pizzeria’s capabilities. (The annual Pizza Expo in Las Vegas is essential in this endeavor.) The next thing to remember is that time and temperature are the most vital components in the perfect crust. Here are other factors involved in a great crust.

• The type of flour you’re using
• The hydration of the dough
• The mixing of the dough
• The fermentation of your dough
• The type of oven that you are baking with

Steam Clean

Crust formation is the result of loss of moisture in the baking process. As the pizza heats, water from the dough turns to steam and carbon dioxide, alcohol and other gases which escape into the air or are captured in the gluten net depending upon its strength. The longer the pizza bakes, the more moisture the crust will lose. This factor combined with the temperature of the oven and the hydration of your dough will determine the type of crust you will create.

Browning

Browning of the crust occurs when sugars, starches and proteins undergo changes. The sugars provide for caramelization and, what is called the Maillard reaction caused when the combined sugars and proteins, are put under high heat. Maillard is the browning of surfaces, be it meat or bread dough or pizza crust. There are several other factors that can ensure a colorful vivacious crust as opposed to a dull, flaccid crust. Fermentation and the use of pre-ferments are very important.

Blistering

Blistering is a thin, shiny, glass-like crust that sometimes looks like craters of the moon. Some pizza makers pride themselves on their blistered corniciones, (crust.) Blistering forms when Co2 escapes the surface of cold dough that is being held in refrigeration. The longer you retard your white flour dough under refrigeration, the more blistering you’ll have. (Whole wheat doughs blister much less.) The other factor in any blistering is the amount of steam in the baking chamber. This moisture may come from the pizza dough itself and depends upon the size of the oven. Too little or too much steam will inhibit the blistering process. I’ve known pizza makers who brush water on their ultra-aged crust before they bake to create blistering. When the dough is fully proofed, use minimal flour on the crust and gently wipe off the dusting of flour that remains because blistering isn’t cool looking if it’s covered with flour.

Spinal Tap

Pre-ferments added to a batch of pizza dough create the backbone of your pizza crust. These support elements have been used for many years and rely upon either lactic, (poolish) or acetic, (biga) fermentation to produce better flavor and the perfect crust. Modern bakers and pizzaioli have interspersed these additions to their doughs to produce a better product and increase production time as well as to enhance the color, taste and digestibility of pizza crust. (Note: as with all baking and pizza making, all measurements can vary and recipes for the perfect crust have been argued for centuries.)

Poolish: This is the batter-like pre-ferment made with equal amounts of flour and water and a small amount of commercial yeast to create lactic fermentation. This can be mixed from a few hours and up to a full day before adding it to a batch of dough.

Using an overnight poolish will create a pizza with better browning qualities producing a thin, crisp crust, greater extensibility, and a lighter texture with a sweet, milky, yeasty flavor. The bonus of poolish use is that it doesn’t take as long as stiffer pre-ferments and mixes easier into the batch of pizza dough as
opposed to the less hydrated pre-ferments.

Biga: This less hydrated pre-ferment is preferred by Italian pizza and bread bakers and is usually made with 1 percent cake yeast or .5 powdered yeast, water, and flour. It is mixed to a hydration level from 50 to 60 percent then set aside to let rise from 6 to 24 hours. Bigas made from a natural starter, called Biga Naturale, uses less yeast and a hydration level for up to 75 percent. The reward for this long wait to mature is a more complex flavor including a chewier crust, fragrant interior with sour notes, and larger alveoli (cells).

Pate’ Fermentee: This is a very old procedure and basically is old dough that has been fermenting and it is added to a new batch of dough. When I visited Paris, I found that this pre-ferment is a favorite of Parisian baguette makers, and they usually use up to 20-25 percent of their batch of dough for a quick and easy fortification. It can be used very easily by cutting up small chunks and adding it to your pizza dough as it mixes.

Direct Method Manipulation:

I am truly a big fan of the cold mix and long cold holding involved with the Pain a l’Acienne method made popular by my friend Peter Reinhart in his book Bread Bakers Apprentice. Cold water and cold holding halt the yeast activity letting the enzymes in the dough break down the complex carbohydrates into simple sugars. When the dough is finally proofed, the yeast starts to eat the sugars but leaves a sugar reserve which, when baked leads to a rich, buttery, wheat flavor, soft interior, and great crunchy caramel crust.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

The post Knead to Know: Achieving a Great Pizza Crust Color appeared first on Pizza Today.

Blend it like Beckham

“Today’s pizzamakers are fortunate to live in an era wielding not only a diversity of grains, but also the knowledge of nutrition, gluten strength and fermentation to harness their full potential. The Fertile Crescent has come full circle as ancient grains are blended with contemporary expertise to create these beautiful modern pizzas.”
-Serhan Ayhan, Owner, Next Level Pizza, New York

In these modern times, chefs, bakers and innovative pizza makers like Serhan Ayhan are all looking for identity-shaping foods for their businesses. Many pizza makers have shifted their focus to a more artistic strategy that was usually used by chefs in their shiny controlled kitchens. This new artistic perspective about the platform that is pizza combines structural integrity, layering of flavors, new uses of ancient grains, and a combination of grains for their pizza crusts. The new pizza artists are now pushing the limits of manipulation like fine wine makers to achieve the perfect pizza crust. The more knowledge you have of your flour, the more you will be able wrap your pizza head around the perfect crust for your pizzeria. Just remember, any negative characteristics of a certain flour can be altered by other flours to create a superstar pizza crust.

Mixed Blessings

The characteristic of flour depends on the variety, location and growing conditions. Some wheats are considered soft and some are known as hard. Hard wheat has more of the protein’s gliadin and glutenin which form gluten when the flour is moistened. While mixing doughs, there are two distinctions; strong flours — which have a high protein content and are used to make breads, pizza and other yeasted products and weak flours — which are made from soft wheat and are used to make cookies, cakes, and pastries.

Endo What?

The composition of each wheat kernel consists of bran, germ and endosperm. Let’s jump in this geeky swamp for a second.

Bran: This is the hard, outer skin of the kernel and represents 14 percent to 17 percent of the grain. It is darker in color than it appears as small brown flecks, usually named whole wheat. In cases where millers crush white wheat, or screen out the bran, they may appear lighter. Other darker flours like Spelt, Einkorn, Rouge de Bordeaux etc. are darker also. Whole wheats may be altered into more lighter, or “golden” by the miller screening more of the bran out.

Pizza Bakers Note: Because Bran flakes are sharp, they affect the strength of the gluten bubbles and negate a certain level of extensibility you seek to both stretch your dough for a better cornicione, or airy crust. Millers use the distinction extraction that refers to the total amount of bran and germ taken out as a percentage. A lower extraction means that more endosperm is in your flour and less bran and germ. This may help you formulate the rise of your pizza with other factors like heat and hydration.

Germ: This little nugget of life is what creates a new plant if the kernel is sprouting and represents 2-3 percent of the grain. The germ is the vitamin hub of the kernel containing protein, nutrients and vitamins. Germ also contains a lot of fat and therefore can become rancid quickly if held too long.

Pizza Bakers Note: Adding raw wheat germ at 5-7 percent of total flour in your pizza recipe will create a nice nutty flavor and much more nutritious bread without hindering the gluten strength.

Endosperm: This is the starchy, white interior of the kernel after the bran and germ are removed and represents 81-83 percent of the grain. Depending upon the type of kernel, it represents about 67-76 percent starch and between 6-18 percent protein. It contains small amounts of minerals, sugar, fat and moisture. Many consider this as flour once the germ and bran are removed by the millers.

Pizza Bakers Note: Because the ground endosperm represents the bulk of starch and protein, it is most important to know the aspects of each one. Starches are complex carbohydrates and can absorb up to half of their weight in water and a small amount of starch becomes available as food for yeast. About 6-18 percent of white flour is protein depending upon the variety of kernel. Roughly 80 percent of proteins are glutenin and gliadin which, when combined with water create gluten. This creates the scaffolding that supports the gluten net that holds the carbon dioxide which makes an airy pizza crust. Of course, all this depends upon many, many factors. Some high-gluten flours contain added gluten to achieve consistency- some companies call this “reinforced” flour.

A Note on Baker’s Percentage:

This practical shift from ounces and pounds provides an accurate and faster way to measure flour in your pizzeria. By taking the total flour in kilograms and grams and basing the other ingredients individually against the flour, you’ll be able to speedily mix and replicate recipes. For example, when 1000 grams of flour is used with 100 grams of water, the water baker’s percentage is 10 percent. If the salt in this same recipe is 10 grams, then the baker’s percentage of the salt is one percent.

Power of the Flour

Flour is usually categorized as high-gluten flour at 14-percent protein, bread flour at 11-13.5-percent protein, cake and pastry flour which are 8 percent and 9 percent respectively.

European flours typically top out at 11.5-percent protein, lower than typical North American flours. They are graded on ash content. T45 and T55 are flours with low ash for cake and pastry. T65 are high-gluten and higher grades are flours with increasing darkness ending at dark rye designated T170.

Some other flours that are trending in innovative pizza products are as follows:

Spelt: Often considered the ancestor of modern wheat, this grain has become increasingly popular in pizzerias. It has a lower absorption than wheat and a weaker gluten structure, so it usually needs to be ground finer and/or mixed with a high-gluten mix. I’ve used local, Amish-grown spelt at a 60-percent mix to 40 percent high gluten for almost 15 years. The payoff of using spelt is a deep, slightly sweet, molasses flavor and nutty flavor that customers love.

Kamut: This durum wheat is trending with up to 40 percent higher protein than modern wheat. This golden flour has a nuttiness with hints of butter, and it is packed with nutrients. Many flour companies are milling white Kamut flour. Kamut has a reputation as being more easily digested than regular wheat and it has a chewy texture. I like this pizza dough with strong cheeses like goat and Gruyère paired with fatty pork, sweet fruit, and nuts.

Buckwheat: First documented in China 6000 years ago, this grain is rich in zinc, copper and manganese and is an important grain for vegans. Buckwheat adds zero gluten to your pizza crust mix but packs loads of strong nutty flavor. It must be ground finely because it will dilute the structural matrix, less is more.

Kernza*: I’ve used this Perennial Wheat for almost 10 years in my menu-mix. Long known as the next wave of sustainable grains, Kernza has roots that can penetrate the earth up to 10 feet down which will produce grain even in drought conditions. This also means no tilling, no fertilizers or pesticides that are needed to grow this grain. Kernza has 17-percent protein and a sharp bran which means it needs to be screened more by the millers. The reward is a pizza crust that is a brown sugary, almost honey-like flavor of nuts and maple.

Durum: Because of climate change, this is the grain of the future because it grows in hot, arid environments. Durum is a golden flour known as semolina and has different grinds, for pasta and breads. I’ve been getting different blends from Sicily that are stone ground at Molina del Ponte. The Rimacinata flour is a blend of Simeto, Duilio and Appio durum wheats but my favorite for baking a wonderful Focaccia Barese and Pizza in Teglia is 100 percent Tumminia. The sweet nuttiness and cakelike texture of this grain makes an airy, unforgettable crust.

Einkorn: This is one of the oldest wheats that has been cultivated. Its low gluten content may drive a pizza maker nuts which is why I use it with higher gluten flour for a fluffy, velvety texture with a slight chew. The advantage is a deep nutty and almost grassy taste perfect with cream sauces and strong cheeses.

Soy and Rice: These both contain no gluten and are used extensively in non-gluten crusts. These flours are added to the trendy Roman pizza called Pinza*. The soy flour is used as a non-gluten replacement for wheat and the white rice flour gives the pizza a crunchy and soft texture. It is mixed with olive oil to cloak some of proteins that form gluten. Using too much soy flour can lead to an unpleasant beany flavor but toasted soy flour adds a pleasant taste. Too much rice flour adds a sticky and oily finish to the tongue.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

The post Understanding Modern Flours, Mixing Trends and Blends appeared first on Pizza Today.

Laura Meyer shares the most common pizza dough questions she has received

The more you learn about fermentation the more you understand how little you actually know. Learning to make dough, especially sourdough, is just like raising a child. You create a mix, attempt to get it on a feeding schedule or dough production schedule, control a routine for consistency, and then everything changes and you’re stuck wondering why it’s not behaving the way it did yesterday or the week before. There are so many factors at play when it comes to not just dough making but dough handling and as soon as one element changes, everything changes. So, here are a few questions I always get asked that may be something you are overlooking.

Q: What are some of the common mistakes that are attributed to inconsistencies?

A: Cold dough in a hot oven is a recipe for inconsistency in both doneness and coloration. On busy nights it can be easy to get caught up in the rush and speed at which things are moving resulting in needing to use dough that was pulled directly out of the refrigerator. Everyone does it because when the rush is on it’s hard to stop and think about tiny details. I know space is a key factor here, but staging dough helps my pizzeria avoid the dreaded gum line that most often occurs with cold dough. My crew uses a speed rack that sits outside of the walk-in in our prep area. When we notice, we are starting to pick up speed the crew will pull out half a rack of dough or even an entire rack worth so that as the night wears on we are pulling dough from the rack outside of the fridge instead of dough directly from the fridge. Our prep area isn’t as hot as our pizza area but moving dough from the fridge to a warmer area and then to the warmest area makes sure that the dough comes to temp as we need it. Cold sauce is another contributing factor to gum lines. We make sure to use containers that are large enough so we do not run out of sauce every 10 minutes, but they are small enough that they aren’t sitting out for hours at a time.

Q: How do I get large pockets and big oven spring?

A: I have heard this question quite a bit over the last few years thanks to Instagram and social media. Everyone is looking for giant crumb structure because it gives you the ooh and awe factor, but it has also made a lot of people think that giant crumb structure equals good pizza. Big, open structure does show well cooked dough but it does not always mean great flavor. But how do you achieve it? There’s more than one factor that contributes to an open crumb. Using a preferment, specifically a biga, can help aid in large pockets. Fermentation time coupled with temperature is always going to shape your final product but proper use of your oven is key. All ovens have vents. Most pizza makers set their ovens and never touch them but depending on the style and whether you are using a par bake or not, opening and closing your vents will give you the oven spring you are looking for. As your dough cooks, the water in your dough is going to turn into steam and then want to escape. Closing the vents on your oven will trap the steam in your oven, aiding in oven spring as well as help develop a crispy crust. The key is when to open the vents. If you are par baking you really only need to keep the vents closed for 2-3 minutes and then open the vents to release the steam. Opening the vents is an important step because without this too much moisture is trapped in the oven and the dough does not have a chance to dry out and crisp. If you are making multiple styles of pizza or are just busy, I like to keep the vents halfway open. With the vents partially opened during service it slows down the escape of steam too quickly, ensuring a well baked pizza. One of the last elements that will change the spring of your dough is how you stretch and how much of an allowance you leave for your crust.

Q: Do I need a different dough if I want to make different styles?

A: The short but not simple answer is yes and no. If you are a traditionalist, yes, you need a different dough. If you want nuance and subtlety, yes, you need different doughs. If you are looking to streamline, are limited on space and equipment, or are just in a place that you want to offer variety but are not ready to make big changes, then no, you do not need a different dough. I recommend doing some research and finding the middle ground between styles when it comes to protein levels in flour,
hydration content within recipes, usage of fats and sugar. You’ll want to come up with a recipe that checks all the boxes but is right down the middle. How you manipulate them is the key. Extending fermentation times, using both warm and cold temperatures for fermentation, usage of preferments, proofing times, humidity control, thickness of doughs for pan pizzas, oven temps, and simply changing your hand techniques will all give you different outcomes. The beauty of pizza is in the small details that make it unique to you so the best thing you can do is not get complacent and continue to play and try new things. You never know what you’ll find when you start making mistakes.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

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Water Works and Pizza

When I first sat down to talk all things water, I figured there was a really meaningful haiku out there about the beauty and amazing thing that is water. But all I could keep thinking about was Adam Sandler in the movie Waterboy yelling back and forth about water being better than Gatorade. Doesn’t give quite the same fuzzy feeling but still drives home the importance of water in our lives.

When you really start to look at water and the abilities it has, it really puts into perspective how underrated water is in the grand scheme. Water can be liquid, it can freeze, it can turn into steam, and can go back and forth. Water in its liquid state is a solvent in that other elements dissolve when mixed in. Water in its frozen state is extremely strong yet also buoyant. In its liquid state water has a boiling point, but in its steam form water can be heated almost to no limit which is why it can be dangerous and cause burns. All of these things make water a cool element and there are many more reasons as you dig into the molecular side of things, but besides flour, water is what makes pizza, pizza.

Before grain becomes flour, it begins as a seed. If the environment and temperatures align, the seed absorbs water making the seed swell and softening its outer layer. Cells inside this outer layer begin to produce amylase enzymes which converts starch (complex sugar) into simple sugar which the embryo needs to grow and turn into a mature plant, giving us flour. Without water, the seed is just a seed.

As pizza makers we talk a lot about flour and we’re constantly debating which are best for the types of pizza we want to make. But none of it would be possible without water. For those making New York style, you’re probably living under a rock if you haven’t heard or been told that you can’t make real New York without the water. Well, I’m a Bay Area born and raised California girl, and I’m here to challenge that thought. Water is very important, especially since it’s the second largest ingredient in our dough, but it’s what you do with it that changes everything. Even Italy has its bad pizza. So, is it just the water?

I know we say we mix our dough, but sometimes that can cause beginners to think that flour is dissolving in water. But that’s not the case. It’s better to think about mixing as hydrating. Flour absorbs the water kickstarting gluten development. As glutenin and gliadin, the proteins that make up gluten, absorb water, they begin to bond together. During the mixing process these bonds that form break due to friction, but reattach creating longer strands and making the dough more extensible. A higher water content adds to this development making the dough more extensible. But on the flip side a higher water content can make the dough a lot harder to manipulate and handle unless you are very skilled.

There’s a school of thought known as the no knead method. While this method does work, it requires a lot more time. Making a Roman dough with 80+ percent water can be done by hand no problem — but will require multiple folds and time in between. Yet a mixer can get the job done in one go. Water may be what makes flour into dough, but it still needs a helping hand. During the mixing process, the enzyme amylase (that helps the seed grow) is at play again, this time helping turn complex sugars into simple sugars and giving the yeast more food to live on, which aids fermentation.

A question I get asked a lot these days is “how much water should I have in my dough?”

Today it is common for doughs to start at 60 percent and go up, whereas only a few years ago it was common for New York, or classic American doughs, to contain less than that. The amount of water in your dough is going to drastically change your outcome, although the temperature at which you cook your dough and the type of oven all play into the final product. It may sound counterintuitive, but more water makes crispier dough if cooked correctly. Think about ciabatta bread. Normally it’s upwards of 100-percent water. Difficult to manipulate when raw, but once cooked it has an extremely crispy outer crust and a soft interior.

For pizza, higher hydration needs to be cooked slower and lower. The vents on your oven play an important role during the baking process. With vents closed in the beginning, the dough will have a better rise as the heat and steam is trapped, adding to oven spring.But the vents will need to be opened to release the steam so the crust can harden and crisp. Without opening the vents, the outside will not crisp, and the interior will be too wet, resulting in a very lifeless and soggy pizza. Steam outside of the oven is just as important to think about once you place a pizza on a surface, be it on a pan or in a box. That steam is going to reverse any crispiness you’ve created, which is why you see screens under pizzas to allow for some air flow under the bottom.

When it comes to starters, the main two are poolish and biga. The major difference is the water content. Poolish can be anywhere from 90-100 percent and Biga can be 50-60-percent hydrated. The difference in water creates a vastly different flavor profile and acid content (which, when added to dough, boosts flavor and affects the interior crumb structure).

Now let’s talk freezing.

Freezers have gotten a bad rap in the culinary world because the thought now is that if you freeze food, you’re not making everything fresh. That may be the case when it comes to proteins, sauces and other items. But when it comes to dough, freezing can be an asset when done properly. Flash freezing and proper wrapping ensures freezer burn does not happen. Freezing can be a great asset for those operations that produce in bulk. For those with large catering opportunities and making pan pizzas or for those making par-baked shells and selling them, freezing is your friend. You can mass produce with little effect to the product if used within a month or two. You will want to consider that during the freezing process evaporation occurs, so prolonged periods in the freezer are not ideal because when you go to cook the dough again the interior will be very dry and not palatable. High hydrated doughs last longer in the freezer.

So, is water in all its forms the pizza maker’s greatest friend? Better than Gatorade!

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

The post Knead to Know: Learn More About How Water Impacts Pizza, Pizza Dough appeared first on Pizza Today.

Butter Crust: When Pizza and Butter go hand in hand, there’s no margarine for error.

Many pizza makers are turning to different ways to enhance their customers’ pizza experience by using fats into and on top of their pizza crusts. Butter is one of the supreme ways to develop and boost the taste of any dough by adding a fatty crunch with a hint of rich sweetness.

Throughout the baking development of mankind, many cultures and civilizations have created and continue to rely upon age-old recipes to use butter in their breads. Almost all these techniques can be used in pizza dough but first let’s take a deep dive into the classifications of dough.

On a roll

Doughs are classified based on:

1. Hydration,
2. The way the dough is leavened with commercial yeast or natural bacteria,
3. The way they are made using direct or indirect methods,
4. The weight of the dough,
5. The richness of the dough.

Enriched doughs are made with fats that are used to tenderize and add sweetness. Eggs, animal fats such as lard, sugar and dairy added at a 20-percent fat-to-flour ratio create pastry, biscuit, croissant and puff pastry … although some pizzas like the traditional Chicago style pizza have 6-8 percent butter added, and other thin crusts have been developed with three percent butter (creating a well-heeled crispness with loads of flavor).

The World is a Butter Place

Butter is known in baking circles as “fat” introduced into or on pizza or breads. Here are some doughs around the world that use butter as a game-changer.

Nan-e gisu or Armenian Sweet Bread and Persian Nan-e shirmal, or Persian sweet saffron bread, both with butter, whole milk and baking soda with sugar and honey is like a brioche and braided for attention.

Persian Nan-e barbari and Nan-e lavash. Barbari is made early in the mornings and is a favorite breakfast flatbread made with oil or butter as well as sugar and salt. Lavash is fatted with unsalted butter and milk and is stretched to bake on a Saj, which looks like an upturned wok.

Spanish Coca is very popular and is a yeasted dough put in a pan coated with butter and Pastel de Carne is a butter crusted meat pie resembling puff pastry.

Moroccan Moufleta which is thin crepe-like dough mixed with butter and the dough balls are rested in oil then stretched paper thin to be cooked in a hot pan.

Yemeni Jachnun is a butter and folded bread which is baked in a pan for 12 hours. It is a hearty bread that is caramelized on the bottom and fluffy in the middle paired with spicy z’hug and tomato.

Israeli Malawach comes from the Yemenite influence in Israel. Like the croissant, it is folded thin with layers of butter creating a very flaky and delicious flatbread. (I’ve developed a great pizza with this technique below.)

Spread the Word about Butter Crust

Butter can be used in all the broad categories of doughs described as stiff, standard and rustic.

Stiff doughs with hydration of 50 to 57 percent. This may be dough for pretzels, bagels and thin crust pizzas. Butter works best with these stiff doughs as a laminate or folded in between stiff dough that is pressed out very thinly. If mixed with thin crust, it pays to keep the percentage of butter used below four percent because the oils will bleed during higher heat baking. (Fixes for this can be use of parchment- see recipe below.)

Standard doughs that are hydrated from 57 to 65 percent are exemplified in European style breads, sandwich doughs and even Neapolitan-style pizza dough. Butter can be slathered on the cornicione, or crust, before, during and after baking and be used as a laminate for a croissant-like dough baked at lower temperatures at or below 450 F.

Rustic doughs are above 65 percent hydration like Pizza in Teglia, Pizza Romana, ciabatta and an array of different pan pizzas and focaccia. Butter can be introduced with these high hydration doughs in the pans, like the Spanish Coca, especially if you use clarified butter to eliminate any steam creating soggy dough in between the pan and crust. I’ve used clarified and flavored butters on crusts at the last five minutes of baking to get a crisp and buttery flavor punch creating an elevated flavored crust.

Compound Interest

Below are some great herbs and flavors that integrate perfectly in butter. In many French restaurants I’ve worked in, these are called compound butters which can easily be mixed with semi-melted butter then rolled up and set in the freezer for later use.

Dried herbs such as thyme, sage, chervil, oregano and rosemary can be paired with spices like chili flakes or cayenne. I’ve found that limiting the flavor profiles to two items eliminates confusing tastes especially when it competes with pizza topping flavors.

Fresh herbs offer a more nuanced flavor to butter but fresh rosemary, sage and basil all stand out on pizza crust. Basil may need to be shocked in hot water followed by an ice bath to set the green chlorophyl for a better look.

Other compound butters become elevated with finely grated citrus rind, sun-dried tomato, smoked garlic, cilantro-lime, honey, chipotle, orange zest, ancho chilies, sumac and thyme, dried dashi, and the traditional parsley and lemon juice and even dried porcini.

A Butter Crust Recipe

Rosemary “Butter Cloud” Pizza with Cremini and Porcini Butter

This pizza is a bombshell. It incorporates butter and rosemary into a laminated dough and an intense mushroom flavored finish after the bake. It is made in the fashion of Yemeni Mulawah which has close procedural ties to the Israeli Malawach described above. This pizza is light like a croissant. The key for a great bake here is patience- the lower temperature of 450F enables the butter to expand the crust into an airy cornicione first before the second stage of cheese and pizza toppings is put on it.

Get the Rosemary “Butter Cloud” Pizza with Cremini and Porcini Butter recipe.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

The post Butter Crust Pizza Trend: Churn and Burn appeared first on Pizza Today.

Maximizing your foundational awareness of pizza crust

“The greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory.” — Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821

Every year in pizza competitions, I see the one blaring mistake at the most crucial time. An excellent and talented pizza maker gets to the finals. This one last pizza will put them in a category above all others and victory is in sight. Then, in the dizzying haze of this almost triumph, they do something they would never do in their pizzeria. They put more and more cheese, followed by more toppings… followed by more garnish. Their pizza crust is now flattened by the weight of overtopping. This pizza, born of nervous trepidation, usually never wins at the top tier because the judges end up with a lapful of cheese and toppings that the crust just couldn’t support.

The Best is yet to Crumb

We’ve all encountered the dilemma of creating a crust to accommodate heavy toppings or multiple sauces or cheeses. When you have heavy root vegetables, pureed or not, or beautiful summer tomatoes filled with flavorful juices, it takes a plan to make a great crust that won’t wilt when a slice is picked up. Topping a pizza is one of the most pivotal moments before, during, and after the bake because this is the integration of assets—the combination of the strength of your pizza dough and what you top this crust with. Too much hydration, wet toppings, weighty meats and cheeses, and insufficient thought about how the heated foundation will support all these assets can lead to your downfall. To avoid this, let’s look at the styles of pizzas and the topping support they offer.

• Thin and crispy pizza: Low tolerance for weighty toppings unless an extremely low-hydrated, high-gluten dough is baked at medium temperatures, creating a hard, crisp crust that will not “flop” or crack. Examples are the East Coast Hot Oil pizzas, the Roman Scrocciarella and the St. Louis thin. A lot of these styles are made with less sauce and cheese and cut in the Chicago “Tavern Style” squares to accommodate multiple toppings.
• Medium thick brick-oven crust: Mid-level tolerance for heavy toppings depends upon hydration. Below 70 percent and a lower temperature bake at 500 F will dry a dynamic high-gluten crust out enough for plenty of sauce and cheese. The more steam remaining in the crust will soften the dough, and higher heat will only crisp the outside of the cornicione (crust.) If you try drying out the gluten scaffolding in the center at this high temperature, it will only burn the outside.
• High Hydration Crusts: Believe it or not, high hydration crusts are the perfect platform for dressing with multiple toppings. Pizzas like the Pizza in Teglia are baked in pans because of that high moisture, but they create a crisp crust and large cell structure at temperatures in the mid 500 F range. These pizzas also have a lot of oil in the mix because the oil coats the gluten strands eliminating moisture saturation. This technique creates strong alveoli, or “lungs” when filled by carbon dioxide. Many high-hydration pizzas are par-baked much in the same pans that the smaller-celled Sicilian Pizzas are, like the wonderful Sfincione.

Athletic Supporter

To run with the big jocks in the pizza world, you’ll need to strap in and make an excellent crust for each individual pizza need. Creating a foundation of a cooked wheat crust enables further topping that will transform your flatbread into a pizza. Throughout the world over time, many ways to do this have been integrated into our history. Several components and disciplines ratcheted together can help strengthen your dough to hold more toppings. Here are a few.

• Gluten strength. The stronger the gluten net, the more scaffolding you’ll have to support your toppings (but) only with the proper amount of hydration (and) with the extensibility (w factor) to make that scaffolding strong. Flours available have a protein strength of up to 14 percent. These strong flours can make good structure either in a pan or on the bricks alone.
• The Mix. Ensuring you get the most strength out of your flour also depends on how much water the gluten strands absorb. Higher hydration doughs can be handled effectively with the proper fermentation and mixing and usually are dynamically baked in large pans like Pizza in Teglia, or pizza by the cut. There are a few mixing secrets, like using a slow-and-low speed to ensure the gluten is strong. The “Autolyse Method” is also designed to enhance the strength of dough. It is a procedure of letting your already mixed dough rest from 20 to 60 minutes without salt. This allows for a head start at creating a strong gluten net.
• The Bake. The heat and baking time in the oven is also a factor in producing a stronger crust. Take the typical 00 flour mix of the Neapolitan kind. If you cook it at 900 F for 90 seconds, it becomes light as air. If you cooked it at 500 F for 15 minutes, it will be crusty and dense but very chewy and strong. I use a typical Sicilian or Roman partial bake for all my heavily topped crusts as a first stage. It takes a lot of guesswork out of a busy baking session.
• The Sauce Boss. Many pizza makers think that sauce needs to go onto raw dough; this may produce a “gum line,” a raw dough purgatory that doesn’t get enough heat to cook. It lies between the cheese and dough and is known for lacking digestibility. Other pizza makers sauce their pies after the bake, like Detroit “Red Top” pizzas. Some pizza pros will bake their pizzas in stages, like the Roman Pizza in Teglia, where the crust is par-baked and then topped in stages.
• Cheese to Please. If you’ve got a heavy-duty pizza crust and plan on loading it up, the weight of too much mozzarella cheese can overwhelm that pie. You may be able to enhance your pizza with less but stronger cheeses like Gorgonzola, Gruyere, Piave Vecchio, Feta, Asiago, Parmigiano, or Manchego.

After a lot of trial and error, you’ll connect the dots to create the perfect structure to support your masterpiece!

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Heavy Lift: Crusts to Support Loaded Pizzas appeared first on Pizza Today.

Approachable Artisan Bread

The definition of artisan is a worker who is in a skilled trade — especially one that involves making things by hand. My roles have changed over the years in my restaurants all the way from apprentice to owner. And along the way I have learned a few approachable breads.

My first job at the family business was hand rolling and baking breadsticks at eight years old. It wasn’t a hard job or a stressful job, but it did three main things. The first was to keep my wild eight-year-old self busy and out of the way while my parents and staff worked our busy restaurant. The second was to serve amazing skinny sticks of sourdough goodness to our customers. The third was that it was the first time ever my family let me be included in working at the family business.

Those breadsticks were the foundation of my baking career. I learned the nuances of cold/warm dough, how to proof dough in a small kitchen and that amazing chemistry of baking and how it affected my doughs.

Focaccia dough was my second. I learned how to shape at 12, working morning prep at our family restaurant while being home schooled for a year because even at 12, I was still pretty wild. That focaccia was amazing, easier to make and serve than breadsticks and also great for sandwiches.

My next adventure in non-pizza breads was with hoagie rolls at my first independent pizzeria outside of my family’s restaurants at 24 years old. I realized that with a little finesse I could basically take those same breadsticks and make these amazing rolls that have made some of my favorite sandwiches I’ve ever had in my life.

A decade later as my family retired, and my role increased at the family restaurants in my 30s, I’ve realized that bread bowls and bread loaves were easy to create after my millions of dough balls I had produced over the years.

In my 40s, I still love to learn and consider myself a perpetual student of dough. I love any chance to visit other pizzerias and learn their tricks and techniques of these breads. Garlic roll sliders were game changer after visiting John Arena at one of his Metro Pizza locations in Las Vegas.

So, join me in a fun filled, hands-on demo making all these different styles of bread out of a run of the mill NY pizza dough! Learn something new or share something new with us fellow artisans at the Pizza and Pasta NE show at the demo stage!

Will Grant owns That’s a Some Pizza in Bainbridge Island, WA.

Will Grant, owner of That’s a Some Pizza in Bainbridge Island, WA, and Sourdough Willy’s in Kingston, WA

Sunday, October 1
11:15 am to 12:15 pm
Demo Area

Approachable Artisan Breads

Will Grant, Owner, That’s A Some Pizza

You can make outstanding artisan breads in your pizza oven right there in your pizzeria. Will Grant will show you how! Learn more about the Education Schedule at Pizza and Pasta Northeast at the Atlantic City Convention Center on October 1-2. Visit ppne.pizzatoday.com.

Listen to Will Grant talk Pizza & Pasta Northeast on The Hot Slice Podcast.

The post Learn Easy-to-Make Breads from Pizza Dough appeared first on Pizza Today.

Learning how to make constant dough adjustments in a new environment

My journey as a female entrepreneur began a few years ago, but my first restaurant just turned three months old, and boy, has it felt like years within those few months. For as many times I have heard how hard opening a restaurant is, you never really get it until you do it and do it solo. At this point in my career, making pizza is still a challenge but when it comes to certain recipes, they are like muscle memory. There are recipes that I use that will forever be embedded in my repertoire like mother sauces. They are the foundation of everything I do.

When I first sat down to build my menu, I thought to myself, “keep it simple and keep it streamlined.” I knew that offering multiple styles and being the only person with all the answers was going to be tough. So, I chose a recipe that I knew I loved, and I knew would perform well without having to think too hard about it. My objective at the beginning was to put out a product that I was proud of but one that I knew I and the rest of my team could execute. With four styles, execution and repetition at volume was going to be the biggest hurdle. Although I knew my base dough recipe backwards and forwards, consistency was my hardest challenge. I was working in a completely new environment and every day was different since I had no history of previous years to work from.

I first started testing recipes months before I opened, and during that time it was winter and on top of that I was the sole person in the restaurant with no other equipment turned on, so cold was an understatement. My dough was rising at a snail’s pace, and everything took longer to do. I didn’t have a proofing cabinet, so my pan pizzas were taking ages to proof, so I developed a process that was easy but very involved because of timing. When I opened the restaurant, we had a system to work around the cold without a proofing cabinet, but it was a struggle. We adjusted the yeast, the timing of how long the dough sits out at room temperature, how long it stayed in front of the oven, inside the oven, etc. It was a process, but it worked. Training the staff was hard because they were taking direction well, but explaining the whys without getting too long-winded or relying on “because I said so” was challenging. We figured it out and opened with a line around the block every day, but I was getting no sleep because the dough required constant attention.

A few weeks went by, and the proofing cabinet was ready. The process I once had was long and involved to counteract how cold the ambient temperature was, but it was now obsolete. I had to completely redo our rising process and adjust the amount of yeast in the dough because we were now working with warmer temperatures. The proofing cabinet has been a godsend. We make three different pan pizzas with different rise times and do about 30 to 50 of each on regular days and more on the busier days. So having the proofing cabinet gives me more control over the entire process, and it quickens the total time, so I am ready to go by the time the restaurant is ready to open for lunch.

You would think the stress would stop there, but then the main walk-in refrigerator got an overhaul and because our main fridge is where we also keep our kegs, the temperature has to stay below a certain point, or the beer doesn’t pour well. Having a cold fridge is amazing and the health department will love you for it, but too cold of a fridge and flavorful dough using high protein/high gluten flour is not exactly a perfect combination without some tweaks. So, there I was having to go back to the drawing board once again. My dough was too cold, and it wasn’t rising. Even though the dough had been sitting in the fridge for 24 hours and sometimes up to 72, the dough looked as if it had just been made. Have you ever tried to stretch dough that’s just been made? It’s not that easy and it doesn’t cook well. So here I was tweaking my dough recipe once again to now include a combination of cold and warm rising times. Although this was a frustration, blending cold and warm proofing time has done wonders for my dough. As you learn more about fermentation, you learn that cold and warm temperatures influence flavor production and you can coax certain flavor profiles out of your flour that you wouldn’t normally get with dough that goes straight into the fridge and then pulled out right before use. But that’s a discussion for another time.

At this point I thought I was set but the restaurant gods had more in store for me. After being open for two months, my ventless dishwashing machine finally arrived. For a restaurant with 120 seats, I was hoping every night my dishwasher was going to hang in washing every dish by hand. When the machine arrived, we all did a happy dance. The happiness only lasted for so long as once again I was having to tweak my dough. My prep area and dish area are all within the same large basement downstairs which is great in theory. The dish machine is ventless, but it is not foolproof in capturing all the steam output after each cycle. We all know how hot dish machines get and put together the steam and the heat from this machine and the proximity to my mixer and dough area I was back to the drawing board on my dough procedure and yeast percentage.

Alas, I can say the drastic surprises that alter my dough have slowed down. But I know the next challenge and dough tweak is just a matter of time. I have been open for three months and have changed my recipe countless times. Opening a restaurant is hard enough, but doing so with a product that is as temperamental as a toddler can add to the stress, but having the basics of fermentation under my belt has reminded me that there’s always a solution. I just need to be ready to pivot at any moment. Get comfortable being uncomfortable!

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

The post Knead to Know: Dough Trials in a New Pizzeria appeared first on Pizza Today.

Sicilian Pizza — The Sicilian Way

Have you ever been to Sicily? The first time I visited Sicily I knew nothing about the place outside of it being the island in the south being kicked by the boot of mainland Italy. This was before I had ever watched The Godfather and right at the beginning of my pizza career. I had no clue about the different styles of pizza, let alone the impact simple things could have on food culture.

Sicily, to me, is one of the meccas of street food, and Sicilian-style pizza as we know it today got its humble beginnings among the simple people. Nowadays when you see Sicilian-style pizza on a menu, it generally means a thick-crust pizza made in a rectangular pan cut into square slices. Besides that, the range of toppings and application of toppings varies just as much as any other style of pizza. In addition, like other styles the line between bread and Sicilian “pizza” has blurred tremendously with techniques associated with other styles blended into it. But Sicilian pizza traces its inception back to sfincione.

Sfincione, meaning soft sponge, is one of the OG street foods found in Sicily’s capital city, Palermo. It is topped with tomato sauce and a mixture of cacciocavallo cheese, breadcrumbs, anchovies, onions, olive oil, salt and oregano. Sfincione is easily found all over Palermo with different variations existing outside of the capital city, but mozzarella did not find its way onto Sicilian-style pizza until it left its homeland. Mozzarella is not a cheese that is traditionally associated with Sicily since cows and water buffalo are not generally found on the island, but instead sheep’s milk and goat’s milk cheeses are more common. It is hard for me to call sfincione pizza in that this is something unique unto itself. Like focaccia is focaccia no matter what is put on top of it, sfincione is in its own category with Sicilian-style pizza evolving from it.

When I first started thinking about Sicilian-style pizza and how to define it, I knew I would have to go to two masters of the style. Their names have become synonymous with Sicilian-style pizza, and their version of this pan style wows everyone when they try it. Chris Decker and John Arena have developed a five-day fermented Sicilian that incorporates freezing to help evaporate out additional moisture adding to the crispy final texture. When speaking with both Chris and John, they described their Sicilian as “looking like a brick but feels like a feather.”  Sicilians are typically one of the thickest of the pan styles. It normally has a crispy bottom, is ¾ to a full inch in thickness and has a moderately open crumb structure. It can be confusing these days when we begin to talk about the interior crumb because the trend right now is big open structure. Sicilians tend to have a more closed structure with smaller bubbles but many of them as opposed to large sporadic bubbles like you see in Roman and even in versions of focaccia.

Sicilians land between focaccia and the Roman pan style in that focaccia is very closely related to the Sicilian in its original form. Roman techniques and flours have begun to creep into the Sicilian style turning it into a sort of hybrid. Roman can take upwards of three days and have a high hydration leading to a very thin, crispy crust with a very large and airy open crumb structure. Since a lot of toppings are put on after the cooking process in Roman pans, it makes sense to have a large, open crumb structure as it does. The Sicilian style is meant to carry a heavier, wetter ingredient load so having a spongier texture that can hold everything without deflating it is ideal. Using long and controlled fermentation times, like Chris and John do, give the Sicilian a lightness to the interior.

Hydrations into the 70s and above are more common with Roman styles and breads although can be found with some Sicilians. When it comes to higher hydrations, cook temps and whether doughs are topped and baked from raw or par baked then topped and cooked lends to very different finished products. The debate over par bakes or cooked form raw extends into Sicilians. For those looking for a slight crisp and a very soft interior, cooking from raw will give you that texture albeit a longer cook time. Par baking is going to give you a soft interior but the double bake is going to cook out more of the moisture giving you a firmer outer crust. If you are making a New York-style dough that is cooked in a 500-550 F oven, the same dough can be used for a Sicilian.

Incorporating Sicilians into an operation is fairly easy although time is going to be your biggest factor. Sicilians require a rising period after they’ve been pushed into the pan and then a second period if they require an additional stretch to get the dough into the corners. This double rise process as well as large quantities can take hours. Adding this into an operation could mean the addition of new equipment like a proofing cabinet and pans as well as an extra prep person on payroll. Although it may sound like a lot of work, Sicilians are one of the best pizzas for takeaway and delivery as they reheat impeccably and don’t become soggy as fast as thinner pizzas do. Sicilians are also a great catering style as they can be par baked in advance and transported to a site without the worry of your dough over proofing or having been mishandled.

The Sicilian style is one with a deep-rooted history but one that has evolved many times since its beginnings here in the US. I imagine it will continue to evolve as trends change but the origins of the style is one worth traveling to Sicily for.

Laura Meyer is owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

>> Explore Pizza Dough Recipes for Top Trending Pizza Styles including Detroit, New York, Grandma, Sicilian, Chicago Thin and Deep Dish. <<

The post Knead to Know: Sicilian Style Pizza appeared first on Pizza Today.

Crumb structure: the beauty and science of internal pizza workings

“Topping combos are cool with a crisp and golden booty, but when you undress a pizza, it’s what’s inside that is the secret to success. That light, airy wall of crumb structure is like a spiderweb of well executed science.”
–Rob Cervoni, Owner of Pizza Taglio and winner of 2023 Chopped Pizza

One of the most important aspects of pizza is hidden inside the crust. All the work of selecting cheeses, sauce and toppings that bake perfectly on pizza are second to the rise, cell structure and texture of the interior of the crust. The internal affairs office of any given pizza reflects the relationship between flour, water, time and baking temperature in what will become the base. These factors all bring the specific elements of flavor and texture to the final product and is like a relay race where all the runners deliver a final win for the team. If one of them stumbles, the team suffers, but when everything goes perfectly it’s a glorious day in Pizzaville.

What affects the interior of the pizza?

In a simplified version — When flour and water are mixed, two proteins in the flour form gluten. When salt is added to the gluten and kneading occurs, the gluten scaffolding gets stronger. Added yeast then eats the sugars creating carbon dioxide bubbles. When this fermenting mix is baked, the gluten net holds the now expanding bubbles and the pizza dough rises. The remaining sugars on the outside of the crust burn and turn the crust golden and crisp.

• Expansion and Extensibility. When flour and water are mixed, the structural proteins glutenin and gliadin bind to each other to form gluten. This structure holds the gases that occur in bread and pizza dough. The strength of gluten in flour will determine the strength of the stretch and rise of the dough holding the gases — this is called extensibility. The protein in the flour does not determine the strength and varies from differing flours. Extensibility can be tested and measured on a scale called the “W” factor. Flours measured between W180-250 are considered soft flours with less gluten and flours from W250-300 are considered strong flours.
• Flour types. The type of flour is extremely important in obtaining the crust you are seeking. This coupled with hydration, yeast activity and oven temperature will help you expand your pizza dough to obtain the guts you want. The grind of the flour will affect the extensibility factor because the outer shell or bran of each wheat berry can affect the extensibility of the alveoli of each carbon dioxide bubble.
• Hydration. The type of rise with wheat flour is directly linked to the relationship between the amount of water in your dough and the heat of the oven. A high hydrated, high gluten pizza baked at high heat will get a better oven spring than a bake using low heat. In contrast, a low gluten pizza with low hydration will dry out considerably in a high heat oven. This is where the finesse and education of the pizza maker really shines. To get the crust and crumb you want, you must know how to pair your oven parameters to the dough you have designed.
• Direct method pizza with Biga or Poolish. Both pre-ferments, dry and wet respectively, add complexity to the pizza interiors. The biga creates a light, open texture with wide holes and a slightly nutty taste. The batter-like poolish is made from 50-percent water and 50-percent flour produces a less nutty, more buttery taste and a greater crispness but smaller alveoli in a more controlled internal cell structure. Many modern pizza professionals will use a biga and/or a poolish in their Sicilian, Grandma and even Detroit-style pizzas to enhance an already spectacular pizza.

Airy Pizza Doughs Crumb Structure

Roman-style Direct Method Dough

The wonderful array of cloud-like pizzas served in Rome like the Pizza al Taglio (by the slice), Pizza in Teglia (in the Pan), Pizza Bianca (white pizza, topped and untopped) are made with high gluten flour, high hydration at 80 percent, and the oil in the recipes. The combination of a cold water mix and long holding time (and other secrets) make for a crispy crust and large alveoli in a light airy slice topped with everything imaginable.

Laminated

The introduction of butters, oils and lard to pizza and flatbreads goes way back into history. The Tuscans used lard to counter the fact that their dough contained no salt and was made “a la minute,” or right before baking. Many old school pizzerias used the French folding techniques of a butter croissant but by using lard for that wonderful crisp crust. I’ve used extra virgin olive oil in between rolled layers of pizza dough to create a cloud-like pizza crust that is hard to deny.

Lamination Note. The way that fats are introduced to laminated dough is very important. Less water and more fat will make a crisper crust because the oils coat the gluten scaffolding. This ensures that the gluten strands do not absorb as much water, thus creating a crisper crust when baked. Fats can be in chunks like tart dough baked in pans or melted and added during the mixing stage like Chicago deep-dish pizza dough.

Sicilian Style

Despite common American misconception, this pizza can be either thick or medium in stature. It has long been marketed as any pan pizza that has a high rise to it, but lately I’ve seen many different types from Sicilians themselves. Most call for a long maturation, direct method dough, proofed in an oiled pan. The emergence of old strains of durum wheat such as Tumminia, Russello and Perciasacchi has produced Sicilian pizzas bursting with a tight, moist crumb and darker crust than typical “00” flour. Sicilian pizza in the U.S. has long been a par-baked product because of the long proofing process, it can be baked to a high rise, wrapped, and refrigerated for final baking with no discernable bad effect to the final product. The emergence of the traditional Sicilian pizza in a 60 x40 centimeter pan has been a wow factor in pizza competitions. And the traditional cheeseless Sfincione with anchovy, tomato, oregano and chilies is a savory wonder with a nice, moist crust made with and bathed in extra virgin olive oil.

Detroit Style

Tales of lore include this as being attributed to the Sicilian auto workers who toiled away in Detroit and who used the pans from oil changing to make pizza in. This direct method pizza has many single sources who made it popular. The airy interior is made from 60- to up to 75-percent hydration but the crisp crust is enhanced by the “Bark” or “Frico” of Wisconsin brick cheese lining the pan in a crisp fence line. To accommodate business, this deep pan pizza can be par-baked and waiting for a final bake of mozzarella with toppings underneath and the sauce on top.

Pinsa

This is a trademarked product and is made like a roman-style Pizza in Teglia or Pizza alla Pala. Its airiness and digestibility come from both soy and rice flours in the mix. A cold, 72-hour fermentation time and between 80-90 percent hydration create the same effect in this direct method dough as the Pain a l’ Ancienne method of coaxing flavor by slowing down the yeast and converting starches to sugars. Many modern pizza pros use methods like this by just adding black rice flour for a light rise and cool color.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post A Better Pizza Crumb Structure: The Guts appeared first on Pizza Today.

What is Pizza in Teglia?

Steely Pan: A Look at the Authentic Italian Pan Pizza

My first encounter with Pizza in Teglia, or Italian Pan Pizza, occurred in 2006. I competed in the Pizza in Teglia, or Pan Pizza Category, at the World Pizza Competitions in Salsomaggiore, Italy. As my teglia pizza came out of the oven,

I looked at the contestant next to me and my eyes grew wide. His pizza was as large as a house window, and he was making his pizza backwards! He re-cooked his pizza multiple times, adding cheeses and protein after each bake and then put multiple greens, olives, and tomatoes on it. I’ll always be proud of scoring well, but the beauty of that other guy’s pizza in teglia intrigued me and haunted my memory until I visited Rome in 2015.

I was invited to work at Gabriel Boncis Pizzarium in the spring. The amazing number of colorful pizza in teglia ran along a small counter where the long line of customers stood patiently to buy pizza by the slice, called ‘Pizza Taglio.’ I worked with the Manager Frederico and the crew in the tiny kitchen gently pressing the highly hydrated dough into some large square oiled pans I had seen in 2006. I then placed it into their old electric oven with just a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

After I pulled it from the oven, Frederico cut it down the middle then spread a chickpea puree followed by thinly sliced sturgeon as a lemony carpaccio. We crumbled hard boiled eggs and dressed crispy puntarella as a finish. I smiled, knowing I was in pizza in teglia heaven. This type of pizza was irresistible, and I just knew it was going to be very popular someday. I am now here to say this is the year of Pizza in Teglia!

Types of Pizza in Teglia

Teglia means baking tray in Italian. This pan pizza method or ‘Pizza al Testo’ has evolved over the years using a multitude of different types of pans, hydrations, flours and cooking methods. Each pizza microclimate has its own way of representing the tastes, products and baking methods of the different Italian regions and even these may vary from town to town.

• Pizza di Sfigole from the Abruzzo region is a pan pizza without all the fuss. It’s just flour, lard and pig bits called sfigole. Pretty much a flavorful and flaky pie-crusted pork bread. Yum.
• Pizza al Tegamino, means “Baked pan pizza,” and evolved in Turin, Italy and is still made in the Piedmont and into Emilia Romagna region. It is thought that this (usually) round pan pizza originated from the Northern Italian focaccia recipes that were cooked in dying wood-fired ovens that were still hot with just coals.
• Pizza al Trancio from Milan also called ‘Trancio Milanese’ and is attributed to a specific pizzeria in Milan, Pizzeria Spontini. Pizza al Trancio is like that of the Tuscan Schiacciata. It has only 60-percent hydration and is fermented overnight. Traditional toppings in Milan are tomato sauce, mozzarella, oregano and anchovies.
• Pizza al Padellino means ‘Pan Pizza’ is from Turin, the first capital of Italy and has a soft, thick and round crust with plenty of char from the wood fired ovens. It was a favorite of Italy’s first king: Vittorio Emanuele II.
• Sfincione is a specific Sicilian pan pizza baked in a rectangular tray with tomato sauce, oregano, anchovies, onion, hard sheep’s milk cheese and breadcrumbs. It is served more in bakeries than pizzerias in the region. This pizza mirrors the flavor profiles in the French ‘Pissaldiere’ from Nice.
• Scacciata Siciliana is a stuffed pan pizza with items like broccoli, olives, provolone or cacciocavalo, sun-dried tomatoes and sausage. The lower hydration dough is made with semolina and extra virgin olive oil.

All roads lead to Rome

The true hub of pizza in teglia is indeed the Lazio region and especially Rome. These bakers have taken this pan pizza to the next level with one intensive purpose- to create a thin pizza that has cracker-crispness on the outside but a light, airy and moist cell structure on the inside. As Massimilliano Saieva told me, “This is an obsession. The endless search for perfection, an endless love.” That about sums up the level of intensity these Roman pizza masters have.

The Roman style of pizza is cut with sharp scissors and sold by weight. But in many other countries, this cannot be done for convenience, environmental or governmental reasons.

Long Attention Pan

Roman pizza parameters are different for every pizza maker. From what I have researched, these are a few of the principles and secrets. But as usual, all are arguable.

• Flours used are either “0” flour or “00” flour or a combination of both. Some Roman bakers are adding ancient whole grains to the mix also.
• 0.6 percent brewer’s yeast is used crumbled in water and added to the flour mix.
• Water at 80-percent hydration is added to the slowly mixing batch. Cold water is used by the many pizza makers that hold their dough for up to 72 hours. This will ensure a delayed fermentation and will have a sweet, mild nuttiness after long refrigeration.
• A long mix with a hydration of 80 percent. Some bakers use the autolyze method for a stronger gluten net. This method is letting the already mixed water and flour rest in the mixer bowl for up to 45 minutes before adding the salt and oil. Some Roman pizza makers will use a Biga.
• 2.0 percent salt is added after the mix and then 2 percent of the extra virgin olive oil is added. This ensures strong gluten strands and a tender crispness desired by Roman Pizza in Teglia bakers.
• The folding and storage vary greatly from all the Roman pizza chefs I’ve researched. Some will do a bulk fold and rest every 20 minutes then use a 24-hour bulk ferment under refrigeration. Others will bulk ferment it in a refrigerator for only 12 hours then form the dough.
• Dough balls are usually weighed and formed to accommodate the oiled pans used.
• Oven temperatures vary from 560-600 F.
• Some pizzas are not topped. Some pizza in teglia are drizzled with oil then par-baked to be topped with cheeses and proteins and baked to a final and crisp crust. Some pizzas are coated with tomato sauce, baked, then topped with soft cheese.
• Final toppings are a thing of beauty — everything under the sun is used. Using the imagination and food pairing knowledge is key to making a pizza in teglia look like a painting in a museum. Once the bread base is done, the digestibility and crunch of this famous pizza carry it to the finish line in first place!

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

The post The Rise of Italian Pizza in Teglia is Upon Us appeared first on Pizza Today.

Art and Science of Making Pizza with Sourdough

“The future of dough lies in its past. Sourdough is back and its here to stay for two reasons:
more complex flavor and better digestibility. Its a twofer thats hard to beat!”
Peter Reinhart, James Beard Award-winning Baker and Author of Pizza Quest

When I was young and crazy, I endured the grueling training to become a Naval Aircrewman. This hellish school consisted of an amazing array of tortures like being pushed from helicopters into floating knots of parachute cord in the Gulf of Mexico. One morning our instructors lined us up on the beach in our bathing suits. I knew this was going to get ugly when I saw several rubber-clad Navy divers in boats loitering out in the roiling surf. Our instructor smiled and told us that this was a rip tide area. He then ordered us to jump in, swim out 20 yards and swim back. I, like the others, felt the
undercurrent pull my legs out to sea as I tried to swim back.

Exhausted, I eventually stopped as the current took me out to the rubber boats where the screaming crew threw nets dragging us to a safer surf. Later, as we all bellyflopped on the beach huffing, we were told that sometimes you must work with nature to succeed and if we had swum back diagonally to the shore, we would have made it. Now, after 23 years of owning a pizzeria, I know that sometimes you need control and sometimes you must work with nature. There’s no better example of this than making pizza with sourdough.

Doughba Fett

As restaurant owners and managers, we all strive to make the best product around. Our tolerance for uncontrolled behavior and actions is minimal. Sometimes our control leads us to create a product that is very predictable while running through dough shifts that are merely transactional. With sourdough pizza, we give in to nature, to the little bacteria and, like the tides of the ocean, we work with nature to get the best benefit of taste and digestion.

What is sourdough? Well, the short answer is that you rise your dough using natural yeasts and bacteria. Once you set a convenient sourdough schedule, you’ll see the oven spring puff of the cornicione (crust) and taste the heightened acidity and complex flavors. This will be your expression, your artistic edge. So, what is sourdough again? Here is the long answer.

Yeast lives everywhere, and the key is to capture the living yeast with flour and water. When flour and water are mixed, they trigger enzymes that break down the flour starches into simple sugars, producing carbon dioxide (gas) and ethanol alcohol. Once this yeast colony is fed continuously, it will rise and fall under the right conditions of time and temperature. It is then added to a batch of pizza dough where the gas makes the dough rise and the alcohol evaporates in the oven later.

Commercial yeast is named Saccharamyces Cerevisiae and is used because it is predictable, reliable, easy to package, and control. As it ferments, it converts sugars in the flours to alcohol and carbon dioxide. This makes the dough rise in the oven. It also generates a small amount of acid which the yeast does not like because it slows the yeast growth. As the dough ages, the acid slows the yeast activity down and eventually the yeast cells die.

“Sourdough,” or wild yeast can tolerate the acids that kill commercial yeasts. As you build your starter, you build a culture of millions of living wild yeast and bacteria cells which produce a distinct acidic flavor, hence “sourdough.” This starter grows by removing and replacing the starter with flour and water which is called “feeding.” Sourdough flavor has different tastes and tang depending upon where you live and how you grew your starter. (Fruit skins, nuts, milk, potatoes, morning dew or just the air where you live.) Like commercial yeasted pizza dough, sourdough starters and mixes can be slowed down with refrigeration.

Puff Daddy

There are three stages to build a natural yeast culture to use to make pizza.

First Phase: This is when you build the yeast strain with flour and water. As mentioned before, you can use fruit skins and/or different rye or whole wheat flours to make this faster because they contain more yeasts and sugars. This can take from four to six days.

Second Phase: This is making the “Starter,” “Mother,” or “Sponge” from the first seed culture above. This will be your base to keep feeding as well as nurturing its growth by taking away and adding flour and water to see the bubbling growth.   

Third Stage: This is making the “Levain” to add to the final dough. A small amount of starter is added to flour and water and set aside in a warm environment for up to two days to increase fermentation activity. It will act as the basis for a rise in each sourdough batch.

Austin Flours

Flour: All flours can work well with a natural starter depending upon the flour grind, mixing, temperature, PH levels, and holding time, but especially the combination of protein level as compared to the hydration you add.

Water: Adding flour to water will create gluten. This consists of a web of strands containing the proteins glutenin and gliadin. The water allows these protein strands to stretch, and mixing creates the structure of the gluten net. Pizza, as opposed to bread, needs a strong gluten net. But not too strong to stretch a pizza … and the hydration needs to be high enough for a good oven spring. Also, it must support toppings and the ability to slide the pie into the oven. Other factors are also in play with water, such as temperature, bulk holding, mixing speed, and when you add salt.

Salt: Salt slows down and controls fermentation growth. Because of this, there are more sugars left inside the pizza dough when ready to bake, which adds flavor, color, and wheat-like aroma. Salt also tightens the gluten net ensuring that the carbon dioxide is captured when baking. Most pizza aficionados will tell you that 2 percent salt is enough to regulate fermentation as well as giving your pizza dough time to develop flavor. Some pizza pros, especially in Naples, who do not use refrigeration, put 3 percent in their mix to facilitate a longer fermentation time. Some pizza makers use a bread bakers trick called the autolyze method and do not add salt to the already-mixed flour and water for between 20 to 60 minutes. This lets the hydrated gluten strands relax and thus strengthens the gluten net.

Simple Sourdough Starter and Levain

To make a simple sourdough starter, begin with an open mind. Know that this will take from four to six days. My first starter was made using the recipe from Peter Reinhart’s book, American Pie. Remember that your starter is different from the final Levain. The starter is your basis, the levain is a very active ingredient built from the starter to add to your batch of sourdough.

Day 1. Add 3/4 cup of water to 1 cup of flour, preferably whole wheat, or rye. Mix until well hydrated. Cover with a towel, paper towel or cheesecloth. Place on a countertop at room temperature or warmer.

Day 2. There will no or not much growth. Take out half the dough and throw it away replacing it with ½ cup high-gluten (pizza) flour and ½ cup water. Mix again and cover. This time, mark the container with tape or a Sharpie where top line of the dough is.

Day 3. There will still be very little or no growth. Repeat the process of Day 2.

Day 4. There should be a distinct growth of the dough and depending upon the temperature of the room, it may have doubled in size. If the dough has not doubled in size, repeat the process from day 2 and 3. If your starter has doubled in size, continue to train the starter.

To train your starter

Throw out half of the active starter and add 1 cup high gluten flour and 1 cup water. This will look like pancake batter and rise and fall as you feed this starter at the same time each day. The fragrance will change from ripe to sour to yogurt throughout the day. This regular feeding will build a sweet lactic acid character and the fermentation will become predictable after a few days. Start feeding your starter two times each day for two days to insure a very active starter. Now is time to either store your starter in the refrigerator to slow the fermentation process down or make a levain, which is a portion of the starter added to the final dough to rise your crust. You may scale up your levain to reach your ultimate need.

For the Levain

It is important to create a very active levain for a great rise in your final pizza. The percentage of starter in your levain build depends upon when you are going to bake with the levain next and the temperature the levain is kept at. A good rule of thumb is 20 percent starter in your levain for a 12-hour levain hold before final bake. You may need a smaller portion of flour and water for a 24-48 hour levain until you see the yeasts activities develop and the levain smelling sweet and looking bubbly.

Test your Levain

To test your levain, fill a cup of water and place a small amount of levain- it should float. Now you can add from six to 30 percent of your levain to your final batch depending upon the length of time you’ll hold the dough. (So, if you are mixing a 25-pound bag of flour, you’ll need at least 1.5 pounds of levain.) To save the levain, you can add flour to it to create a dry paste and refrigerate for later building.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

The post Knead to Know: Making Pizza with Sourdough — Beauty and the Yeast appeared first on Pizza Today.

When you enter through the back of most small independent pizzerias, one of the first things you see is flour. Stacks of it. The brilliant irony of entering the dragon through the back is that this is the place where your pizza is born. That flour is the foundation of what your pizza identity is. Every pizza starts with flour combined with other ingredients to make a base. This base is what defines you and your business. It distinguishes you from your lazy and bloated corporate competitors whose flour is never touched by human hands. This base can bring more customers, employ more people, keep you in business and enable you to feed and clothe your family. The base is serious stuff and using a pre-fermented starter can only make it better.

Wild Thing

Breads and their form had been thought to be baked for over 20,000 years until recent finds in a Neanderthal cave exposed a pancake style flatbread made with local seeds dating back 70,000 years. The use of natural yeasts has been common throughout history and made a big debut in the days of the Roman Republic. The bakers (called pistor or triticarius) preferred a pre-ferment made with millet flour mixed with must from beer making. This was set aside to ferment, then it was dried in the sun for use in bread dough. The Romans also used dough balls of barley and water baked brown in ashes and kept until it fermented. But the most common pre-ferment method that is still popular today ­—Pâte fermentée — was the use of a previous days’ dough to add into a new batch of panus, or bread.

Friend or Dough

The two types of flour mixes in any pizzeria are the direct method and the indirect method.

The Direct Method: This is flour that is directly mixed with yeast, salt and water. This method sets off an alcoholic fermentation leading to alcohol and carbon dioxide that raises the dough. There are many factors in manipulating the outcome of this dough including changing the temperature, mixing methods and holding time before using. This mix is less flavorful than the indirect or sourdough mix and may give you less dough strength.

Advantages of direct method in pizza making: The mixture can be highly predictable, less sloppy and may fit your schedule and staff’s attentiveness. There are many delicious examples of direct method like the Roman-style pan pizzas that use higher hydration and a long cold refrigeration method of up to 72 hours creating a large cell structure and a crisp and light pan pizza flavored with extra virgin.

The Indirect Method: This is a final batch of pizza dough that is made using another, smaller batch of commercially yeasted flour and water that has been aged. This method with a lower hydration is called a Biga. The French Poolish has a higher hydration and the Pâte fermentée is a salted, old dough saved from the last batch of pizza dough. Adding these pre-ferments to your final mix puts your pizza dough on “hyper-drive” enabling you to use it faster.

Advantages of indirect method in pizza making: Because the indirect method introduces an already fermenting bacteria into your pizza dough batch, it will enable a stronger gluten net, moister cell structure, better taste and browning of the cornicione (crust.) Each pre-ferment has its own qualities depending upon the hydration.

Crust Issues

There is a BIG conversation in the pizza web and social media space about the consequences of using a pre-ferment or not. Much of the push back is that because it is “pizza” and not “bread,” that the change in taste, structure and bake of the crust is nominal and goes unnoticed by trusted customers. These excuses come from the belief that the cheese, sauce and toppings on a pizza tone down the importance of the crust and crumb. This business is hard and unforgiving so the backstory of some of these comments may come from the hardship of keeping a crew trained and dedicated to taking more steps to improve pizza dough. Shortcuts and the “easy ways” are hard to ignore both financially and for all our stress levels. As a business owner, I get it. It’s a tough call and it’s up to you which way to go.

Sponge Bath

Because each pre-ferment has differing qualities, you can choose to use one that matches best to the qualities that you want for your specific pizza crust. The following is just a guide for better tasting pizza dough — only you can match your best pre-ferment to your operation. I use all these and sometimes a combination of one with some sourdough starter in my pizza dough. Here are some specifics for each pre-ferment remembering that these may vary depending upon flour protein levels, the grind, PH levels, the environment and water temperature. Let’s take a deep dive.

• Pâte fermentée (old dough, or scrap dough): This is pronounced (pot fer mawn TAY) simply a piece of fermented pizza dough saved from the last batch. I chop this up and put it in warm water to create what is called a “soaker” which will better integrate into the final pizza dough mix. This is the only pre-ferment that contains salt as well as flour, water and yeast and is very forgiving. The usual amount is 40 to 50 percent based only on the total weight of your flour. So, if 10 pounds of flour is used, four to five pounds of old dough can be used. This old dough should be used at the end of the pizza dough mix because its gluten net is already developed.
• Poolish: (This originated in Poland.) Equal parts of flour and water (100-percent flour, 100-percent water) are mixed into a thin starter with varying percentages of yeast depending on the speed of fermentation you need. Because of the high amount of water, a poolish is very active. A long fermentation at room temperature with very little yeast will struggle and bubble, increasing in volume and at its peak will appear wrinkled and fragrant and start to fall back down and only be good to use for a few hours. A shorter fermentation using more yeast will create fermentation faster, but you may lose some of the pre-ferment benefits. For one percent of dry yeast to flour (three percent fresh yeast) the fermentation time is two hours, but this may not help with flavor or bake. Better pizza crust qualities are 0.5 percent of dry yeast to flour for four hours, 0.28 percent dry yeast to flour for eight hours, or 0.08 percent for 13 to 16 hours. It is important to know that because you are using so little yeast that you may need to add yeast to the final batch also.
• Biga: (This is Italian for starter or pre-ferment.) The typical formula for a biga is 100 percent flour, 50 to 60 percent water and 0.8-1.5 percent fresh yeast. This formula varies widely depending upon the hydration and room and water temperatures. This stiff dough ferments slower and can be fermented from 16 to even 48 hours depending upon temperature control. If it is too hot, this pre-ferment will exhibit too much lactic acid activity.

Catch Dough Starters, Part II where John details sourdough starters in next issue’s Knead to Know column.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

The post What you Need to Know About Dough Pre-ferments appeared first on Pizza Today.

A guide to the versatile Italian Flat Bread Focaccia

Oh, focaccia! How I love thee. Focaccia holds a lot of meaning for me. In the last two years, focaccia has been the one thing that has taught me the most. It has been the one item that I have gone back to time and time again tweaking my recipe, tweaking my procedure, tweaking how I sell it and, in turn, learning a lot about myself as an entrepreneur and who I want to be as a pizzaiola in this world. It has provided a back-to-basics learning lesson and taught me how to manipulate fermentation and the final product. Like pizza, there is bad focaccia, good focaccia, and great focaccia. But even bad focaccia is good and serves a purpose. The versatility of focaccia, like any bread product, is only limited by your creativity.

Depending on where you are and who you ask focaccia changes a bit, but in my experience the “standard” for focaccia is as follows:  made in a rectangular pan, mid to high hydration, shorter fermentation times, pillowy in texture with a slight crisp on top and bottom and slathered in olive oil. In terms of the interior crumb structure, I most often find that focaccia is made up of smaller bubbles and many of them as opposed to giant bubbles and fewer of them like you see in ciabatta bread, although this is ever changing as more and more people learn to bend the rules and challenge tradition.

One of the things I love about focaccia is the approachability of it. Having worked in restaurants for almost two decades and taught countless people how to make pizza, one of the common things for beginners is fear of handling dough. Everyone is afraid of tearing dough or mishandling it or making it imperfect, and that fear skyrockets as hydration goes up or the dough gets older and warmer to the touch. By putting dough in pans, this fear tends to lessen. By placing harder-to-work-with doughs in pans, it’s easier for employees and novices to learn how to handle dough since there are distinct borders to contain it and the shape is controlled so “messing it up” happens less. Even holes or small tears can be rectified more easily. Focaccia is thicker and isn’t stretched thin and topped with wet sauce and heavy toppings that compromise any thin areas, so any small hole will be less obvious once it is baked.

The best piece of focaccia to me is one that is covered in great olive oil, but not sopping wet. One that is topped minimally or just lightly dusted with salt so you can taste the dough separately from the olive oil but kissed with salt, so it pops and it melds together beautifully as you chew. Not always is focaccia topped just with olive oil but, with a blend of oil, salt and water called salamoia. This mixture is usually added to the top of the dough when it is time to dimple it as the dimples themselves will trap small quantities of the mixture and yet get pockets of goodness.

Since focaccia is known for its dimples, it’s a great way to showcase flavors without always needing cheese and sauce. It can handle sweet and savory toppings and is always a great way to sop up any sauce from pasta or a roast or just eaten as a snack by itself. If adding flavors, you will want to add these when you dimple before baking. Added ingredients are best when they fall into the crevices and are scattered. Keep in mind that as hydrations go up you will want to make sure that you slow down the cooking times to allow all the steam to cook out. Focaccia should have a certain softness to it, but the thing I encounter most that ruins it is too much oil in the pan combined with wet ingredients, high hydrated doughs and too fast of a cook. It’s just too much moisture compounding with too fast of a bake.

Focaccia holds impeccably well because they are sealed when cooked and can sit just like any other bread product. If sitting at room temperature, be advised your health department might not like certain toppings sitting out for lengths of time. But all focaccias can be popped into the fridge or freezer and reheated when needed. Because of the moisture, they re-steam themselves when heated and bounce back wonderfully. If you forget to save them and they’ve been sitting out for too long and now they’re hard and stale, have no fear. Focaccia croutons are amazing no matter if you cube them, slice them, tear them into random pieces… Just season and toast and they’re ready to go. It’s just as easy to turn toasted and seasoned focaccia into breadcrumbs for chicken or eggplant Parm or even used as a thickener for soups.

Focaccia is also a great item to package and either give away to your loyal regulars as holiday gifts or sold individually packaged and branded. If you are already doing frozen pizzas, freezing and packaging focaccia is just as easy and is a great way to diversify what you have available.

If you’d like to try salamoia on your next batch of focaccia, mix 40 grams of water with five to six grams of salt and 30 grams of olive oil.

LAURA MEYER is owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

The post Knead to Know: The Art of Focaccia appeared first on Pizza Today.

Get a Detroit-style Pizza Dough Formula Recipe

There is no one way to make a great Detroit style pizza. Even the original pizzerias in Detroit cannot decide on whose version is the “right way” of doing it. Pizza is so personal that everyone is going to have an opinion, but what matters most is….is it delicious and well cooked? Below you will find a recipe that is similar to the way the old school shops are still making it to this day. Certain things may vary seeing as most of the details at these pizzerias are closely guarded secrets and proprietary information. But with our knowledge of the basic principles of fermentation and what information we do know…..here we go.

Using a 10-x14-inch pan this recipe will yield 3 18-ounce/510-gram dough balls:

1000g Mid-range protein like Power flour (13% protein)

580g water (58%)

10g fresh yeast (1%) (If using dry yeast opt for 5g of instant yeast)

20g kosher salt (2%)

Process:

In the bowl of a mixer with the hook attachment add the flour. In a separate bowl, add the water and yeast. Break up the yeast into small pieces by crumbling it in your hand. Turn the mixer on and rain in the water and yeast mixture. Mix on low speed until it forms a shaggy mass. This should take about a minute or two. Increase the speed and let mix for about three minutes. Stop the mixer and peel the dough away from the hook using your hand. Sprinkle the salt on top and towards the center of the dough. Turn the mixer back on slow speed just to ensure the salt does not fly out of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and let mix for about three minutes. Stop the mixer and touch the dough. You should be looking for if you can still feel any salt that hasn’t been incorporated. If you can still feel salt, continue mixing, stopping every 30 seconds to a minute to check. The dough will be done mixing when it is no longer shaggy and no longer sticks to the side of the bowl. It should be smooth in texture and when you do a window pane test it does not break and has formed gluten and elasticity. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place it into a container where it can double in size, covered with a lid or damp towel. Let rest for 1 hour at room temperature.

If you are familiar with different styles of pizza this may strike you as odd as it is extremely close to what a Neapolitan dough recipe might look like. If you know a little bit of the history behind Detroit style pizza you know the style got it start around the mid 1940s but was adapted from home. Most pizza doughs at this point would not have contained a fat as it was expensive, and pizza was meant to be a cheaper item, but the key would be the pan and the build of the pizza itself.

Today’s pizzerias have more complex systems, but back in the day a lot of pizzerias operated like bakeries. Dough was made in the morning, proofed for a number of hours and then baked off same day. Lack of refrigeration would have dictated this. As creative as pizzerias have become in terms of streamlining their operations to account for a wide array of items and circumstances the original Detroit style pizzerias are still baking from raw a mere few hours after the dough was made.

While your dough is resting, gather all of your pans and grease the inside with a small amount of fat. I have seen both Crisco and liquid butters like Phase and Whirl used but you’ll only need about an ounce or two. The great thing about Crisco is that it’s stickier to the touch and helps the dough stick to where it is pressed and flattened. The liquid butters are great but if you are too heavy handed the dough slides more which could mean rounded corners if the dough is not proofed correctly.

After the dough has risen for an hour, divide the dough into 18 ounces or 510 grams dough balls. You should have a little left over. Once the dough has been divided, flatten each piece into its respective greased 10-x14-inch pan. Press using flat fingers as far into the corners as you can without thinning out the middle too much or creating any holes. Try not to use your fingertips especially if you have long fingernails. Once you have pressed the dough out completely either spread a little bit of fat on top of the dough to prevent a crust from forming or use a pan lid to cover it. Leave the pans out at room temperature for another two to three hours. You will want to place these in a warm area, but I do not recommend placing them on top of the stove if the pilot lights are on as the dough will begin to cook and you will not get the adequate rise when you go to cook them completely.

You’ll need about 10-12 ounces of grated Brick cheese for each pizza. If using pepperoni, now is the time to decide over or under the cheese. Buddy’s and a few others always place the pepperoni under the cheese, but there is an allure to a nice crisp cup and char pepperoni. Once the dough has risen for a few hours, spread the cheese evenly all the way to the edges of the pan, completely lining the rim and middle. On top of the cheese, spread sauce in lines on a diagonal. The sauce can be sporadic or in even neat lines. The choice is yours, although there should not be too much sauce all over. Only about six ounces total. Place the topped pizza in a gas brick oven preheated to 525 F and bake for 10-12 minutes. Check the pizza around the eight-minute mark and check the edges for darkening crispy cheese. The cheese should be caramelized and a golden-brown color when finished.  Carefully slide the pizza out of the pan trying not to break off the cheese around the edges. Cut into six slices and enjoy.

LAURA MEYER is owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

Revisit Tenets of the Detroit, Part I

DIVE DEEPER: Read Detroit Style Pizza: A Guide to Detroit Pizza

The post Knead to Know: The Tenets of Detroit-style Pizza, Part II appeared first on Pizza Today.

A two-part series on the Motor City Style

Detroit, Michigan. Have you ever been there? If you were to ask 100 pizza makers from across the country, I would bet maybe half have ever actually been to Detroit, and yet the very distinctive pan pizza that comes out of Detroit has been spreading like wildfire across the country for the past few years.

Detroit is known throughout history as “Motor City”,  the birthplace of the automobile boom beginning in the early 20th century… but it boasts a lot more. Detroit is the birthplace of the Motown record label as well as the second city after New York to host teams in all four major sports leagues and is the home of notorious rapper Eminem. If you’re reading this, those things are cool. But what about the pizza? Detroit and its outer limits are the home of Little Caesars and Jet’s, two franchises that have blown up since their humble beginnings.

Laura Meyer, owner, Pizzeria da Laura, Berkley, CA

Detroit style is known for being cooked in a rectangular pan with caramelized cheese around the rim and stripes of sauce. The stripes are up for debate depending on who you ask, but certain characteristics define the style no matter if you come from the old school or are part of the new school. Regardless of which school of thought you follow, Detroit style has made a dramatic impact on the pizza industry and chains like Pizza Hut have started making it, which tells me Detroit style is here to stay.

I had the pleasure of visiting Detroit not too long ago, and boy, was it eye opening. Through my own research and product development I knew what the main characteristics were and what I was looking for, but I had no clue what the original shops were making. Originally, the pizzas were made in blue steel pans that were once used to clean tools but then utilized to make pizza because… why not? Shops like Buddy’s and Cloverleaf are still using the old pans. But blue steel is not made anymore, so unfortunately what pans are out there are highly coveted.

The main cheese used is Brick, native to Wisconsin. It melts nicely like a mozzarella and has a flavor profile that is fairly mild, but as it ages can become more pungent like a cheddar. Some shops like Buddy’s are putting pepperoni and other ingredients under the cheese while some put them on top. The sauce is not super thick and I have seen anything from stripes to splotches to everything in between, but I never saw any pizza that was too sauce forward.

In terms of dough process, I managed to speak with someone within the Buddy’s company; but unfortunately, I am not privy to specific proprietary information. What I could gather is that they, like a lot of pizzerias in Detroit, are doing it the same way they always have or as close to the same as possible. They are using fresh yeast, a mid- to low-range protein flour, and there is no browning agent and no fat or very little fat in the dough. For water I suspect a lower hydration not exceeding 60 percent. The dough is made same day and is proofed in the pan for a number of hours before being cooked. The representative from Buddy’s explained to me that it “should be light and crunchy”. During my eating tour of Detroit, I noticed the height of each pizza was only about one to 1.5 inches and had a crumb structure that was tighter with many small bubbles. There was a crunch on the bottom, but it was never super distinct. It was the type of crunch that you get from contact with the pan and length of cook time, but not the thicker and more sturdy crunch you get from higher hydration. The lasting impression I got was this fervent sense of pride in Detroit and its style of pizza, but even the OG spots like Buddy’s are happy to see what Detroit style pizza has become and how far across the world it has spread.

As for the new school of thought, I spoke with a few well-known Detroit style pizza makers, and no process was the same. The defining characteristics of a caramelized cheese crust made in a rectangular pan were about the only two things that were the same. With technology and as much knowledge about pizza and fermentation out there, it is no surprise to me that everyone is doing something slightly different but, in their minds, making it better. Flours range in proteins from low to high depending on maturation times, and hydrations are upwards of 70 percent. Some are utilizing an autolyse during the mix and some are not. Some are making dough same day and some are waiting days before use. I don’t see many pizzerias outside of Neapolitan utilizing fresh yeast. But I suspect this is more because of consistency and shelf life than because they prefer the flavor over instant and dry active.

Cheese blends vary, but a lot are using cheddar and brick to get the caramelization around the edge. How far down the side of the pizza the caramelized cheese goes is a big eye catcher. Some are going the traditional route of only part way to maybe halfway down, while others are going all the way down to the bottom of the pan fully encasing the dough.

Baking from raw proofed dough or using a par bake seems to be the hot debate these days. The old school is baking from raw, while the new is doing both. Par bakes give a different texture and overall mouth feel to the finished pizza, but can also be used because of shop conditions. Sometimes a par bake comes in handy because you can prep many in advance and makes it easy to transport and store for off-site events.

No matter what techniques you use, it is always better in my mind to know where you come from so as to better understand the why and where you are heading. The city of Detroit might not be a hot tourist destination these days, but “The Detroit” will forever live on in the pizza industry as one of the tastiest and cheesiest styles worth exploring.

LAURA MEYER is owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

Read Tenets of the Detroit, Part II

DIVE DEEPER: Read Detroit Style Pizza: A Guide to Detroit Pizza

The post Knead to Know: The Tenets of Detroit Style Pizza appeared first on Pizza Today.

Documenting and controlling variables is vital to batch testing your pizza dough

Practice makes perfect. As someone who has taken part in sports and pizza competitions for many years, this is a phrase that I have heard very often. In the beginning this used to frustrate me because if you take the phrase literally, it implies that after just a bit of practice perfection is achieved. But the thing that myself and everyone seems to miss is that the phrase does not specify how much practice is required to achieve perfection.

Laura Meyer, owner, Pizzeria da Laura, Berkley, CA

Perfection in the pizza game is so subjective that the definition of perfection probably changes daily. As you learn more about fermentation, you learn that there are multiple variables that can affect your final product. The change of any one variable can produce a dough or final pizza that is structurally very different or produces a very different flavor profile than intended. This is where practice comes in. Practice with the goal of perfection may be the intention, but practice for me is to learn how to manipulate every variable with the goal of consistency.

When creating something new, it can seem daunting and a huge undertaking. As an operator, new items can mean exciting times of change and growth opportunities, but it can also mean added stress if not executed properly. A big plus to doing test batches is being able to not only develop an amazing new item but also a time to develop all your processes from start to finish and fine tune your recipe. New items do not need to be cringeworthy. All you need is practice and a good
system of documentation. 

When making a test batch of dough, all factors should be documented. Whether you keep a notebook or use photos or even record your voice, you should be getting in the habit of documenting, so you have a point of reference. For those who are not used to writing things down, it can be tedious as well as hard to know what information is important. For dough, the recipe with weights is a great first step. Just make sure to pick a single unit of measure for every ingredient. If you are using baker’s percentages, add those in. Big things to include are temperatures and times. 

Most pizzerias only have one mixer, but knowing at what point during the mix are you toggling to a different speed if you have it? Knowing what temperature your beginning water and starter are and then your final temperature of the completed dough? How long are you bench resting and at what temperature? Are you bulk fermenting or shaping and going right into the fridge? How long is your dough sitting in the fridge for? Times and temperatures are critical to dough management, and documenting as many variables as possible is crucial to understanding why your final pizza turned out the way it did. If you do not document, it is easy not only to forget what you did but also lose track of the big picture. In fermentation, things don’t happen out of chance. There is always a reaction due to various factors that can explain it even if it is seemingly minute.

After you’ve successfully made your first test batch and documented everything, it is time to do it all over again. Can you duplicate what you did initially or are you looking to make changes? When reaching for perfection, you quickly learn that it is seemingly impossible to achieve because you are always changing which means your pizza is always changing. 

One big mistake that I see with people when they practice is that they are trying to change too many things in one go. Since there are so many variables that can alter dough, whether it’s the structure, flavor or lifespan, I recommend making one change at a time. I know to an operator this can seem crazy because who has the time to make hundreds of test batches for one final product? The problem with changing too many things at once is that you’ll never know which change is what made it better or worse. 

For most operators, we’re looking to make the best product possible with the least number of complications and the easiest process to follow and duplicate. I know of some great pizza makers that have documented every single batch of dough they have ever made. Although this habit is tedious to some, it is great because it always gives you a frame of reference to fall back on, and if you look close enough it will give you all the information you will need to make great dough. Forming the habit is the hardest part. On the operations side, having the history from the previous year is great so you can anticipate busy or slow days or pitfalls in the business. Having the same history for your dough is just as important. You learn where you made mistakes and how to not repeat them and you also learn where and how your successes happened.

Another thing I always take into consideration is my surroundings. I never make a batch in perfect conditions because perfect conditions rarely exist. If you are lucky enough to have a temperature-controlled dough room, I for one am jealous. Since I don’t have one, I try and mimic the conditions of my restaurant. Whether it’s making the test batch at the same time you make the rest of your dough or cooking the dough during normal service times, this will give you a true representation of how your dough will perform.

All in all, practice is necessary if you want to make great pizza for more than just a day. If you want to be a great operator and a success story, practice and practice often. In the beginning what you learn most during your test batches are all the things not to do and all the things you don’t like about pizza. Over time with consistency and repetition practice gives you knowledge that makes future test batches easier. With the right tools and proper documentation, practice will get you closer and closer to making that perfect pie.

LAURA MEYER is owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

The post Knead to Know: Pizza Dough Testing 1-2-3 appeared first on Pizza Today.

How do your customers feel after eating your pizza?

Have you ever gone out to eat with the intention of going out afterwards for a night on the town but ended up sluggish and uncomfortable because of the food you ate? I have and it has ruined my night on more than one occasion. In the U.S. pizza is a celebratory food. Growing up it’s the food we eat at parties and gatherings. Pizza is the food we eat to celebrate big accomplishments with friends, but it is always shared. We cut it apart and eat slices as opposed to a whole pie. As kids we have fast metabolisms and can run around no problem while simultaneously eating slice after slice. As adults we stop ourselves at a few slices because of how it makes us feel and because of how our metabolisms have slowed down. We are taught to be a little more conscious of what we consume and how our bodies digest our food. We are taught to be “health conscious”.

In Italy, pizza culture is completely different. In Italy, pizza is not shared. Each person orders a whole single pie to themselves. This may come off as excessive knowing what we do about American pizza culture, but if we take a closer look, it makes sense. Having had the privilege to be immersed in Italian culture and become close to a few Italian families over the years, I’ve learned Italians have an unconscious obsession with digestion. One of my all-time favorite things to do when in Italy is aperitivo. There is an entire culture to just this one act that changes from north to south, but in essence it is a pre-dinner drink and snack that is not just a time for socializing but is meant to prime the stomach for the coming meal. It is meant to get the digestive system moving so that when the main meal is introduced it is easier to digest. After dinner you are then presented with a digestif, an after-dinner drink. Digestifs are meant to help your body digest the meal you just consumed. Fernet-Branca is an amaro created in Milan in 1845. When it was originally invented, it was intended to be consumed as a cure-all for many things. It’s a beverage made up of 27 different herbs and ingredients and was originally meant to be medicinal. Although now it is more of a popular drink in the bar scene, especially in San Francisco, it still remains a go-to option for upset stomachs.

Laura Meyer is owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, California

So how is it in a culture that is obsessed with digestion the people are eating entire 12-inch pizzas to themselves? It comes down to a combination of proper fermentation and how the body digests food. Most whole pies you see in Italy are 12 inches or slightly bigger and the dough weighs around 250 grams, as compared to larger dough weights here in the U.S., which is one thing it has going for it. But let’s get down to brass tacks here. What happens to our food when we eat? 

Since pizza is primarily composed of carbohydrates with a smaller amount of other ingredients on top, let’s just focus on the dough. Inside our dough alfa and beta amylase enzymes break down complex sugars into simple sugars. Carbohydrates are known as complex sugars because they are made up of three or more sugar molecules that form a long strand. These sugars are harder for your body to break down and digest. Simple sugars like fruit are easier for your body to digest and break down. As adults we start to hear more and more from our doctors to stay away from complex carbohydrates and to eat low carb diets.

When we eat bread, digestion starts immediately. While we chew, the same alfa amylase that is found in fermentation is also found in our saliva. At the same time our teeth are mashing and breaking down the food into smaller pieces, our saliva has already started breaking down complex sugars into simple sugars. This is just the beginning. If our saliva alone could do all the work, I’d be eating pizza every day. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. As soon as the bread passes into our stomach, the major breakdown of sugars happens. Some of the sugars go to our intestines and liver but a lot of sugar ends up in our bloodstream. As our blood sugar rises, the pancreas produces insulin so that the blood sugar can be stored as energy. Our bodies burn simple sugars the quickest and complex sugars more slowly. This is why athletes tend to carbo load before events (complex sugars are considered a slow burn energy source). The body stores it and burns it off more slowly, sustaining them through intense activity. For athletes, carbohydrates are an effective tool; but for the normal person, too many carbohydrates can complicate insulin production resulting in diabetes and other health problems.

When it comes to pizza specifically, fiber is a big factor to consider. We cannot get rid of carbohydrates altogether seeing as flour and dough are the foundation. But if you are looking to create a dough that is “healthier” and more easily digestible, fiber is key. In flour, fiber is primarily located in the bran and the germ. Fiber is what makes us feel full for longer periods of time, and by using types of flour like “0” and “1 & 2” the flour will contain more fiber. Type “00” flour, although a very common pizza flour, has all of the bran and germ taken out of it. Combining flour with a higher bran and germ content with proper fermentation will always result in a tasty pizza that is more easily digestible. 

If the main thing your customers remember is how tasty your product is and not how uncomfortably full and sluggish they felt after eating, they will most likely come back more often than not. As Americans we may not eat an entire pie every time we eat pizza, but it never hurts to have big dreams.

LAURA MEYER is owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

The post Knead to Know: Digestibility of Pizza appeared first on Pizza Today.

Knead to Know: Warm-ups/Cool Downs

For those that know me, pizza is life but sports are LIFE. I started playing various sports as a kid and have continued an active lifestyle into adulthood. I mean, you have to with all the pizza! The first thing coaches ingrain in you are warm-ups and cool downs. They might not harp on them like they do technique or other elements, but it is the first and last thing you do in every practice or session no matter what the activity of the day is. For the body, warm-ups are essential to prime the body for any major activity and cool downs help with recovery and both build endurance. Now, you might be thinking how in the heck or why is she talking about sports when this is about all things pizza and dough. Well, heat and cold play as crucial a role in great tasting dough as it does in performing in peak athletics. You wouldn’t want to sprint the first mile in a marathon without properly warming up and you also wouldn’t want to make a dough and then cook it right out of the mixer. Both require time and proper temperature control.

Laura Meyer, owner, Pizzeria da Laura, Berkley, CA

Fermentation requires a few ingredients, but the major one is yeast. The strain of yeast we are most preoccupied with, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is most active between 85 and 95 F. Anything above 110 degrees and it will begin to die and the clock starts ticking in regards to longevity. Before I even mix a batch of dough, I am thinking about temperature. This is the one factor that will play a crucial role in not just proper fermentation but also flavor development. During fermentation many things are happening at once. Yeasts are looking for simple sugars to eat so they can reproduce, and different bacteria are also looking for food so that they can also survive. There are many bacteria fighting it out for dominance, especially within sourdough, but Lactobacillus is the primary one we analyze because this bacterium produces lactic acid which is where we get a lot of the flavor in our dough, aside from salt. While both yeast and bacteria are looking to survive, enzymes are breaking down complex sugars into simple sugars providing more food for yeast. 

The yeast produces alcohol and Lactobacillus bacteria create lactic acid. As long as there is a food source available, they will continue to consume and produce, but when the dough ages to a point where there is too much alcohol, a different bacteria known as Acetobacter comes in and feeds on the excess of alcohol and then produces acetic acid which is more
astringent like white vinegar.

All of this is happening within our dough as soon as we mix a batch of dough. The goal is to balance the length of fermentation so that we create maximum flavor while still ensuring usability. Right now, everyone loves to talk about how hydrated their dough is and how old it is. Well, there’s a tightrope we walk when it comes to this. Yeast is most active in warm environments, but you do not want them to be so active that they consume all of their food source before the bacteria is able to produce the acids needed for flavor. The clock starts as soon as you begin mixing. 

For those who live in warm environments, temperatures can be a blessing and a curse. In Italy there isn’t as much refrigeration space as here in the U.S. This means a lot of pizzerias are fermenting their dough in ambient warm environments. The key to this is control. If the day is warmer than usual, ice-cold water in the batch will help slow down yeast activity. As well, decreasing the total amount of added yeast in the dough will ensure it ferments properly at the warmer ambient temperature. If you do not compensate the amount of yeast when fermenting in warm temps, your dough will most likely not reach the length of maturation time you are aiming for, resulting in less flavor. If you think about it, less yeast in a batch means a larger food source available. If there’s too much yeast, that means there’s less of a food source available resulting in your dough dying sooner.

Cold fermentation on the other hand is a blessing if used correctly. In the U.S. we are always trying to maximize refrigeration space. For dough the use of cold fermentation can be a tool to increase flavor as well as make sure your dough ferments on your timetable. There are so many moving parts to restaurants that your dough schedule needs to be as streamlined as much as possible. For those using solely warm fermentation, this requires a lot more attention to detail. If the room becomes too hot, you will be moving your dough around. If the room is too cool, then you are chasing the warm spots. The use of refrigerators gives you more time if you have it. When yeast is in a cold environment, activity slows down. In a refrigerator held between
35 and 40 F, yeast slows to a crawl. When yeast activity is slowed down, bacteria has a chance to produce the acids needed for flavor. When someone says they are using five-day-old dough, they are most likely using a refrigerator.

Neither solely using warm or cold fermentation is better than the other. Both are great and useful when it comes to making tasty dough but understanding the effects of both is crucial. We are always looking for a way to control our product and make it as consistent as possible. Knowing the role temperature plays in the lifespan of your dough is essential. As soon as you understand the balance of time and temperature, the real fun begins.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Pizza Dough Room Temperature or Refrigerated Fermentation, Which is Better? appeared first on Pizza Today.

Italian Lessons

La bella Italia. Traveling can be one the best and biggest eye-opening experiences we as pizza makers can have. Growing up I thought I knew what pizza was. Going to Italy changed everything. It’s not that the pizza we make in the U.S. isn’t pizza, it’s that the pizza we make is an evolution. We have changed it over time to suit our needs and appetites. We’ve adapted it to our surroundings using the ingredients and equipment we have available and in turn, it has transformed into something unique to America. Because of pizza’s resounding success in America the products and techniques we use are completely different from the rest of the world. Pizza is one of those food items that can be found in almost every country worldwide and everyone defines it as something different. Italy is no exception. Since Italy claims pizza as their invention, there are some pretty strong opinions on what defines it — but no two regions or cities uses the same definition.

Starting from the beginning, dough techniques and flour range from north to south. Regions have their own specialties, and they stick to them. Naples has high temperature, wood-burning pizzas and Rome has more than one variety that can be thin or thick and baked on the stone or in a pan. But one feature that binds them is the light and airy nature along with a distinct crisp. In Genoa, Sicily, and in a few other areas, there’s focaccia or a thick pan pizza. Sometimes it can be soft and pillowy and in others it can be crispy on the bottom but soft in the middle. 

Although not all of Italy agrees on how to define pizza, there are a few things that everyone is doing when it comes to their dough. Most pizza in Italy is made with lower protein flours. You can still find Manitoba and flours with a higher protein content, but a vast majority are using lower to mid-range protein contents, i.e. 12 to 13 percent. The type of yeast used is usually fresh or instant as opposed to dry active, and predominantly all pizzerias are using spiral or fork mixers. For those who specialize in Neapolitan pizza it is also common to find claw or diving arm mixers as they are gentler on the dough. 

One major factor stands out in my mind when I think about how dough is made in Italy. History is very much alive in Italy and can be seen every day in the architecture and construction of their buildings. Yes, they have modernized to a certain extent, but there is pride in their history and a sense of preservation everywhere. If a piece of history in the form of a building can be saved, it is. For Americans as tourists this is a treat. We can walk down the street and experience a piece of the past that we can’t get when we’re at home. 

The problem with this is that there are restrictions on changing anything. Older buildings normally mean smaller rooms and problems with electricity. This normally translates to limitations on refrigeration or little to none of it. In the U.S. our buildings are a lot larger, and we have ample refrigeration, which in turn translates to longer fermentation times. The lower protein content of flours plays into this. In Italy, with little refrigeration that means length of fermentation time decreases. 

With high temperature cooking, like in Naples, all of this combined translates to what is Neapolitan-style pizza. Most pizza doughs are made and matured in room temperature conditions. Attention to detail is required as temperatures fluctuate, which means pizzas are made quicker from start to finish. You will see a lot of doughs made early in the morning or late at night the previous day and then used quickly. With no refrigeration and fluctuating temperatures yeast activates a lot quicker. When done correctly, pizzas are light and airy. 

Italians are obsessed with digestibility. With the plethora of aperitifs and digestifs it is easy to see how the food they eat is not just supposed to taste good but be good for the body. The techniques they employ with using the right flour for the temperature they will be cooking at and coupled with room temperature fermentation, every shop’s dough technique is unique but classically Italian.

The other distinction I see when it comes to pizza in Italy is the toppings used. Each region is known for specific ingredients. Whether it is bufala mozzarella and San Marzano tomatoes from around Naples to pesto from Genoa and basil from Pra to prosciutto and Parmiggiano Reggiano from Parma and all of the many aged salumis. There seems to be a specific cheese native to every town (and don’t even get me started on the types of pasta), but there’s a pride in these ingredients because they were grown and made locally. It is a part of their living history. Most toppings on pizzas reflect these local ingredients and are normally very fresh. Usually, pizzas only have max maybe four to five ingredients on top. And if there are more they are added sparingly or fresh after the bake is done. Americans tend towards “more is better,” but in Italy simplicity and freshness reign supreme. Keep it simple, keep it fresh, keep it local.

All in all, pizza in Italy is simple. Yes, they have their complexities, but if I have learned anything from Italians it is to not over-complicate things. Tradition and history play a part in every pizza made.

Laura Meyer is owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkley, CA.

The post Knead to Know: Laura Meyer shares her key takeaways from experiencing pizza in Italy appeared first on Pizza Today.

The Whole Truth

Today’s society is obsessed with diet culture and trying to find the healthiest option for everything. Walking into the bread department of any grocery store is one of the most confusing and frustrating decisions of any grocery trip. For the longest time brands have used key words and phrases to be eye catching and allude to its healthy properties. Whole wheat is one of those phrases. The problem with this is that most consumers don’t actually know what they mean or what makes them nutritious. The pizza industry has also fallen prey to this marketing strategy.

Laura Meyer is Chef at Capo’s and Administrator and Teaching Assistant at the International School of Pizza in San Francisco.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been told that whole wheat is healthy and is better than white bread. I even have moments where just the color will influence my decision. White is bad and brown is better. Now that I know more about grains and fermentation, I know that there are more flaws to this thinking than benefits. This is just a marketing strategy employed by companies to sell more product.

Whole wheat, to me, means just that, the entire grain. When wheat is milled, the bran and germ are normally broken off and separated from the endosperm, aka the starch. The germ makes up the smallest part of a kernel of grain and is the embryo or reproductive part of the grain. This part of the grain contains elements like fat that go rancid the quickest, which is one of the reasons why it is removed from flour. The bran is the protective coating around the kernel of grain that helps keep pests and bacteria out. Bran is also high in fiber and contains some vitamins. Since diet culture and diet foods are so profitable, they have added the bran into different breads piggy backing off the benefits it adds to white bread. The endosperm is the part we are interested in most. The endosperm is what all 00 flours are made of.

Just because a menu or label is toting the title of “whole wheat”, the percentage of bran and germ will vary greatly. Some only use a small percentage; some comprise larger quantities or go so far as to be entirely made of the entire parts of the grain. The trouble with adding more bran and germ is that you sacrifice the volume your end product will have. The germ doesn’t contain any gluten, so the more whole wheat you add to a dough the tighter the crumb will be and the less volume it will have. The bran will also affect the overall volume of dough, but it also does not absorb water well, so the more you add the harder it will be to increase your total hydration in a recipe. Most pizzerias use 00 flours which are the most refined. All the bran and germ have been removed. A 00 flour is the most refined, meaning that during production and after grinding it has been sifted the most removing everything except for the endosperm. There are other types of refinement that contain increasing amounts of bran and germ. The types of refinement are listed as 00, 0, 1, 2, and whole grain. Some pizzerias nowadays use type 0 or type 1 flours which adds to the flavor and some health benefits. This is a great way to test out incorporating whole wheat into your dough. My recommendation would be to start with a small percentage and keep the majority of your recipe as the 00 flour. If you use a preferment, try making one out of type 1 flour and then add that into your dough. This way you can incorporate some whole wheat without compromising the gluten structure.

Sprouted grain is another way to add more whole wheat into a dough. I was introduced to this years ago, and it’s still something that I do not see much outside of bread. Sprouted grain is when the whole grains have been cleaned and then soaked so that they sprout. This is sold in bricks and is normally frozen or refrigerated. The easiest way to incorporate this into a dough is by mixing it into the water so that it breaks up. Sprouted grains have not been ground, which adds a larger textural component and adds to the mouthfeel of a dough. I personally love the flavor and aroma sprouted grain adds to a dough. But again, I only use a small percentage so as not to compromise the gluten.

Another component that most people just don’t think about is that all bags of flour are composed of multiple types of wheat. There isn’t just one type of wheat out there and certain types are geared towards different flours. Pizza flours are mostly made of hard red winter wheat and hard red spring wheat. The other types are softer and have lower gluten potential which lends to things like cake, pastries, cracker and all-purpose baking.

An easy dough formula to introduce whole wheat into your pizza — New York style or anything cooked up to 650 degrees.

• 50 pounds high protein high gluten 00 flour
• 10 pounds Poolish made with type 1 flour (5 pounds flour, 5 pounds
  water, .8 ounce Active dry yeast)
• 28 pounds water (60 percent total hydration including starter)
• 4.4 ounces Active Dry Yeast
• 17.6 ounces fine sea salt
• 17.6 ounces dry malt
• 17.6 ounces olive oil

Here is the dough formula in baker’s percentage:

• Flour 90 percent
• Total water 60 percent
• Poolish 20 percent
• ADY yeast .5 percent
• Salt 2 percent
• Malt 2 percent
• Oil 2 percent.

Laura Meyer is Administrator & Instructor, The International School of Pizza.

The post Knead to Know: Laura Meyer has the real skinny on whole grain pizza dough appeared first on Pizza Today.

Dough Hooked: Turn Pizza Dough into Sandwich Dough

“Pizza is dough with something on it, and a sandwich is dough with something in it. So, they’re really like kissing cousins.” 

Peter Reinhart, Award-winning Author of Perfect Pan Pizza

And so, the story goes: The invention of the sandwich is usually attributed to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich who was a degenerate gambler. In 1762, during an all-night wagering binge, Johnny told the cook to prepare him a meal which he could eat with one hand and would not impede his game. The cook (the real inventor) came back with meats and cheeses in toasted bread, so the word sandwich stuck. Little did the Earl know that the use of bread baked with or without ingredients inside, sliced or not, rolled around ingredients or even half-baked and filled, had been constructed for centuries since the beginning of bread. 

After years of baking bread in my pizzeria, I’ve concluded that calling an item a Sandwich, Calzone, Stromboli, Man’oushe’, Trucchia, Tramezzini, Panini, Spirali, Pane Bianco, Crescentine or Tigelle, Mille-Feuilles, or even Tarte Tatin and Stuffed Fougasse can get a baker in trouble. There are so many variations on the “Sandwich” theme; it’s always better to present these wonderfully delicious items on their own merit and not get yelled at by the appropriation police of the world. Let’s do a deep dive into sandwich bread types you can make in your pizzeria.

Comfortable Loafers

• Batards: Long batards made into ginormous subs using 32-ounce dough are a joy to behold when cut horizontally. Short ones using 8-12 ounces of dough are good for individual subs but cost more in labor. Your pre-existing pizza dough can be re-balled and rolled out to proof in a couche, or flour covered linen used to keep a shape. Sesame and poppy seed are good toppings as well as asiago, provolone or smoked gouda added at the end of the bake.
• Boules: These round loaves vary in sizes from 8 ounces to 16 ounces. We make our signature “Boulder” sandwiches from the latter size and from our pizza dough recipe. The benefit of the boule baking process is the re-kneading in a ball shape can easily be proofed on the parchment covered tray you plan to bake them on. Small round loaves don’t have the “eye appeal” that the same size submarine roll has but look better when filled with meats and cheeses. 
• Ciabatta: These wonderous airy loaves named after the Italian slipper shape are the easiest to make using your existing proprietary pizza mix of flour, salt, cold water and yeast, (See recipe.) If you add more water to the mix for an 85-100 percent hydration, this bread benefits from a long, slow mix and retardation in your refrigerator to facilitate a strong gluten net. I prefer Peter Reinhart’s Pain a’ l’ Ancienne way of mixing and the “Blob” method for forming in my busy pizzeria, (See Recipe.)
• Baguette: The usual baguette mix contains almost half all-purpose flour and most bakers I’ve seen in France were using a Pate Fermentee’, or old dough, at an amazing quantity compared to the flours. The use of diastatic malt, and a hydration of 60 percent, sends the sugars on hyperdrive to the crust. The crisp crust and the airy interior are indicative of a great baguette.

Dough Nuts

Here are some things to think about before starting a sandwich bread program.

What is your dough like? Does it have a higher hydration that will lead to an airy bread or a lower hydration that can lead to easier shaping and a crisper crust. Do you use a natural pre-ferment like poolish or biga or just make it with a direct method?

Do you know about proofing? Bread dough exhibiting a crisp crust and airy crumb is best aged, then re-kneaded, then proofed until the gluten net is capturing carbon dioxide and the bread starts to rise. This cannot happen well in the winter cold or if it is over-proofed in the summer heat. A good proofer works wonders for consistency — it all depends upon your pizzeria set-up.

Do you only have conveyor ovens? Conveyor ovens blast air upon breads and work best with flatbreads and na’an because of the instantaneous oven spring. These breads work best on a parchment covered tray and a diluted egg wash makes them shiny instead of dull. Toppings like sea salt are great but some seeds will burn. Na’an can get caught in your small heating cavity as it expands so be vigilant with na’an. The best advantage of conveyors is they are fast, fast, fast. 

Are you baking with a deck oven? Deck ovens make delicious large springing loaves if they are equipped with differing temperatures, steam and lack hot spots. Steam makes for a great shiny and crisp crust during the initial higher-heat oven spring. Lowering the heat ensures that the cell structure in the middle of the loaf cooks to a temperature of 200 F/93 C. 

Lunar Equips

Equipment is important but you don’t have to travel to the moon to find mise en place to bake some killer breads. Here are some very important items you will need.

• Trays. Large trays can hold a lot of ciabatta, rolls, and other breads. (Note: I’ve found that baking large breads on trays impedes the oven spring from the bottom because the heat transfers to the loaf too slowly.) Smaller buns, thinner baguette, and highly hydrated doughs do well on trays.
• Parchment. Silicone parchment works best for temperatures over 500 and long bakes as well as conveyor bakes. They also catch seeds, oils egg wash and other stuff that falls off during baking, saving the trays. (Remember, always keep dough off the side of trays or it will stick.)
• Loader. (If going directly on the bricks.) There are some small loaders out there that can load 7-9 baguettes or 5-6 large batards. They are small profile and easy to store.
• Couche linen. This is linen used for proofing breads especially like baguette and ciabatta which are great sandwich breads.
• Bannetons. This wicker and plastic baskets are great to keep the form for boule and batards.
• Tables with backsplash. Flour gets everywhere. Need I say more?
• Bread bakers lame or bread knife. Scoring breads gives the oven spring a controlled expansion instead of bumps blasting out the side of your loaf and thus misshaping it. 
• Water spritzer. If you want the benefit of adding steam to a deck oven, the battery powered lawn sprayers work best and sending a blast to the back of the oven will fill the chamber with steam. 
• Metro wire shelving. Bread must have time to cool down, otherwise if bagged, it will go limp.
• Gloves. Good gloves that can handle 500-600 degrees and hot trays is important.

The “Red October” Giant Pizza Submarine

I make many of these loaves every weekend from my direct-method, aged proprietary pizza dough with a 60 percent hydration. After baking and cooling, I fill with Capicola, Mortadella, Prosciutto di Parma, Genoa Salami, and ham, with Provolone, arugula, tomato, oregano, peppers, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. I cut each into 6-8 sandwiches that sell out in an hour.

Get the “Red October” Giant Pizza Submarine.

Spelt Ciabatta

This recipe for Ciabatta had its beginning when I read Peter Reinhart’s the Bread Bakers Apprentice almost 15 years ago. I like the simplicity of this recipe and the use of time over technique or preferments. The magic happens when the cold mix and holding produces delayed fermentation enabling fuller wheat flavor and the sugars produce a better crust. My customers love this bread filled with a “Caprese” style of fresh mozzarella, tomato, and fresh basil with plenty of extra virgin olive oil and sea salt.

Get the Spelt Ciabatta recipe.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

The post Knead to Know: Creating a sandwich revenue stream from your own pizza dough appeared first on Pizza Today.

Learn why your dough is snapping back and how to fix it

It’s a Friday night in your shop and there are tickets spitting out of the printer and food flying out of the window. Besides working the line and running the ovens one of my favorite positions in any restaurant is the pass. The last line of defense before the food goes out. Making sure every pizza or item is up to standards and cooked correctly. We all work very hard to design our pizzas to be visually appealing as much as they are tasty, taking care to match the plate or tray to that vision.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when a pizza comes to the window and it’s one to two inches too small. There’s a visible gap between the crust and the edge of the plate. To me, I see a pizza that is now undercooked because there’s too much dough in the crust or too small of a middle where the toppings are now bunched up making the pizza too heavy and just a mess. My job at that point is to reject the pizza, call for a refire and keep the tickets moving. The bigger problem at hand is that this small pizza is not always the fault of the person stretching the dough but could stem from several mistakes made prior, leading to what’s called snapping back. As hard as you try to stretch your dough properly it continues to snap back and shrink an inch or two. This is dough snapback.

To better understand why dough snaps back we need to have a basic understanding of gluten development.

Gluten begins to form as soon as water is introduced to flour. There are two soluble proteins in flour, glutenin and gliadine, that when water is introduced begin to bind together. The act of mixing is required to evenly distribute the water throughout the flour but to also speed up the hydration process. Time is essential here as the physical mechanics of mixing by hand or by machine will hydrate the flour but the internal chemical reactions within takes time to solidify that gluten network. This is one reason why we let our dough rest for various periods of time before using. Different protein contents within flour will result in different strengths of gluten networks. Ingredients like salt and fats will affect gluten but time is a key ingredient. We want our doughs to be fully hydrated creating strong gluten structures, but time also allows the enzymes within our dough to aid in the extensibility. Think of your dough like a balloon. If your dough has been mixed well and is hydrated it will grow like when you inflate a balloon, stretching to accommodate the gas inside. If it has not been mixed well that balloon will pop and not hold the gas ending up with deflated dough.

Mixing time and the type of mixer used is extremely important when it comes to gluten development.

If not done properly this can lead to your dough snapping back. Over mixing is a thing. When it comes time to mix your dough, having a game plan and all your ingredients weighed out and ready to go is important. I have seen many operations weigh as they go, which translates to dough mixing for too long in the mixer and the gluten becoming too tight.

Think of your gluten like a rubber band when mixing. That rubber band when held is stretchy, but can retain its shape. If you twist it and overlap it onto itself the band becomes tighter and springs back faster when you try and stretch it. Overmixing is like if you were to take that rubber band and twist and overlap it to a point where it won’t stretch and immediately wants to snap back onto itself. The point of no return is when dough is mixed to a point where it breaks. That rubber band has been tightened to a point where the elasticity is gone and instead breaks. Overmixing your dough leads to a dough ball that will not want to stretch and will keep snapping back to a smaller size.

Overmixing is not the only thing that leads to snapping back. Over balling your dough will also contribute. When you’re forming balls it should only take you maybe four to five passes to form and close a dough ball. If you are continuously tightening and forming a ball, that gluten is way too rigid and will have a hard time stretching. There are a few visual indicators that will tell you the dough has been overmixed or over balled before you even attempt to stretch it. Dough balls not only grow up but also grow out as they mature. If they are nested tightly together, they will grow out till they touch and then grow up the rest of the way. For those that are overmixed or over balled, your dough will have a really hard time expanding and will most likely grow up but because the gluten structure is too tight the gas will try and find an escape or release and will most likely deflate before it has rested long enough to develop flavor. Think of an old or stiff balloon. If there’s no give to stretch, it will find the weakest point and the balloon will break.

Cold dough is another factor here. Cold dough will not only cook poorly but will not stretch well and will continue to snap back. If you were to try and run a marathon without warming up you’ll most likely pull a muscle within the first few miles. Dough is no different, warming up your dough means the dough will stretch nicely and be less likely to tear.

Regardless of overmixing or over balling time is of the essence. If you allow your dough to rest long enough, whether at room temperature or inside the refrigerator, the fermentation process inside your dough will help relax it so it can stretch.

A combination of all these factors will play into the extensibility of your dough. Things change every day, which makes it hard to maintain consistency. But having a routine in place will help ensure your dough performs at its highest.

LAURA MEYER is Administrator & Instructor, The International School of Pizza.

The post Knead to Know: Stop the Pizza Dough Snapback appeared first on Pizza Today.

Selecting the right tools can make or break the finished pizza

Laura Meyer is Chef at Capo’s and Administrator and Teaching Assistant at the International School of Pizza in San Francisco.

As s a pizza maker I am constantly striving to better my dough and my end product. I am always looking for the next thing. What is going to set me apart from my competitors and what is going to make me stand out? As important as my recipes are, they are nothing without the right tools. In addition to creating that perfect recipe, I am always thinking about how to streamline the process. 

In a perfect world we would be able to create pizzas that everyone loves without having to think about the cost of labor and rent and all of those other fixed costs, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Working with the right tools can ensure that your production is efficient and without too many bumps in the road.

Starting with your dough production, the mixer, table and choice of proofing containers sets the tone for how your dough will turn out. Sometimes your choice of mixer is limited because of budget, or you inherited a piece of equipment. Using the right mixer for the style of pizza you are making is the first step in ensuring a consistent product. 

What you put that dough in is the next step. Dough boxes, metal sheet pans and metal tins are the most common choices. Dough boxes are great because they seal when stacked and there are rolling dollies. They can be moved around wherever you need them. But some are made of fiber glass and although lightweight can crack and break as they age. Sheet pans wrapped in plastic are another option that allow for more air flow between the trays and can be colder because they are metal. A downside to this is the added cost of plastic wrap or bags and you’ll need a speed rack to hold them. Tins are more traditional to the East Coast. They help the dough ball retain its shape and seal when stacked, but you’ll need to find a place to stack them. 

The thing to keep in mind is how these receptacles age. All three will warp over time. Boxes will begin to not seal all the way, allowing air inside. Tins, if not handled nicely, will dent and warp and allow air inside, which will dry out your dough. Metal sheet pans will also dent and warp. But the thing I like about sheet pans is that you individually wrap them, so even when they bend no air can get inside (although scraping dough off the tray can become tricky).

Once your dough has been made and is in its proofing container, how you remove it is key to retaining its shape and making it easier to stretch. A dough scraper is that tool. Metal scrapers are great because they are thin and sharp and get the job done, but they can scrape your dough trays and sheet pans (adding to the wear and tear). Metal scrapers can also help with cutting, whether it’s your dough or even a garlic clove for a marinara pizza. There are a few plastic scrapers out there that are great, but my favorites are those that have a thin edge and are bendable. They are easier on your trays and ensure contact to make sure the dough ball releases easily.

Now that your dough has been proofing in its container and you have successfully taken it out of the tray or box, let’s look at where you stretch your dough and the tools you use to prep it for topping. The best tables for stretching are smooth and not cutting boards. Pick a stone top, be it marble or another polished stone or a steel table. Next is stretching. Rolling pins are useful for thin-crust pizzas, but you’ll want to make sure it’s sturdy as some doughs can be firmer. I have broken a few rolling pins in my day and have found larger wooden pins are best. For larger operations a sheeter, which is more commonly found in bakeries, can be helpful. They make short work of thinning out dough, speeding up the make time of any thin-crust pizza. For those pizzas that have a rim, there are machines out there like dough presses that will stretch your dough for you. But they can heat up your dough some as well as leave a residual amount of oil. Presses are commonly found in franchises and operations where training is hard.

For thin-crust pizzas, after they been rolled out or put through a sheeter, I like the extra step of a docker. A docker can help make a thin-crust pizza even crispier by helping take out some of the gas and ensuring your dough will not bubble too much in the oven.

What you use to get your pizza off the table and in and out of the oven is one of the most important tools in a pizza maker’s arsenal. I’m talking about peels. There is a slew of peels out there, and they all have pros and cons. I personally love a thin, metal, perforated peel. The peel to slide the pizza into the oven can either be rectangular or rounded and the peel to remove the pizza is normally smaller. For Neapolitan pizza the exit peel is normally quite smaller and has a sliding grip to give more leverage and ease of handling. Wooden peels are very common, especially in operations where doughs are pre-stretched. They are normally thicker and solid. These can be easier to handle for newer employees as the pizza does not need to be picked up off the table, but the pizza can be made directly on top. The perforation is best in my opinion as they allow excess flour to drop through ensuring a cleaner oven and a cleaner bottom of the pizza.

Cutting boards and knives are the last tools before your pizza hits the table. The best cutting boards are thin and lightweight, have a handle, and can withstand high heat if they are being used to take pizzas out of the oven as well as can take a beating from daily use. The most common knives are wheels or half-moons. For smaller pizzas wheels are great because you have more control over the slices, but for large thick cut pizzas a half moon knife is my preference as they can cut through without pushing toppings out of place.

Regardless of the tools you choose, finding which are best for your operation and investing in quality will ensure consistency and a fruitful business. 

Laura Meyer is Administrator & Instructor, The International School of Pizza.

The post Knead to Know: Pizza Making Tools of the Trade appeared first on Pizza Today.

Get solutions to the biggest pizza dough production challenges

Audrey Kelly, Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage

While there are many factors that go into making a great pizza dough, I believe that the three biggest dough production challenges are consistency, proper fermentation and equipment. The first two can be improved by two seemingly simple things: time and temperature. These two things can make or break a great dough; and if you are able to control and alter them, you can manage all three of these challenges elevating your dough from good to great. 

Consistency can mean a few different things, but ultimately it is producing the exact same dough every day, so you are able to put out a reliable product. A few things that can affect the consistency of your dough are the quality of your flour, your mixing time and your IDT or ideal dough temperature.   

When choosing a flour, the things to consider are:

• Protein levels (the more protein the tighter the gluten net).
• The W value: flour quality/strength.
• Type of flour: 0, 00, 1, 2 or whole-meal, which is designated based on the flour’s ash content.

Your flour should be fresh and free of clumps when it is delivered. Along with the flour, accurately weighing out each ingredient before adding it to your batch of dough seems like a no brainer, but is something that can be overlooked. If you find that you are changing things on a daily or weekly basis, such as the amount of water or flour you add, it’s important to ask yourself why you are doing this. For example, since I don’t have a temperature-controlled dough room and we often leave the windows and doors open at my restaurant, the time of year drastically affects my dough. We compensate by changing the volume of starter (we do a sourdough pizza crust) we put in depending on the season. 

How long you mix your dough can have a huge impact on its consistency. While there is no universal time for this, as all doughs are different, you should aim for a consistent mixing time for every batch of dough you produce. No matter the dough, there is definitely a sweet spot and you want to mix it until you have sufficiently formed the gluten net. 

The order that you add your ingredients can also make a difference. Whether you add your water or flour to the bowl first matters less than if you do it the same every time. This is because it will affect how your ingredients are incorporated and thus how long you mix everything for. 

Are you taking the temperature of the added water and thus your final dough temperature? The IDT can drastically change your final dough because it will change your fermentation time. If your dough comes out at a higher temperature than normal or expected without you knowing, the yeast will accelerate the fermentation process. This essentially means that the yeast is eating the simple sugars released by the flour’s starch that has been broken down and in turn releases carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is what forms the tiny air bubbles in the dough. As long as you know that this is happening you can work with your dough to either slow it down or ball it and use it sooner. If you want to slow down the fermentation some easy fixes are to simply put the bulk dough in the walk in and fold the dough a few times every hour to cool it down. Another route would be to do a shorter bulk ferment. This of course all leads us right into proper fermentation. 

Fermentation, in my opinion is the most important part of dough production. Once you understand how and why your dough develops the way it does, you will be able to use time and temperature to adjust it when you run into problems. You could have equipment failures and need to alter your method, or even help you if you make dough outside of your restaurant and comfort zone.

There are few things that can determine how long you age your dough. The first is determining if you want to use a direct or indirect dough method. In a direct method all of your ingredients are incorporated in a single stage of production. With an indirect method, a preferment is mixed in advanced of the dough and allowed to ferment. It is then added to the dough, using multiple stages.  

The next is what type of yeast you use and if you add a biga, poolish, Levan or any other mother dough to your recipe. By using a preferment or indirect method, you can cut down on some of your fermentation time and still have a beautiful, robust flavor and structure. Regardless of the type of yeast or preferment that you use, something that a lot of pizza makers skip, but I find can make all the difference between a fantastic dough and a subpar one, is an autolyse.  An autolyse is basically letting the dough rest after combing the flour and water.  This strengthens the dough, gives it elasticity and forms the gluten structure.  

In general, the longer you ferment your dough, the more flavor you are going to get out of it. A slower fermentation creates a better gluten structure which means better bubbles in the crust due to the aid in gluten development. By rushing the process, you end up with a one dimensional dough, in both flavor and texture. 

The last thing is equipment. What equipment you use isn’t as important as knowing how to use it.  By this I mean that whether you use a planetary or a spiral mixer you can achieve excellent results, but your mixing methods and timing will be different. Not even two spiral mixers, of different brands, will produce the same dough so it’s important to hone in your recipe depending on what you’re working with. The type of mixer you use will determine your mixing time and how the ingredients are incorporated into the dough.  

The mixers aren’t the only piece of equipment that you need to think about. What scale you use can affect the result of your dough as well if it is not accurate.  Another piece of equipment to think about is if you use a dough baller. If you do, you want to make sure that the bottom of the dough balls are thoroughly sealed. If they’re not, it will cause your dough to open incorrectly when you’re pushing out your crust and have a weak middle.  

The right dough can make or break a pizza. That is why it is so important to understand how to handle any obstacles and make your process as smooth and consistent as possible. 

Audrey Kelly is the owner and pizzaiola at Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage in Boulder, CO.

The post The Three Biggest Pizza Dough Production Challenges appeared first on Pizza Today.

Pizza Crust Color Theory

Laura Meyer is Chef at Capo’s and Administrator and Teaching Assistant at the International School of Pizza in San Francisco.

Over the years I have taught many pizza makers embarking on a new journey, but there always seems to be a handful of questions I always get. “When do I know my pizza is done” is probably a question I get once a class. For beginners, learning to stretch and top dough is a daunting task … let alone getting it off the table and into the oven. Cooking the pizza seems to be a step that is always left as an afterthought. We think about ovens, but what happens to our product once it is in the oven is a different thing entirely. Some people prefer timers, but I think they are useless. For one, kitchens are loud enough without the incessant beeping of multiple timers. In the end timers only act as a preemptive warning that a pizza may be done as during a busy night ovens begin to cool down as pizzas are rotated in and out. Learning how the performance of your equipment changes during busy periods as well as how your dough and product changes with it is key. Instead what I do is look at color. Every single time the oven door is opened, whether a new pizza is going in or a fully cooked one is coming out, I assess the color of every single pizza on that deck. If the doors have glass, I am looking through those as well, but the opening and closing of the door is an indicator to me that I should be looking.

Color can come from several different things. The main reasons pizzas take on color when baked is because of the Maillard reaction and caramelization of sugars. The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids, proteins and sugars. During the cooking process a crust is formed, changing the flavor but also creating the variance in color that we see when pizzas are finished cooking. Sugars are extremely attracted to moisture, which means doughs with varying hydrations will have slightly different colors. Caramelization of sugar is different from the Maillard reaction in that no amino acids are necessary (just as not all sugars are equal in terms of concentration of sweetness for the same amounts). The caramelization of sugars and the resulting colors are all different depending on the type of sugar present.  It is because of this that Neapolitan pizzas brown differently than a New York style. Blisters and leoparding as opposed to even golden brown are indicators of doneness but are at two ends of the spectrum. Intensity of heat combined with natural sugars present in flour will blister more as in Neapolitan pizzas. Lower temperatures and added sugar like plain white sugar or diastatic malt will lend a more golden brown.

Recipes that call for added sugar normally use white granulated sugar or malt. One way to change color is by substituting these sugars with another. If malt is used, it is normally in a dry powdered form, but it can also be found in a liquid form and comes in three varieties: light, amber and black. Honey, agave, molasses, cane sugar and sorghum are other sweeteners in syrup forms. If you are a stickler for getting your percentages and hydration exact, liquid sugars like honey and agave all have a small water component. The fact that these sugars are in a syrupy liquid form will mean that it is going to add a moisture content to your overall hydration, but they also give varying degrees of amber and red hues to your finished pizzas.

There are other ways to add color to your dough besides sugar itself. Blending different grains is an easy way to change the color of your final product — flours like whole wheat, rye and ancient grains like einkorn, spelt and Khorasan. These grains have varying levels of gluten, so blending small quantities into your dough recipes will change the final coloration of your dough as well as the inside crumb color without affecting the final gluten
development.

Another way to add color to your dough is by changing the water and the oil. Instead of using regular water, try adding the liquid from tomatoes, beer, stock or even juice! Juice especially will be high in sugar, so this will affect how quickly the dough browns in the oven. Adding any of these will also add flavor and aroma to your finished pizza. With oil consider using chili oil, pumpkin seed oil or even sesame oil for a different spin on pizza.

Lastly, one of the best ways to add color to any dough is by adding purees, powders or squid ink. A concentrated puree like tomato, ube (a type of purple potato) or fruits like blackberries will give a dramatic color to your dough. If adding purees to your dough, you will want to consider its thickness as a thin puree will mean extra water. You will want to compensate for this by decreasing the water in your recipe to maintain the same percentage. Powders like cocoa and charcoal will give intense color. Squid ink is another ingredient that is more commonly found in pasta making but can be easily incorporated into pizza dough. When it comes to adding intense colors to your dough with powders, purees and squid ink, start with small quantities. Too much of anything will start to affect the overall structure of dough and affect gluten development. Adding color can be a fun experiment for any pizza maker, but it can be hard to cook. If your total hydration is high and you are using an added ingredient or a different sugar, knowing when the pizza is done can be very tricky. Finding the right cook temperature will also be key as high hydrations need longer bakes at lower temperatures, but sugars will caramelize at various rates.

Playing with color can be fun, but understanding how basic doughs take on color during baking is key. Learn the basics and then experiment, experiment, experiment! Start small , but the skies are the limit when it comes to making dough.

Laura Meyer  is Chef at Capo’s and Administrator and Teaching Assistant at the International School of Pizza in San Francisco.

The post Knead to Know: Find ways to add color to your pizza crust appeared first on Pizza Today.

After the Mix

Dough making is an art unto itself and every pizza maker does it slightly differently. When to add certain ingredients, how long to mix and overall hydration has drastic effects on the final product. But what happens after the batch of dough is done mixing is just as important.

The mixing process itself is important because it helps distribute the water and other ingredients evenly throughout the flour so that gluten can form and fermentation can begin. Gluten development is a characteristic we are all looking for before we pull our finished dough out of the mixer. The windowpane test is a tool a lot of bakers use to test for gluten development but is a technique that pizza makers are also beginning to employ. When you think your dough is finished mixing, take a small piece out of the mixer, and begin to lightly stretch it between your hands. If you can stretch your dough enough to where you can see through it or even read through it without the dough breaking, then you know your dough has developed enough gluten. If your dough tears easily or is unable to stretch, then it has not developed enough gluten and could use a little bit more time mixing.

When I am mixing a batch of dough, I am always thinking about what is going to come afterwards. What happens in the mixer and how high the percentage of hydration will normally determine if I am going to bulk ferment my dough or not. Bulk fermentation is when after you pull your dough out of the mixer, instead of cutting and balling your dough, you divide the mass into smaller pieces and place those portions into containers in bulk form and let them ferment inside or outside of the refrigerator as is. 

If my dough is high in hydration and I am using a planetary mixer, it can be hard for the dough to reach full gluten development purely because of the style of mixer and the way it is constructed. This is not necessarily a flaw by any means. Planetary mixers are great work horses and for some operations the best choice because it can accommodate attachments for cutting and shredding. Knowing that this mixer is not as well suited for high hydrated doughs, bulk fermentation as well as incorporating a few folds before refrigerating the dough will ensure that the dough absorbs all the water and develops to full gluten development. A good rule of thumb when using bulk fermentation is the shorter the mix time the longer the bulk fermentation and vice versa.

Autolyse is another technique used by bakers and pizza makers to make sure flour is well hydrated and to ensure full gluten development. 

Autolyse is a rest period during the mixing process. After mixing flour and water together till it forms a shaggy mass, a rest time is performed. After the pause the remaining ingredients are added and the mixing is finished. The length of the pause as well as if yeast and salt are added before the rest period varies from baker to baker. Depending on the operation, the autolyse method may not be smart. Although it may shorten the active mix time, the total mix time is lengthened because of the rest period. For operations with one mixer or making multiple batches of dough, monopolizing the time spent making one batch is extremely important especially when everyone is concerned with payroll in addition to the quality of the product.  

I have worked at many operations where a rest period and bulk fermentation is just not feasible. For large operations with small prep areas cutting and balling after mixing is the best choice just to keep things moving. The one thing that is always employed is a rest period after mixing and before balling. This rest period allows the enzyme activity within the dough that helps build gluten to continue before shaping. This rest period varies and is normally not any longer than 20 minutes at most. 

When a routine is put in place, the first batch is mixed and then pulled out to rest. While resting, the next batch is mixed and so on and so forth. If one person is balling dough, this rest period may be very short as the first ball of dough will receive the shortest rest period and the last dough ball will receive the longest. How much yeast in your batch as well as how warm your area is will influence how fast your dough will begin to rise. This is something to keep in mind as you do not want to risk over proofing your dough before it even makes it into the refrigerator.

Bread bakers aim to mix a batch of dough, shape, bake and sell their product within a matter of hours.

Most bread flours contain a far lower percentage of protein as compared to that of pizza flours. Because of this, pizza dough can instead take days to ferment before baking. Low protein pizza flours can be ready within 24 hours, and if utilizing the right methods and temperatures, can be pushed even as quickly as 18 to 20 hours. Neapolitan flours contain around 12-percent protein and are considered low on the pizza spectrum. High protein flours can contain 14 to 15 percent and even as much as 16 percent and are normally used for New York style and pan pizzas. For higher protein flours they can ferment for as long as five days or more if held at the right temperature in a refrigerator. Slowing down the fermentation process can increase flavor as well as ensure a good crumb structure.

Mixing a batch of dough properly is important when it comes to making great pizza but how you handle your dough after the mix is just as important. Utilizing different techniques like bulk fermentation, autolyse and rest periods will ensure a properly mixed dough will become a great tasting pizza that stretches well and bakes beautifully.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Knead to Know: What Comes After the Mix for your Batch of Dough appeared first on Pizza Today.

In the mix: proper way to mix a batch of dough and for how long

In my day-to-day job I answer a lot of questions. One main question that always stands out centers on the proper way to mix a batch of dough and for how long.  It is always hard to tell people there is no magic written recipe that will come out the same every single time unless you learn the factors at play and how to adjust for them. When it comes to mixing a batch of dough, there are a few key elements that I always consider that will determine the length of mixing as well as the order in which I add ingredients to the mixer.

The mixer itself will determine a lot and no two mixers are the same. 

The most common mixers you will find in pizzerias are planetary, spiral, and fork (specific to those doing Neapolitan style pizza). Planetary mixers tend to be the roughest on dough and drill a hole in the middle pushing all the ingredients together against the sides. Planetary mixers have detachable bowls that raise up and down and have different speeds to accommodate a faster mix. I would recommend not exceeding a 12-minute total mix time in a planetary mixer. They also have attachments to cut cheese and vegetables or to mix sauce with a balloon whisk attachment. 

Spiral mixers have fixed bowls and dual speeds. The spiral itself is usually off to the side and is gentler on the dough. The dual speeds can bring higher hydrated doughs together better than a planetary mixer. The bowl on spiral mixers can also rotate. Combined with the rotation of the spiral itself, which can spin clockwise or counterclockwise, these two elements give you a better overall mix without having to stop and manually push your dough together. 

Well mixed dough in spiral mixers forms a pumpkin-like appearance on top. I would not exceed a 15-minute total mix time in a spiral mixer. The ability to toggle between speeds will alter these total mix times. If you are only staying on speed one, then those total times apply. If you are moving between speed one and the faster second speed, your total mix time will be shorter. 

Fork mixers, which are most common in Neapolitan styles, are even slower than spirals. They are gentler on your dough and fold your ingredients together creating less friction and impart less heat on your dough. The bowls are fixed, and the total mix times can extend towards 18 to 20 minutes. The advantage to these mixers is how gentle it is on your dough. Dough does not come out as one homogeneous mass but is more of a rope. 

The least common mixer found in U.S. pizzerias is a diving arm mixer. These mixers are more commonly found in specialized pizzerias or bakeries. This mixer replicates how dough would be mixed by hand. These are great mixers as they impart the least amount of friction or heat but can take the longest to mix as well as can be hard for operations as they do not have attachments for cutting and grating.

Now that I have thought about the type of mixer I am using and know more or less how long I should be mixing for, in what order should I be adding ingredients?

If my recipe includes a preferment/starter, there are two ways to approach a mix. Some add a portion of water to the bowl first and then add the preferment. Mixing these two ingredients together first ensures the preferment is mostly dissolved before proceeding with the flour and the rest of the ingredients. 

The other method is to either begin with water or flour in the bowl, add your yeast and then the other ingredient you did not start with, be it water or flour. And then add your preferment into the mix before your flour and water have become a complete homogeneous mass. If using this second method, you do not want to wait too long to add your preferment. Once the water and flour have started to develop gluten, it can become hard to incorporate a preferment that has also developed gluten. It becomes like two pieces of taffy trying to become one. They do not always come together completely.

Yeast is another ingredient to take into consideration. If I am using instant yeast, this can be added directly into the bowl with the flour. If I am using dry active yeast, I need to first bloom it in warm water and then add it to the bowl in a different stage. If you do not bloom active dry yeast, it does not mean your dough will not come out correct; it may just take a little longer to really get going.

When to add water can be done a few different ways.

Some people add water to the bowl first and then the flour and then some people do the reverse. Regardless of the method I choose I never add all the water at once. Even if I am making the same batch of dough I make every day, temperature, humidity, the flour itself and even how hot the mixer is from use will change my batch of dough. I always reserve a small portion and gradually add my water in. You can always add, but once it is in you can never take it out. 

Autolyze is another method regarding water that ensures flour is as completely hydrated as it can be. This method requires a resting period after a gentle mix of a portion of the flour and water before adding the remaining water and other ingredients. The downside to this method is that it requires time and space. If you only have one mixer, then you could be making dough for hours because of the wait time between steps.

For recipes without a fat, salt is always my last ingredient going in. Some people dissolve salt into the water, but salt can kill yeast and even though it is not a guarantee that the salt will kill the yeast, it is just a precaution of mine to separate them as best I can.

If my recipe calls for a fat this is always my last ingredient. Fats do not mix well with water and if it is added too early on, it can create little pockets where water cannot penetrate. Fats are binders and emulsifiers. We want to add this at the end to bring everything together.

The way I approach mixing a batch regardless of the equipment and ingredients is I always aim to hydrate my flour as best I can and incorporate each ingredient completely before adding the next. My goal is to make sure I can maximize fermentation by giving the ingredients the best head start possible.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Learn factors and adjustments that play into proper pizza dough mixing appeared first on Pizza Today.

Hall of Flame

“Everything starts with a solid foundation. The stronger it is, the longer you last in competition, business and life, because only the strongest survive.”                      

Chef Que Wimberly, The Missing Brick Pizzeria, Indianapolis, Indiana

The 2021 pizza showdown in Las Vegas was spectacular in that it really highlighted the camaraderie that makes this profession more of a family than an industry. We all deeply missed all the competitors from Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and Australia, (especially MC Theo Kalagarokos, who was detained at customs with smuggled sheep.) This year, the competitors in all the different pizza categories shared the same space together. It was heartening to see so many more female competitors than the previous years. My pizza radar made me smile when I spotted the contestants in Napolitana STG next to a Detroit Pan pizza maker discussing oven temps with a New York style pizza maker. 

Pushing with Purpose

“Being okay outside your comfort zone adds to being a great competitor. Being comfortable when things go wrong and unexpected is when greatness happens.”                                         

Laura Meyer, World Pizza Champion, San Francisco, California 

This year’s competition was coordinated during an ongoing worldwide pandemic with supply chains frayed and broken and some flights cancelled. Even with all these distractions, this competition was as
intense, competitive and innovative as I’ve ever seen mostly because of the fabulous crew who coordinated every aspect of the competition. Drew Richards, Vice President, Pizza Master and certified pizzaiolo, assisted 75 contestants all three days says: “The ’21 competition really opened my eyes to the elevated dough handling processes along with incredible baking precision. Techniques that were only being used by a few top Pizzaiolo in the past are now commonplace with these chefs.” He elaborated, “I enjoyed seeing a lot of the pan division revert back to lower density dough per square inch. I saw rounds with 75-percent hydration and pans with 100 percent. The true beauty was that the chefs weren’t pushing the boundary to go as high as they could, they were pushing with purpose.”

Trending flavor bombs

New trends this year at the International Pizza Challenge were several takes on hot sauces, especially curried and sweetened. Plant-based ingredients were big this year showing that it is profitable to maintain a vegan menu. Detroit-style pizzas were represented in force with some high frico crusts and even split in half and stuffed. Multiple grain pizzas were entered and added to the complex mix. Creative after-oven finishes like crispy proteins, luxurious cheeses and brushed oils also contributed to a lot of flavor bombs this year.

Competition manager Jayme Pittroff saw a lot of hot honey either drizzled on the pies or brushed on the crust. There were some fabulous takes on Barbacoa, homemade pork charcuterie and sauces made from sweet peppers and fermented fruit. Because of the strong emergence of lifestyle diets like keto-centric pizzas, there were several non-gluten crusts with proteins. I was impressed to see so many house-made cheeses, vegan cheeses and cheeses transformed with in-house smoking. Chef Richards commented, “I saw a lot of high-hydration grandmas with great lift and body…with the perfect amount of dough density to toppings.” Tavern-style pizzas made their mark this year, even though Lenny Rago introduced it in competition in 2018. He hopes they’ll make it a competition category soon.

Here come da Judge

Jayme Pittroff highly recommends new contestants need to appeal to a wide range and remember that judges have differing palates. Pizzas that are too spicy never do well. “Come with an open mind, learn and experiment a little. Take advantage of the wealth, knowledge and contacts you will meet at the show,” he says.

Judge Chris Tricarichi, said he saw a lot of figs and spicy jams being used this year as well as house-smoked meats, but noted that sweet toppings, like spice, can be overpowering.  “Having a pizza that stands out, with quality ingredients and not overcomplicating things with too many toppings is what I look for,” he says.

It’s Game Time

“I go into a competition with reverence for my fellow competitors as well as the art form because I would rather lose amongst the best than win amongst the mediocre.”                         

Anthony Scardino, Professor Pizza, Chicago, Illinois 

Pizza maker of the year, Nick Banker says; “The best way to win and make an impact is to combine premium flavors with a creative twist to shock the eye. I’ve seen a couple of avocado-salmon recipes online so I thought it would be fun. I used a ricotta-tomato puree, red onion, mozzarella, pre-cooked salmon, fresh avocado, capers, dill, Peruvian pepper drops, arugula and ricotta swirls and a white and mild cheddar for a cheese crust bed.”

Laura Meyer crushed it with her innovative, long pan-style with a Roman crust. Her pizza was baked with crispy jalapeño bacon, whole milk mozzarella, candied figs in hot honey and topped with a delicious avocado crema.

Alfredo Pappalardo wowed the crowd with sophisticated simplicity using both tipo 00 and tipo 0 flours with an autolyze bulk fermentation at room temperature then forming his dough balls five hours to elevate his Napoletana pizza to the finals. 

Anthony Scardino from Chicago chose to compete with a New York-style crust supporting an Al Pastor inspired pizza because both styles, the New York slice and the Al Pastor street taco, are both icons and he married them to celebrate the two worlds together. 

One of the most impressive pizzas in Las Vegas this year came from 18-year-old Carmela Cataldo. (Yes, the daughter of World Champion Paul Cataldo who owns Antonio’s Italian Restaurant in Elkhart, Indiana.) The pizza was made with a 72-hour cold fermentation, light mozzarella atop a pomodoro sauce made by her sister, Gemma. It was topped with house-made and thin-sliced honey hot sausage, grilled red peppers and seasoned extra-virgin and cupping and char pepperoni.    

Chef Eric Von Hanson, blew several judges minds with his pizza that was inspired by all the wine-tasting dinners he hosted. It included an IPA-infused crust, black truffle-foie mousse, vanilla bean poached pears and bison filet carpaccio, and finished with a black currant balsamic with orange-champagne vinaigrette. 

Ed Barbeau, who really impressed me years ago – going first in the competition with a chicken and waffle pizza — entered a magnificent Pacific Northwest inspired pizza with Hood River cherries, duck bacon and some local goat cheese.

Enzo Palombino says, “I look at the simplicity vs complexity and see if I can combine those two to have a perfect balanced pizza.” He brought on a fantastic Green Chili Chicken Pizza that bowled the judges over. He paired his cream cheese based Tuscan cream sauce with his invention — green chili jam and chicken for a real winner but he didn’t stop there. All this was happening on airy fried pizza dough.

Que Wimberly brought seafood on with The Trap Pizza: A long pizza with shrimp, lump crab meat, mozzarella, green onion, parsley drizzled with a combination of OG Trap Buttah and sprinkled with Young Bae seasoning, (as opposed to Old Bay,) made in house by Chef Oya.

Ali Haider made a spectacular star-shaped pizza called “The Pride of Dubai,” a honey-infused, spicy Dakoos tomato sauce with three types of beef, Emirati Akkawi cheese, fresh mozzarella, onions, roasted sesame, fresh basil with the point of each star as the dessert with dates and date syrup. 

Tore Trupiano, who has been competing since 1995, decided to create a pizza that screamed California. “Our kumquats caught my attention — sweet in the middle and tart on the outside. So, I paired them with my own cherry wood-smoked pork shoulder finished with a peach preserve glaze. My base was a white cream and cream cheese with the peach and jalapeño dry rub I used for the pork.”

Chef Eric Von Hanson really sums up all it means to be in this industry. “If you put love into everything you do, it will pay off one day.”  

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

The post Rock solid competitors, trends and insights from the International Pizza Challenge 2021 appeared first on Pizza Today.

The Raw Deal: How to solve the undercooked pizza crust problem

I have been making pizza for over 15 years now, and I can proudly say that I have most likely eaten my weight in pizza. I have eaten pizza all over the world, and for the most part it has always been delicious. On occasion I stumble upon a pizza that just misses the mark. It is not because the pizza lacks in flavor but because the pizza was improperly cooked. In busy restaurants it is easy to let a pizza slide through that has been cooked incorrectly but it’s always that one pizza that haunts you. There are a number of different factors that contribute to a well-cooked pizza, and they don’t always stem from the oven. A pizza that has been cooked completely and correctly actually begins well before the dough has been stretched.

One of the most common errors I see in kitchens is not enough dough has been pulled out of the refrigerator before service.

Just as you should never put a cold steak on a grill, you should never put cold dough in a hot oven. If you are cooking Neapolitan pizza, cold dough tends to blister more giving it that leopard spotting everyone loves but at the same time is that much harder to cook all the way through. No matter what style you are cooking, your oven is going to have a set point and a specific cook time. In every kitchen I have worked in there is always that one cook or new person that loves cold dough because it is easier to stretch and harder to tear. The downfall of this is an improperly trained cook. During the cooking process your dough is rising in temperature to cook the toppings, cheese and dough. If your dough is cold, it is harder for it to cook all the way through while your toppings cook and the dough browns. When the pizza enters the oven, the water in the dough begins to boil and evaporate. If the dough is cold, it will not cook all the way through leaving too much moisture in the dough resulting in a gum line. 

A gum line is the term we use to describe a portion of uncooked dough. If you cut into a pizza and look at the interior of the crust, you will sometimes find a line that looks almost like gel.  To combat cold dough, I recommend having enough space to accommodate multiple trays of dough or a system to stage your dough. Have an area where you can pull the dough out of the fridge when it is busy but not near your workstation. The dough will gradually come up to room temperature and you can rotate it to your worktable as needed. If you are not as busy as you originally thought, your dough will then be salvageable because it has been held in a warmer environment than your fridge but not a hot environment like right next to your oven.

A gum line can also be a result from too hot of an oven or too quick of a bake. For high hydrated doughs you need the correct cooking temperature to allow for a long enough bake time to evaporate out enough of the moisture. For styles like Roman this is imperative. If this dough cooks too quickly, you end up with gum lines and a dough that does not become crispy or one that does not retain its crisp. Too cold of sauce can also inhibit the cooking process. Health codes require you maintain proper times and temperatures. In order to stay in compliance, I recommend keeping sauce in small enough containers on top of your table or work surface so that it comes to room temperature quickly. Using small enough containers will also ensure that you are going through it quick enough to appease health department standards.

Another flaw I see repeatedly is improperly cooked bottoms.

On busy nights it can be hard to keep up with dine-in as well as take-out and delivery. It can become overwhelming and adding on people constantly asking where their food is can be anxiety driven and frustrating. Most cooks try and compensate by putting as many pies as they physically can in the oven thinking they’re going to push food out faster that way. What really ends up happening is the oven cools down to a point where the stones cannot recover with each new rotation of pies. As pizzas cook, the heat from the stones is absorbed by the pizza. By putting pizzas in the same spot, those areas completely lose their heat meaning the bottoms never cook. To combat this, I recommend leaving at least one spot where nothing is cooking leaving it as a “hot spot”. By keeping a hot spot in the oven, you will always have an area to rotate your pizzas into towards the end of the bake to finish off the bottoms. If you are using screens, it is smart to remove the screen halfway through so the pizza can finish on the physical stone. The contact with the stone will ensure a well-done bottom as well as ensure you get the desired crispiness.

The opposite side of the spectrum is pizzas that are burnt. At times what appears to be burnt areas are thin spots on the crust that formed during the stretch but were never degassed before entering the oven.  A simple fix is to pop thin bubbles before cooking or using a bubble popper to deflate enlarged bubbles inside the oven before they firm up.

Perfectly cooked pizzas are what we strive for every day. At times it seems everything is working against us. But remembering to always bring your dough and sauce to room temperature before use, keeping a hot spot in the oven and popping those pesky bubbles will make it that much easier to bake a great pie.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Knead to Know: Avoid an Undercooked Pizza and Unhappy Diners appeared first on Pizza Today.

Onion and Sausage Petal Pizza, photo by John Gutekanst

Onion Blings

Onions. Yes, you know, those giant mesh bags that sit in your walk-in like a second-string quarterback?  With a little imagination, it could be time to play this transformative vegetable to make pizzas and pastas more exciting. For centuries, these little sulfurous flavor bombs have been manipulated to transfer flavor into sauces and paired with other ingredients to turn foods from boring to exciting. Their texture can range from liquid to crunchy and best of all, onions are one of the best value-for-taste products in your pizzeria.

The Big Sphinx Stink

Onions are a genus of flowering plants in the allium family. The Egyptian peasants would buy them from small market stalls, sliced and serve with ale and a common flatbread named ta before returning to work on the pyramids. It is thought that Alexander the Great found the onion in Egypt then brought it to Greece. Ironically, we see a trend as the dark-age peasants in the time of the Goths, Visigoths, Vandals and Franks ate onions with porridge or bread, ale, cabbage and sometimes a piece of salt pork. 

The Allium Family

The Allium family and the taste of each type of bulb and scape is distinguished by pungency and concentration of the sulfur compounds. Here is a list of alliums minus the garlic and leek.

White Onion: This stronger, spicier and more pungent onion than the yellow onions. This onion has a more pronounced onion flavor but falls apart when cooked. The crisp texture is perfect for onion rings.

Red Onion: Sometimes referred to as the salad onion because of its sweetness and less punchy spice when raw. You can cook with this onion and the color fades to pink when heated. This onion caramelizes easily after roasting or atop a pizza which mellows the flavor. 

Yellow Onion: Sometimes referred as the brown onion. This is the workhorse of many kitchens because it is cheaper and plentiful. The flavor is strong but not overpowering and caramelize easily and the flesh holds up well when cooking. 

Sweet Onions: The mildest of all are usually odd shaped and thus hard to cut in a kitchen setting especially with new chefs. This may be called Vidalia Georgia, Texas or Walla Walla and are great for raw preparations. When heating, they lose that oniony flavor fastest so keep that in mind.

Shallot: This tastes like a cross between a yellow and red onion and is a favorite of chefs because the texture doesn’t break down easily. In a fine dining environment, the small flesh enables chefs to fabricate this into fine dice in sauces and entrees. These can be pickled very easily in small rings for a great pickled garnish.

Others: There are many other varieties of allium like the wild ramp, spring onion, leek, chive, Spanish calcot, pearl, grey shallot, wild lampascioni, and ramsons.

Onions can be paired with an enormous number of foods. Because they act as a building block for all things culinary like the flavor base “Holy Trinity” or Mirepoix using celery, onion, and carrot. Here are some other pairings that really bring out the flavor of the onion: bacon, liver, bay, butter, orange, parsley, thyme, brandy, vinegar, citrus, toasted nuts, apple, cocoa, honey, chili peppers, cream, milk, meats, mushrooms, sugar, stocks, salt sage, rosemary, pepper, nutmeg, oil, anchovies, apples, basil, wheat, carrot, cheddar, comte cheese, goat, fromage blanc, Gruyere, Parmigiano, Swiss, Emmental, potatoes, tomato, saffron, curry, peas, oregano, bitter greens, mangoes, cucumbers, cilantro, nutmeg, mint and blue cheese.

Onions in the pizzeria

To propel onions to the top of your best-selling pizza, you’ll need a plan, a few co-starring ingredients, and your finger on the pulse of popular flavors. Here are some ideas that I have had success with:

• Curried onions with raisons. Eight cups sliced red onions in a pan with a quarter cup of canola oil and a one or two cups curry powder and one cup of water. Toss well with gloves and place into an oven to cook. As soon as cooked, toss two handfuls of raisons in the hot mix to re-hydrate. You may add this directly on a pizza, grind up and mix with ricotta, add to a hydrated batch of dough for curry bread or curry pizza dough.

• Chipotle Onions. Same recipe as above but instead of curry, add one small can of chipotle in adobo sauce to the onions and squash with hands and mix well. Roast the same way and add blueberries for a great sauce. This can also be ground up and made into a righteous barbeque sauce or sauced on a pizza with pork and provolone or kneaded into a bread.

• Pickled Shallot Rings. Cut large shallots into rings, place into clean and sanitized jars or lexans with tight lids. Combine and heat up 3 cups vinegar, 1 cup water, ½ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons salt, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf, 5 whole cloves, 5 juniper berries and 7 whole peppercorns. When boiling, add the shallots and turn heat off. Pour the heated liquid into the jars and let cool. When cool close the lid and refrigerate.

• Onion Fettucine Alfredo. Cut the ends off two white onions and peel the outside skin. Turn the onion on end and make a vertical cut halfway down the onion. Using your slicer or sharp knife to cut ¼ inch cuts horizontally across the onion to form “fettuccine” like strips. Choose the longest strips and steam with lid on for 10 to 12 minutes until just translucent. Cool the onion then heat up your favorite cream sauce and add the onion fettuccine, Parmigiano and sauté’ for only 30 seconds. This is great with bacon or strips of crispy Prosciutto di Parma and, it’s gluten free.

Onion and Sausage Petal Pizza

This small pizza powerhouse packs a wonderful combination of onions, cream, spinach and sausage. This 10-inch pizza exhibits both the stronger raw onions baked on the pizza and the delicious sausage-ricotta stuffed onion petals.  

Get the Onion and Sausage Petal Pizza recipe.

JOHN GUTEKANST  owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

The post New Ideas for Onions in Your Pizzeria appeared first on Pizza Today.

The Dough Stretch 

Having the perfect dough recipe is great, but if you do not know how to properly open or stretch a dough ball all that work quickly disappears. For beginners stretching dough can be one of the toughest techniques to master. There are machines like sheeters and dough presses that have been created to help expedite this process as well as take the “hard part” out of making pizza. The downfall with these machines is that it takes the artistry out of hand making pizza. They can negatively impact your dough by taking too much air out or heating the dough up, or even leave a not so pleasant taste from oil. 

Improper stretching means a pizza that will be difficult to cook or one that will not cook properly.

The first thing I like to tell people is to think about stretching not as degassing or deflating but more as moving the gas towards the crust while defining the rim and giving it shape. Even though the middle is the thinnest part of most pizzas, there should still be gas present. It is only with thin or cracker thin pizzas that I am thinking about deflating. Before starting, making sure your dough is properly hydrated and matured as well as room temperature will make stretching easier.

There are three main techniques that I have come across to begin the stretching process and they are as follows.

Dough Stretching Technique 1 

Starting with the edge of your dough ball furthest from you, make an indentation about an inch down from the top edge. Maintaining that inch distance from the edge, continue to make indentations all the way around until you get to your first mark. At this point, you should have what looks like a small hat. You have just defined your crust. Using flat fingers, flatten your middle. Your dough should now look like a miniature pizza. 

Dough Stretching Technique 2

Working from the middle, press down working up towards the edge of your dough furthest from you, stopping about an inch from the edge. Some pizza makers either rotate the dough and repeat the same process or they flip the dough over and repeat the same process on the other side. If you flip the dough for the second pass you will need to rotate the dough a quarter turn on the third pass to make sure you evenly shape your dough. Once you have completed a full turn of the dough, stop. At this point you should have a miniature pizza.

Dough Stretching Technique 3

This technique is very similar to the first except while you are shaping your crust with your dominant hand, the other is on the outside of the crust, and while you are depressing the dough where you want your crust to be you are using the outside hand as a wall to slightly compress the crust. Your hand creates the letter T with the crust in between your fingers of your dominant hand and the palm of your opposing hand. This technique is very popular with the New York style of pizza and can be commonly heard as squaring off your edge. This technique tends to
degas your crust a little more than if you were to not, but it is not considered wrong for the style. 

Now that you have a defined crust and a miniature pizza it is time to stretch it to the appropriate size. There are two main techniques here with slight variations.

The Neapolitan slap is very common amongst Neapolitan pizza makers but is becoming more widely used amongst other styles. Once they have defined their crust, they pick the dough up with their dominant hand, flip the dough down flat on the table onto the opposing hand with palm facing up. When the dough lands on the opposing hand the goal is to have the crust land on the fingertips. From here the dominant hand is face down on the table around the middle of the dough holding it in place. The opposing hand stretches the dough along the crust without decompressing the air out. Once they have completed the stretch the hands flip transferring the dough back to the dominant hand as it rotates the dough slightly repeating the process until they make a full 180-degree rotation or the pizza is the adequate size. 

The second technique is the one I use the most. Once I have the shape defined, I place my hands together with my fingertips touching right underneath the crust at the top of the dough. If the dough is smaller, I will curve my hands in to keep them within the center of the dough. Once I have defined my crust my goal is to not touch it again. One of the hardest parts about learning to stretch is to see the big picture. Everyone focuses on what their fingertips are doing but forgets about what their palms are doing. For those with larger hands this can be difficult. If it is too uncomfortable to curl your hands in, you can also lift your palms up just enough so as not to squish your crust. Once I have my fingertips placed, I make my first stretch. I always start with smaller stretches until it becomes large enough for me to flatten out my hands or pick it up and finish the stretch. The action is concentrated between my middle and pointer fingers and is focused between my crust and about two inches down towards the middle but keeping the middle as strong as possible. 

To finish the stretch, I’ll pick it up off the table and use the backs of my hands to finish it off. I use my thumbs as a guide right underneath the crust, so I always know where not to cross over. If my dough is warm or has weak spots, I will stop an inch to two inches smaller that what I need, build the pizza, and then finish the stretch on the peel before I launch it into the oven. Once you have the weight of toppings, sauce and cheese it is easier to get it to the right size and make sure there are no weak spots than to keep trying to stretch it and possibly make a hole.

Ultimately the goal of stretching is to maintain as much air within your crust as possible to ensure a light pizza but also to make sure it is as even as possible. An evenly stretched pizza means a good bake and one that will come out of the oven with no holes. Stretching is a technique that requires practice. No pizza maker became an expert after the first time and every day is different, but perfecting your technique is a great way to ensure consistency.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

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Excellent Ancient Grains in the Pizzeria 

Fifteen years ago, I had no intention of making pizza without the usual white, bleached and bromated flour that all pizza places use. Then one hot September day, I travelled to my favorite Amish family in the rolling countryside outside Chesterhill, Ohio, to get tomatoes and basil. As I arrived, I saw Joe, the father, out in the field riding on what looked like a medieval wheat-cutting contraption being pulled by a team of four massive Clydesdale horses. A young guy named Brandon followed him stacking the grain that Joe had just cut into teepee-like piles across the field. I stopped and, after much banter, Brandon told me that this harvest was spelt and that he was starting a mill in town and once it dried, he would grind it and sell it to me. It was after Brandon milled the spelt that I incorporated this into my menu mix. We started advertising with a picture of Joe and Brandon below big letters saying, “You Spelt it, we dealt it.” To this day, our spelt crust is extremely popular for its deep nutty and sweet taste and many gluten-intolerant customers say it does not affect them as much as white flour.

Parting of the Bread Sea

Moses regarded the growing of grains as a priority and the wheat growers were treated like rock stars. The Greeks and Romans followed suit and considered the tiller of grains a distinguished citizen in a class above any tradesman of the time. When harvest season arrived, they cut the grain with scythes, plain sickles or just plucked off the grains using a fork with five teeth. Some generals even put the Roman soldiers to work during harvest time wading them into a wheat field with their sharpened swords. After the harvest, the thrashing began as heavy horse-drawn carts (called Carthaginian Chariots) crushed the grain with pointed teeth. The Roman-milled grain was sieved and refined. Sometimes they would mill it twice to create white flour called Siligo, fine flour called Foir or Pollen. Spelt was mostly used as whole meal flour and called farina. The precursor of pizza and modern pita bread was the wafer-thin and un-topped Panis Strepticius that was baked quickly on hot stones.

The products the ancients made went into items that each social class could afford. For instance, in the ancient Greek markets, a delicate, but unleavened biscuit using millet or barley (called azumos) was sold as a sort of tasteless hunk. But there also was a tastier artolangano, into which the baker infused pepper, oil, wine and milk. The poorer folks had a choice between dolyres or typhes. These were course dried gruel of emmer (mixes of rye and barley). The high fashioned ladies of the time preferred the puff cakes called placates, or sweet melitutes, which had light flour mixed with honey before baking. 

Ancient Grains in the Pizzeria

Einkorn: From German “single grain” was cultivated in Syria 30,000 years ago. Sometimes called “Littlespelt,” it has a high protein content above 14 percent and is packed with fat, potassium, vitamin A, carotene and phosphorous. Because of the arrangement of starches, they released slowly so it does not spike blood sugars. Einkorn is difficult to seed and harvest because of a much smaller head and it grows chest-high, which leads to “blow downs” in the field. Even so, many growers are turning to this ancient grain. Because of Einkorn’s sticky attribute, I try to keep the hydration below 80 percent and a nice 60/40 mix with a higher gluten flour. This enables the pizza to achieve the great golden Einkorn color crust and moist cornicione tasting all nutty, with that tangy wheat flavor.

Rouge de Bordeaux: This has been a favorite of French bakers for a long time. At 15.25-percent protein, it presents a nutty, earthy crumb with notes of cinnamon spice. It is considered a Heritage wheat and has been grown in France since the 1800’s. This flour can be a bit expensive, so I like to mix it with other flours at 30 to 40 percent. Nothing touches a pizza made with this flour like mushrooms, Fontina and garlic. Other pizza toppings that work well with this dark flour are beef bacon, burrata, truffles and truffle oil, Gruyere cheese, Brie, apples, walnuts, Gorgonzola and (staying in that French lane) duck prosciutto and Foie Gras after the oven! 

Spelt: This ancient variety of wheat has been grown as far back as ancient Egypt. In 750 BC, it became the dominant wheat species in Germany and Switzerland. These days, the hard bran shell is perfect for warding off insects and mold which leads to less human spraying. I get mine grown organically by local Amish, who sell it to a local mill in town at 13-percent protein. This grain flour is a little bit nuttier and sweeter than conventional white wheats and absorbs more hydration. For the pizza maker, I recommend a finer grind because of the sharp outer bran that can cut through the alveoli, or gas-filled lungs, when they are proofed and filled with delicious gasses. I also recommend mixing with white spelt or a higher gluten Manitoba wheat for conventional pizza cooking temperatures (around 500 F.) 

Durum Wheat or Semolina: This Italian favorite is mine also. In Italy, and especially in Puglia, the Appulo, Ofanto, Creso and other varieties are grown like the Russello grown in Sicily. This wheat grain produces sweet bread with a cakelike crumb and crisp crust. In this country, fine Semolina is usually labeled “Extra Fancy,” whereas coarser durum is called “No 1.” Some beautiful pizzas can be achieved under high heat using an acidi madre or natural starter, but I also use it with a direct method with dry yeast and biga. I especially love making Foccacia Barese, mixing it with local mashed Corolla potatoes as it finishes like a savory cake adorned with summer tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil. 

Other contenders for fabulous pizza crusts are Kamut, Buckwheat, Turkey Red, Emmer, Teff, Farro, Sorghum and amaranth as well as others.

Ancient Grain Sourdough Tellegio and Bosc Pear Pizza

Learn how to make the Ancient Grain Sourdough Tellegio and Bosc Pear Pizza from scratch. John Gutekanst walks you through the starter process, leavening, fermentation, mixing and step-by-step instructions on how to make the Taleggio and Bosc Pear Pizza. 

Get the Ancient Grain Sourdough Tellegio and Bosc Pear Pizza recipe.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

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Get a deep dive into which flour will work best for you

Let’s talk flour. Any smart pizza maker can make a great tasting pizza no matter what flour they have available, but there are a few factors that will determine the process based on the flour itself. There are flours on the market that are engineered for specific styles, but price point and availability are going to dictate whether they are usable. An imported flour that costs twice as much as a domestic is not always the smartest business decision, nor is every flour going to be available to you if you live in a remote area. Understanding a few key things first will help determine which flour is best for you.

One of the first questions you hear pizza makers ask each other is what the protein content of their flour is.

Protein content is unfortunately something that is not going to be written on a bag of flour, so it’s not easily known just by looking at it. Fortunately, spec sheets are now readily available online if you are looking to do some research on new flours or companies. Most flours are advertised as specific to certain styles. What the protein content does is tell you how strong the flour or gluten structure will be. For example, All-Trumps is a very common flour for New York-style pizza and is labeled as a high protein, high-gluten flour. Without even knowing the exact percentage of protein, this tells me that it is meant for longer maturations and lower cooking temps.

During fermentation, enzymes break down complex sugars into simple sugars. Yeast eats the simple sugars within the dough creating a byproduct of alcohol and carbon dioxide which, in turns, makes the dough rise and grow in size. The strength of the gluten and protein within the flour will determine how long this bubble will be able to hold the carbon dioxide within it before popping and flattening out. This flattening point is usually what pizza makers call “blown” dough. Skilled hands can work with blown dough, but it can be very tricky to work with and usually is a point of no return for some. There are a number of factors that will determine length of fermentation but if you are working with a high-gluten flour, one that has a high protein content, tells me that I can ferment my dough in the fridge for days and even up to a week if done properly.

In pizza the flours normally range between 12-percent and 16-percent protein.

Although the range may seem small, those small changes in percentage mean big differences to the type of pizza you will make. When I think about protein percentage in relation to style of pizza I want to make, there is a correlation. For a soft and chewy pizza like Neapolitan or anything cooked in a high-temperature oven, the lower the percentage of protein is better. For a New York-style pizza that is cooked in a lower temperature oven and is crunchier in texture and more durable to work with and handle, the higher the percentage of protein is better. When I am teaching new pizza makers, I always like to use the analogy of body builders. Body builders tend to eat large quantities of protein at mealtimes because they are looking to build a lot of muscle and increase their overall strength. Flours follow that same path. The more protein the stronger it is.

To give some perspective all-purpose flour is normally around 10-percent protein and bread flour is between 11 to 13 percent (cake flour and those meant for pastries is 10 percent down to 7 percent). The lower protein lends to a softer texture and not much gluten formation which makes sense for cakes and cookies.

No two high-protein, high-gluten fours are the same. For example, Millers has a recipe that they shoot for to ensure consistency, but wheat is a living thing that farmers do their best to control but ultimately is at the mercy of nature. Millers inspects and tests different grains during different seasons and change the blend, adding more of one and less of another to make up their final product. This is one reason why your flour might perform differently throughout the year. Other ingredients are also added to flour like ascorbic acid, potassium bromate and malt. Some of these ingredients are added to help enrich the flour like bran and germ where most of the vitamins are removed during the milling process.

Another aspect of flour to consider is the type of refinement.

For a long time, pizza makers loved to throw around the term “00” not really understanding what that means. There are five different grades of refinement for flour. The 00 is the lowest end of the spectrum meaning it is the most refined. During the milling process wheat is ground and then sifted several times. During this sifting process is when the bran and germ is removed leaving behind the refined flour. Most American flours are 00 in refinement but is not a requirement for labeling. Italian and other imported flours will have this printed right on the bag. This is also a piece of information that is readily accessible through spec sheets online. From 00 the list goes to 0, 1, 2, and then whole meal. The grade of refinement will tell you how much bran and how coarsely ground the flour is. Bread bakers talk about their flour in terms of ash content. The ash content is a way of categorizing the mineral content and bran content. The ash content is determined by burning a sample of flour and the leftover remnants are weighed determining the mineral content of the bran.

There is an endless list of flours on the market and the possibilities are limitless. Understanding protein content and refinement alone will help you determine which flours are best for your model. Once you have a handle on the basic elements, blending flours is a great way to change texture and increase complexity. Finding the perfect flour for your operation can be daunting, but once you find what works for you the end result is bound to be tasty.

The post Knead to Know: Flour Power, a guide to pizza flour appeared first on Pizza Today.

It Lives

When we talk about dough, everyone’s recipe differs in some way. That is the beauty of pizza. No one person is doing it the same as another, but one constant in every recipe that is a must have, cannot live without, is yeast. The quantity of yeast may vary slightly, but to make great leavened pizza or bread yeast is a requirement. In all honesty, yeast has always been that magical ingredient that I never quite understood until I started doing extensive research about it. With flour you can google a clear-cut image of all the different parts a kernel of grain is made up of, and it is easier to understand what flour is from that. Yeast, on the other hand, is a single-cell organism that naturally exists in nature and in all our surroundings, but it is microscopic and cannot be seen in its natural state by the naked eye. It is companies like Red Star, Fleischmann’s and Lesaffre that have figured out how to harvest yeast and make it as consistent as possible and shelf stable. So, what really is yeast and how much should you be using?

Baker’s yeast is part of the fungi kingdom and the Saccharomyces Cerevisiae family. The big, long, fancy Latin name means that it is a sugar eating fungus. This type of yeast is naturally present in the environment, meaning sourdough is possible anywhere, but no two sourdough preferments are going to contain the same strains or quantities of yeast. For pizza making we are primarily concerned with four forms of yeast: cake or fresh yeast, active dry, instant or sourdough. The first three types are commercially made and can be bought and stored in the refrigerator. The last is a natural way of harnessing yeast through a starter or preferment. Commercially made yeast is a great way to maintain consistency within an operation. Sourdough on the other hand, although trickier to maintain and control, once harnessed will offer more variance in terms of flavor.

The difference between active dry yeast and instant comes down to potency and speed. There are different schools of thought that say you need more active dry as compared to instant if substituting one for the other and there are those that say you can use equal amounts. During the production and drying stages of dry active yeast, dead yeast cells are used as a coating around the live cells which is one reason why it is recommended that you bloom dry active yeast before adding it to your batch of dough. This coating of yeast cells also slows down the activity, thus delaying the fermentation process (which is another reason why some people tend to use more active dry than instant).

Instant yeast has a thinner coating of dead yeast cells, which means it dissolves faster and starts working faster. But there is such a thing as too much yeast. During the rising process, yeast eats sugar and then produces C02, alcohol and other acids as a byproduct. If there is too much yeast in a dough, too much alcohol is created and can weaken the gluten structure and produce a dough that does not rise well.  Both instant and dry active are shelf stable, and if stored in a dry, airtight container it can last upwards of a year in the freezer.

Fresh yeast is a slurry of yeast and water that is compressed into a block resembling the consistency of feta cheese and is normally tan in color. Since it is alive, fresh yeast is extremely perishable and must remain in a cold refrigerated state. If the color is whiter than tan or brown and it is brittle in consistency or moldy then it will be unsuitable for use. Since fresh yeast is mixed with water, more fresh yeast, up to three times as much, will be needed in a batch of dough if substituting for dry active or instant.

Sourdough, or levain, is a way of harnessing the natural yeasts in your environment. Creating a sourdough can take up to five to seven days and requires a strict feeding schedule. Once your sourdough has a routine, you will be better able to control the consistency of your final product. Using a sourdough can add an immense amount of flavor to any recipe but can be very temperamental if conditions change and you are unsure of how to adapt. There are lots of resources out there that can help with how to get a sourdough going as well as how to maintain it. There are also pizza makers like Audrey Kelly in Boulder, Colorado, and Will Grant in Seattle, Washington, that use a sourdough in their operations and are a wealth of knowledge on the subject.

Determining which type of yeast you want to use is the first step. How much to use is a complex question. When you want to bake your dough and what your temperatures and conditions are going to be determine how much yeast you should use. Yeast is most active in a warm environment and begins to die around 120 F.

To help better predict how much yeast you will need, there are charts available online that can help you. Another term for these charts is inoculation. Based off the temperature you are working in and within how many hours you want to bake your dough, these charts will help give you a percentage of yeast that will get you to that final product. These charts are useful, but keep in mind that as soon as conditions change the numbers change, as well. How much yeast is determined by so many factors that there is no hard and fast number you can use every day. Yeast is a living thing and is always reacting to its environment and food source, meaning you will need to monitor these conditions and alter your recipe to ensure consistency. The science behind yeast and fermentation is complex, but understanding the basic principles that yeast eats simple sugar and is more active in a warm environment are great first steps into the crazy world of baking. 

Laura Meyer is Administrator & Instructor, The International School of Pizza.

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Hot Wheels

Summer is coming quickly, and with Covid restrictions across the country loosening and the number of vaccinations rising, that means dining rooms will be opening and off-site events will be returning. Pizza trailers and catering events will be in full swing, and ensuring your product and dough is consistent and cool will be the ultimate challenge.

Taking on mobile catering and events can be tricky at best. Every time you think you nail down the details in advance, when that day comes there always seems to be a change in plans or an unexpected hurdle. We are always looking for the best ways to control our environment and anything outside your normal will test your knowledge and skill as a pizza maker. Here are a few ideas on how to manage your dough in unanticipated conditions.

Before you prepare for any event, you will always want to know a few things first. If you are using an oven given to you by the venue, what kind of oven is it? You will want to know the temperature it can reach as well as if it is a home style, convection oven or if it is a pizza oven. This will dictate what kind of dough you will be making and the style you will be serving. Next, you will want to check the weather and then pray the weather app is accurate or at least darn close. Depending on where you live, there could be four seasonal changes in a day, so having a backup plan is best.

Depending on the weather there are a few things to consider: how much yeast? Bulk fermentation? Starter? When will I ball my dough? If the day looks to be on the cooler side, adding a bit more yeast than normal could help activate your dough a little quicker before the day of the event. Understanding that there is such a thing as too much yeast, I would recommend upping by a quarter percent and no more. On the day of the event getting your dough to a warm temperature can be a trickier scenario. I have been in situations where it looked like I messed up my dough because it did not rise or used dead yeast, but it was because the environment was just too cold. It slowed down the yeast activity to a point of hibernation. Warming the dough up as fast as possible was my only solution. If you are ever so lucky to be in a place that has heating, crank up the thermostat. Investing in a warming cabinet that is easily transported is a great way to warm up dough quickly as well as maintain the temperature and humidity. If extra equipment is not in the budget, then something I do quite often is moving the dough in front of the oven and rotating the stack occasionally to ensure even heating. Finding the warmest and coolest spot of any kitchen or venue is always good to know.

In the case that it is too hot, this can be a little trickier. Refrigerated trucks or vans or inside
refrigeration is always the best route, but not all venues and concepts can accommodate this. Large coolers with ice are always needed because not only will your dough need to be kept cold, but your
ingredients will also need to be refrigerated. Delivery style bags are also a great tool as they not only keep the heat in but will also keep cold. Investing in a few may be a good idea as these break down when empty and can be easily stacked and stored when they are not in use.

If the weather is anticipated to be hot and you will not have access to a lot of cold storage, adapting your dough could be an advantage. Bulk fermentation is a great tool that can be used when conditions are not ideal. Although some advance planning may be needed, bulk fermentation is a great technique when there is not a lot of storage on hand. Before the event you would want to make your dough, and instead of scaling out your portions and forming balls the same day, you would place a large portion of your finished dough into large containers and either leave them out in cool areas, so they rise slowly or refrigerate. This bulk dough could be left for a day or so in its container until the day of the event. On the day of the event, you would punch it down and then form the dough into balls. Whether in dough boxes or on sheet pans and a speed rack, the dough would then sit out at room temperature until ready to use.

Optimally you would want to portion your balls in the morning in anticipation of cooking them later in the afternoon or evening. If it is going to be extremely hot, this rising process will happen sooner in which you would wait to ball your dough till late morning. Bulk fermenting your dough is a great method to learn for those events where conditions are tricky. You have more control over the fermentation process and can decide when to ball your dough depending on weather conditions that day.

Lowering your yeast percentage is another way to ensure your dough will not blow up on you on a hot day. Yeast is more active in a warm environment, and if there is too much yeast in a batch on a hot day, there is a possibility of the yeast consuming all the sugars in the dough before you use it. This would end up as blown dough and something that will not color well in the oven or rise. Normally bulk fermentation is done without the use of a starter as the end goal is the same, to create flavor and structure. If you choose to go the route of bulk fermentation, omitting the starter is best.

All in all, off-site events can be fun and a great way to expand your company’s presence but can also be stressful and overwhelming. Keeping these tips and tricks in mind will help smooth out any bumps and hurdles you may encounter along the way.

Laura Meyer is Administrator & Instructor, The International School of Pizza.

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Pizza Dough Chameleon — Learn to adapt your dought to multiple styles

The pizzeria of the past had one style and that was all that was offered. The pizzeria of today and the future is one that can present a variety of styles and keep their customers guessing with new and exciting options. For those who are making one dough, it can be nerve racking to think about adding a completely new recipe and complicating their already organized systems, but it is not quite as complicated as you might think.

With a few tweaks and small changes, it can be easy to incorporate new styles without much work. For those pizzerias who are making New York style or are cooking around 500 F, it can be quite easy to multipurpose the one dough recipe. New York might be the one style that is easiest to multipurpose into others. For instance, a Sicilian pan pizza is normally 65-percent hydration and higher, whereas a New York can be as low as 55-percent hydration. If the dough recipe is tweaked to the minimum 65-percent hydration of a Sicilian, it can be easily used as both a New York and Sicilian pan. By increasing the hydration on your recipe you will not only be able to execute a Sicilian or other pan pizza, but your New York will stretch a little easier if the dough is at room temperature and will also give your final product a little more crunch and durability. Another small plus is by adding more water to your recipe you will get a bigger yield out of your final dough in terms of number of dough balls per batch.

Other than increasing the hydration, nothing else would need to be changed for the dough recipe. In addition, the fermentation time could be kept the same. In terms of preparation, a small investment for pans would be all that is needed. Other pan styles like Grandma and Detroit would also be easily adapted from a New York style dough recipe. For the purists a different dough would be required for each style, but by changing technique and keeping the dough recipe the same all the pan styles are possible. For Sicilian, Grandma and Detroit there is usually a single rise method or a double rise method. The single rise is when you push the dough out in your pan, let it rise, and then bake it from there, either a complete bake with toppings or a parbake, meaning you will only bake it part of the way and then top it and return it to the oven for its final bake. Another method involves a double rise in which you would push the dough out in your pan, let it rise, de-gas and restretch the dough if it is not quite into the corners, let it rise again, and then the bake it for the full time or parbake.

New York-style dough can also be turned into a cracker thin or thin crust pizza very easily by changing your technique. For larger operations, a dough sheeter is great because it makes quick work of flattening any size dough ball. For smaller shops, a rolling pin works great. An easy way to get the distinct crunch from a thin crust, cracker thin, or tavern-style pizza is to dust your dough ball in cornmeal or semolina before flattening. The thickness of your dough may vary but adding something like cornmeal that is coarse will help give added crunchiness without changing anything else.

The great thing about all these styles is that they can all be executed out of the same oven. For the New York style a gas deck oven is usually the most common. The temperature could be kept the same on each deck, but if you increased the temperature on one deck and added a little extra oil to the pan for the Sicilian, Grandma, or Detroit, you can change the texture on the bottom of the pizza making it seem like something completely different. That little extra oil and a slightly higher cook temperature fries the dough on the bottom which lends to a completely different crunch and mouth feel.

A Sicilian or a focaccia type product is a great addition to any menu for numerous reasons. Thicker pan pizzas tend to travel better for delivery and take-out. They can also diversify your menu and be more alluring which could increase your average ticket sale. If the par-bake method is being used, the shell can be multi-purposed even more into sandwiches for an easy lunch menu or party platter and day-old shells can be ground into breadcrumbs or cut up into croutons for salads.

For those pizzerias that choose to have different dough recipes for each style, this works great but is a little more work in terms of organization. I recommend color coding your dough boxes or using boxes plus sheet pans. Another way to distinguish between recipes is to change how many dough balls fit into a box or on a pan. Having a dough schedule and designated team of dough makers is key when you expand into multiple dough recipes. Depending on your environment and location, your batch of dough is going to change every day, and having the same people make your dough who can pinpoint those small changes and compensate for them is crucial to having a consistent product.

There are other ways to adapt dough recipes to fit multiple styles, but changing your hydration is the easiest one. The pizzeria of the future that will be around for generations is one that can adapt and evolve. Although Detroit-style pizza is not new to those who grew up in Detroit, it is a style that is very much at the forefront of the industry and does not look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon. Being able to offer the popular style of the moment with little pain and frustration will only increase your profits and popularity. 

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See how Will Grant began with sourdough, invigorating a new generation of sourdough chefs

Sourdough breads have taken our Covid Pandemic Lockdown World by storm. What better way is there to spend quarantine than by filling your home with the aroma of fresh baked sourdough bread? So many people have become Internet famous with their methods on baking with sourdough. As new as this is to the pandemic, sourdough has been in the United States since before the late 1800s, and it originated even further back. The first known written records of sourdough were written in hieroglyphs by the ancient Egyptians.

My family sourdough is like a sibling to me. With that sourdough I have helped open 13 different restaurants using it in every one, never refrigerating it, always leaving it at room temperature, feeding it once if not twice a day for over 37 years now. For 33 years we kept our use of this sourdough to ourselves, our secret ingredient that no one else could replicate! It wasn’t until I started taking over the pizzeria as a manager and started taking more management classes at the Pizza Expo and Tony Gemignani’s school did I realize that our secret recipe was really a secret weapon in differentiating ourselves from the competition.

I am very fortunate to have inherited an ancient sourdough that got its start in the Klondike Gold Rush. In the early 1980s my parents, Lee and Marti, started having backyard pizza competitions with close friends (the Hausmann family). They tried to make that amazing concoction that we all love so much! After a few months of trial and error they came up with a recipe using the Hausmann’s great-great grandfather’s sourdough starter, which at that time was already 90 years old. I remember my father taking his first bite of that sourdough pizza and looking at us all and saying in an Italian accent, “Now that’s a some pizza!” This pizza was way better than anything they had had before in the Pacific Northwest. And that’s how That’s A Some Pizza was born.

My first time really getting to know this ancient starter is when we first brought it to our first pizzeria for our opening week in 1984. We were using a giant plastic garbage can to mix and feed our starter and we had to transport it to the shop for opening day. It was the 80s and road laws have changed a bit since then, but it was my job as the smallest member of the That’s A Some crew to sit in the bed of the pickup truck to hold up the starter and make sure it didn’t tip over on the ride in. I was six years old and very proud to be helping out. I remember it well. It was a hot July day and we were about halfway to the shop on a bumpy dirt road and the weirdest thing happened. With a loud “POP” the top blew off of the garbage can and sourdough started streaming down the sides! I immediately went into panic mode and used my arms to scrape the starter up the sides of the can, trying to keep it off the floor of the truck. It didn’t take me long to become completely covered in that sourdough and realize A: there was no way to keep it contained, B: that the truck had stopped moving and C: that there was loud laughter coming from the cab of the truck. I was relieved that I wasn’t in trouble, but it wasn’t the last time I’d be covered in this sourdough starter.

So my life with sourdough starter started off with a bang. Being so young, it took me a few more years before really becoming passionate about cooking and pizza. It was in 1988 that my love for pizza really began. My parents took me with them to Europe for a two-month vacation to research Italian food before opening our first Italian dine-in restaurant. It was an amazing experience.  I refused to eat any food but pizza. So for 60 days in a row I ate a margherita pizza every day.  When we returned to the states, I had a whole new appreciation for pizza and Italian culture.

We hired a Sicilian Master Chef to help open our new restaurant and I started a cooking apprenticeship with him. For the next five years I slowly worked my way up each position in the back of the house, from dishwasher, to prep cook, to line cook, to sauté cook. I then left the kitchen and started working the front of the house. I continued the same process and worked from the bottom to the top spending a year in each position. By the end of this process, I had studied under five different chefs and some of the best front of the house managers in our county. But I was still hungry for more. I stepped away from the family business and started my own pizzeria. It did well, but I still wanted even more, so I sold my pizzeria and moved to the East Coast to work with a chain of Italian restaurants in New England called Bertucci’s. I spent a summer in the management training program helping run a restaurant in Peabody, Massachusetts. By the end of that summer, I was homesick for the Pacific Northwest and my family was having a hard time with one of our restaurants, so I came home to help.

Fast forward 15 years. My family retired, and it was my turn to take over. I wanted to make my family and community proud. Staying relevant in an over 30-year-old business can be challenging. So, I changed things up a bit; I decided to become a certified pizzaiolo. After a bunch of research, I decided the most qualified school in the United States was Tony’ Gemignani’s International School of Pizza. Going to Tony’s school was an amazing experience. It confirmed so much I already knew… but didn’t even have names for. Tony Gemignani and his right-hand woman, Laura Meyer, are amazing teachers and taught me a lot of things about different styles of pizza.

In 2017 my life changed forever.  After becoming a certified pizzaiolo with Tony Gemignani I followed Tony’s advice and started cooking competitively. I used my sourdough and the techniques Tony taught me to win the prestigious Caputo Cup Non-Traditional title in Atlantic City at the Pizza & Pasta Northeast show. This first-place win and a second-place win by my store manager in the Traditional competition made That’s A Some Pizza the top-rated pizzeria in the United States!

If you’re interested in sourdough, join me at my seminar “Working with Sourdough” at Pizza Expo this August. I will show you how to adapt your pizza recipes to add sourdough the way my parents did. I’ll teach you different techniques like poolish and biga to get different flavor profiles in different styles of pizza. I’ll also cover feeding schedules and recipes to implement your use of starter. Most importantly I will give you the confidence of using the science the way Tony taught me to tinker with your dough and make the best dough possible for you and your business!

Will Lawrence-Grant  owns and operates That’s a Some Pizza and Sourdough Willy’s, in Bainbridge Island and Kingston, Washington.

The post Growing with Sourdough appeared first on Pizza Today.

My take on the quintessential classic New York Style Pizza

John Updike famously said, “The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.” In my lifetime of visiting New York City, and the 14 years that I have I called the city home, I think I can safely say that your average New Yorker feels that people eating pizza anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.

Anthony Falco, International Pizza Consultant and former “pizza czar,” Roberta’s, Brooklyn

There is a confidence and braggadocio about all things New York City —  and pizza is no exception. It’s indisputable that there are thousands of pizzerias in the five boroughs. It’s also true that there is a culture of pizza here unique to the world, but what is true New York-style pizza? It’s a difficult question, really, but one I have given much thought to. You could say pizza by the slice is the true New York pizza, but what about the famous coal-fired oven pizzerias that only do whole pies? You could say it’s the stone-lined gas deck oven, but today some of New York’s best pizza is coming out of electric or even wood-fired ovens.

So where is the common ground? What defines NY-style pizza? While not everyone will agree, and since I wasn’t born in the city I’m sure certain people will leave my opinions on the sidewalk with piles of ubiquitous garbage, I’ll state my opinion after years of making pizza in New York, and making New York-style pizza around the world.

What differentiates New York Style Pizza?

First things first, like the skyscrapers and personalities of the city, it is big. NY-style pizza tends to be 16 to 20 inches with the classic NY slice being cut from an 18-inch pie. Anything less just won’t look right on a paper plate. And speaking of paper plates, NY pizza is for people on the go, that means eating it quick, with your hands, almost always standing up.

It’s thin, but not paper thin like the cracker style crust found across the Hudson in New Jersey. And it’s crisp, but with some pliability — it shouldn’t shatter when you take a bite. The sauce should be simple, fresh and slightly sweet with a balance of acidity, my choice for achieving this is the California tomato.

The mozzarella should be stringy, but not too wet, and it should form a cohesive unit with the sauce. This amalgamation of sauce and cheese adheres to the dough, and it doesn’t slip off when it’s lifted to the mouth like its Neapolitan cousin. In practice this means a “low moisture” mozzarella, essentially a more aged version of fresh mozzarella (sometimes it’s whole milk, sometimes part skim, or sometimes a blend). Fresh mozzarella is totally acceptable too, just less prevalent than low moisture.

Toppings should be judiciously applied and not overloaded like they do in certain windy cities. In fact, one could say that the most true example of the New York pizza is the humble “plain slice”: tomato, mozzarella, oregano, and maybe a little pecorino or Parmesan.

So let’s summarize; a NY-style pizza is big, it’s thin but not paper thin, crispy but still flexible enough to fold without cracking, and the toppings should be a cohesive amalgamation and applied with restraint and simplicity. It shouldn’t be too fancy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use quality ingredients. It should always be cooked directly on the stones of the oven floor, be that gas, wood, electric or coal.

How to Make New York Pizza

So now that we have defined what New York Pizza is, how do we make it? Well, I’m going to be completely honest … I have no idea how to make a proper NY-style pizza. I have never trained or worked at a proper old school New York style pizzeria. I came up cooking in wood-fired ovens, I was cooking small, new-school Neapolitan-ish pizzas fast and hot and topped with globs of fresh mozzarella, definitely the same galaxy but still worlds apart. About five years ago I started playing with NY-style pizza. I thought I would just come in with what I knew, crank the oven all the way up and start kicking butt. That is not what happened. I learned very quickly that NY-style pizza is actually one of the most difficult styles to master. I knew what I wanted the pizza to be like, but I wasn’t sure how to get there. I went into the laboratory, aka my kitchen in Brooklyn, and I started playing around with different flours, temperatures, cheese blends and so on. Eventually I got something I liked, and since then I have helped open NY-style pizzerias as a consultant in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bangkok, Miami and Bali, with more in the works. Every one of these takes on NY-style pizza has been a different approach, from all naturally leavened, a hybrid of sourdough and commercial yeast, and even all commercial yeast. The reception has been great and these are some of my favorite pizzas to eat anywhere.

In the last few years a growing number of pizza consulting inquiries want to do NY-style pizza. And in the last year, the pandemic has proven this style to be built for durability. It holds up well for takeout, delivery, people on a budget, as well as people looking to splurge on a meal they wouldn’t normally make at home.

Anthony Falco’s New York Style Pizza Dough Recipe

So let me share with you a recipe that you can try if you are interested in bringing New York-style pizza to your pizzeria. The ingredients are important for this pizza. I prefer a high-protein American bread flour. You can add in small amounts of semolina (durum wheat) at 5 to 10 percent if you want to up the crisp levels on a flour with less protein.

For the water, it’s true that New York has great tap water, but so does Palm Springs, California! If you have great tap water in your town use that, otherwise a well filtered or spring water from a delivery service should do just fine. New York City tap water is low in total dissolved solids with very little chlorine, and just the right minerality, but it’s not magic, so don’t go crazy thinking about it. If it tastes good as drinking water it will taste good in the pizza.

For olive oil, I highly recommended a California extra virgin olive oil. It’s fresh and clean and really works well with this style of pizza. Also, I like sea salt for my pizza and I think it makes a huge difference, but kosher salt will also work. If you only have iodized table salt you need to get rid of it and upgrade your salt game.

The recipe will call for a starter. If you don’t have a sourdough starter you can use a commercial yeast pre-ferment (aka poolish, biga or sponge). Some people don’t like sourdough in NY-style pizza. That’s their opinion, but mine is that it is delicious. Do whatever you want to do and never listen to the haters. These are all just guidelines — follow your dreams.

When topping the pizza you should always start by making a classic plain pie. I recommend a tomato sauce of uncooked California tomatoes, seasoned simply with sea salt and extra virgin olive oil. For mozzarella a blend of low moisture whole milk and part skim mozzarella is great, but if you want to use fresh mozzarella, that can work too. I’m a big fan of the mozzarella down first method, splotching the tomato on top with a little space between, and finally some oregano (wild Sicilian is always my first choice) and a little hard cheese (a pecorino or grana works great). The key is a balance between the toppings so that they all come together on the pie in a cohesive way, clinging onto rather than easily slipping off of the dough.

And for my final thoughts before you try the recipe is that it is my interpretation of NY style, it’s not authentic or the ultimate or anything like that, it comes from loving this style of pizza and trying to make it through my lens as a pizza maker. I hope you enjoy it and add this style to your repertoire. Go to the recipe now. 

Anthony Falco is an international pizza consultant.

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In Crust We Trust — Perfecting a light and chewy finished pizza crust

Every time I look at social media, I am bombarded with pictures of pizza crust close-ups. People displaying the huge air pockets in a cross section of crust, also known as a cornicione. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good crust shot as much as anyone, but what is it that they are really showing off? Proper fermentation. For me, this is what creating the perfect dough boils down to. You can use all of the right ingredients but if your dough is not properly fermented then you’re not going to have the light and chewy crust that is so desirable. To understand just how to achieve your perfect cornicione, it is important to understand the fundamentals of dough production and a few crucial steps that should not be left out in order to create the perfect dough. They all center around fermentation: the initial bulk rise, doing an autolyse and the final rise.

What exactly is fermentation?

It all starts with yeast. Whether you are using instant, fresh, active dry or a sourdough starter, the fermentation process you choose will have a huge impact on your final dough product and thus your beautiful crust. While there are over a thousand different species of yeast, commercial yeast is almost always Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Once you have added yeast to your dough the fermentation process begins. Fermentation is an anaerobic reaction where the yeast feeds on simple sugar in the absence of oxygen. It produces ethanol and other derivative chemicals. Basically, the yeast is eating the simple sugars released by the flour’s starch that has been broken down and in turn releases carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is what forms the tiny air bubbles in the dough. This process is highly affected by your dough’s temperature. If the dough gets too cold the yeast won’t activate and if it’s too hot it won’t survive. This is why you always hear people talking about IDT or the Ideal Dough Temperature. Not everyone’s IDT will be the same depending on what type of yeast you are using, how long you plan on bulk rising and if you do a longer cold fermentation. You can control the temperature of the dough by the temperature of the water that you add to it and plugging it into this formula:

Temperature T water = T dough x 3 – (T room + T flour +T mixer heat)

In general, the longer you ferment your dough, the more flavor you are going to get out of it. A slower fermentation creates a better gluten structure which means better bubbles in the crust due to the aid in gluten development. By rushing the process, you end up with a one-dimensional dough, in both flavor and texture. One way to save time on your overall bulk and cold fermentation is to use a pre-ferment. The two most common are a Poolish or a Biga. Simply combine flour, water and yeast and allow it to ferment at room temperature overnight. By adding this to your dough, you are getting a head start on its flavor and structure.

With pizza dough there are several ways to achieve your ideal fermentation.

The first step is to incorporate an autolyse into your process. This is a step in dough making that I find a lot of people leave out, but all of the best bakers find essential. It is the step right after you have combined the flour and water (I add the yeast here too) and before you add your salt and oil. An autolyse, or rest period, is basically just letting your dough rest for 20 to 30 minutes. This allows the gluten net to strengthen and increases the dough’s extensibility. This is an important quality, not only in the dough’s ability to be stretched without ripping but also in achieving a good rise or volume. It can be the difference between having a pasty, flat crust and a bubbly, chewy one.

After the autolyse and your final mix, the next step is to do a bulk fermentation (also called a bulk rise). For my own shop, we do a five-hour bulk rise (once the dough has finished mixing, we place it in large bins at room temperature). Since we use a sourdough starter, this allows for the yeast to really kick in and start to develop the flavor and texture that I am looking for. If you are using a commercial yeast, you might want a shorter bulk fermentation. Whatever length your bulk rise is, this is the stage where the strength, flavor and structure of the dough are developed. At this stage, you want to make sure the dough stays at a consistent temperature. You can speed up or slow down the rise by either placing it in a warmer area or placing it in the walk-in. However, just like it is possible to under ferment a dough, you also want to be careful not to over extend it. If you let the bulk fermentation go too long or get too hot, the glutens in the dough begin to degrade due to increased acidity and result in a tighter, smaller crumb.

After that, we cut and ball the dough. Once the dough is balled, we let it rise another five hours outside of the walk-in before giving it a 24- to 48-hour cold rise. By giving the dough the chance to rise in the beginning, it cuts down on the time we need to pull it out before service because the yeast is already activated and proofed to the point that we want it to bake at.

Do you ever get a slice of pizza and notice that there is a huge gum line? The reason for this is improper proofing. Proofing is the final rise that the dough goes through before baking. It is a crucial step, as it helps to create those beautiful corniciones. Once your dough is ready to be pushed out into a pizza, all of the internal chemistry has been done. If you have accomplished a proper fermentation and rise, then the dough should pop in the oven.

In theory, all dough is fermented but how you choose to carry out the process will affect your final crust. Everyone has a slightly different approach to making their signature recipes, but there are a few important steps that anyone can benefit from adding into their process. Don’t be afraid to play around with a variety of methods to achieve your perfect crust.  

Audrey Kelly owns Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage in Boulder, Colorado.

The post Knead to Know: How to achieve a light and chewy finished pizza crust appeared first on Pizza Today.

Subtle changes can help create a more consistent pizza

In the world of independent pizzerias, we are always looking for the next big thing that will make our restaurants stand out. More importantly, we are striving for consistency in our product. There is nothing better than getting new customers, but retaining them for a second, third, and hopefully loyal return visits is the name of the game. There are a few simple changes you can make to your dough procedure and dough recipe that will help you achieve that consistency and maybe take it to the next level. Change can be scary, and you’ve worked really hard to come up with a recipe that you can be proud of and one that works within your operation. But have no fear. Small subtle changes can ensure a consistent product as well as one that keeps you creative and always striving for more.

Here are a few ideas to adjust your procedures:       

• Switching from volume measurement to weight. Volume can be very inconsistent in that one person may pack down an ingredient and another might do a heaping scoop. The two are never the same and will always drastically alter the outcome. Whether you choose grams or ounces, I recommend picking one and sticking with it.
• Controlling temperatures. If your dough changes from day to day, the most common reason is inconsistent temperatures. Yeast becomes most active around 70 F and dies around 110 F. When you make dough, you always want to think about the final temperature. If your dough is too hot, it will proof too quickly causing it to blow up before the intended use. How to combat this is to focus on the temperature of the ingredients that you can control the most. Use cold water or add ice in the summer or on warm days. If using a starter/pre-ferment, cool it off in the refrigerator for a bit before adding it to the mixer. Controlling just these two ingredients will have a profound effect on the result.
  One thing people always forget is that as your dough is resting, whether on a bench or in the fridge, it is a living thing and is going to rise, which means heat. Your dough is going to release heat, and if it is enclosed in a container, then that means heat is trapped and your dough will rise too quickly. Letting your dough breathe a little before closing is always a good idea. If you go straight from mixer to balled form, cross stack your dough boxes for two to five minutes to let some of the heat escape. If in bulk form, let it rest on a table or in its container for a few minutes before closing. You will only want to do this for a few minutes. Anything longer and your dough will begin to dry out and form a skin.        
• Type of container. Another way to help control temperature is the type of container or vessel you choose to proof your dough in or on. Dough boxes are great in that they are stackable and can be color coded, but can trap heat. Metal sheet pans, wrapped in plastic and held on a speed rack, cool down faster because of the metal. They also help with air circulation between the trays. Both have their pros and cons depending on the operation and handling methods you employ.            

When it comes to your dough recipe there are countless simple tweaks you can make that will alter the texture of your dough in its raw and baked form as well as enhance the flavor.

Water is usually the second most common ingredient in dough, and increasing or decreasing this will change the texture of your finished product (as well as change the handling of your raw dough). The lower the hydration, the easier it is to handle when raw and in balled form. As a cooked product it will have some crispness (depending on how long it is baked), and the interior crumb will be tighter. By increasing the water in your dough the manageability when raw becomes more difficult, but when it is baked your dough will have a more pronounced crispness and a more open interior crumb.

Another way to enhance flavor is by the addition of a starter or pre-ferment. There are a few types of starter, but the most common are sourdough or levain (no commercial yeast), biga (anywhere from 50 precent to as high as 65-percent hydration) and poolish (100-percent hydration). A preferment is just that, a portion of mixed flour, water and yeast that is fermented separately a day or two in advance and then added to your dough during the mixing process. By using a starter you are adding already created flavor, which enhances the overall taste and adds to the final crumb structure.

Autolyse is a technique more commonly found in bread baking, but is a great addition if time permitting. Autolyse is the process of mixing flour and water (sometimes with yeast and salt added) to a shaggy mass and then resting before mixing to full gluten development. The period of rest allows the flour to hydrate more fully while starting the natural enzyme breakdown and gluten development. In theory, this process reduces the amount of active mix time, but can cancel out total mix time because it may need to sit for 20 to 30 minutes or longer.

Having enough salt in your dough will greatly impact overall flavor. Doughs with at least 2-percent salt will have more pronounced flavor than those with less. Doughs with higher salt contents reaching above 3 percent can start to affect fermentation, so there is a give and take with this.

There are lots of small tweaks we as pizza makers can do to enhance and change our dough and final product. Not all are doable depending on your operation, but change is nothing to fear. With the climate we are in, change is necessary … and you never know what new technique or recipe might inspire you next.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Knead to Know: Small Tweaks in the Pizza Dough Process appeared first on Pizza Today.

All Systems Dough

Your dough is the heart and soul of your menu. No question. When I opened Andolini’s, I made the dough alone every morning. If something went wrong, it was on me to figure it out. After a year of working every day and dealing with whatever dough crisis had come up, I made a plan to finally take a day off. I was terrified of what would happen. How could I make sure my staff knew how to make it the same as me? How could I ensure they were prepared for success and equipped to handle any issue that might arise without needing me? I would need to make a system. A system that was simple to execute that allowed for situational issues. Having a standard operating procedure for every situation is necessary. I know now that it’s the only way to maintain dough consistency, not only in one store but across multiple stores as well.

Recipe Poster

Coca-Cola makes different parts of coke in separate factories, so no one employee knows how to fully replicate the recipe. You, on the other hand, don’t have that luxury. As much as your dough recipe may be proprietary to you, if the staff you entrust to make it doesn’t know the recipe, it doesn’t matter. You might think they know the recipe, but are you sure? I put the dough recipe on a blown-up poster near the mixer, so there’s no ambiguity about making it right every time. Additionally, I teach each dough maker how to make it right via a video of the exact right way to do it. Anyone that will ever touch a mixer needs to meet with me or watch that video and take a test on making it correctly. Even if you personally train your dough people and have them recite the recipe to you verbatim, they must have a prominent, focal reference point. A visible recipe, near the mixer, makes this a reality.

Printed Time & Date Labels

Dough is highly variable. You want to know for sure how many hours it’s fermented, so merely a date on the tray or dough box isn’t enough. I use a label machine connected to a tablet that prints stickers of who made the dough, what batch and what time of day. These systems are super affordable, ensure quality, and are a time saver. Also, if there’s ever an issue, we know exactly who to turn to and what time to look at on the cameras. Monday 9 a.m. vs. Monday 4 p.m. will make a huge difference for a dough’s rise, so having a date and time and knowing real rise time is paramount to consistency.

Extenuating Circumstance SOP

For everything that can go wrong with your dough, have a fallback procedure. If the dough is blown-out, do you put it into another batch, turn it into garlic knots, or toss it out? Side note: don’t toss it out; there’s always something else you can do with the blown-out dough. If the dough is too sticky, what should your staff do about it? If it’s cooking too fast, what’s your resolve? Plan all this out and put it on your poster and/or train staff on it. Unplanned things will go wrong; it’s your fault if you let issues repeatedly occur without a plan. Additionally, I have a color chart on my oven of what pizza is too burnt and what isn’t cooked enough, so they know what variance is acceptable and which is not.

Portion Smart

Don’t measure dough ingredients each time you make a new dough. Instead, take all the batches you plan to make that day and portion them all at once. Let’s say it’s eight doughs for the day; measure out eight portions of yeast ahead of time. That way, it’ll be obvious if one is mismeasured, and you’ll have this part of the procedure done. You’ll avoid double duty and/or wasting time measuring each batch. Do this for your oil, salt, yeast and even water. If you’re keeping your water refrigerated, do that ahead of time as well. Have your ingredients set before you start your dough process. That might sound obvious to some, but walking around a kitchen getting ingredients ready multiple times a day is a waste I see happen in lots of kitchens.

Consistency and Listening

When someone has “their” suggested new way of doing a recipe that might be better than the current recipe I say great, I welcome that. Their ideas should be heard and evaluated but never immediately changed. Otherwise, a kitchen turns into chaos, and you have Tom’s dough from Tuesday to Thursday and Frank’s dough Friday to Monday, and you’re never on the same page. If there’s a better way to do it, management and ownership need to agree on it and then execute it across the whole store or stores. Anything short of this is a recipe for chaos. Depending on your elevation, you might have a variable to your recipe. Variables can occur if you have different equipment like multiple ovens, different mixer styles across locations. If your restaurants are in vastly different regions with varying climates, this will affect the recipe. Even if they are all in the same location, what you do during the winter will vary from the height of summer when the dough rises exponentially faster. In those scenarios, don’t let whoever’s making the dough at that location make the call on handling issues that arise. Create a finite protocol of what to do when each scenario occurs. Alleviate ambiguity, and you get rid of the “Oh, I do it this way when that happens.”

Make a standard operating procedure for dough balling. I’ve seen many different ways to ball dough, and most of them are incorrect. I’m a fanatic about the correct way to ball a dough. Since we don’t use sheeters or rolling pins, proper balling is essential to avoid weak spots. If you don’t use a sheeter or a rolling pin, you need a dough balling process that does not allow for air to get pushed into your dough. To get this accomplished again, use videos, one-to-one training and then onsite spot-check training. Watch on camera that people are doing it the right way. This means not the way they saw it done at some other pizzeria they worked at.

The absolute worst is when someone doing it the wrong way influences others to follow their lead into doing it the wrong way. To avoid that nightmare, make sure you know your standards of achieving a correct dough in every scenario first. Once you have that, document the proper methods in training. Do this on posters, videos and verbally training correctly on a one-to-one basis. All these actions alleviate and destroy any ambiguity and variability from
employee to employee or store to store.

MIKE BAUSCH is the owner of Andolini’s Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The post Knead to Know: Having a standard operating procedure is necessary for consistency appeared first on Pizza Today.

The Dough Doctor answers your questions

Q: I’m thinking of adding take-and bake pizza to my menu. Can I use my regular dough, or do I need a special dough?

A: Making take-and-bake pizza can be a pretty simple proposition, or it can be a bit more in depth, requiring a specialized dough. The easiest way to make take-and-bake pizza is to modify your existing dough formula and procedure. Begin by adjusting the sugar content of your dough to five percent of the flour weight. This will ensure that the crust will brown nicely in the consumer’s home oven. If you feel that the added sweetness of the finished crust is detrimental to the flavor of the pizza, you can add six to eight percent sweet dairy whey (available from most bakery ingredient suppliers). Just add the whey into the flour and disperse it by jogging the mixer agitator a couple times, then add the water, and you’re ready to begin mixing. After the dough has been mixed, take it directly to the bench for scaling and balling.

Manage the dough through the cooler overnight in the conventional manner. Then, first thing on the following day, remove the dough from the cooler and allow it to sit at room temperature for about four minutes, or until the dough can be easily opened into skins. Place each pizza skin onto a wire screen, take it to the cooler and place it into a wire tree rack for cooling. Allow the dough skins to cool for about 45 minutes, then remove the dough from the screen and stack on a metal tray or cardboard pizza circle about five high, with a piece of parchment paper between each crust. These can be conveniently stored in the reach-in cooler under the prep table. When an order is received for a take-and-bake pizza, a prepared dough skin is removed from the stack, placed into an ovenable paperboard tray and lightly oiled to prevent moisture to migrate into the dough. The sauce can now be applied, and the pizza dressed to order. To finish the pizza, wrap it with stretch or shrink wrap and apply a label with all of the appropriate information (such as keep refrigerated, do not freeze, remove plastic over-wrap before baking, complete baking instructions, and a use-by date). If your business will be based on take-and-bake pizza only, you may want to have a more specialized dough for making your pizzas. In addition to the changes recommended above, a coated leavening system should also be included in the dough formulation. This basically consists of a blend of baking soda and sodium aluminum phosphate — which has been encapsulated in fat, allowing it to react as a baking powder during baking rather than during the pre-bake storage period. The reason for including this ingredient is to ensure that the dough/crust will always rise during baking, even if the dough is mishandled by the consumer.

Q: We like the quality of bake that we get on our pizzas, but we would like to get a little more crust color without affecting the bake or flavor of the finished crust.

A: The typical reaction to getting what you want to achieve –– either a longer bake, or a hotter bake, or adding sugar to the dough formulation –– will potentially influence either the textural properties or the flavor of the finished crust, so we will assume that some other action must be taken. In this case, we have a couple of options. One is to simply brush the edges of the crust with oil. This will improve the edge color, but it will not influence the bottom crust color. If the edge color is what you’re looking for, this is a good way to get the improvement you’re looking for. The other way is to add dried, bakery-grade sweet dairy whey to the dough formulation. Whey is about 70 percent lactose (milk sugar), so it has a very low sweetness rating, so it will impart essentially no sweetness to the finished crust. Lactose is also reducing sugar so it aids in the Maillard browning reaction during baking, thus enhancing crust color development. As a side benefit, it is also nonfermentable by the yeast, so it will still be present even after much fermentation time, or days in the cooler. because the whey is added to the dough, it will influence the crust color on both the top and bottom of the crust. The amount of whey normally used to impact crust color starts out at two or three percent of the total flour weight and goes up from there until the desired effect on crust color is achieved. While whey is in a dry, powder form, it has very little influence on dough absorption properties, so when starting out using whey, don’t add any additional water with the whey powder unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary.

What’s the ingredient that we can use to reduce the snap-back of our dough while stretching?

A: The ingredient is PZ-44. This ingredient is what we call a “reducing agent.” When used in a dough, it will cause the dough to become softer and more extensible (less elastic). What this means is that it will not exhibit the snap-back characteristics during hand or machine forming. When adding any type of reducing agent to your dough, care must be taken to prevent using it in an excessive amount.

Since reducing agents work very fast, their effects can be readily seen while the dough is being mixed. Be aware that your mixing time will most likely be shorter than normal. And also, keep in mind that these materials don’t stop working in the cooler, so your dough may become overly soft if stored in the cooler for more than two days. When used correctly, these ingredients can be great assets, especially if you shape your dough skins using a dough press. When a dough press is used, it is common to see the dough shrink back as the pressure is released from the press head. Judicious use of a reducing agent can reduce or eliminate this shrinkage, resulting in consistently sized pizza skins. 

The post Knead to Know: Take and Bake Pizza Dough appeared first on Pizza Today.

It all starts somewhere, and where it starts can make a huge difference

Everyone knows, or at least they should, that the most important part of a pizza is the dough. It is what defines the style of pie you are making, holds up the gorgeous sauce you spoon on top and the bubbly cheese you smother it in. Yes, I know some people judge a pie by the latter two, but without crust there is just a sloppy mess of ingredients. The dough is also what makes each pizzeria unique. Flour, water, salt and yeast. All staple ingredients. What your process is can set you apart from others that are doing similar styles. Are you using a direct or indirect method? Do you use a mother dough? If so, is it a sourdough starter, biga or poolish? I’ve played around with all of these methods and each creates a different final product.

Audrey Kelly, Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage

By using a direct method, all of your ingredients are incorporated in a single stage of production. With an indirect method, a pre-ferment such as a biga, poolish or levan is mixed in advance of the dough and allowed to ferment. It is then added to the dough, using multiple stages.

John Arena, owner of Metro Pizza in Las Vegas, points out that the method you use is often determined by time and space. “Crucial to either method is an appreciation for time as a major component of dough flavor and structure. Each method is actually just a different way to manipulate time. Direct method has the advantage of simplicity. If you have the space to do extended fermentation, direct method can yield outstanding results that are very manageable. Indirect method is a way to add depth and complexity to dough by manipulating time. In essence, adding a pre-ferment gives your dough maturity in less time because the pre-ferment has been allowed to age without a yeast inhibitor (salt).”

The direct method seems to be more common in a lot of old-school places. And, when done correctly, it can make a fantastic dough. That’s not to say that the younger generation of pizzaioli can’t master the method. Last year at the Caputo Cup in Naples, Italy, Laura Meyer of Capo’s in San Francisco not only competed with a direct dough … but won the whole competition. Her pizza had everything you want in a dough: great structure, complexity of flavor and texture. While she is normally a fan of using a starter method, by utilizing time and fermentation she created an outstanding pie.

However, not every pizzeria has the time or space for extended periods of fermentation. Which is why a lot of the new artisan pizza makers are utilizing the indirect method of making dough. Why would you use one pre-ferment over another? They are all very unique in their own way, yielding different results.

Sourdough starters are probably the most diverse. A starter is basically cultivating the wild yeast that is in the air by mixing flour and water together. Each will be a little different depending on what bacteria is in their air, what kind of flour they incorporate and how often they feed it. Maintaining a sourdough starter also takes a little more attention than some of the other methods. They require longer bulk ferments and a watchful eye depending on the temperature and time of year. However, I feel that it is well worth the added effort.

While a sourdough starter is a natural yeast, bigas and poolish are both pre-ferments using commercial yeast. The difference in the two is the hydration level. A poolish is much wetter, using a 1:1 ratio of flour and water. Meanwhile, a biga is a little drier using a 2:1 ratio flour to water. You can use instant dry yeast (IDY), Active Dry Yeast (ADY) or fresh yeast, but Arena points out that it is helpful to be consistent in the type you use. In his own wise words, “Using the same ingredient over and over will develop an almost intuitive sense of how the ingredient performs. In time you will develop a rhythm and relationship with your dough and your methods.”

Even if you use a set type of yeast and method, it’s always great to play around and know how to utilize other methods. Especially in times as uncertain as the pandemic. Sourdough has seen a bump in popularity and curiosity from pizza makers and home bakers alike. The idea of a looming commercial yeast shortage may have contributed to that.

Tony Cerimele of New Columbus Pizza in Pennsylvania recently started incorporating a sourdough starter into his mix of already diverse doughs. While he still uses a direct method with yeast for his famed New Forge Style pie that his family has been making and selling since the 1950s, he is exploring using a natural starter for his other styles.

“What the pandemic has made us do is learn to become efficient with a natural starter,” he says. “I always wanted to learn how to use and maintain one, so there is no better time than now. I am sure we will not run out of yeast. But, just in case, we will be prepared.”

What method you use depends on what you’re trying to achieve in your final product. Meyer tends to lean towards using a poolish because she likes the acidic content and flavor that comes with it. “I like the starter method because you make it the night before and then mix it into your dough … and then, voila! With the direct method there’s a little bit more work on the pizza maker’s part,” she says. By taking this simple extra step your dough has layers of added complexity in both flavor and texture. You can also manipulate a direct dough into getting these qualities by giving it a longer bulk ferment.

I’ve found over the years that my process of dough making is what affects the final product the most. When I switched from using a poolish to a sourdough starter, my overall recipe didn’t change very drastically. What changed was how I manipulated the process. Instead of giving it a short bench rest of only 30 minutes, we now do a five-hour bulk rise. We also do an autolyse, which is basically letting the dough rest after combing the flour and water. This strengthens the dough, gives it elasticity and forms the gluten structure. These changes are not exclusive to using a sourdough starter. But making this change forced me to become more knowledgeable about my own dough process and revisit techniques that I forgot about in the daily grind of my restaurant.

Cerimele echoes my feelings. He has also evolved his dough process from when he started: “(It used to be) everything in at one time when the mixer was turned on,” he says. “Now we start with a 30-minute autolyse, and the ingredients are all timed for best hydration and temperatures. I feel that really improved the quality of the dough.”

I guess what I’m trying to say is that, no matter what method you use, your dough can be improved by small tweaks in the process without changing the recipe. Even if you don’t want to use a sourdough starter or poolish, you never know what you’re going to learn from just exploring something new.

Audrey Kelly is the owner and pizzaiola at Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage in Boulder, CO.

The post Knead to Know: Mother Dough appeared first on Pizza Today.

The More You Dough

A pizzeria’s greatest tool to establish their unique style and brand is in their pizza dough. Pizza dough gives you the ability to show off what makes your pizzeria unique and different. Your pizza dough has so many factors that create it: the rise time, the flour choice, the humidity and several other contributing factors to make your dough 100-percent yours. To limit your dough’s use purely to pizza is shortsighted. This relatively inexpensive item is your No.1 brand ambassador. It should be cross utilized as much as possible inside your pizzeria. You can choose your cheese and sauce, but odds are they won’t be vastly unique to you. Dough style is.

Your pizza dough is your flag bearer of what you, and your restaurant, are. Having multiple dough styles isn’t typically feasible for pizzerias just starting out because of the logistics. It’s not easy to make one style of dough great from scratch, let alone many. So rather than having multiple dough styles, find a way to do numerous things with your one dough style.

Find ways to create dough-based appetizers, desserts and even sandwiches. Your dough is a menu swiss army knife ready to be put to use. The fundamentals of successful pizzeria ownership rely on cross-utilization and finding cheaper ways to sell items with a higher perceived value. Multiple applications of pizza dough checks all those boxes.

Appetizers

Garlic knots are a very typical and classic pizzeria item. To put a spin on it at Andolini’s, we deep fry them. They can be baked instead. Again, it’s your choice. In New York, they’re typically sold as three massive knots in Reynolds’ foil. At Andolini’s, I serve them as several small knots covered in butter, garlic, oregano and Romano in an entree bowl. It’s my go-to item for a donation, an incentive, a fix-it for a late table or mess up, and generally anything in between.

Stuffed pizza bites. A simple variation of the garlic knot is akin to ravioli but baked in bread. Ricotta or some cheese variation makes for a solid appetizer. If you serve it on a nicer plate in a line, it will have a higher perceived value than if it is in a plastic bowl with wax paper. An extra few moments of thought on the presentation can earn $2 to $3 more per appetizer.

Pepperollies and dough roll. Classic pepperollis are a dough pushed out wide, add cheese and pepperoni, then roll and cut it like it’s sushi, and bake it off. You can choose to top it with Parmesan or mozzarella. This is extremely cost-effective and 100-percent unique because your dough is different from the other place down the street. However, don’t stop with only pepperoni. That’s not the limit of what you can do with a dough roll. At Andolini’s, we use pesto and San Marzano tomatoes to make an upscale item that actually costs less than a pepperolli but could be charged for more. San Marzano’s and pesto are cheaper than protein while being a higher perceived culinary item.

Mini strombolis and mini calzones. Stuffed pizza makes your pizza portable and more accessible to sell to groups who mandate individual items as a catering requirement. How you fold, roll, stuff and top your strombolis and calzones is your unique decision. These are fun extra items that can be a successful add-on to any group purchase.

Garlic bread. Baking lines of dough and coating with butter, garlic and oregano are super cheap. Five bucks is a reasonable price for garlic bread and gives you a food cost of under 10 precent on average.

Garlic cheese bread. Add some mozzarella for an extra 50 cents in food cost, and now you can charge another $2 to the garlic bread price.

Detroit garlic twists. To make garlic bread different, I do this; I cut a 20-ounce dough into six lines, then make three twists of them that I drench in garlic butter. Then I bake it off in a Detroit pan with cheese. This appetizer gives a fun spin on Detroit-style pizza that is an easy win. Since starting to sell garlic cheese bread this way, I have built a loyal and devoted fan following for this item.

Sandwiches

Sandwich bread can cost anywhere from $.50 to $.90 a roll. When you want to charge around $5 to $6 a sandwich, that’s a costly item. Rolling out a pizza dough thin and creating a focaccia-style bread, or even a mini Stromboli, gives you the ability to do a small sandwich at a significantly reduced food cost — all while being completely 100-percent brand specific to you. I highly suggest naming them something that’s different. For our small sandwich-style Strombolis, I call them Strombolicchios, the name of the lighthouse island off the coast of the real island of Stromboli.

Desserts

Funnel cake and Churro knots. You could also do the same exact process as garlic knots, deep fry them and turn them into a makeshift funnel cake or makeshift churro, which gives you two different options for desserts — all with your dough.

Cannoli. I’ve even taken pizza dough, rolled it extremely thin around a metal tube to make a makeshift cannoli shell. No, they did not look or taste like your classic cannoli, but I’m not looking to make things that look like something everyone has had before. I prefer making something unique more than trying to fit in, and a cannoli tube made out of pizza dough is just that.

The benefit of dough-based appetizers and menu items are countless: better appearance, unique, excellent food cost and multiple uses of an item. Before buying a frozen food option, choose you, choose what you create. Your customer wants to purchase from you, not from the company whose bag of product you reheated. Always find the win in making your product creation on display first. This way, the profitability and loyalty to your brand increase rather than stay stagnant.

Mike Bausch is the owner of Andolini’s Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Instagram: @andopizza

The post Cross-utilize your pizza dough for the win appeared first on Pizza Today.

How to get the pizza off the peel without sticking

What’s causing my pizza to stick to the peel?

There are a couple of things that might cause the dough to stick to your peel. If you are using malt in your dough, make doubly sure that it is non-diastatic (non-enzyme active) malt. If the malt is diastatic malt (enzyme active), it will convert starch in the flour to sugars, making the dough sticky or tacky to the point where it will stick to almost any surface it comes into contact with, including a prep peel. If the dough is over absorbed (contains too much water) it may feel clammy or even exhibit a slight tackiness when touched. Over absorbed dough tends to be difficult to work with as the dough is just too extensible and is easily over stretched during the forming operation. While some of the traditional doughs are fairly high in absorption and difficult to handle during forming, they can still be peeled into the oven without much of a problem if they are well floured for ease of handling, and either fine cornmeal, or semolina flour is used as the peel dust to aid in sliding the prepared dough skin off of the peel. Be sure to use a wood or wood laminate peel for your prep peel.

The metal blade peels are best reserved for use as oven peels. The reason for this is because the metal blade peels will force any moisture coming from the dough skin right back up against the dough surface, creating the potential for the dough to stick to the peel during unloading into the oven. This can be especially troublesome during the colder months when the metal peel blade is cold, and condensation is formed when the warm dough is placed upon it; now, any flour that is present on the dough skin quickly turns to school paste with very predictable results.

When a wood or wood laminate is used as a prep peel, the wood will have some capacity to absorb moisture, thus reducing the potential for stickiness. Because it is harder to form condensation between a wood peel and the dough skin, the issue of condensation is all but totally eliminated. Even with the best dough and wood prep peels, it is still possible for dough to stick to the peel if too much time is taken in prepping the dough skin.

Even when a novice is prepping a dough skin and taking their own sweet time about it, there is still only a slight chance that the dough will stick to the peel. But where the problem arises is when the prepped or partially prepped dough skin is allowed to remain on the prep peel while they do something else, like wash and cut a topping for the pizza or stop to answer the phone, etc.

Solution to pizza dough sticking to the peel

The solution to this is easy to address –– just make sure once the dough is placed on the peel it is dressed and peeled into the oven without interruption. Of course, a good peel dust doesn’t hurt either.

I think if you were to ask 20 different operators what peel dust they prefer you would probably get at least a dozen different answers. My own personal favorite peel dust is made from equal parts of fine cornmeal, semolina flour and regular white pizza flour. I’ve seen any one of these used by itself as an effective peel dust in addition to things such as whole-wheat flour, rice flour, rye flour and wheat bran, as well as bread crumb like materials more commonly added to the top of the pizza to help absorb excess moisture. All of these materials seem to work quite well in most applications, so you have plenty of things to choose from to get the dough to smoothly slide from the peel onto the oven hearth.

One last thing I’d like to share with those who are just beginning to work at peeling dressed dough skins into the oven: after you place the fully formed dough skin onto the dusted prep peel, do not try to dock the dough on the peel. Instead, dock the dough before you place it onto the peel, then, give the peel a shake to make sure the dough is sliding on the peel and not stuck to it for whatever reason. Shake it again about halfway through the dressing of the dough skin. This is a confidence builder more than anything else –– knowing that the dough is still unattached to the peel, I can now peel the dressed dough skin into the oven with the authority and commitment needed to make the dressed dough smoothly slide from peel to oven hearth.

Remember, what goes into the oven, must eventually come out again, so be sure to keep your oven rake and broom handy to loosen any debris from the oven deck and sweep it out, or you will soon have a carbonized build up on the deck, as well as unsightly, charred debris sticking to the bottom of your pizzas.

The late Tom Lehmann was a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s longstanding resident dough expert. 

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Knead to Know: The Dough Doctor offers tips to keep dough from sticking to the peel appeared first on Pizza Today.

It’s Alive!

Help! We are having a problem with our dough growing in the cooler.

Tom Lehmann
Dough Expert

A: There are a number of things that can result in the dough “blowing” in the cooler. The first cause could be excessive amounts of yeast in the dough. Most pizza doughs perform best when the yeast level is at or near 1 percent compressed yeast –– this equates to .5 percent active dry yeast, or 0.375 percent instant active dry yeast.

You might also check your dough’s finished temperature. If you are using a refrigerated dough management procedure –– which allows you to use the dough over a three day period of time from the cooler –– a good target, finished dough temperature is in the 80 F to 85 F range if using a walk-in cooler, or 70 F to 75 F if you’re using a reach-in cooler. If your finished dough temperature is higher than this, it becomes difficult to effectively cool the dough to a point where the rate of fermentation can be sufficiently lowered to allow for holding the dough for any extended period of time.

The finished dough temperature is controlled by the temperature of the water that you add to the dough. In some locations, your tap water temperature may be sufficiently cold to give you a finished dough temperature within the targeted temperature range, but if this isn’t possible, then you will need to use colder water. The easiest way to get colder water is by storing it in the cooler, at least overnight. This should effectively get your water temperature down to the 40 to 45 F range. You can then replace a portion or all of the dough water with the refrigerated water to achieve the desired finished dough temperature you’re looking for.

In some cases, such as stores with only a reach-in cooler, this won’t be possible, so the correct course of action to get colder water is to add ice to your water. When adding ice, be sure to replace the water on a pound for pound basis for ice. Do

n’t use a volumetric measure for the ice as it has a significantly different density than water. I recommend that you begin by replacing one pound of water with one pound of ice. Be sure to use flaked ice rather than cube ice as the cube ice, which will not melt sufficiently fast to work in this application. Keep increasing/adjusting the amount of ice added until the finished dough temperature falls within the desired temperature range.

Another thing that can cause the dough to blow is failure to take the dough directly to the cooler after scaling, balling and boxing. For some, it is a common practice to allow the dough to set out at room temperature for a period of time before we begin scaling and balling it. This practice can lead to the dough fermenting, and changing in density (becoming less dense) before the dough actually goes to the cooler. The less dense dough is significantly more difficult to cool uniformly. It is a better insulator and, as such, it may never cool to a point where it will be sufficiently stable in the cooler to allow it to be held for any period of time without blowing. Normally, when the dough blows under these circumstances, the reaction is to reduce the yeast level to a point where the dough doesn’t blow, but this now introduces a whole new problem –– in many cases, the dough now has a yeast level so low that it cannot support the weight of the topping ingredients during baking, and it may collapse, or not rise sufficiently to give the desired, light, airy internal crumb structure. In all too many cases, a gum line develops just under the sauce that will be next to impossible to resolve until we get the yeast level back up to where it needs to be. But, then the dough blows again. Now you can see why reducing the yeast level is not the correct action to take when the dough blows.

Failure to cross stack the dough boxes can also lead to blowing the dough. When first placed into the cooler, the dough boxes should be placed in a cross stacked pattern to allow the warmer air to escape from the dough boxes. This results in a significant improvement in the efficiency of cooling the dough balls. In cases where a walk-in cooler isn’t available and only a reach-in is used, there isn’t room in the cabinet to cross stack the dough boxes, but they can be placed into the cooler with the ends off set, resulting in open, exposed ends on each box, allowing for the escape of the warm air from the boxes.

Even with cross-stacking, you must allow enough time for the dough to be cooled before you seal the boxes closed.

We have found that if the dough balls weigh 16 ounces or less, the dough boxes should be allowed to remain cross-stacked for at least two hours. If the dough balls are between 17 and 24 ounces, they should remain cross stacked for at least 2½ hours. Because the dough still hasn’t come down in temperature to that of your cooler within these times, it is important to be consistent with the cross stack time employed. For example, if your dough ball weight is 10 ounces, and you’re using a cross stack time of two hours, that’s fine, but be sure to use that cross stack time consistently. Keep in mind, though, that these are only recommendations. Since all coolers are not created equally, you may need to adjust the cross stack times from those given above, and this is perfectly acceptable — just be sure to be consistent and always use the same cross stack time that you’ve found correct for your dough ball weight.

Another factor to consider occurs during the dough-making process. Due to traffic in and out of the cooler during the busier parts of the day, our coolers typically work harder, and operate at a slightly higher temperature than they do during the late night hours after the store is closed, or when business slacks off a bit. For this reason, I don’t recommend making the dough during the day, or even during the early evening hours. Instead, I recommend making dough a couple hours prior to closing, when the cooler will be operating more efficiently. By the time you’re ready to go home, you can down stack the dough boxes just before turning the lights off. While we’re on the topic of coolers, if you don’t already have them, consider installing plastic strip curtains over the door. Tests have shown that they will improve the operating efficiency of your cooler by as much as 15 percent.?

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

The post Knead to Know: Dough Doctor addresses refrigerated dough expansion appeared first on Pizza Today.

Dough Doctor answers your questions on stretching, sticky dough and temperature controls

Q:  I’ve heard you mentioned that there was an ingredient that we could use to reduce the snap-back of our dough, making hand stretching a lot easier for us. What was that ingredient?

A: The ingredient that I made reference to is PZ-44. This ingredient is what we call a “reducing agent.” When used in a dough, it will cause the dough to become softer and more extensible (less elastic). What this means is that it will not exhibit the snap-back characteristics during hand, or machine forming. When adding any type of reducing agent to your dough, care must be taken to prevent using it in an excessive amount.

Since reducing agents work very fast, their effects can be readily seen while the dough is being mixed. Be aware that your mixing time will most likely be shorter than normal. And also, keep in mind that these materials don’t stop working in the cooler, so your dough may become overly soft if stored in the cooler for more than two days. When used correctly, these ingredients can be great assets, especially if you shape your dough skins using a dough press. When a dough press is used, it is common to see the dough shrink back as the pressure is released from the press head. Judicious use of a reducing agent can reduce or eliminate this shrinkage, resulting in consistently sized pizza skins.

My dough is sticky and doesn’t easily come out of the mixing bowl. Any tips?

A:  On one of my recent trips out to a pizzeria I observed how the mixer operator was struggling with the dough while cutting it into pieces so it could be removed from the bowl and taken to the bench for cutting and balling. After watching him work with the first dough, I asked him to let me know when the next dough was finished mixing.

When the dough mixing was complete, I had him put the mixer in first speed and begin mixing. I then showed him how to pour a very small amount of oil down the inside of the bowl so it would get spread around by the dough ball as it was driven around in the bowl by the hook. After just a few revolutions, the mixer was stopped and I instructed him to now remove the dough from the bowl without cutting it into pieces. Presto! The dough literally popped out of the bowl without any effort at all. That sure made his job a lot easier. While I’ve known about this trick for more years than I care to admit to, it was new to him. Like they say, “It’s the little things that sometimes count the most.”

How important is it to have the water temperature right for active dry yeast?

A: The water temperature used to activate any type of dry yeast is really pretty important if you have a concern over yeast performance, and I think we all have an interest in that. In all cases, active dry yeast must be hydrated before it can be added to the dough, and in some cases, instant dry yeast must also be hydrated. Take note that the correct water temperature to use when hydrating IDY is 95 F. If the water temperature is too hot the yeast cells can be heat/thermal damaged, but if the water is too cold, you stand the risk of allowing some of the plasma material contained within the yeast cell(s) to leach out during the hydration process. This material, when removed from the cell, can result in the development of an unusually soft or in some cases sticky dough consistency, and extensive damage to the yeast cells from which the material was removed. All in all, good things do not happen when dry yeast is allowed to hydrate in water at a temperature other than that which is recommended by the manufacturer.

Also, while we’re on the topic of hydrating dry yeast, keep in mind that when the directions say to hydrate the yeast in water at say, 100 to 105 F, only a small quantity of the total water needs to be at that temperature, only about five times the weight of the yeast. The rest of the water should be at a temperature that will give you a finished dough within the desired or targeted, temperature range.

The late Tom Lehmann was a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s longstanding resident dough expert. 

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Dough Doctor: A Good Stretch appeared first on Pizza Today.

What causes a gum line on pizza just below the sauce?

A: They don’t call it the “dreaded gum line” for nothing. A gum line can be caused by a number of different things, and some of them are inter-related, but the “kicker” is that it won’t go away until you address the causative factor. This is where things can get interesting.

Contributing factors that cause a gum line

The main factors that we have found to contribute to the development of a gum line are as follows, presented in no particular order:

• Excessive thinning of the sauce. A thin watery sauce that exhibits a tendency to separate upon standing will develop a wet soggy area just below the sauce, leading to the development of a gum line. The reason for over thinning of the sauce may be a sense of false economics resulting from adding additional water when the cost of the sauce increases. It also might be in response to adding onion and/or garlic to the sauce without sufficient heating to neutralize the enzymes responsible for catalyzing the pectin in the tomato –– resulting in their gelling, and/or an excessively thick sauce. This is then addressed by adding more water to the sauce, further diluting it, resulting in water separation. From all indications, it appears that a sauce solids content of about 11 or 12 percent seems to work the best in terms of both sauce performance and economics.
• Pre-saucing of the pizza skins ahead of time for in-store use or in making take and bake pizzas. Pre-saucing of the skins should be avoided whenever possible, but when it must be done, either to help keep up with orders during busy periods, or when making take and bake pizzas, the pizza skins should be given a very light application of oil prior to saucing. This will help to prevent moisture migration into the dough by creating a barrier on the surface of the dough. Pre-saucing of pizza skins with an overly thinned sauce can be especially problematic due to the extreme tendency of the sauce to exhibit syneresis (water out) between the time of sauce application and actual time of baking.
• Too much sauce used on the pizza. When too much sauce is used on the pizza, it becomes more difficult to bake out thoroughly. Due to the sheltering effect of the sauce on the underlying dough/crust, the water separation from the sauce through syneresis is magnified due to the greater amount of sauce present. In addition to a potential gum line, this problem is normally accompanied by a decided tendency of the pizza toppings to slide off of the pizza slice with the first bite.
• Insufficient yeast level. This can result from a number of things. Incorrect dough formulation (not enough yeast), but more commonly it is the result of action taken to address blowing of the dough. When the dough blows, the first thing that is usually done to correct it is to reduce the yeast level. This does work, but in more cases than not, it results in a yeast level so low so as to inhibit proper rising of the dough with a full load of toppings as it should during the early stages of baking in the oven. We typically see this happening in the center section of the pizza. The thinner, more dense dough is now a better heat conductor. And, as such, it allows the bottom heat of baking to more readily pass through the dough/crust only to be absorbed and dissipated by the moisture in the sauce. This results in a bottom crust that is not thoroughly baked, which then collapses upon removal from the oven, to create a gum line.

Pizza Dough Gum Line Solutions

So, why did we reduce the yeast level in the first place? The most common reason is due to some form of temperature abuse or incorrect management of the dough. Temperature abuse can include having the dough at too high of a temperature after mixing, while incorrect dough management can be the result of allowing the dough to bulk ferment prior to scaling and balling of the dough, making for a more gassy dough which is more difficult to cool when it is taken to the cooler for storage.

Many times we find failure to cross stack the dough boxes in the cooler to be the culprit. In this case the boxes are nested or covered as soon as they are placed into the cooler resulting in heat being trapped in the dough box, thus allowing the dough to continue to ferment rather than being cooled down as desired. Along similar lines, the dough balls can also be allowed to ferment outside of the cooler for a period of time prior to going into the cooler. This results in the dough balls proofing/fermenting, and developing more and larger gas cells which work to insulate the dough, reducing the rate at which they are cooled, causing them to blow or sporadically blow. Again, reducing the yeast level might seem like the thing to do, but it will also impact the way the dough rises in the oven to potentially create, or add to the creation of a gum line.

The time of the day when the dough balls are made and taken to the cooler can also lead to a reduction in yeast level. In this scenario, the dough might be made in the morning hours before the store opens, and after all of the dough balls are in the cooler, we begin our regular traffic pattern in and out of the cooler for the remainder of the day. The constant opening of the cooler door leads to a higher operating temperature during business hours than during the night time hours leading to excessive dough fermentation and excessive dough ball growth or full scale blowing of the dough. The solution here is to prepare and process the new dough in the later evening hours so the dough will be placed in the cooler during a time when there is reduced traffic into the cooler, and the dough will be exposed to the lower night time operating temperature of the cooler to achieve more effective and consistent cooling of the dough balls.

The late Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann was a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s longstanding resident dough expert.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Knead to Know: Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann talks gum line — What causes it and what to do about it appeared first on Pizza Today.

Dough Doctor discusses water temp and pizza peels

Q: Does the temperature of the water matter that much when making pizza dough?

A: The temperature of your dough is vitally important because it sets the stage for everything else that will happen to the dough thereafter. It is the temperature of the dough that controls fermentation, how fast it will proceed, and how long it will continue.

For example, higher dough temperatures allow for faster fermentation rates. As the dough ferments faster, it consumes more nutrient (sugar) and generates more acid (acetic, lactic and propionic). The ultimate lack of nutrient and excess of acid work to significantly slow or halt yeast activity after several hours in a typical pizza dough formula. Cooler dough temperatures will slow the rate of fermentation, decreasing acid formation and nutrient metabolism, allowing for a longer sustained fermentation period for the dough. Also, from a mechanical point, doughs having a lower temperature are easier and faster to cool when taken to the cooler. Doughs that are too warm may be difficult to cool, efficiently resulting in over-fermented or “blown” doughs. So, as you can see, if the dough temperature is not controlled, your entire dough management procedure can become unraveled overnight, resulting in lost doughs (or, at best, inconsistent dough performance or finished product quality characteristics).

The recommendation for activating an active dry yeast is to use a water temp between 100 F to 105 F. And that’s pretty important. In fact, the water temperature used to activate any type of dry yeast is really pretty important. In all cases, active dry yeast must be hydrated before it can be added to the dough. And, in some cases, instant dry yeast must also be hydrated. Take note that the correct water temperature to use when hydrating IDY is 95 F. If the water temperature is too hot the yeast cells can be heat/thermal damaged. But if the water is too cold, you stand the risk of allowing some of the plasma material contained within the yeast cell(s) to leach out during the hydration process. This material, when removed from the cell, can result in the development of an unusually soft (or, in some cases, sticky dough consistency and extensive damage to the yeast cells from which the material was removed). All in all, good things do not happen when dry yeast is allowed to hydrate in water at a temperature other than that which is recommended by the manufacturer.

Also, while we’re on the topic of hydrating dry yeast, keep in mind that when the directions say to hydrate the yeast in water at say, 100 to 105 F, only a small quantity of the total water needs to be at that temperature, only about five times the weight of the yeast. The rest of the water should be at a temperature that will give you a finished dough within the desired or targeted temperature range.

Q: Why is my dough sticking to my peel?

A: There are a couple of things that might cause the dough to stick to your peel. If you are using malt in your dough, make doubly sure that it is non-diastatic (non-enzyme active) malt. If the malt is diastatic malt (enzyme active), it will convert starch in the flour to sugars, making the dough sticky or tacky to the point where it will stick to almost any surface it comes into contact with, including a prep peel. If the dough is over absorbed (contains too much water) it may feel clammy or even exhibit a slight tackiness when touched. Over absorbed dough tends to be difficult to work with as the dough is just too extensible and is easily over stretched during the forming operation. While some of the traditional doughs are fairly high in absorption and difficult to handle during forming, they can still be peeled into the oven without much of a problem if they are well floured for ease of handling, and either fine cornmeal, or semolina flour is used as the peel dust to aid in sliding the prepared dough skin off of the peel. Be sure to use a wood or wood laminate peel for your prep peel.

When a wood or wood laminate is used as a prep peel, the wood will have some capacity to absorb moisture, thus reducing the potential for stickiness. Because it is harder to form condensation between a wood peel and the dough skin, the issue of condensation is all but totally eliminated. Even with the best dough and wood prep peels, it is still possible for dough to stick to the peel if too much time is taken in prepping the dough skin.

Even when a novice is prepping a dough skin and taking their own sweet time about it, there is still only a slight chance that the dough will stick to the peel. But where the problem arises is when the prepped or partially prepped dough skin is allowed to remain on the prep peel while they do something else, like wash and cut a topping for the pizza or stop to answer the phone, etc.

The solution to this is easy to address –– just make sure once the dough is placed on the peel it is dressed and peeled into the oven without interruption. Of course, a good peel dust doesn’t hurt either.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

The post Knead to Know: Pizza Dough Questions on water temperature and sticking pizza peels appeared first on Pizza Today.

The Dough Doctor answers question about soft crusts, seafood pizzas and breakfast pies

Q: My pizza dough gets too soft to hand toss after only two days in the cooler. What do I do?

A: Your dough formula likely contains too much oil. Keep in mind that both water and oil contribute to the soft and extensible handling properties of the dough. It’s most likely that this is where the problem is. To correct the problem, I would suggest reducing the oil content to a level where it does not exceed four percent of the flour weight and to where the combined water and oil do not exceed 56 to 60 percent of the flour weight.

Also, keep in mind that the flour needs to hydrate the water in order to form “gluten”. With the high level of oil that you’re using it is entirely possible that a good deal of the flour is absorbing oil rather than water if the oil is not added in a delayed manner. To do this, do not add the oil until the ingredients have had a chance to mix together at a low speed for a couple of minutes. When you cannot see any dry flour in the mixing bowl, the oil can be added and blended in by mixing for an additional minute at low speed. Then, the dough can be mixed in your normal manner. This should give you more consistent dough performance, especially after a couple of days in the cooler.

Q: We have had a number of requests for a seafood-topped pizza. Do you have any suggestions for a starting point?

A: Seafood pizzas are one of my all-time favorites. Start with your regular dough skins and brush lightly with olive oil. Apply a thin layer of Alfredo sauce, then sprinkle with diced fresh garlic, coarse ground white pepper and dried dill weed. Apply some thin sliced onion and pieces of roasted red peppers and your choice of seafood.

My personal preference is whole raw shrimp (21 to 25 or higher count), sliced raw fish (salmon or orange roughy works well, but any firm flesh fish can also be used) and finish with a light sprinkle of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Bake just as you would any of your regular pizzas. This is a fun pizza to make as you can use whatever seafood is available. I’ve used grouper for the fish and clams, lobster and even conch for the seafood topping.

Q: Do you have any suggestions for making a breakfast pizza?

A: I’ve always been puzzled by the fact that pizzerias are not open for breakfast trade. The box hamburger stores are all open, and now the box sandwich stores are getting their piece of the breakfast trade too, so why not pizza? Individual-sized breakfast pizzas as well as breakfast-sized calzones might be just the ticket for a fast, “grab and go” breakfast to feed hungry commuters with little time to wait in long lines.

A great breakfast pizza can be made using an individual-sized dough skin (five- to eight-inch diameter). Begin by brushing the dough with melted butter, or blend of half butter and half canola oil, add slices of fresh tomato, or tomato filets rather than a traditional sauce, then add breakfast sausage to replace your Italian sausage. For vegetables, use sliced mushrooms, onion, red and green peppers for color, add a sprinkling of crispy bacon pieces and finish with a light application of half mozzarella and half cheddar cheese. These pizzas hold well under a heat lamp on a heated tray for speedy service.

The other approach that I’ve had great success with is to make a breakfast calzone. I like to keep these on a smaller, individual sized format, beginning with a dough skin about eight inches in diameter. Brush the outer edge of the dough skin with water, then add pre-cooked scrambled egg, sautéed onion, green peppers, mushrooms, pre-cooked bacon pieces, and precooked breakfast sausage. Add a couple pieces of fresh sliced tomato, a little ricotta, mozzarella and cheddar cheese, then fold and crimp tightly closed. Cut a vent hole into the top of the calzone, brush with melted butter, or commercial butter oil and bake to a golden brown color.

These calzones hold very well under a heat lamp, or better yet, slip them into parchment paper pouches (this makes them easier to eat on the run), and hold under a heat lamp. Now, all you need to do is to grab a calzone, drop it into a bag with a cup of coffee, add a napkin or two and you have the start for a fast, ready-to-go commuter breakfast.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

The post Knead to Know: Soft Sell appeared first on Pizza Today.

How one young pizza maker uses different techniques to produce top-tier dough

Audrey Kelly, Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage

It’s hard not to notice that the pizza world has been a male bastion for hundreds of years. Save for Sophia Loren’s memorable performance as a beautiful pizzaiola in the film L’oro dI Napoli, female pizza makers have been largely ignored. All too slowly that is starting to change. Over the past decade women such as Leah Scurto, Laura Meyer, Nicole Bean and Sarah Minnick have been making bold contributions to our industry. Anyone who has been watching closely can tell you that the incredible women of pizza are finally getting the recognition they deserve.

Enter Audrey Kelly, founder of Boulder, Colorado’s game-changing pizzeria named Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage. Audrey has had an enviable pizza career, cramming a lifetime of experience into just 10 years. Her journey has taken her from San Francisco to New York and finally to Colorado, along with multiple trips to compete in Italy. At every stop Audrey has made a lasting impression on everyone she has worked with.

How talented is Audrey?

Here’s what 13-time World Champion Tony Gemignani had to say about her: “From the minute I met Audrey I knew she was very special. I’ve trained thousands of pizza makers over the last 30 years and when I saw her handle and open dough for the first time without any previous training, I was blown away.”

Along with many of today’s superstar pizza makers, Audrey is a graduate of a pizza school … but even there she made an impression. Tony observed, “Her expertise is uncanny and extraordinary .”

Audrey is a fierce competitor, but like many of the best of our industry she gets the most satisfaction from seeing her team succeed. She states: “When a customer says they had an amazing experience when I wasn’t there, that is one of the most rewarding feelings.”

Over the past several years Audrey has become renowned for both her technique and her dough making methods. Due to the limited space available in her pizzeria she has developed a unique way to offer a variety of pizza styles using only one dough formula. She achieves an array of textures and flavors by modifying the fermentation time and using different methods in handling the dough when making the pizzas. She describes her perfect dough as “having a varying crunch on the outside and pillow soft in the middle. It should have great mouth feel and not sit like a rock in your stomach.”

These qualities, which are the Holy Grail of modern dough making, can only be achieved with an understanding of how fermentation affects both flavor and texture. Everything begins with knowledge of the science behind our craft. A strong foundation in established dough making principles is critical, but Audrey is also constantly experimenting and modifying based on her experiences and research. When developing a new dough, she likes to “work backwards”. She starts by envisioning her finished product and proceeds to thinking about how to modify her basic dough to achieve the desired result.

Like many of her champion colleagues Audrey is an advocate of long, slow fermentation to develop flavor and texture. She starts with a six-hour bulk ferment before dividing and rounding. This method encourages the bacterial development that is crucial to flavor complexity. Her method also adds strength to the dough, which is particularly important with today’s movement towards higher hydration levels.

Here is a formula based on Audrey’s principles.

Poolish:

5 pounds flour
5 pounds water
¾ ounce instant yeast

1. Combine ingredients and cover.
2. Let poolish sit at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours.

Then make dough using recipe below.

Dough:

50 pounds high-protein flour.
32.5 pounds water at 55 F
10 pounds poolish
24 ounces salt
20 ounces oil
4 ounces instant yeast

1. Place water in mixing bowl. Add poolish and whisk until fully dissolved. Add yeast. Add flour. Sprinkle salt on top of flour.
2. Mix on slow speed for 3 minutes and then slowly drizzle in oil with mixer, continuing to run for additional 6 minutes.
3. Increase to speed 2 for 3 minutes.
4. Return to speed 1 for 1 minute.
5. Place dough in bulk fermentation tub. Cover and allow to rise at room  temperature for 6 hours.
6. Divide and form into balls. Place in trays. Cover and place in refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours.
7. Remove dough from refrigerator and let it come up to a minimum of 55 F before using.

John Arena co-owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

The post Knead to Know: Constant Experimentation appeared first on Pizza Today.

How to calculate how much dough you need for ANY size of pizza

Want to calculate the amount of dough needed to make any size of pizza? No problem! Just use of our old friend “pi” to calculate the surface area of a circle, and then use that number to develop a dough density number. It may sound confusing, but it really isn’t. Here is the way it’s done.

The late Tom Lehmann was Pizza Today’s Resident Dough Expert

Let’s say you want to make 12-, 14-, and 16-inch diameter pizzas, and you need to know what the correct dough weight will be for each size. The first thing to do is to pick a size you want to work with (any size at all will work). We’ll assume we opted to work with the 12-inch size. The first thing to do is to make our dough, then scale and ball some dough balls using different scaling weights for the dough balls. The idea here is to make pizzas from the different dough ball weights, and then, based on the characteristics of the finished pizza, select the dough ball weight that gives us the pizza that we want with regard to crust appearance, texture and thickness. Make a note of that weight. For this example, we will say that 11 ounces of dough gives us what we were looking for.

How to find the Dough Density Number

We’re now going to find the dough density number that is all-important in determining the dough weights for the other sizes. Begin by calculating the surface area of the size of pizza you elected to find the dough weight for. In this case, it is a 12-inch pizza. The formula for finding the surface area of a circle is pi x R squared. Pi equals 3.14, and R is half of the diameter. To square it we simply multiply it times itself.

Here is what the math looks like:

3.14 x 6 x 6 (or 36) = 113.04 square inches

To calculate the dough density number, we will need to divide the dough weight by the number of square inches. So, now we have 11 ounces divided by 113.04 = 0.0973106 ounces of dough per square inch of surface area on our 12-inch pizza. This number is referred to as the “dough density number.”

Our next step is to calculate the number of square inches of surface area in each of the other sizes we want to make. In this case we want to make 14- and 16-inch pizzas in addition to the 12-inch pizza.

The surface area of a 14-inch pizza is 3.14 x 49 (7 x 7 = 49) = 153.86 square inches of surface area. All we need to do now is to multiply the surface area of the 14-inch pizza by the dough density number (0.0973106) to find the dough scaling weight for the 14-inch pizza — 153.86 x 0.0973106 = 14.972208 ounces of dough. Round that off to 15 ounces of dough needed to make the 14-inch pizza crust.

For the 16-inch pizza we multiply 3.14 X 64 (8 x 8 = 64) = 200.96 square inches of surface area. Multiply this times the dough density factor to get the dough weight required to make our 16-inch crusts — 200.96 X 0.0973106 = 19.555538 ounces of dough. Round that off to 19.5 ounces of dough needed to make the 16-inch pizza crust.

In summary, the following dough weights will be needed to make our 12-, 14-, and 16-inch pizza crusts: 12-inch (11 ounces); 14-inch (15 ounces): and 16-inch (19.5 ounces).

Calculating how much sauce and cheese to put on different sized pizzas

In addition to being used to calculate dough weights for different size pizzas, this same calculation can be used to find the weights for both sauce and cheese, too.

In these applications, all you need to do is to substitute the dough weight with the sauce or cheese weight found to make the best pizza for you. This will provide you with a specific sauce or cheese weight, which can then be used in exactly the same manner to calculate the amount of sauce or cheese required for any other size pizza you wish to make.

As an example, going back to that 12-inch pizza, let’s say we really like the pizza when it has five ounces of sauce on it. We already know that a 12-inch pizza has a surface area of 113.04 square inches, so we divide five-ounces by 113.04 = 0.0442321 ounces of sauce per square inch of surface area. Our sauce density number is 0.0442321. We know that the 14-inch pizza has a surface area of 153.86 square inches. So, all we need to do is to multiply 153.86 times the sauce density number to find the correct amount of sauce to use on our 14-inch pizza — 153.86 x 0.0442321 = 6.80 ounces of sauce should be used on our 14-inch pizza.

For the 16-inch pizza, we know that it has 200.96 square inches of surface area. So, all we need to do is multiply this times the sauce density factor — 200.96 x 0.0442321 = 8.88 ounces of sauce should be used on our 16-inch pizza.

To calculate the amount of cheese to use, again, we will use the 12-inch pizza and experiment with applying different amounts of cheese until we find the amount that works best for us. Then divide this amount by the surface area of our test pizza (a 12-inch, which has 113.04 inches of surface area). Let’s say that we found six ounces of cheese to work well in our application. six-ounces divided by 113.04 = 0.0530785 ounce of cheese per square inch of surface area. Our cheese density number is 0.0530785.

A 14-inch pizza has 153.86 square inches of surface area. Multiply this times the cheese density number to find the amount of cheese to add on our 14-inch pizza — 153.86 x 0.0530785 = 8.16 ounces of cheese should be used on our 14-inch pizza.

A 16-inch pizza has 200.96 square inches of surface area. Multiply this times the cheese density number to find the amount of cheese to add on our 16-inch pizza — 200.96 x 0.0530785 = 10.66 ounces of cheese should be used on our 16-inch pizza.

By calculating your dough, sauce and cheese weights for each of your pizza sizes, you will find that your pizzas will bake in a more similar manner, regardless of size, this is especially true if you are baking in any of the conveyor ovens, in which the baking time is fixed, and you want to be able to bake all of your pizza sizes at similar baking times. Typically, this allows us to bake pizzas with one to three toppings on one conveyor, regardless of size, and those pizzas with four or more toppings on another conveyor, again, regardless of size.

The late Tom Lehmann was a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s longstanding resident dough expert.

The post Calculating Any Size of Pizza: Three (.14) is the Magic Number appeared first on Pizza Today.

The Dough Doctor dishes on par-baked crust

Every once in a while, I receive a question about par-baked pizza crusts. People ask about the process of perfecting it and what applications are best suited to par-baking.

I have found that thick-crust pizzas are definitely an area where par-baking excels. In fact, I can’t think of a better application for a par-baked crust.

The biggest problem in making thick-crust pizza is the need to proof the dough, allowing it to rise and develop a light, tender eating characteristic (which should be your ultimate goal).

To do this, we must allow the shaped/panned dough to rise for a period of time anywhere from 45 minutes to three hours or more prior to dressing and baking. In working with a fresh-made dough concept the problem is how to have dough ready to bake at any/all times of the day. Sure, it can be done, but it takes a lot of dough manipulation such as proofing, refrigerating and tempering (optional) before dressing and baking. Even when done well, there is still the possibility of making a pizza with dough that has not properly risen, resulting in a less-than-ideal consumer experience. By using a par-baked crust, we can allow the dough to proof/rise to a predetermined amount under close supervision and then par-bake it. You might need to adjust the baking time and temperature to get the best par-baked crust characteristics, but this generally isn’t much of an obstacle as the crusts can be baked prior to opening or during slow time later in the day, especially if you have multiple ovens where one of the ovens can be temporarily dedicated to baking par-baked crusts until needed.

To make a par-baked thick crust I like to use either an 18- by 26-inch sheet pan or individual round/square/rectangular pans. Once you have determined the dough weight best suited for your application (I like to start with a dough loading factor of 0.124 ounces per square inch of pan surface area), sheet or press the dough into the pan with oil to ensure release and develop an extra crispy fried crust characteristic. It may be necessary to press the dough in the pan several times after rest periods of 20 to 60 minutes to get it to completely fit the pan without pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Next, cover the pan to prevent drying; allow the dough to proof/rise to about ½- to ¾-inch in thickness; and par-bake just enough to set the dough. The crust will have a very light tan to golden color to it at this time.

Immediately remove the crust from the pan and invert it onto a screen or rack to cool. Inspect the par-baked crusts to ensure that they are fully baked. If you see what at first appear to be translucent spots (they look a lot like oil spots) these are areas of dough collapse due to insufficient baking. You will need to adjust the baking time slightly longer while possibly lowering the baking temperature a little (15 to 25 F) to prevent developing too much crust color. Once the crusts are cooled, they can be bulk packed (penny stacked) in a box with a food contact approved plastic liner and stored at room temperature for up to four days.

To use the par-baked crusts place the crust into the same size pan it was originally baked in (with a little added oil for an additional fried effect) for an individual pizza, or if it is a slice cut from a large sheet pan size crust just place it onto a suitably sized solid tray for baking. While a screen can be used here, I think the screen allows too much air to pass over the cut side of the crust slice creating a dry edge(s) on the slice. At this point, the par-baked crust can be dressed to the order and baked.

Typical baking times will vary with the type of oven used, but my experience indicates that typical baking times will run around four minutes in an air impingement oven, and five to six minutes in a deck oven. Finished pizzas will be characterized by very tender, almost cotton candy-like, eating properties and a crispy bottom crust.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

The post Knead to Know: Above Par appeared first on Pizza Today.

Competition Dough with Laura Meyer

Laura Meyer

This generation of pizza makers views pizza competitions as a proving ground for innovation and a pathway to recognition. Competition has served to unite pizza makers but make no mistake, consistent winners are fiercely driven to succeed. We are proud of the pizza we serve in our shops but the unique challenges of making dough at a competition venue coupled with strict judging criteria require that we consider modifying or adapting our dough if we are going to make a serious run for the Gold.

John Arena, co-owner, Metro Pizza, Las Vegas

I spoke with Laura Meyer, Executive Chef for Pizza Rock in Sacramento and Las Vegas. Laura is a protégé of Tony Gemignani. A multi style champion, Laura has emerged as a competitive force and gifted coach in her own right. She agreed to share her experience as an international competitor.

Every pizza maker has to start somewhere but sometimes fate lends a hand and shapes our future as Laura explains.

LM: I got my start in 2006 at my local pizzeria. It happened to be where Tony G. worked and where it all began.

JA: By 2011 what started as a job had become a career.

LM: In 2011 I moved to San Francisco to take the KM role at Tony G’s Tony’s Pizza Napoletana. I didn’t really think of restaurants as a career until I had seen the culture and community that surrounds restaurant life in SF.

JA: Over time Laura’s role in the pizzeria under Tony’s mentorship has evolved.

LM: I was a pizza maker/cook/did anything. Slowly I proved that I was capable of more and moved into a manager role. It wasn’t until 2011 when Tony asked me if I wanted to take the KM role that I realized I was destined for more. I don’t think Tony, or I really, thought about what I was capable of, but we knew there was potential for more. What more was had yet to be determined, but the challenge was there. I took on the KM role and slowly learned the skills needed to not only make different styles of pizza, compete, manage a kitchen with more moving parts than a car, and become a public speaker —but also how to navigate personalities and build relationships. Now I’m the executive chef for the company and have a hand in multiple projects and work with various companies worldwide.

JA: In addition to being a brilliant pizzaiola, Laura has developed an understanding of her leadership position in our industry.

LM:  It’s one thing to know every technique and style of pizza, but if you don’t know how to speak and work with others and teach them, no vision will be a success.

JA: Champions in any field agree that victory depends on more than just technical skill. Developing a winning mindset is a crucial component that often separates winners from the rest of the pack.

LM: Being slightly uncomfortable at all times is a driving force. My coach growing up used to say, “you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable” and that’s what competition is for me. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the day to day that is a restaurant, especially when you’re the boss, and become complacent. Competing pushes you. Tony said I could compete for the first time in 2013 in Las Vegas and that’s when I learned how big the pizza industry really is. From that first time I had the itch to compete. More to prove to myself that I could do it than to win.

JA: Laura has developed a healthy attitude about the overall value of participation.

LM: You always learn something new. A restaurant could be open for 20 years and have every procedure and recipe dialed in, but competing teaches you there’s more out there than what’s within your four walls.

JA: Perhaps one of the most useful byproducts of competing is that often the winning method and styles are an indicator of emerging trends. For example, the national popularity of Detroit style was ushered in with a victory by Shawn Randazzo.

It’s no surprise that Laura has some clearly defined standards for what constitutes a winning formula.

LM: I’m seeing higher hydrations and more mixed grains and types. Those with technique and execution are the ones who win consistently.

I’m looking for something light but that has good contrasting texture. A crunch on the outside and a soft interior.

JA: Identifying the desired result is only step one. The real challenge is achieving your goal under less than optimal conditions. That requires adaptability. Often competitors show up unprepared for the many variables that are part and parcel to making dough on the road. Laura observes:

LM: I usually have to adjust for varying temperatures and lack of time. Normally fridges, if they’re available, are either too warm or too cold.  You never compete when your dough is ready. You have to learn how to make changes quickly and those decisions can make or break your pizza.

JA: International competition presents a whole other series of challenges.

LM: In Italy the fridges are warmer than here in the U.S. and I had made my dough and the next morning it had already nearly exploded out of the container. I knew temps were important, but I was so used to 35 F fridges that I didn’t know how quickly things could change. On a separate occasion with the fridge being too cold the yeast activity was so slow it looked like the dough hadn’t even begun to rise. Both times I’ve won something major has gone wrong. I’ve always had to figure out a plan B and move forward.

Laura’s dough for this year’s World Championship in Italy:

90% Flour (14% protein)
20% Poolish (equal parts flour and water at 68 degrees with 1% ADY ) Combine and rest at room temperature for 18-24 hours
.5 % ADY yeast
2 % salt
1.5 % malt
2 % oil
68% water

After mixing, bulk ferment the dough at room temperature for 2 days, cut and ball. Rest in cooler for 24 hours before use.

John Arena co-owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

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Baking flatbreads and breads in your pizzeria

In 1980, I had a job as a short-order cook working the graveyard shift at a roadside diner called The Breakfast Barn in rural North Carolina. Being the young punk that I was, I thought I knew everything and ruled my night-kingdom of high school waitresses, truckers, burgers and burnt coffee until five a.m., that was when Mona came in. Mona was the head cook. She taught me about the art of mixing sausage, braising collards and making the perfect gravy always while yelling at me to “look closer child, this is how you do it.” Every morning, Mona started by silently making biscuit dough over a large bowl. One day, I asked her why she did this instead of ordering refrigerated dough. She said, “Son, if you don’t make your own biscuits, you’ll never be a good cook.” I still carry her wisdom in my pizzeria today. We bake everything from buns to baguettes in our ovens and have become better cooks because of it. We now sell breads to barbecue joints, farmers markets and local grocery stores and are the only pizzeria in town that bakes bread.

Let’s face it, titles are just that. If you are making your own dough and baking your own dough, you are a baker. In fact, the very mixing you do, be it direct mixing using only yeast or indirectly, using a natural starter or mother is exactly how bakers do it.

Dough say can you see…

Here are some considerations when thinking about expanding your pizzeria into a bakery:

• How much time is your pizzeria closed? If you close at 1 a.m. and open at 10 a.m., that’s nine hours in which time all that expensive equipment you invested in sits idle.
• Who better to be a baker than you? You’ve got all the equipment sitting right there in front of you, like flour, mixer, walk-in, peels, trays, etc.
• Who is filling the void in the bread market or the sandwich market? If you have artisan bread, you’ll probably be able to make the best sandwiches in town, right?

Achy Baky Heart

The distance between a pizza baker and a bread baker is short. A pizzaiolo or pizzeria owner who wants to step into the baking world doesn’t have to invest much. All it takes is heart, motivation and a plan. Here are some things to get you started:

• Educate yourself about breads. The world of bread extends well beyond the typical batards, baguette and sourdough loaves. Flatbreads across the world are made because they are tasty, fast to make and popular. There are many great books out there from great authors like Peter Reinhart, Michael Kalanty and Jim Lahey. Steal and tweak existing recipes like every baker. Most importantly go the International Artisan Bakery Expo in Las Vegas, concurrently with Pizza Expo, every spring.
• Set yourself up with a plan. Who and where will you sell these breads? Is there room in your lobby for breads or a merchandiser for sandwiches? Who and when are you going to make the dough, proof the loaves and when will you bake them without getting in the way of your pizza operation?
• Use your existing ingredients. Many flatbreads around the world are accompanied by vegetables, meats, fruit and nuts. This can include olives, garlic, sausage, Parmigiano, feta, Asiago, onions, green peppers, ham, jalapeños, mushrooms, potatoes, spinach, artichokes, hot peppers, prosciutto di Parma, capicola, walnuts and even pineapple. Your whole wheat, spelt, rye as well as ancient grains, can be mixed with high-gluten with delicious results.

The world of baking is broad and may seem daunting but the more you work at it the better you will get. Here are some technical secrets that I have found to make baking breads easier.

• Couche. This is a linen fabric to hold bread forms while proofing.
• Benneton. These are straw or plastic baskets in the form of a boule, (round bowl) or batard, (long, fat loaf). They help retain the structure of the bread while proofing.
• Bakers parchment. When you are loading flatbreads onto large sheet pans, this will save you from trying to scrape the bread off.
• Egg wash. People are like bass. If you stick something shiny in their face, they’ll bite. In typical bread ovens, steam is used to get a shiny crust. Using egg wash with 30- to 50-percent water is a great way to get a shine from any dough. This is magic when your conveyor oven doesn’t (and never will) steam.
• Razor blades and small plastic cutters. Couldn’t do without them.
• Always sample your breads. A bread sample in a hungry person’s mouth is worth all the advertising in the world.

When you really think about it, bread baking should be right up your alley.

Spinach Pide, (Pee-DAY) Flatbread

This is a Turkish flatbread made in hot ovens. It is another favorite of mine and once you get the dough-knot mastered, it’ll be a real showstopper for your customers. I tell people that this is just like a spinach-artichoke dip pie. Oh yea!

Get the Spinach Pide recipe.

Ciabatta with old dough starter (Pâte Fermentée)

Ciabatta is the Italian “Slipper” bread because of its appearance. This recipe uses old pizza dough as the Biga or pre-ferment and gives it much character, color and longevity on your counter. It is from the lake region in Northern Italy and is known for its airy interior and crunchy crust. The wet dough is a challenge for heavy-handed newcomers to baking but you’ll know it was well worth it after that first bite. The perfect sandwich for ciabatta is fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil and lots of extra virgin olive oil.

Get the Ciabatta recipe.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

The post Baking Breads: The Grateful Bread appeared first on Pizza Today.

The Dough Doctor addresses mixing protocols and reducing agents

There seems to be an abundance of questions on how much a pizza dough should be mixed. While there are just too many variables involved to give any hard and fast numbers, the best advice I can give on mixing a pizza dough is to mix it just until it begins to take on a smooth, satiny appearance. At this point you will notice that the dough has a much drier feel to it and isn’t nearly as sticky as it was just a few short minutes ago.

Once the dough has achieved the smooth, satiny appearance stage of mixing, stop the mixer and check the dough for stickiness. If it still feels sticky don’t be afraid to mix it for another minute or so. As soon as the dough takes on a slightly tacky (but not sticky) feel it’s most likely properly mixed.

If you’re using a planetary-type mixer and mixing only in first speed this may take something close to 20 minutes to achieve. However, if you have to mix only in low speed, in all probability you are trying to mix too large of a dough size for your specific mixer. You will find that you will get much better mixing action and shorter development times if you can do the bulk of the dough mixing at second or medium speed. Typically we see total dough mixing times in the 8- to 10-minute range when planetary-type mixers are used.

When spiral-type mixers are used, regardless if they are single speed or two speed, the total mixing times are about the same at 8 to 10 minutes. But if a VCM (vertical cutter mixer) is used you can look for a total mixing time of 70 to 80 seconds.

I hear a lot about operators using the “window pane” test to assess the dough for proper gluten development. This is really not a very accurate test for a pizza dough since pizza doughs are not mixed to anything even remotely close to full gluten development (which the window pane test does a good job of showing). For those who might not be familiar with the window pane test, this is where a small quantity of dough (about the size of a hen’s egg) is carefully stretched between the hands to expose the gluten film. When the film is very clear and almost transparent, the gluten is judged to be fully developed. This is fine for bread production — but in pizza production it would be considered to be well overmixed. Judging gluten film development during the early development stages is very difficult and of questionable accuracy. This is not to say that pizzas doughs do not have a fully developed gluten structure. They most certainly do. It’s just that the bulk of the gluten development is left to what we refer to as bio chemical gluten development, which takes place during the fermentation period. With bio chemical gluten development the developed gluten structure is very fine and very relaxed/extensible. If the gluten were to be developed mechanically to this stage it would not be as fine of a structure and it would be considerably more elastic, which would make the dough more difficult to effectively open into a pizza skin (and the resulting crumb structure of the finished crust would be more breadlike than the open, porous structure we all like to see).

Q: Reducing agents … what are they and why are they used?

A: Reducing agents are ingredients that are added to our doughs to either reduce the mixing time or to increase the extensibility of the dough. Reducing agents can include any of the following: L-cysteine, glutathione (a.k.a. dead yeast), deodorized or non-deodorized vegetable powder (onion and garlic), and protease enzyme.

L-cysteine blended with dairy whey has been around for a very long time and has been extensively used in both the pizza and baking industries to help reduce dough mixing time and provide a softer, more extensible dough structure.

Glutathione (an amino acid present in yeast) is a relative newcomer, but it functions in essentially the same manner as L-cysteine. The only difference is that glutathione, sold as “dead yeast”, might have a marketing advantage. Since it’s yeast (just dead) where required, we can label it right along with our regular (active/live) yeast.

Then there is dehydrated vegetable powder. This is an interesting product as it reacts with the flour proteins in a slightly different manner than L-cysteine or glutathione. With either of these an overdose can completely liquefy the dough. But with the deodorized vegetable powder-based reducing agents you can only achieve a limited mixing time reduction (about 25 percent), and an overdose will not liquefy the dough. Like glutathione, its strength lies in the fact that where labeling of the pizza is required it shows up only as vegetable powder. If you have ever tried to add garlic or onion (in any form) to your dough you have most likely experienced the softening effect first hand if the single or combined amount exceeded 0.15 percent of the total flour weight in the dough.

Lastly there are the protease enzyme-based reducing agents. They are enzymes that attack and break down the gluten-forming proteins in the flour. In doing so, they are indeed very effective reducing agents — and at the same time they can be somewhat difficult to manage as they are prone to working faster at higher temperatures. This can be problematic if you are in the habit of saving scrap dough for later use (unless it is kept refrigerated at all times, otherwise you may find that your scrap dough bin is slowly turning into a doughy slime). Additionally, dough that had been overly softened by use of L-cysteine or glutathione can sometimes be salvaged by returning it to the mixer and mixing it until once again sufficiently extensible for immediate use. But since the protease enzymes completely destroy the gluten forming proteins there is nothing that can be done to salvage an overly softened dough when enzyme based dough softeners are used. On the other hand, where labeling is required, these dough softeners are typically labeled as a dough processing aid. Since they are completely destroyed by the baking process, they may not require labeling.

Why are dough reducing agents used? They are used to help reduce the mixing time for commercially made frozen pizza doughs. They also have some limited use in making very short time pizza doughs where the dough reducing agents will both reduce the dough mixing time and provide the dough extensibility normally resulting from long/longer fermentation times. Possibly the most common use of reducing agents in the pizza industry is in the production of pizza crusts that are formed by one of the pressing methods. In this application it is common to use one of the reducing agents as a means to reduce dough snap-back at the pizza press, thus helping the dough to retain its pressed size and shape.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

The post Knead to Know: Smooth Operator appeared first on Pizza Today.

How oil, hydration and the mix impact your dough

The addition of oil is a very important aspect to achieving consistent dough performance. We all know that oil will float on top of water, right? So, if we add the oil and water together to our dough mix at the same time, the oil will only float to the top where it will come into direct contact with the flour. It will soak into the flour, thus rendering an unknown portion of the flour incapable of forming gluten during the mixing process. This, in turn, leads to inconsistencies in the way the dough feels and maybe performs later on.

A simple solution to this issue is to use the delayed oil addition method. In this mixing method the oil is withheld from the dough for about the first two minutes of mixing. This allows time for the flour to absorb the water. Once the flour has been hydrated the oil is added and incorporated into the dough while mixing in the normal manner.

Speaking of water, I’m often asked how much of it should be added to a dough formula. There is lots of talk lately of high-hydration dough, for example. My answer when I’m asked about water is “it depends.” The amount of dough absorption will vary with the properties of the flour being used, as well as the pizza style you’re making, for example. And, even to some extent it should vary based on the skillset of the person working with the dough.

For most pizza doughs, using a typical “pizza flour” with 12- to 14-percent protein content provides a good dough absorption with a hydration level in the 62- to 68-percent range. Those just getting started in the pizza business might find that dough made at the lower end of the range will be easier to work with. However, as your skillset increases and you become more proficient at handling and opening the dough balls into skins, you can improve upon your speed by making a slightly softer, more extensible dough by increasing the dough absorption a couple of percentage points. Just remember that there is no right or wrong dough absorption — it’s just whatever works best for you and gives you the finished pizza that you’re looking for.

Another question I commonly get, especially from industry newbies at International Pizza Expo, is this: How do you know when the dough is properly mixed?

Well, pizza dough is typically exposed to a significant amount of fermentation. So, when it comes to actual dough mixing time we only need to mix it just enough to achieve a smooth, dry skin or surface to the dough (which makes subsequent handling of the dough much easier than if it were to be given a shorter mixing time). During the fermentation process biochemical gluten development also takes place. This, in turn, more fully develops the gluten structure within the dough. The biochemical gluten development also results in less wear and tear on our mixer by reducing the necessary dough mixing time. Lastly, it also results in a more fully developed gluten structure that is soft and extensible without undue stickiness, all of which is so much appreciated when it comes time to begin opening those dough balls into pizza skins.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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The Dough Doctor discusses when and how to add yeast to your mix

What is the best way to add yeast to the dough?

A: This will depend upon the type of yeast you’re using. If you’re using active dry yeast (ADY) you will need to activate it prior to addition to the dough. This is done by placing the yeast in a bowl with warm (100 to 105 F) water. The amount of water used to activate the yeast should be at least five times the weight of ADY being activated. Place the water in the bowl first, then sprinkle the ADY over the water and whisk well to achieve a yeast suspension. Allow the yeast suspension to set for 10 minutes, then quickly whisk once again and pour into the dough water. After the ADY has been activated it doesn’t hurt the yeast if it’s mixed into the cold water. From this point on you can add the remainder of ingredients to the bowl in your usual manner.

Tom Lehmann
Pizza Today Resident Dough Expert

If you are adding instant dry yeast (IDY) you can just add it in the dry form out of the bag. In this case the preferred way to add IDY is to add it directly to the flour. As you begin mixing, the agitator will effectively disperse the yeast throughout the flour and allow for proper hydration/activation as it contacts the water during the mixing stage. If you are using a mixer with very short mixing times, such as a vertical cutter mixer, you will need to hydrate/activate the IDY in the same manner as when using ADY. But in this case the ideal water temperature to use will be 95 F. Keep in mind that IDY, due to its rapid hydrating properties, is rather sensitive to water temperature when it’s being hydrated outside of the dough. So be sure to use a thermometer to make sure the water temperature the IDY is being hydrated in is right at 95 F. Just like ADY, the amount of water used to hydrate the IDY should be about five times the weight of the IDY. The rest of the hydration/activation procedure is the same as for ADY.

Compressed yeast (CY) is ready to use right from the package. There is no need to activate or put it into a suspension prior to use. Compressed yeast can either be added directly into the dough water or it can be crumbled on top of the flour just before you begin mixing the dough. One misconception regarding CY is that many believe that it has to be suspended in the dough water. This is not true. You can just add the crumbled yeast right into the water. If you absolutely must whisk the CY into the water no harm will be done, but like many of you I have more important things to do than to whisk my yeast into the water when it’s unnecessary.

Regardless of the type of yeast being used, I always recommend that it not be brought into direct contact with salt and/or sugar after it has been hydrated. While it is a common practice with many operators to add the water to the mixing bowl and then add the yeast, salt and sugar to the bowl followed by the flour, I don’t recommend the practice as a delay in beginning. The mixing process could result in potential damage to the yeast (resulting in dough inconsistencies later). By adding the yeast to the flour just as we’re ready to begin mixing, the potential for harming the yeast is reduced. Remember, we’re always striving for consistency and failure is not an option, so I like to do everything possible to follow that mantra.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

The post Knead to Know: Talking Yeast appeared first on Pizza Today.

How high hydration levels create artisan pizza dough

Probably the biggest change in pizza dough formulation in recent years has been the introduction of bread baking techniques into the process. Starters, natural fermentation, autolyze, indirect mixing method and bulk fermentation, once rare in our industry, have become common practice. But the biggest change that has taken place, and the one most challenging for old-school pizza makers to implement, is the ever-increasing hydration levels in pizza dough that have taken our craft to a new level.

John Arena, owner
Metro Pizza, Las Vegas

So, what can higher hydration do for you? For modern pizza makers the holy grail is to create a dough that is crunchy on the bottom, light and airy on the inside with open crumb structure — and so delicate inside that it practically melts in your mouth. Increasing hydration, combined with proper technique, will put you on the path to creating the large, irregular internal holes and lace-like gluten structure that has become the benchmark of artisan pizza dough.

I recently spent a few days in the test kitchen/classroom of Noel Brohner, founder of Slow Rise Pizza Co. Besides being the pizza chef to an enviable list of entertainment superstars, Noel is one of the foremost advocates of what many consider to be extreme hydration dough. His demos at Pizza Expo, featuring dough with up to 100-percent hydration, have earned him a reputation as an innovator unafraid to explore the outer limits in search of improved results.

While 100-percent hydration may be a bit too unmanageable for most of us, I’ve found that hydration of 80 to 90 percent is workable and can create a great result. Let’s put that in perspective. Typical Chicago-style dough may be in the 55 percent hydration range. New York-style is usually 60 to 65 percent, and Detroit-style hovers around 70 percent hydration. This means that if your dough formula calls for 62 percent water and you bump it up to 85 percent you will be adding 37 percent more water! Not only will the end result be much lighter, you will also get a higher yield. While a 50-pound bag of flour was giving you about 83 pounds of finished dough (including salt and yeast), the 85-percent hydration method is going to produce about 94 pounds of dough.

Here’s a formula for you to play around with:

50 percent High Gluten Pizza Flour- — 10 pounds (4.53 kilo)

50 percent All Purpose Flour — 10 pounds (4.53 kilo)

85 percent Water — 17 pounds at 40 F

2.75 percent Kosher Salt — 8.8 ounces (250 grams)

2 percent Olive oil (optional) — 6.4 ounces (181 grams)

.5 percent Diastatic Malt (optional) — 1.6 ounces (45 grams)

.2 percent Instant Dry Yeast — .6 ounce (17 grams)

The method:

Water must be very cold. The goal is to have a completed dough at 65 F. We will be using a very aggressive mix schedule, so the friction factor will be quite high. Start with 40 F water and adjust temperature appropriately according to your mixer and dough room conditions.

Place water and flour (and oil and malt, if using) in mixer and combine on slow speed for 3 minutes. Let dough rest for 20 minutes.

Add yeast and resume mix on slow speed for 3 minutes. As the mix continues, add salt and continue mixing for 3 minutes. At this point the dough is going to be very wet. Resist the temptation to add flour!

Increase mixer speed to speed 2 and continue mixing until dough is pulling away from the bowl and climbing up the hook. Listen to your dough: it will make a slapping sound when it is ready. This can take up to 20 minutes or longer. Reduce to speed 1 for 2 minutes.

Place the dough in a well-oiled fermentation container. Check the temperature. If the dough is over 68 F, place it in the refrigerator and bring the temperature down. Remove dough from the refrigerator and let it rest for 45 minutes, covered. Stretch and fold dough (this will strengthen the gluten structure), then let it rest for 30 minutes. Repeat the stretch and fold. After 30 minutes, repeat the stretch and fold for the final time.

Be sure to keep the dough covered between intervals. Allow the dough to bulk rise for at least 6 hours. If you will be using the dough the next day, you will want to divide it and shape it at this point. Or it can be refrigerated for up to 4 days for later use.

Place the dough on a well-floured table. Divide dough into pieces at the  desired weight. Shape the dough into tight balls. At this stage you may be handling the dough more aggressively than normal. If you are having trouble with dough sticking to your hands, keep a tub of ice water at your station and dip your hands in it as needed. The goal is to have a very tight dough ball that will have structure as it rises. A dough with this level of hydration will not be as sensitive to strong hands as lower hydration dough. Place the dough in trays and cover it. The dough can now be left out at room temperature until ready for use (at least 6 hours), or it can be refrigerated for 24 hours before use. If you choose to refrigerate the dough be sure to remove it from the refrigerator several hours before use. The dough should be a minimum of 55 F before using it. If the dough is difficult to extend and is snapping back it is not really ready. Properly aged dough will be relaxed and lack “memory” (which causes the dough to resist extension). This is true of all types of dough.

When extending this dough you will find that it requires additional flour for dusting. As you become more accustomed to it you can reduce the amount of flour needed. I recommend that when the dough is removed from the tray the bottom of the dough ball becomes the top of the pizza when placed on the peel. Because the top of the dough is drier it will require less flour to get it off the peel, keep the oven cleaner and get a better bake.

John Arena co-owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

The post Knead to Know: Artisan Pizza Dough — Water World appeared first on Pizza Today.

The Dough Doctor talks refrigeration

We’re setting up our first shop, but we have reach-in coolers rather than a walk-in cooler. How would you recommend that we store our dough balls in a reach-in cooler?

A: Since reach-in coolers are not as efficient when it comes to cooling large numbers of dough balls, our dough management for a reach-in must begin at the dough formulation. Do this by adjusting the temperature of the water to give a finished dough temp in the 70 to 75 F range. Dough boxes can be used in a reach-in cooler, but you may need to remove some of the shelf guides or adjust their spacing to accommodate the height of your dough boxes. Then when placing the filled boxes into the cooler use an off-set placement pattern — place one box further back and the next box on top of it further forward, which will leave alternating ends of the boxes open for air circulation. After the dough balls have cooled to 50 to 55 F they can be sealed in the boxes to prevent drying. Do this by pushing or pulling on each box so it nests over the box beneath it, thus sealing the box closed. Once this is done the dough can be allowed to cold-ferment in the boxes just as they would in a walk-in cooler.

Another effective option is to use aluminum sheet pans rather than dough boxes. In this case the dough balls are placed directly onto the sheet pans and covered with food-contact-approved plastic bags. The bottom of the bag is brought up over the top of the dough balls, and the top of the bag is brought down over the front of the pan and tucked under the pan as it is placed on the rack in the cooler.

Is there any difference between the different brands of instant dry yeast (IDY)?

A: As long as the basic color is the same or similar you shouldn’t see any difference in performance of IDY from the different manufacturers. Do be aware, though, that there are different types of IDY that are designed for specific dough formulations. So these may perform differently than the conventional red bag IDY that we are all familiar with when used in a typical pizza dough formulation. If in doubt, always check with the yeast manufacturer to be sure you have the correct one for your application. Additionally, if your IDY is packaged in a vacuum-sealed bag (it will be hard as long as the vacuum seal is unbroken), do not use the yeast if the bag is soft. This is an indication that the seal has been compromised and the quality of the yeast is unknown.

I used to work in a bakery where we added the salt to the dough towards the end of the mixing stage. This was done to reduce the dough mixing time, or so I was told. Would this procedure help to reduce the mixing time of our pizza doughs?

A: The delayed salt addition method works well to help reduce the dough mixing time only when we are mixing doughs to full or near-full gluten development (such as when making commercial breads and rolls, but it does not work with pizza doughs since pizza doughs are under-mixed to begin with). Most pizza doughs are mixed to only ½ to 2/3 of that.

If I’m adding butter or margarine to my dough do I have to melt it first?

A: No, you can add it right on top of the flour, but I should add that it should be at or near room temperature before adding it to your dough. This will ensure that it gets mixed into the dough rather than just incorporated as one single lump or several pieces of hard butter/margarine. If the dough is going to receive a very short mixing time, such as when using a vertical cutter mixer (VCM), I’ve always played it on the safe side and melted any plastic fat (butter, margarine or shortening) prior to addition. The same would go for mixing some of the cracker-type doughs that call for very short mixing times.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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The International Pizza Consultant talks naturally leavened dough

Anthony Falco is an International Pizza Consultant, with projects on four continents and dozens of cities around the world. He was the keynote speaker at Pizza & Pasta Northeast 2018 in Atlantic City. He is the co-founder of Rad Times Pizza™, a pizza lifestyle brand. And when he is not trying to improve his pizza-making skills he is eating Ramen, illustrating T-shirts or hanging out with his family in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

What are the unique characteristics of naturally leavened dough?

There are so many interesting and unique things happening with natural leavening that I am still learning and discovering on a daily basis. But flavor is the number one reason I use it. There is a depth of flavor and aroma that you just cannot duplicate with just commercial yeast even if you are using techniques like biga or poolish or pate fermentee. It just tastes better and more complex to me.

What drew you to using this method?

It mostly just came out of wanting to be better at making pizza. I liked the way it tasted and the way it made me feel after eating it, and the way people were using it in bread. I thought it would be great for pizza. Some people I respected were using it, and I wanted to try it.

Is natural leavening practical and manageable for high-volume pizzerias?

I do pizza consulting all over the world and I always bring my sourdough and we always include it. The simple fact is that stuff is hard. If you have integrity and are committed to something, you find a way. I’ve overseen operations where we are doing 5,000 pizzas a day with sourdough. I recently flew to South Bend, Indiana, and made 300+ 100-percent naturally leavened doughs in a kitchen I had never seen before. If you are committed to managing the beast and not letting it manage you then anything is possible.

Do you feel this method is a long-term trend in the industry? If so, why?

It’s interesting when I hear this question about whether sourdough is a trend or if it’s long-term. My Brazilian client, Braz Elettrica, uses my sourdough and there was an article about it because it has become all the rage and it was mentioned as a trendsetter. I just have to laugh because this is literally the only way bread was made for 6,000 years. “Is this commercial yeast trend going to be long term?” could be an alternate question because it’s only been 200 years since the Vienna Process. And in the last 50 years we’ve really come to see the negative health effects of consuming too much of these highly refined, quickly proofed breads.

Do you find that your guests are interested in your process?

Some are, but it’s not something that I like put front and center. I think pizza should be fun and delicious, so I don’t want to welcome my guest and then give them a lecture on natural fermentation. But if you eat the pizza and love it, I’m gonna tell you why it tastes so much better, and why it’s so much more digestible. If you aren’t enjoying the pizza and the experience, then what do you care about my ethos? You can’t eat ethos.

Describe your early experiments with natural leavening.

I first started using a starter eight years ago, but always as a hybrid with some small amount of fresh yeast. When I started my career as an independent consultant, I started doing a bunch of experiments at home with 100-percent natural leavening. I was doing Thin N Crispies for a client, pan pizzas for my kids and other styles just to try out new things. I used all kinds of flour combinations and percentages of starter. I just threw a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what would stick. It was really fun. I was also not as busy as I am now, so it really helped keep me from going crazy.

Describe your current method.

I feed my starter twice a day: equal parts flour, water and starter. I usually up the flour or down the water a little to keep the consistency a little stiffer than it would be for a true 1:1:1. I use 72-76 F water. I like to use my starter fairly young, anywhere from 90 minutes to four hours after feeding works well for me. For my dough recipes I use between 10- to 15-percent starter in relation to flour. I mix, rest, mix, then bulk for two to three hours at room temp. Then I ball the dough and proof for another five to 12 hours depending on the room temperature before I retard at 42 F for up to seven days.

What are the key points to succeeding with natural leavening?

Mainly, I think there are two main points. First, the maintenance and health of your starter culture, which is going to rely on being consistent while using your senses to make minor adjustments to encourage the correct microbiology. Second, the proper use of time and temperature in your dough recipe.

What are the particular challenges?

I think the main challenge is subverting your human needs to the needs of the feeding and dough schedule. For example, a refresh at an inconvenient time of the day or night. Things need to happen at certain time intervals and at certain temperature ranges and you can’t cheat that.

Please include a formula and method (in bakers %). Something that the average pizza maker can work with to get started.

What brought you to pizza?

It was an accident, really. I was bartending in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2007 and was working with one of the future founders of Roberta’s. I had made pizza at home with my family, but never professionally. I started working at Roberta’s the first week they opened and got hooked on the wood-fired oven. I tried leaving and starting my own mobile pizza business but it got folded into Roberta’s. I think the challenges of constantly expanding and developing new concepts in combination with my background as an entrepreneur has really set me up as ideally suited to be an International Pizza Consultant.

Define yourself as a pizza maker.

I’m working really hard to not be so defined. I’m really all over the place using different ovens and ingredients and playing with different styles. I’m completely committed to the future of natural leavening. I always want to use the best ingredients but I want my pizza to be fun and accessible. I’m designing shirts and making videos with my partners in our pizza lifestyle brand Rad Times Pizza. I want to use pizza as the jump off point for so many ideas I have.

With all of your success what motivates you to keep experimenting?

I need to be challenged, I can’t be in a safe comfortable place, and I’m always being inspired by all sorts of things. Traveling always keeps me on my toes. Accidents and mistakes always shed new light on modes of thought that become too safe or routine.

What are your future plans and goals?

I’m working on some very exciting consulting projects right now in Kuwait, Bangkok, Denver, Las Vegas, Chicago and more, spreading the naturally fermented pizza gospel. Outside of consulting, I’m writing a cookbook to put down some of the things I’ve figured out over the years and lots of naturally leavened pizza recipes. I’m very excited about some video projects and the expansion of our apparel line at Rad Times Pizza. One of my big goals is to see the United States of America join the growing number of countries that bans potassium bromate and other bleaching agents in the production of flour, and I’m currently exploring options to move that forward.

John Arena co-owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

The post Knead to Know: Anthony Falco on naturally leavened dough appeared first on Pizza Today.

How to correct a dough that is too wet and sticky

Q: My dough feels fine after mixing, but after 24 to 48 hours of cold fermentation in dough boxes the dough is always wet and sticky. I’ve tried reducing the dough absorption to no avail.

A: The number one reason for a wet, sticky dough is covering it when you put it into the cooler. After mixing, the dough is going to be at least at room temperature or above, making it quite a bit warmer than the inside of your cooler, which should be operating at 36 to 40F. When you lid the container of dough balls, the moisture

Tom Lehmann

that is being held in the warm air condenses onto the inside of the container (the top where there is head space above the dough) as it cools due to exposure to the cold air. Since the dough retains a lot of heat (latent heat) it continues to generate moist air within the box and the moisture continues to condense onto the inside of the container until the dough and box eventually equilibrate at the same temperature. By this time, though, the box is flooded with water that drips onto the dough surface. This water is slowly absorbed back into the dough, but under most conditions the dough is removed from the cooler for use before it is fully absorbed. What we experience is a wet, sticky dough. To add insult to injury, these doughs also tend to have a strong propensity to bubble during baking as the water in the outer portion of the dough is vaporized into steam.

The question becomes this: how do we address the problem? The easiest way to address the issue is begin cross-stacking the dough boxes as they’re placed into the cooler, or if you’re already cross-stacking you may need to cross-stack for a longer period of time. How long is long enough? The length of cross-stack time will depend upon the dough temperature as well as the actual dough ball weight. Warmer doughs or heavier dough ball weights will require a longer cross-stack time. The best way to determine the correct cross-stack time for your specific dough is to place it into the cooler and monitor the internal temperature of the dough balls. When the average dough ball temperature measures 50F it will be safe to begin lidding or covering the dough boxes for extended refrigerated storage (one to three days). When discussing this I always make sure to mention that the dough balls should be lightly oiled after being placed into the dough box, as this will prevent excessive drying or crust formation on the dough balls during the cross-stack period.

Do I have to cross-stack the dough boxes? Yes, unless you want to experience the problems mentioned above. But if you want to have a process that doesn’t require cross-stacking dough boxes there are two other options for you:

1. Place the dough balls onto aluminum sheet pans, lightly oil the dough balls and slide the pan into a food contact approved plastic bag. Then pull the bag down tight onto the dough balls and fold the open end down under the end of the pan as you place it into a vertical wheeled stand with about a five-inch shelf spacing. Place the pans of dough into the cooler as quickly as possible. The plastic will not inhibit cooling of the dough as a lidded box will, so it will allow for faster cooling of the dough with minimal condensation formation on the inside of the bag.
2. Use individual plastic bags (like bread bags), oil the dough ball and drop it into a plastic bag, twist the open end into a pony tail and tuck it under the dough ball as you place it onto a sheet pan or shelf in the cooler.

In both of these cases the oil on the dough ball helps the dough release from the plastic when you go to use the dough balls. In most cases you can reuse the plastic bags a number of times before replacing them.

A less often encountered reason for a sticky dough is the use of malt as an ingredient in the dough. More specifically, the use of diastatic (enzyme active) malt. If the flour you’re using is un-malted and you are just trying to provide a normal malt level to help fermentation and promote crust color development during baking, all that is needed is 0.25 percent of a 20-degree Lintner value dry malt powder. But of recent I have seen a number of cases where malt syrup is being added to the dough to provide a unique flavor to the finished crust. In these cases the amount of malt syrup can be two percent or more. If the malt product is diastatic it will hydrolyze too much of the starch into sugar making for a sticky dough that cannot be corrected. In this case just make sure the malt syrup you are planning to use is a non-diastatic malt syrup — which is really nothing more than a type of sugar syrup that provides a uniquely different flavor to the baked crust — and you’ll be just fine.

The late Tom Lehmann was a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s longstanding resident dough expert.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

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Question: We are just a small tavern pizzeria and we would like to make our dough once a week and freeze it rather than making it fresh during the week. Is this possible?

Tom Lehmann
Pizza Today Resident Dough Expert

Answer: Yes, it is possible, and it makes a lot of sense to do so, too. Freezing dough, or dough balls in this case, is really quite easy when the frozen shelf life expectations are something less than 15 days. In this case, I’m assuming we’re looking at a frozen shelf life of a week so we are well within the limitations of our frozen dough shelf life. When making dough for freezing there are a few things that we recommend to improve the overall quality of the dough as well as the performance of the dough after slacking it out (thawing). Use your regular dough formula with these changes incorporated into your dough management procedure:

• Dough absorption. Frozen doughs perform best when the dough absorption is within the range of 58 to 65 percent. Frozen doughs tend to become slacker (softer) due to the release of glutathione, a reducing agent/amino acid contained within the yeast cells as a result of cell damage due to the freezing process. If dough absorption percent is too high this can lead to dough balls that are overly soft and difficult to work with. If you should find that the dough balls are softer than desired after thawing adjust the dough absorption to correct the condition.
• Dough mixing. Mix the dough until it takes on a smooth satiny appearance and then mix it three additional minutes. This additional gluten development will improve the handling properties of the dough as you are opening the dough balls into skins.
• Finished dough temperature. For most consistent results and dough performance it is suggested that the finished dough temperature be targeted between 65 F and 70 F with 75 F as the upper limit. The idea is to limit fermentation and get the dough frozen or at least to an internal temperature below 45 F as quickly as possible.
• Scaling and balling. Get the dough balls into the freezer as quickly as possible. Immediately after mixing, take the dough to the bench for scaling and balling. The entire dough should be subdivided into dough balls and into the freezer within
  20 minutes of mixing.
• Efficient freezing. Lightly oil the dough balls and place onto sheet pans for freezing, allow the dough balls to remain undisturbed in the freezer for three hours, then place into individual plastic bags (bread bags) and close by simply twisting the open end into a pony tail and tucking it under the dough ball as you place it into a box or storage carton. Ideally, this should be done in the freezer but if room will not allow for this make sure the dough balls are bagged and placed back into the freezer as quickly as possible to prevent any possibility of thaw or condensation forming on the dough balls. Leave the storage container open for the first 24 hours in the freezer, then close or cover the container. Mark the date of manufacture on the storage box and you’re good to go.

When using your frozen dough balls, leave the container in the freezer and remove the number of dough balls you plan to use and bring them out to room temperature. Place onto sheet pans with about a two-inch separation between the dough balls, place into the cooler for slacking-out (thawing) 12 to 24 hours prior to use. It’s best to bring the dough balls out of the cooler and allow them to warm up to 50 to 60 F prior to opening them into skins for making your pizzas. But in a pinch, they can be used directly from the cooler. Keep an eye on them during baking, as there will likely be some bubbling that will need to be addressed with a bubble popper.

My preferred way to use the frozen dough balls is a little different. I like to remove the dough balls from the cooler after the slacking-out period and allow them to remain at room temperature for 60 minutes and then place them back into the cooler for use later in the day or on the following day. This procedure allows for some fermentation to take place which improves the overall quality of the pizza made from the frozen dough balls. Any dough balls not used during the planned day should be able to be held over for use on the following day. Do not attempt to re-freeze the dough balls as this will just result in more yeast damage and a dough which will be more difficult to open after slacking-out for the second time.

Since freezer space is at somewhat of a premium in many smaller pizza establishments a small chest or reach-in type freezer can be purchased for freezing and storing the dough. Keep in mind that we are using a process referred to as “static” freezing of the dough, meaning that we are employing temperatures in the 0 to 10 F range with little or no air circulation. Our maximum suggested shelf life of the frozen dough is going to be something on the order of 12 to 15 days during which we will have a reasonably high expectation of dough success. After that time dough performance can become “iffy” at best and since failure is not an option in a commercial application it’s best to hedge our bets and stay within a 10-day frozen shelf life period. Do not confuse this frozen dough with the commercial frozen dough that you can buy from your distributor. It is a totally different animal from the stand point of formulation, processing, freezing and shelf life expectations.

Most frozen dough manufacturers will recommend that the frozen dough be slacked-out in the cooler overnight in preparation for use but just like our own frozen dough, it too can be improved upon by removing the slacked-out dough from the cooler and allowing it to warm for an hour at room temperature and placing it back into the cooler for later use.

Frozen dough can be a viable option for those who want to use it. It can be a convenience and it can provide consistency to the finished product. It does have a cost associated with it if you purchase commercially made frozen dough, but then what convenience doesn’t come with a cost?

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

The post On Ice: Does frozen dough make sense? appeared first on Pizza Today.

Learn how to make a Sicilian Pizza and Get a Sicilian Pizza Dough Recipe

Bakery Pizza, Casalinga, Rustica, Upside Down Pizza, Square Pie (even when it’s a rectangle) … there are many relatively thick, focaccia-like pizzas baked in a pan that can arguably be considered Sicilian style. This style is generally believed to be based on Sfincione. The popular pan pizza is traditionally topped with a tomato sauce, rich with olive oil, onion, anchovies, pecorino or caciocavallo — and a generous helping of bread crumbs. Some food historians believe this style did not begin to include mozzarella until Sicilian bakers started working in Neapolitan-owned pizzerias in the U.S.

Recently this pizza and other square pan styles such as Roman, Detroit and the Grandma have had a resurgence, capturing the public imagination and giving pizzerias another opportunity to attract customers.

For the past 22 years I’ve been fortunate to work with Chris Decker, who has emerged as one of the premier proponents of Sicilian-style pizza. He shares his insights on creating the perfect Sicilian crust.

“The challenge of this pizza is developing a dough that is thick enough to stand up to the rich sauce and toppings, but still light and airy.” Chris also wants his pizza to have a crispy exterior that will display complex flavors. As he states: “I strive for a pizza that looks like a brick and feels like a feather. I want my guest to be shocked when they pick up a slice.” Enhancing the experience, a generous application of olive oil to the pan gives the bottom of this pie a texture that seems almost fried.

While the dough itself may not be particularly complex, the process is really the secret to this pizza. Some pizza makers will use an all purpose flour or bread flour for pan style pizza, but Chris likes to use a high-protein flour.

“The secret ingredient of my pizza is time,” he explains. “I do a five-day cold ferment for development of complex flavor. High-protein flour generally holds up better to long fermentation, and the extended time allows the proteins to relax so the dough loses memory and is easy to extend in the pan without overworking it.”

So here is the basic formula:

High-gluten flour (14.5 % protein) = 100 percent

Water (60 F) = 62 percent

Fresh yeast = 0.5 percent (or IDY 0.2%)

Salt = 2.5 percent

Olive oil = 2.5 percent

For standard batch:

High-gluten flour – 50 pounds

Water – 31 pounds

Fresh yeast – 4 ounces (IDY 1.6 ounces)

Salt – 20 ounces

Olive oil -20 ounces (by weight)

Combine water, yeast and half of the flour in mixing bowl. Mix on slow speed for 3 minutes. Let stand for 20 minutes. Add remaining flour and salt. Resume mixing on slow speed. After 3 minutes begin slowly adding oil as dough continues to mix. After
3 minutes increase to speed 2 for 3 to 5 minutes, until oil is completely incorporated. Reduce to speed 1 for 3 more minutes. Place dough on floured table, cover and let dough relax for 20 minutes. Divide and round dough. For standard 12×18 inch Sicilian pizza, dough balls should weigh 36 ounces. Place dough balls in containers, brush with oil and then cover and place in cooler for up to 120 hours (minimum of 72 hours). Before par-baking take dough out of the cooler for at least 2 hours. Be sure dough has warmed to at least 55 F.

Chris never lets a rolling pin touch this pizza. To retain gas and create a delicate crumb structure, the dough is gently extended by hand and placed in a well-oiled black steel pan. Do not use a shiny aluminum pan. It will impede the browning of the dough. Place the dough in the pan and make sure it is fully extended to the edges of the pan with a slightly risen cornicione. Top the dough with a very light coating of tomato sauce (about 3 ounces). Cover the tray with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot. Chris uses the top of his oven and has a wire rack on the oven for this purpose. The temperature on top of the oven is about 105 F, perfect for getting that dough to rise. Now you must be patient. I asked Chris how long it takes. His reply: “until they are ready.” He lets the dough rise until it is even with the top of the pan. Remove plastic wrap, being careful not to degas the dough. The risen dough is then carefully placed in a 535 F oven to par-bake for about 7 to 8 minutes until it just starts to show some color and interior has fully set.

Once the pizza is par-baked it should be cooled completely on a cooling rack for several hours and wrapped for refrigeration or even freezing. The cool down and refrigeration process is the true secret of getting a surprisingly light crust — because as the shell cools and is stored, moisture in the dough will evaporate and significantly lighten the finished pizza.

This method will also give you complete control, because the par-baked crust is placed in the oven and set at its precise peak of development. Refrigerated shells can be held for 1 week and frozen shells are excellent for up to a month as long as they are well wrapped to protect from freezer burn.

Before using the par-baked shells, remove them from the cooler and allow them to return to room temperature. Oil the pan, place the par-baked shell in the pan, top with sauce and cheese. Typically the Sicilian pizza is striped with diagonal lines of sauce on top of the cheese before completing the baking process. When the pizza has fully cooked remove it from the pan and place it directly on the oven stone for about 30-45 seconds to crisp up the bottom.

Once the pizza is removed from the oven it should be placed on a wire cooling rack and finished with freshly grated Romano cheese.

John Arena co-owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

The post Knead to Know: Sicilian Pizza appeared first on Pizza Today.

Highway to the non-danger zone

The danger zone is not that sweet spot that only Maverick lives in with Kenny Loggins providing the soundtrack. It’s the temperature where bacteria grow. It’s the un-fun, not sexy part of the job, but it’s the most important in our due diligence to provide a safe environment to our customers. When people look at food safety in a cavalier way it really gets to me. It’s obvious from how covered in carbon or grease the tools and stainless steel of a kitchen are, what level of effort that crew puts in, or doesn’t put into their kitchen. With that said, many dangerous things can happen even in a clean kitchen. Even the “cleanest” kitchen needs strong standards for abiding by temperature controls because that’s what gets people sick.

From an equipment perspective you need to make sure your refrigeration and freezers are maintained, fully operational, and on a maintenance schedule. That means:

• A large, easy-to-read temperature gauge in each refrigerator. Not the super cheap small one. Go big.

• Your kitchen manager each day should document on paper, or a cloud-based document, what the temperature of each piece of equipment was that day to keep standards and avoid a problem. If you wait or do this sporadically you will inevitably either lose product or get someone sick.

• Have a maintenance deal where someone certified to service your brand of refrigeration comes and services as well as cleans all your refrigeration at least every three months. This is cheaper in the long run to maintain your equipment, avoid downtime and keep standards. I suggest giving them a free pizza or at least a slice so they want to come to your store and keep your machines active.

You should, I repeat should, have a test to be able to work in foodservice. If your state doesn’t mandate this and your staff doesn’t have a health department license, that should not mean you’re off the hook. Here is my guide with which we train staff at Andolini’s. This is it, what we use in addition to their health department training, which is fairly rigorous in Oklahoma. Here are all the basics any pizzeria needs. If you or your staff doesn’t know this by heart, you MUST teach it ASAP.

Here are the basics and then some for pizzeria foodservice:

Temperature. Yes, The danger zone, the range of temperature in which food-borne bacteria can grow. The danger zone is between roughly 41 F and 140 F. That means anything under or above that is factually growing bacteria.

Time allowable in the “danger zone” as you go from cold to properly hot:

Heating food

Food must go from under 41 F to more than 165 F in under two hours. Example: Meat sauce must go from walk-in to ready to use more than 165 F in under two hours.

The minimum temperature of cooked meat: should be 165 F for chicken: 165 F and 155 F for ground meat.

Cold procedures

• Cooling food times must go from under 140 F to under 70 F in under two hours. Then food must go from under 70 F to under 41 F in the next four hours, and 140 F to 41 F in less than six hours For example: pasta cooked at 1 p.m. must be 70 F by 3 p.m., and 41 F by 7 p.m.

Tips for faster cool down include:

Use metal bins instead of plastic bins.

Keep the lid off so heat leaves product and put on after a few hours.

Use smaller bins to help heat leave product quicker.

Place metal bin in ice bath.

Thawing Food Safely

• In the walk-in
• Under running water
• As you cook it
• NEVER just left out in the open or left out overnight

Hygiene

Washing hands. Yes that’s obvious, but is it obvious to your staff? Wash:

• when you start your shift or come back to the line from up front or outside.
• when you touch your face or any non-clean item or surface.
• after working with meat or chicken

When you wash your hands, lather for 20 seconds. That means sing Happy Birthday twice or the first verse in “Juicy” by Notorious BIG. Starting from “It was all a dream” right up until BIG says “It’s all good.”

When to wear gloves.

• When you work on a ready-to-eat line (salad station, appetizer station, expo).
• Gloves do not guarantee sanitation. They need to be changed as often as hands need to be washed.

Dish Station Sanitation Notes

• Never stack wet dishes.
• Remove all adhesives from bins.
• Check sanitizer and all cleaners for proper potency.
• All cleaners must be clean and properly labeled.

General Notes

• Never eat in the kitchen.
• Keep all bins labeled and dated.
• Always practice FIFO  –– first in, first out.
• Keep all of your hair inside your hat.

Food Storage

All unpackaged food prepared or unprepared should be kept in prep containers and labeled legibly with the following information (no exceptions!):

1. Item name
2. Date prepared
3. Initials of preparer
4. Time (if item is cooling)

In addition to just putting this info in front of your team, create a fill-in-the-blank test so you know they know what they’re doing.

Not knowing these basics yourself is careless and irresponsible. The same goes for your store if your staff doesn’t know them either. Teach these items and continue the education by doing par checks on them to ensure these guidelines are being followed.

Also, invest in solid probe thermometers for each person in your kitchen to keep on their person and use often. Always sanitize them after use. A simple purchase like that, for each kitchen member of your staff from you, shows you take this seriously and so should they.

Now that you have this info, go and gather up your staff. Get just a few key people together to ask some basic questions like:

• How much time do they have to let pasta cool down?
• What temperature is chicken safe to serve at?

If you don’t get a split-second reaction with a correct answer then you know you have work to do.

Mike Bausch is the owner of Andolini’s Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a frequent speaker at the International Pizza Expo family of tradeshows.

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A look at New York Style Pizza, the most popular dough style in America

It is estimated that 70 percent of the pizza consumed nationally is based on the New York-style pizza that evolved in response to the product’s equipment and cultural differences that Neapolitan immigrants encountered when they settled in New York over 100 years ago. The result of that adaptation is a pizza that, for many, sets the standard as America’s gift to the pizza landscape.

Until recently the prevailing wisdom was that excellent New York-style dough could only be made in New York. Theories about water, climate, altitude and other variables combined with a sprinkling of myth and pseudo-science to create legend that was repeated as truth.

Spurred on by industry leaders such as Tony Gemignani, the craft of pizza making has adopted science and baking principles to push us into a new era where high-quality pizza of every style is now being made in virtually every corner of the world. One need look no further than International Pizza Expo to see the success that pizza makers from diverse areas have had in international competition. As a case in point, allow me to introduce you to 2017’s NY-style Caputo Cup winner: Dr. Derek Sanchez. Dr. D is a physical therapy practitioner who has combined his penchant for science with his love of pizza to create incredible NY-style pizza sold from a mobile pizza operation called MiaMarcos (named after his children) in San Antonio, Texas. Derek shocked the pizza community by dominating the Northeast Pizza and Pasta show in competition against some of the best pizza makers from the New York area.

Surprisingly he did it with dough that he made in Texas and brought with him on the plane to Atlantic City.

Best of all he won with a simple cheese pizza: no tricks, no razzle dazzle. Just high-quality ingredients backed by sound scientific principles. Sanchez took time away from his medical practice and pizza business to share his thoughts in a Q&A.

Define the characteristics you strive for in your dough? 

DS: Our target is light, full of air, crispy yet tender, great structure, foldable and fermented to just the right flavor profile. I have made every mistake in the book in my quest for my target dough.

Have your methods changed over time? 

DS: My methods have not only changed over time, they change all the time! I have the luxury of having my own lab built at home. Our methods have to change due to our environment. MiaMarcos is in a pizza trailer. The constantly changing environment makes us constantly change our methods. It has taught us so very much. We could make excellent pizza dough on a volcano or in a rain forest if we had to. We are not afraid to change everything if it means a better pizza. Over the past 13 years of research we have changed flour, water, salt, olive oils, mixers, ovens, room temps — you name it and we have changed it all to better our outcomes. You have to be able to be wrong if you’re going to be right.

What do you consider the most crucial component of this dough, and why?

DS: Attention to detail in every way. Of course you need great flour, salt, oil, water and time. I choose the products made by people who are passionate about them as we are about our pizza.

What tools and equipment do you consider essential to making your dough? 

DS: Your hands, nose and mind. You have to understand the feel and smell of your dough. When you start getting close to your desired outcome you must place into your memory how your dough feels and how it smells along with charting everything. We know when our dough is right by touch, smell and sight. As far as hardware I have used and experimented with it all. Hand, stand mixer, food processor, HCM machine, planetary, fork mixers, and now spiral mixer. Each produce different characteristics and styles of dough.

What is your preferred baking temperature and cooking method?

DS: 550 to 625 F for 6 to 8 minutes. We bake directly on the stone and turn it at 3 to 4 minutes.

Any useful tricks of the trade?

DS: There are no secrets or tricks. If you want to make a great pizza you have to put the time in. There is no school that can teach you passion. There is no one that can teach you effort and attention to detail. There is no substitute for hard work. Greatness comes from hard work, passion and a blessing of talent.

What defines you as a pizza maker?

DS: I do what it takes to get things right.  I enjoy the truth of things. I do that in both of my professions. In one of them, people’s lives depend on it; the other people’s joy, taste buds and stomach depend on it. I use evidence and truth in both. So I suppose truth defines me as a pizza maker.   

Final thoughts, philosophy or personal observations?   

DS: All of the research, time, money, dedication, travel, books etc. has been to make a great cheese pizza! Sometimes I think, “Am I crazy or am I perfectly sane and just passionate about pizza?”

Here is a basic New York style pizza dough formula from sanchez:

High protein flour — 100%

Water — 61%

IDY — 0.3%

Sea salt — 2.6%

Olive oil — 2%

Test batch:

25 pounds high protein flour

15¼ pounds water at 60 F

1.2 ounces IDY or 3 ounces fresh yeast

10½ ounces sea salt

8 ounces olive oil

Add the water and yeast to bowl and combine 2½ pounds of flour (10 percent of your total flour). Mix to incorporate. Let sit 20 minutes.

Add the rest of your flour with the salt. Mix for 4 minutes on slow speed. Slowly add the olive oil until blended well (3 to 4 minutes depending on your mixer).

Portion and ball your dough, cover and cold ferment for 24 to 48 hours.   

Before using, remove dough from cooler and let it reach at least 55 F.

John Arena co-owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

>> Explore Pizza Dough Recipes for Top Trending Pizza Styles including Detroit, New York, Grandma, Sicilian, Chicago Thin and Deep Dish. <<

The post Knead to Know: New York-Style Pizza Dough appeared first on Pizza Today.

How the famed Chris Bianco mixes local and distant grains to achieve pizza perfection

Chris Bianco has been atop the pizza world for two decades. He started humbly, baking pies in a nondescript Phoenix grocery store. What elevated him to one of the world’s most famous pizza makers, and what continues to make his pizza excellent today, is how he treats ingredients … particularly flour.

Bianco shows flour the same attention he shows tomato and cheese. To those who have tracked Bianco over the years, that is really saying something. In partnership with a California farm, he launched his own tomato company to elevate his sauce. He learned how to make fresh mozzarella when he was young and living in the Bronx. Today, his two Phoenix pizzerias still craft the cheese from scratch every morning.

So, how does he manage to elevate flour?

“You’re always looking at the apex of the window of opportunity,” Bianco says. “You’re always trying to push something to the next level. I always saw grain as the next frontier, just as it would be for artisan cheese makers.”

To Bianco, not all flours are created equal. They are more like cheeses: Some may be subpar, some may be average, and some will be masterful, expertly raised, and far beyond the rest.

Bianco achieves his “apex” flour — the best possible flour for the style of pizza he makes — by knowing what he needs, keeping on the cutting edge of flour culture, understanding his grain farmers and milling grain himself.

But first, what liberates Bianco to do what he wants with flour is that his pizza is not Neapolitan style.

It overlaps with Neapolitan some, in its spare nature and thinness, but Bianco strays from the time-honored formula. He makes pizzas more Arizonan than Italian. Because he has broken from Neapolitan style, he feels he doesn’t have to use 00 flour from Italy.

“If you make 100-percent traditional Neapolitan pizza, then you have to get what you have to get,” he says. “Not against anyone who wants to bring things over [from Italy], but that’s not exciting to me.”

The result is that Bianco can use local American grain.

Bianco has relationships with his grain farmers. When dough doesn’t turn out totally right, he can call his farmer and try to get to the bottom of what went wrong with the grain (if anything). He insists that top-of-the-line grain farmers are cornerstones to the quality of his pizza. “The mills are the real story,” he says.

He believes so strongly in grain producers that he even thinks, on some level, that they do much of his work for him. He sees his work as one link in a chain, a chain that begins with the sun and soil and farmer. He believes, to some extent, that he isn’t making anything. He’s simply putting great ingredients together and staying out of their way.

“Technique is only so much,” Bianco says. “To take things to the highest level, you’re going to work with what the farmers are doing in the field.”

He says that pizza makers who want to elevate their flour don’t necessarily have to stick to local grains. Because grain keeps well during shipping, pizza makers can source grains from far parts of the country, milling it upon arrival.

Bianco mills grain at Pane Bianco, his large sandwich shop that functions as his base, the central location that does heavy lifting (milling, bread baking, pastry making) for his two pizzerias and two restaurants. “As soon as we mill it, we’re activating,” he says. “Just like dry oregano. When you bump it through your fingers, it’s heady and aromatic. The timer is on. You’ve pulled the string on the grenade for the flavor bomb.”

Milling grain, though, isn’t practical for many pizza makers. Logistics and technicalities strew the process, not to mention
financial, space and time obstacles. Sourcing flour from great millers works for those who can’t make their own.

An obstacle to both grinding high-end grains and sourcing great flour is cost.

In part because of rising labor costs, the high-end grain approach will undoubtedly raise your pizza’s price point. But if done with attention and care, it should also raise the ceiling of how your pizza can taste. (“You can only go so fast in a Prius,” Bianco says.)

Over the years, the flour Bianco has used has changed. These days, he likes to use Blue Beard Durum for making extruded pasta at Tratto, his trattoria. Relative to his pizza, he may opt to bake bread with more White Sonoran Wheat, a heritage grain that has been grown in Arizona for centuries. Often, he bakes test batches of bread and pizza using new flour blends. For pizza these days, he uses a mixture of flours, two or three from grains raised in the American west.

“Most of all the pizza (flour I use) is hard red spring wheat,” he says. “We might soften it with a little White Sonoran Wheat. For the most part, I like the characteristics of a hard red spring. Sometimes, there’s (also) a variety called Edison Wheat, an old variety from Washington that’s making a comeback.”

Bianco strives for flour with a protein content of 13.5 to 13.8 percent since more protein gives pizza dough, once baked, an intricate and more robust architecture.

This is Bianco’s pizza preference, one he says he picked up from his youth in New York. He selects grains with this firmer texture in mind. That is why, despite his love for local, he doesn’t use 100-percent White Sonoran Wheat. White Sonoran Wheat grows readily near Bianco’s mill, but has less protein, resulting in “a softer crumb.”

He acknowledges, though, that White Sonoran might be right for pizza makers who are after that softer crumb.

Bianco emphasizes the importance of understanding what kind of pizza you want to make.

This allows you to more optimally tailor ingredients, like flour, towards your ideal pizza. “In the pizza industry, it starts to really set you free,” he says. “As an operator, you need to decide what you’re really going for.”

For Bianco, that is a pizza made in his own style, one simple and yet refined, one expressive of Arizona. In an effort to reach the high protein level he requires, Bianco even keeps on some of the grain’s bran when milling.

He believes that flour, like wine, has terroir (taste of place). He believes that pizza has terroir. “Pizza is in the same conversation as the tomato,” he says, “or the terroir that’s grown in.”

For this reason, local flours can help a pizza maker express a particular place, he believes.

“If you come back from Tuscany or Puglia, and grow that same grain here, it might not have that level of success,” Bianco says. “If we’re diligent and we understand what our backyard is good for, I think the possibilities are endless.”

Bianco says that his pizza is better now than it was 30 years ago and 10 years ago because of the ingredients. He understands which to get from his backyard, and which not to. Some of his pizza flour comes from local grain; some doesn’t. The common thread is that Bianco doggedly pursues the best ingredients — and that means searching nonstop for the best flour for his pizza.

“When you see grain as an ingredient,” he says, “that’s another level.”

Chris Malloy is a food writer based in Arizona.

The post A Flour Lesson from a Master appeared first on Pizza Today.

Tom Lehmann talks mobile dough production and solves a sticky dough problem

In addition to our pizzeria we are adding a mobile pizza kitchen (trailer) to sell pizzas at various gatherings. We don’t want to mix dough in the trailer so we are thinking of freezing dough balls at our store for use in the trailer when attending the different events. Do you see this as a viable alternative to using fresh dough?

Tom Lehmann
Pizza Today Resident Dough Expert

A: I think it’s an excellent alternative. To make the frozen dough just use your regular dough that you use to make your pizzas with. Place the dough balls onto lightly oiled sheet pans and place in a rack in the freezer until solidly frozen (about four hours), then lightly oil the dough balls and bulk pack into corrugated boxes using a food contact approved plastic bag as a box liner. Label the boxes and date them. The dough will remain good to use for 10 to 15 days, so you can begin building your frozen dough inventory well in advance of the event.

Equip your trailer with a chest freezer dedicated just for holding the frozen dough and you should be good for a couple of days without resupply. If it will be a one-day event, only partially freeze the dough balls (about two hours). This will allow them to slack-out (thaw) during delivery to the event, but still remain cold enough so as not to begin fermenting. When placed into a refrigerated prep table they will be good to use after an hour or so. Additional dough balls can be stored in plastic dough boxes stacked and sealed in the chest freezer. By stacking the dough boxes they will be sealed, which will significantly slow further freezing of the dough balls and allow them to be slacked-out in less time. Since the frozen dough will have less fermentation time than your regular dough, you will need to dock the dough to control bubbling/blistering. In a future article I’ll discuss the use of the commonly used sponge-dough process to make frozen pizza dough that has some fermentation. This is commonly used in kiosk operations — but also lends itself well to use in any remote location, such as a pizza trailer.

We are in the process of purchasing a spiral dough mixer to replace our old planetary mixer, which we will keep for making sauce and shredding cheese and slicing vegetables. Will there be any difference in dough mixing time with the spiral mixer as compared to our planetary mixer?

A: Surprisingly, the total dough mixing time with a spiral dough mixer is very similar to that when a planetary mixer with a reverse spiral dough arm is used. The one difference that I’ve observed a number of times is that, due to the difference in bowl friction during mixing, the doughs coming off of the spiral mixer generally tend to be a couple of degrees colder than doughs coming off of a planetary mixer at the same mixing time. In most cases this will not necessitate a change in dough water temperature, but it is something to keep an eye on when you begin using your new spiral mixer.

We get our dough scaled, balled, boxed and into the cooler within
20 minutes of mixing as you have recommended, but we still have a problem with wet, sticky dough when we go to use the dough. What are we doing wrong?

A: Your problem stems from not cross-stacking the dough boxes when they are placed into the cooler. Since your dough is warmer than the ambient temperature in the cooler, the dough will sweat and the condensation will collect inside the dough box if not cross-stacked for the first couple of hours after going into the cooler. When the dough boxes are left open and cross-stacked when first placed into the cooler, the heat of the dough will dissipate in the cooler. This allows the dough balls to cool down uniformly without sweating. Once the dough has cooled to an internal temperature of between 45 and 50 F the boxes can be covered or down-stacked and nested to prevent unwanted drying of the dough due to traffic in and out of the cooler. The length of time that the dough balls need to be cross-stacked will vary with the weight of the individual dough balls and operating conditions of your cooler, but once you have established the correct time for a specific dough ball weight you can mark a stack of dough boxes with the time they went into the cooler and project the necessary time for down-stacking or lidding the dough boxes.

We are considering changing over to an organic flour for making our dough. Is there anything we should watch for when we make the change?

A: There are some very good organic flours available that are well suited to making pizza, but being organic they will in all probability not be treated in the flour mill in any way. This means that the flour will probably not be malted. In regular (malted) flours the added malt provides enzymatic activity that helps to convert a portion of the wheat starch into sugars (which help to support fermentation and provide a level of crust color).

Since your organic flour will not be malted you may need to replace the missing malt by adding a small amount (one to two percent) of sugar to the dough formulation. This sugar can be in the form of sucrose (table sugar), honey, non-diastatic malt or any other sugar you may wish to use. Since expectations are different it is suggested that whatever form of sugar you elect to use you start out at .5 percent of the total flour weight and work up from there until you achieve the dough performance and crust color characteristics you’re looking for. The one exception to this is where the pizzas are being baked at high temperatures (above 750F). In this case, the baking temperature is sufficiently high to allow the protein in the flour to participate in the browning reaction, so crust color development most likely will not be a problem. But you will still want to monitor the dough performance, especially if you allow the dough to
ferment for extended periods of time where the yeast might deplete available nutrient sources, resulting in compromised dough performance. The corrective action in this case would be to shorten the fermentation time or add some form of yeast nutrient to the dough.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

The post Knead to Know: Where Do You ‘Dough’? appeared first on Pizza Today.

The importance of fermentation

Perhaps one of the most significant trends for pizza makers in recent years has been the experimentation with different fermentation techniques. In “The Bread Bakers Apprentice,” Peter Reinhart states that “fermentation is the single most important stage.” Understanding how to manipulate time by using a starter will give you a new and effective tool in your pizza-making kit.

John Arena, owner
Metro Pizza, Las Vegas

For the purposes of pizza making we generally choose between two types of fermentation: commercial yeast fermentation that uses either fresh, dry active or instant yeast; or natural biological fermentation, which utilizes wild yeast captured in the air. It is important to understand that the difference in flavor is not primarily provided by the type of yeast itself, but is mainly provided by combinations of local bacteria as they feed off of the sugars in the dough. This is why sourdough starters from different locales produce distinctly different flavors and even textures. By capturing and cultivating starters from different places you can create unique pizza or bread dough that will provide your guests with an interesting back story that can distinguish your pizzeria from the rest of the pack.

In addition to creating unique flavor profiles there is a very practical reason that you should consider incorporating a starter in your pizza dough. Pizza makers have been extending fermentation time to develop complexity of flavor in their dough. For some of my pizzas I use a five-day cold fermentation process. The fact is my pizzerias are large and designed with ample cold storage for this very purpose. Many pizzerias simply don’t have the space to store a five-day supply of dough. Using a starter or a pre-ferment can help you create complex flavors and aroma without extremely long fermentation.

A starter is alive and must be treated as such. It needs to be cultivated and nourished. Some bakeries in San Francisco have been perpetuating a starter for over 100 years. Before we begin to make our starter it must be noted that simply mixing commercial yeast into a slurry such as what is used in a biga or poolish will not produce a viable starter that can be kept alive and used for extended periods. During the fermentation process bacteria develops. This contributes to flavor in the form of lactic and acetic acid. Unfortunately, commercial yeast cannot survive in a highly acidic environment. Wild yeast captured in the air thrives in an acidic environment.

Making a starter:

Combine 10 pounds of pizza flour with 10 pounds of rye flour. This will be your starter base.

Place one pound of your flour mix in a clean bowl and combine with one pound of warm water (90 F). Using your hands, mix into a smooth batter. Cover the bowl with a cheesecloth or towel and place the mixture in a cool spot in your kitchen. Now leave it alone for three days and let nature do its magic. The yeast and local bacteria in the air, on the wheat, and even on your hands has now been given an environment in which it can thrive and multiply, creating a unique starter.

After three days, bubbles should start to form on the surface of your starter. Give it a quick stir, breaking up any crust that may have formed on the top of the mixture. In this first stage the batter will be quite pungent. Don’t worry, it will mellow out. You can now feed your starter for the first time. Discard 24 ounces of your starter and replace with 12 ounces of room temperature water and 12 ounces of your flour mixture. Mix well. Cover starter again and wait 24 hours. Repeat this discarding and feeding process for seven days. After seven days you can begin building up your starter. Add one pound of flour mixture and one pound of water. Repeat this process for three more days and you will have 10 pounds of starter. Continue until you have an adequate amount of starter to service your volume of dough production. Store your starter in a cool place, always replenishing what you have taken from your supply and refreshing by discarding up to 20 percent of the starter every few days. Replace with equal amounts of flour and water. Your starter is not as fragile as people sometimes believe and can go a few days without eating.

As the starter sits, it will produce yeast and acid (but not at the same rate). The yeast will multiply faster than the acid will be produced, so a starter may be lively and active but may not be highly sour if it has been recently fed. Like any living entity, your starter is constantly evolving and developing. As you maintain your starter you will become attuned to its constantly changing nature. You must choose when to use it after feeding based on your flavor preference.

I like to combine both starter and fresh yeast in my dough recipe for a lighter, airier dough. Here is a simple formula using your newly created in-house starter:

45 pounds high-protein pizza flour

10 pounds of starter

26 pounds of water (68 F)

2 ounces fresh yeast (or 1 ounce Instant Dry Yeast)

1.25 pounds Kosher salt

1 pound extra virgin olive oil

Place water in mixer. Add fresh yeast and dissolve (if using instant yeast, add it on top of flour, keeping yeast away from salt). Add starter and whisk thoroughly.

Add flour. Add salt on top of flour.

Mix on slow speed for three minutes and then begin slowly adding olive oil, mixing for an additional six minutes until oil is completely absorbed into flour. Dough should feel smooth but not oily. Place dough on table and cover, allowing dough to relax for 10 minutes. Divide dough into balls and round gently. Place each dough ball on trays or containers, brushing with olive oil. Cover dough balls and refrigerate for 24 hours. Remove dough from refrigerator and allow it to reach 60 to 65 F before baking. 

John Arena owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

The post Knead to Know: Starting with Starters appeared first on Pizza Today.

Tom Lehmann talks mixing bowls, yeast and organic dough

Q: I am just now in the process of buying equipment for my planned store. I’ve come across several mixers that I’m interested in, and I have seen one that has a bowl with a little rust in the bottom of it. should this be of concern to me?

A: Yes, and no, is the short answer. If you plan on mixing only dough, you’ll be glad to know that the rust, once removed from the bowl, will not be a problem. However, the mere fact that there is rust in the bowl indicates that you have a tin-plated bowl as opposed to a stainless steel bowl. Therefore, it is not advised that you mix sauce in the bowl since the acid
content of the sauce will react with any bare metal or any oxidation on the tin plate, resulting in a metallic taste in your sauce.

Under the worst of conditions where you have to mix sauce in a tin-plated bowl, remove the sauce from the bowl immediately after blending the sauce to limit the reaction time, thus either eliminating or reducing the flavor issue. A much better option might be to select a mixer that has a stainless-steel bowl rather than a tin-plated bowl.

Also, make sure your mixer has the correct size mixing attachments. You’ll want a flat beater. You’ll also want a reverse spiral dough arm. You do not want to have what is known as the “dough hook” (often referred to as the “J” arm as it looks like the capital letter “J”). Why? Well, the “J” arm allows the dough to continually climb up onto the top of the hook — where it receives little or no mixing action. This necessitates that you continually cut the dough off of the agitator unless the dough is at full capacity. The design of the reverse spiral dough arm, by contrast, forces the dough down into the bottom of the bowl, where it receives much better mixing action. This design also allows for the mixing of smaller size doughs without any problems associated with the dough climbing up on the hook. All in all, it’s not just a great convenience factor, but it also helps to provide improved dough consistency.

Q: I’ve heard that I shouldn’t dissolve instant dry yeast in the water before I add it to the dough, but does it really get mixed in if I don’t?

A: I know old habits are hard to break, but it will be properly hydrated for peak performance so long as your total dough mixing time is five minutes or longer. By pre-hydrating the yeast, you may actually be doing it more harm than good. When added directly to the water there is a probability that some of the vital amino acids within the yeast cells will be flushed out, resulting in lessened yeast activity and possible inconsistencies in dough feel due to the presence of glutathione, one of the amino acids flushed out of the yeast cells. Glutathione acts essentially the same way that L-cysteine (the active ingredient in PZ-44) does, so doughs may become softer, and not hold up as well during long-term refrigerated storage. If you’re looking for this type of effect, like L-cysteine, it’s available in a commercial form sold as “dead yeast.”

Q: We have been getting some customer requests for natural or organic pizzas. Is there a way we can do this economically?

A: The words “natural” and “organic” are consumer buzzwords in the food industry. There have been supermarkets, delis and restaurants developed to cater to this market niche. The interesting thing about natural or organic is that your product doesn’t have to be 100-percent natural or organic to be embraced by the average consumer. For example, just stating that your pizzas are made using 100-percent organic or natural tomatoes in the sauce can suffice in the eyes of the consumer to make your product better than others. Organic flour is readily available from a number of commercial sources, and it fits pretty well into the existing specifications of many pizza flours being used in the industry. It shouldn’t pose a problem to just replace your existing flour with an organic flour and genuinely state that your crust is made with 100-percent organic flour. Additionally, there are a number of organic ingredients that you can purchase to use in making your dough or in topping your pizzas.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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Tom Lehmann talks oils, spiral mixers

Tom Lehmann
Pizza Today Resident Dough Expert

Q: What are the pros and cons of using a blended oil as opposed to an extra virgin olive oil?

A: When used in making the dough or sauce, you don’t see any significant difference between a quality olive oil and a blended oil from a flavor or performance standpoint. The greatest difference will be in the price paid for the oil (with olive oil being significantly more expensive than blended oil).

When it comes to post-baking application of oil to the pizza, however, a quality olive oil is hard to beat as it releases a bouquet of wonderful aromas when it comes into contact with the hot pizza. This makes for a great sensory experience.

The same can be said for use in making a dipping oil or salad dressing. Here again the flavor imparted by a high-grade olive oil reigns supreme over that of other oils. From a personal standpoint I like to have dominant olive oil flavor as part of the finished/baked crust flavor profile, and for that reason I like to use a pomace grade olive oil. It has a lower cost and a much stronger (more robust) flavor than any of the other forms of olive oil (which make it unsuitable for use as a standalone oil); however, when used in a dough formulation it provides a desirable olive oil note to the flavor profile of the baked crust.

Q. We are thinking about purchasing a spiral mixer for mixing our dough. What should we look for in a spiral mixer?

A: Spiral mixers are great for use as a dedicated dough mixer. But like everything else, there are some things you want to make sure you have on your mixer to get the greatest benefit from it. In my opinion, multi-forward speeds, as well as a reverse speed, are game changers. If the mixer is sized for making doughs based on 100 pounds of flour or less, a removable bowl is nice to have (but not required).

Also, a plastic drain plug in the bowl is a very nice feature to have that all too many manufacturers have not thought to add. The drain plug is great to have to facilitate cleaning the bowl, primarily in draining the water out of the bowl after the bowl has been cleaned. It sure beats bailing the water out of the bowl like bailing out a sinking row boat. But like everything else, there is a drawback to the plastic plug (namely forgetting to put it back into the bowl after draining…oops!). Then, too, there is losing the drain plug, which is easily addressed by having a spare on hand. The good news, though, is that both of these issues are easily addressed through employee training — so it really shouldn’t be a problem at all.

One thing that I’ve seen on some of the new spiral mixers is a lack of provision for adding anything while the mixer is running. The mixer will have a safety shroud covering the bowl opening, but in many cases there is no opening in the solid metal shroud to add anything (such as oil for a delayed oil addition method of mixing). See if the manufacturer can provide an opening in the shroud to do this, but if they can’t, it is an easy task to have a metal shop cut an opening and protect it with small diameter metal bars running across the opening. Just be sure to retain the designed safety integrity of the shroud when doing this.

For cleaning the spiral mixer, I’ve found that if you pour several gallons of very hot water into the bowl and drape a piece of plastic sheeting over the bowl and allow it to set for 20 to 30 minutes, the moisture released from the hot water will soften any dough remaining in the bowl, making its removal much easier for faster and more effective cleaning. Remember that drain plug we discussed earlier? This is now where you will wish you had it if you don’t have one.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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John Arena, owner
Metro Pizza, Las Vegas

Your dough is the foundation of your business and flour is the heart of your dough. One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is: “What type of flour should I use?” To determine the best answer, some questions must first be asked.

First things first. What type of pizza do you want to make? By that, I don’t just mean simply what style of pizza. I am referring to specific qualities you want your pizza to have. For example, there are a number of flour brands that will produce a New York-style thin crust pizza, but each type will create different characteristics and require slightly different formulas and methods to get the results you want.

So let’s begin with the basics: Your flour is made up of wheat berries that are crushed during the milling process. Wheat berries are comprised of the outer skin, or bran, the vitamin E rich germ, and the endosperm (which contains the starch and protein). Bread teacher and author Peter Reinhart likens these parts to an egg, composed of a shell, yolk and white. In the U.S. we largely define flour by its protein content. Cake flour has about six- to seven-percent protein. All purpose flour has about 91/2-111/2 percent. Bread flour has between 111/2 percent and 131/2 percent and high gluten has 131/2 to above 15 percent protein. Confusion sets in because Italian flour is rated differently. Generally speaking Italian flour is classified by how finely it is milled, meaning the degree to which the husk has been removed. A designation such as “00” will not tell you the protein content. This type of flour will feel more powdery regardless of actual grain size because it contains less of the course husk. There are type 00 flours with a wide range of protein levels for different applications. Usually protein content is the first thing that pizza makers look for in selecting a flour. Consider fermentation time when selecting flour. Longer fermentation will usually require higher protein.

In the past, most flour in America was highly regionalized — and to this day even giant manufacturers have products that are only available in certain areas. It is also very important to know that in some cases a flour sold under the same name may be different in some places. While in the old days the primary choice of flour was largely dictated by location, today’s motivated pizza makers are sourcing products from all over the world in the quest for authenticity or to create a unique signature product. The true greats such as Tony Gemignani may stock six or seven types of flour in order to produce accurate renditions of various regional pizzas and will often blend flour for different results.

Blending of flour types is becoming increasingly popular as pizza makers continue their quest to make signature dough that will set them apart from the competition. In the past the most common blending flour was semolina. Semolina is a coarse flour made from hard durum wheat. It will add a crunchy texture to your dough along with a beautiful golden color. Most importantly, semolina contains high levels of beta-carotene — which will contribute to aroma and add a delicate sweetness to your dough. Unbleached flour is also higher in beta-carotene and its use will contribute to a more flavorful finished crust. Semolina can be substituted for as much as 40 percent of your total flour amount. So if you typically use 50 pounds of flour you would reduce your regular flour to 30 pounds and add in 20 pounds of Semolina. I recommend that you start your experiments less aggressively and begin with 20 percent semolina.

You may have to adjust your hydration level when blending flour as different types of flour absorb water differently.  Generally, high-protein flour requires more water. But if you have decided to blend in European flour you may find that a slight reduction in hydration is called for. Before deciding to blend flours, speak to the manufacturers. If you are simply blending to change protein content there is most likely a flour that is very close to what you are looking for. On the other hand, you may be blending in order to achieve specific flavor and textural components (in which case you must understand the unique characteristics of the flours you are combining).

Italian flour is known for what is often described as “clean” flavors. This is usually taken to mean a pronounced flavor of pure wheat with no lingering aftertaste. On the other hand, American flour is renowned for its ability to trap carbon dioxide within the webbing structure of the dough. Recently many pizza makers have been experimenting with a combination of the two types, resulting in a combination of improved flavor and light, airy crumb structure. An added benefit of this combination is that you can increase the length of fermentation beyond what is typically advised for European flour. When I blend Italian flour with American flour I can usually get best results at three-day cold fermentation. A blend of 50/50 American and Italian flour would be a good starting point.

It is also common to experiment with blending of whole wheat flour with conventional pizza flour. This is done because it is difficult to get strength in a dough made from 100 percent whole wheat. I recently worked with master pizza maker Giulio Adriani and he presented an amazing pizza dough that combined two types of high protein flour along with 30 percent organic whole wheat flour. The result was a gorgeous, airy dough with complex flavor and a crisp but delicate texture.

Don’t be afraid to experiment, but remember the golden rules of science. Document everything you do. Weigh all ingredients. Track temperatures. And never, ever change more than one variable at a time.

John Arena owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

The post Knead to Know: Understanding the Power of Flour appeared first on Pizza Today.

Q: I’m in the planning stages for my first pizzeria and I would like to know the options for holding dough balls in the cooler?

Tom Lehmann
Pizza Today Resident Dough Expert

A: The options for dough ball storage in the cooler are as follows:

1. Dough boxes are probably the most popular method. The dough boxes need to be sized to the weight of the dough balls. For example, dough balls weighing up to about 14 ounces can be stored in the shallow box. Anything heavier will most likely need to go into the deeper dimensioned box. Many of the dough boxes have molded — in cleats to help stabilize the stack of boxes when they are cross-stacked. Some boxes require individual lids for each box, while others are designed so the boxes can be stacked so each box serves as a lid for the box beneath it. With this feature you only need a lid for the top box in a stack, or you can also use an empty box as a lid.Some manufacturers provide dough boxes in various colors to help in identifying the day of the week in which the dough was made (or, in some cases, the type or weight of the dough balls contained within the box). Some manufacturers even go so far as to provide special scrapers with corners having a radius the same as that of their box to facilitate scraping any dough from the box. These scrapers are also designed to be used to assist in removing the dough balls from the box with minimum distortion to the dough ball.
2. Another popular method for holding dough balls in the cooler is to place them onto standard 18 by 26 (inches) aluminum sheet pans. Each sheet pan is then covered in a plastic food bag and placed into a wheeled, vertical pan rack. It should be noted that even with this method for storing the dough balls they will need to be left un-bagged for approximately two hours (the same as cross-stacking, which is required when dough boxes are used). Once bagged, the dough balls can be held in the cooler for up to three days prior to use.
3. The third option also employs the same 18 by 26-inch aluminum sheet pans, but in this case the dough balls are lightly oiled and placed into individual plastic food bags. The open end of each bag is twisted into a ponytail to close it and tucked under the dough ball as it is placed onto the sheet pan. There can be some advantages to this method of storing the dough balls as you can get a higher dough ball count on each pan since there is no fear of the dough balls growing together. This procedure also does not require that the dough balls be left uncovered (cross-stacked) as the other storage methods do. This is because the plastic bag provides little or no insulation to the dough; therefore, it cools quickly and uniformly. And because the plastic bag provides essentially no head space around the dough ball, there is no place for condensation to collect to cause problems later on in regards to a sticky dough or excessive bubbling.
4. A fourth option is to use individual fermentation containers where a single dough ball is placed into its own container. The problems associated with this method of dough storage are the same as associated with the dough boxes in that the containers must be left open/un-lidded for a period of time to allow the dough to cool uniformly before closing/lidding the containers. Failure to do this will result in inconsistent dough fermentation as well as the formation of condensation on the inside of the container, resulting in a wet, sticky dough with a greater propensity to bubble during baking. By far, the greatest drawback to using these individual fermentation containers is the fact that they need to be washed regularly and that can be a chore (not to mention the space required to store all of those containers when we’re looking at using 200 to 300 of them every day). For this reason alone, I find it difficult to recommend this approach unless the number of pizzas to be made on a daily basis is very low or there is no other viable alternative to dough ball storage for your specific shop conditions.

In the end, the method that you use to store the dough balls will depend upon your shop conditions, availability of cooler space, number of dough balls that will need to be inventoried and capital that you have available to invest in dough storage. Many new shops will begin using a low-cost approach such as No. 2 or No. 3 above and then progress on to using the commercial dough storage boxes as described in approach No. 1 as their business grows.

Q: We bake our pizzas at nearly 800 F and we’re happy with all aspects of our pizzas but when we have tried to make any kind of a dessert pizza we get excessive charring around the edges of the crust from where the butter and/or sugar has run over the edge of the crust during baking. Aside from making a raised edge, is there any other way to prevent this from happening?

A: The best solution that I’ve found to address this problem is to bake the dessert pizzas in some type of a pan or on a flat disk which has a solid, non-perforated edge around the disk. Possibly the most effective pan in this regard is what is generally referred to as a “cutter” pan. These pans have a 40-degree angled side that provides a simple raised edge to help hold any butter, sugar or sweet toppings on the dough so they cannot run off during baking. The pan itself will also reduce some of the deck heat to the bottom of the pizza, which usually results in a better presentation for a dessert type of pizza. Depending upon the crust color you are looking for on the bottom of the pizza, you can adjust the color without changing the oven temperature by using a dark colored pan for a darker crust color or a bright colored pan for a lighter crust color. Additionally, a screen can be added under the pan to create an air gap between the pan and the oven deck surface, which will further reduce the bottom crust color or allow the pizza to be baked longer, if necessary, without excessive bottom crust color development.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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How the autolyse method can improve your dough

John Arena, owner
Metro Pizza, Las Vegas

In today’s hyper competitive market consumers are much more knowledgeable and demanding. This has been great for our industry because it has caused us to look outside of our own insular world for methods and formulas that have the potential to improve our products.

In the old days, back in Italy, dough was mixed by hand in a wooden box referred to as la madia. This method allowed the pizza maker to use a sense of touch to coax the optimal results from the ingredients. Renowned pizza makers such as Franco Pepe still adhere to this philosophy of minimal mechanical intrusion on the process.

In the U.S., the first pizza makers used what is called direct method dough formulas. This means that ingredients were combined, mixed, and then divided and rounded perhaps with a very short bench rest. The dough balls would then be covered and allowed to rise for use later in the day.

This method certainly works and has the advantage of being easy to teach and execute. The challenge for us as operators is how to improve our products in a manageable way. The best recipe in the world can be undermined if it is not simple to consistently reproduce.

The goal of mixing is three fold:

1. Incorporate the ingredients
2. Develop gluten
3. Initiate fermentation.

For pizza dough, the most common mixing methods are the simplified method and the improved method. The simplified method is a long mix at slow speed that is gentle on the dough. Many pizza makers prefer this method, and I recommend it — especially if using a planetary mixer, which is most common in American pizzerias. The improved method utilizes two speeds in the process. Slow speed to combine ingredients and then faster speed to finish the dough and develop the proteins. With either method the goal is to avoid excessive friction, which will oxidize the dough and toughen the gluten.

Enter autolyse. Perhaps the simplest way to improve your dough without reinventing the wheel is to incorporate this simple artisan bread baking technique. Autolyse has been in widespread use by bakers since the 1970s. This operator friendly method of mixing dough was developed by renowned French baking instructor Raymond Calvel in an effort to reinvigorate the bread culture of France that had suffered from industrialization. In recent years the most recognized names in the pizza industry have discovered that they can dramatically improve the texture, flavor and even the color of finished pizzas with this technique.

Autolyse, in its most basic form, is simply incorporating the flour and water in your formula and then letting it rest in the bowl for up to 30 minutes before adding the additional ingredients and completing the mix. During this resting period the flour will have improved absorption of water and increased enzymatic activity will be promoted. The resulting enzymes will enhance flavor and break down carbohydrates, producing simple sugars to feed the yeast. An added benefit to using this method: it is possible to reduce the mixing time, which will greatly diminish the adverse effects of oxidation (thus further improving the flavor of your dough). If all of this isn’t enough to convince you of the advantages of autolyse, this method of mixing will also improve extensibility and enhance your dough’s ability to retain gas. The result will be the beautiful open crumb structure sought after by today’s artisan pizza makers.

Typically, artisan bread baking formulas utilize relatively wet dough with hydration of 70 percent or more. You will find that even at the lower hydration levels of standard pizza dough (in the range of 58 to 65 percent) you will get dramatically improved results using autolyse. The standard method of autolyse is to combine flour and water only and mix for about three to four minutes on slow speed. You can then let the mass rest for up to 30 minutes. However, even a 15-minute rest will work wonders. Continue the mix on second speed for approximately four to five minutes until the dough is smooth and silky. Divide and round as you would normally and refrigerate. If you are using fresh yeast, this dough will be useable in 24 hours (but will actually improve with up to 72 hours). With instant yeast, dough will of course be greatly reduced even with cold fermentation.

Since I’m not inclined to stick to the rules lately, I’ve been experimenting with slight variations on the process. Instead of adding yeast after the rest, try dissolving the fresh yeast in the water before adding flour. Because the dough does not contain salt (which is a yeast inhibitor) in this initial phase, the yeast will run wild during the 30-minute rest. Think of this method as a super charger for your dough. Fresh yeast amount will be .5 percent of total flour weight. So for a 50-pound bag of flour you will use four ounces of fresh yeast.

If using instant yeast, sprinkle yeast on top of the flour before initial mix if your hydration level is 65 percent or above. If hydration is lower than 65 percent, it may be best to dissolve the yeast in the water before adding flour. Instant yeast amount will be .14 percent of total flour weight. So 1.3 ounces will work for a 50-pound bag of flour. Remember to reduce total mixing time for your dough by about 20 percent when using the autolyse method. This is particularly important if you are using 50 pounds of flour in a 60 quart mixer. Friction is the enemy of tender dough and excessive heat will encourage over-fermentation.

Most pizza makers prefer to slightly under-mix dough in the rounding and extending phases because we are handling our dough more vigorously than a bread baker would. If we fully develop dough in the mixing stage your finished pizza may be tough. By using the autolyse method you are allowing biology to do much of the work — and the result will be an improved dough with less mechanical interference.

John Arena owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

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The Dough Doctor offers tips on improving your crust without breaking the bank

Tom Lehmann
Pizza Today Resident Dough Expert

Q: We just make a few pizzas a day for use at our bar. We use a frozen dough to make the crust and we find that the pizzas are just so-so, what can we do to make our pizzas better without going to any great expense?

A: There are a number of things that you can do to improve your pizzas without breaking the bank, for example, just brushing the edge of the crust with olive oil before baking can improve the flavor. You can also brush the edge with olive oil immediately after baking too (I personally think this gives a better flavor). Then, you can brush the edge of the crust with a commercial garlic-infused oil or even a commercial garlic-infused butter oil and then sprinkle the edge with a little grated Parmesan cheese. My personal favorite is to lightly brush the edge of the dough skin with a little water and then apply a sprinkling of shredded Parmesan cheese around the edge only, then proceed to dress the skin in your normal manner. The reason why I like this approach more than the others is because it provides a toasted Parmesan cheese flavor and appearance to the edge that does wonders for the overall presentation. If you want to go for the “full monte,” finish the pizza with a sprinkling of shredded Parmesan cheese just as you are ready to place it in the oven. About one ounce of shredded Parmesan cheese on a 12-inch pizza is about right. This will provide the additional benefit of providing more depth of flavor to your cheese.

Getting away from mainstream a little, you might also think about brushing the exposed edge of the dough skin with a little water after dressing the pizza, then sprinkle on a light application of sesame seeds. The seeds will get toasted during baking to provide a truly unique flavor to your pizzas. A few years ago I was developing pizzas for just this application and we found that by cutting up some of our pepperoni into small pieces we could roll the pepperoni into the edge of the dough skin (which was extremely popular with the bar patrons). To do this, we simply moistened the edge of the skin with a little water, applied the pepperoni in about a half-inch ring around the skin and rolled the skin over the pepperoni to envelope it. We pressed the edge down to help seal the rolled/folded edge and then carefully stretched the skin back out to the full diameter. We then dressed and baked the pizzas in the normal manner. Add some olive oil and grated/powdered Parmesan cheese to the filled edge immediately after baking and you’re sure to have a winner.

Do you just want to sell more beer? Here’s an idea for you that you might not have considered before: stimulate your customers’ taste buds by making them think they’re thirsty. How does this work? It’s simple, just very lightly moisten the dough skin with a little water and apply a very light sprinkling of sea salt to the skin just prior to saucing it. The sea salt will add a slight salty flavor note without tasting salty or being objectionable. Here’s a very old trick that I learned many years ago that has made some pizza manufacturers very successful over the years: A little-known fact about L-cysteine is that it stimulates nerves on the lips, which closely mimics the same feeling on our lips when we’re thirsty. Your frozen dough might already contain some L-cysteine, which is used as a processing aid to reduce the dough mixing time when the frozen dough is made. You can check the box label to see if it is shown as an ingredient. Even if it is used, the level will not be high enough for our intended purpose, so we will need to add some more of it to the dough. But how to put more L-cysteine into a ready-made frozen dough skin? We simply moisten the entire surface of the skin and then give it a very LIGHT sprinkling of PZ-44 (the active ingredient in PZ-44 is L-cysteine). You’re now ready to apply the sauce and dress the pizza to the order. While I have not yet tried it, you might even experiment with incorporating the PZ-44 into the sauce as this will provide for much better portion control of the PZ-44. I’m not aware of any quality issues with adding PZ-44 to the sauce, so it might be worth a try. The amount of L-cysteine needed to achieve this effect is around 90-parts-per-million based on the total flour weight in the dough. So what we need to do is take the dough weight for a case of our frozen dough skins and divide this weight by 1.65. This will give us an approximation of the flour weight used to make the dough. Now just calculate three percent of that weight and that will be the amount of PZ-44 you will need to add to the amount of sauce needed to dress that case of frozen dough skins. With the added PZ-44, you’re sure to find your customers licking their lips and asking for another beer!

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

The post Knead to Know: Elevate Flavor appeared first on Pizza Today.

Jeremy White
Editor-in-Chief
Pizza Today

If you offer dine-in, you already know that the servers you employ are brand ambassadors that completely make or break the experience your customers have within your four walls. No matter how great the food and ambiance happen to be, a bad experience with an employee who serves up a side of attitude with the pizza will keep customers from coming back.

But most servers realize being rude to guests won’t get them very far. Considering the way the inner machinations of the service industry work, it’s clearly in the best financial interest of servers everywhere to smile and be both polite and accommodating. Still, even those who do that may pick up some annoying habits and get under the collective skin of customers.

For example, one thing I personally don’t like is when a server delivers the check along with my entrée. For starters, I have a sweet tooth and will probably want dessert. Secondly, that makes me feel rushed. Customers don’t want to feel rushed.

Then there’s the other side of the coin: Sometimes my family is finished with its meal and spends what seems like an eternity waiting on the tab so that we can settle up and get on about our business.

We take a look at some annoying server habits that just might make your guests wish they’d dined elsewhere. Hopefully these issues don’t exist in your pizzeria. But if they do, get on fixing them now.

In this issue we also explore pasta and a classic New Jersey staple (tomato pies). With Spring’s arrival, it’s time to freshen up the menu a bit.

As I write this column, we’re just a little over a week away from heading to Las Vegas for the complete madness that is International Pizza Expo. Look for a full recap of the show in next month’s edition!

Best,

Jeremy White, Editor-in-chief
jwhite@www.pizzatoday.com

The post Commentary: Servers Beware appeared first on Pizza Today.

Once you understand your core ingredients, you can step into variations

Flour, water, salt and yeast are the basic ingredients of pizza dough. Mastery of these fundamental components can produce exemplary results and has served Neapolitan pizza makers very well for centuries. Over time bakers have developed alternative methods and formulas that add variations of texture and flavor to their bread. Pizza makers are now adapting these variations to produce crusts of character and versatility.

John Arena, owner
Metro Pizza, Las Vegas

Selecting the correct options and understanding what each variation adds to the finished product will set you apart from the competition.

Oil or fat is the most common additive to pizza dough. Oil will tenderize dough, making it more workable and giving the finished pizza a softer chew. Oil can improve the color of the finished pizza. Depending on the selection and quality of the oil you choose, oil can be a great flavor enhancer. Most importantly, oil forms an effective barrier between your crumb structure and any moisture coming off of your sauce or toppings.

The most widely used oil for pizza dough is olive oil. But for some types of dough (such as Chicago-style pan pizza), butter, shortening or lard may be substituted. Each of these forms add unique characteristics to the finished pie. In a typical formula, oil or fat would be portioned at between one to three percent of flour weight. In baker’s parlance, this level of oil would classify pizza dough as a lean dough. For more of a biscuit-like texture, some formulas call for an oil or fat content of 10 to 20 percent of flour weight. This type of dough is in the enriched dough category. For best results, add oil or fat to your dough about ¼ of the way into your mix time. Adding too early may interfere with water absorption. Adding oil too late will simply coat the exterior of your dough, making it hard to work with and adding no significant benefit. When experimenting with adding oil to your formula, start by reducing water so that your hydration level remains the same. If your normal hydration level is 62 percent and you are adding two percent olive oil, reduce water to 60 percent. This will give you a good starting point.

Perhaps the most significant trend in dough formulation in recent years has been the use of pre-ferments such as biga, poolish, and pate fermentee.

The use of pre-ferments can seem like alchemy, but exploration of the fundamentals can easily add new levels of flavor, texture and color to your dough. The most important contributor to exceptional dough is time. The development of great pizza crust is dependent on the creation of enzymes through the process of fermentation. Quite simply, pre-ferments and starters allow you to manipulate time. Developing and nurturing a viable sourdough starter is a subject unto itself, so for now let’s examine the use of the simpler common forms of pre-ferment.

Biga is a pre-ferment often used in Italian bread baking. It consists of flour, water and yeast that has been allowed to ferment for up to 24 hours without any salt as an inhibitor. A typical biga formula would be flour (100 percent), water (65 percent) and yeast (.5 percent). Combine the ingredients and cover, letting the dough sit at room temperature for eight hours. Biga will have a consistency similar to standard pizza dough. Refrigerate for next-day use, removing the biga from the cooler one hour before use. Often, biga will make up a significant portion of your total mix. It is not uncommon to include biga in an amount equal to or even greater than flour weight.

Most often biga is supplemented by yeast in the final dough. When using biga, remember to include the flour and water weight in your formula calculation. Since the biga does not contain salt, you must adjust salt content as well. To add biga to your dough, cut it in small pieces and add to the mixture as dough begins the mixing cycle.

Poolish is a very easy pre-ferment to use in a pizzeria. It’s said to be named in honor of the Polish bread bakers who taught its use to their French counterparts. Poolish is the key ingredient used by many of today’s pizza champions. Like biga, a poolish consists of only flour, water and yeast. The difference lies in the proportions.

Poolish is considered to be a wet sponge. A typical poolish formula is 100-percent flour, 100-percent water and .25-percent yeast. Combine the ingredients in a bowl and let the mixture sit at room temperature for four hours. Refrigerate for next-day use.

Poolish will have the consistency of a batter. It can be used for up to three days. Remove from the refrigerator one hour before use. Experiment with adding poolish at 50 percent of total flour weight and modify from there. Poolish is very active, so you can reduce your yeast by half. Some pizza makers choose to add no additional yeast at all. Incorporate poolish by stirring it into the water before adding flour. Recalculate water and salt, accordingly maintaining percentages.

Finally, the easiest pre-ferment to use is pate fermentee. Basically, this is old dough that has either been made specifically to add in to your fresh dough or has been saved from a previous batch of dough. The common formula is flour (100 percent), water (65 percent), salt (two percent) and yeast (.5 percent). Combine ingredients and let the dough sit for two hours at room temperature. Refrigerate for the next day, removing from the cooler one hour before use. Cut pate fermentee into small pieces and add it to your flour before mixing. Pate fermentee is typically added as double the flour weight. So if your formula called for 10 pounds of flour, add 20 pounds of pate fermentee. All other ingredients would remain the same.

Incorporating these simple additions to your dough can vastly improve your results. And, with a bit of practice, these options will become a vital addition to your repertoire.

John Arena owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

The post Knead to Know: Taking the Next Step appeared first on Pizza Today.

Common dough problem, pizza dough snapback, has plethora of causes

Q: We have a continual problem with dough snap-back after placing it on the screen for baking. Is there anything that we can add to our dough to eliminate this problem?

A: Dough snap-back, or dough memory, can be addressed in a number of different ways (which I’ll discuss individually).

• Flour. By changing to a lower-protein content flour, we can generally reduce the amount of snap-back (though, in severe cases, this will not totally eliminate it).
• Dough fermentation. One cause of snap-back is insufficient dough conditioning through fermentation, so anything which will increase the amount of fermentation the dough receives prior to opening into a skin will help to reduce or eliminate the problem. This might include any of the following: increasing the yeast level; increasing the finished (mixed) dough temperature or increasing the total fermentation time. Any of these actions will result in an increase in dough fermentation that will weaken the wheat flour proteins and result in a softer, more extensible (less elastic) dough that exhibits less of a tendency to snap-back.
• Dough absorption. In some cases where only a slight amount of snap-back needs to be addressed, a slight increase of two to five percent in dough absorption might be sufficient to
  address the problem without any other changes being necessary.
• Reducing agents. Reducing agents are ingredients that act on the flour proteins by breaking them down or weakening them. Some will even destroy/denature the proteins entirely. Reducing agents are what one might call the “silver bullet” or “magic ingredient” when it comes to excessive dough snap-back or memory. These are ingredients that you just add to the dough formulation and — poof! — no more snap back.

A few words about these ingredients are in order though. Some are capable of completely liquefying a dough if used incorrectly or at too high of a level, so use with caution. These ingredients are all added to the dough at the time of mixing. For the most part they continue to work even throughout the cold fermentation period (though to a lesser degree), so make sure the amount used is compatible with your specific dough management procedure and shop conditions. While all of the commonly used reducing agents are “natural” in nature, some may have a scary sounding name. Here are the reducing agents most commonly encountered today:

• L-cysteine/L-cysteine hydrochloride. While the name might scare you, L-cysteine is nothing more than a protein-building block and completely safe to use. Due to its potency, L-cysteine is commonly blended with an inert ingredient (such as dairy whey) as a diluent to make scaling easier and more accurate. In one form or another, these ingredients have been around for at least 50 years. And they are still widely used today to make the dough softer, more extensible and reduce or eliminate dough memory.
• Protease enzymes. Protease enzymes are also highly effective reducing agents, but they do have one major drawback in that they work by hydrolyzing/destroying the proteins. To boot, they are fully capable of liquefying a dough, rendering it totally unusable. Like L-cysteine, they continue to work over the life of the dough. But unlike L-cysteine, protease enzymes are somewhat temperature sensitive. So if at any time the dough should warm-up, especially to temperatures in the high 80s or more, the rate of reducing action can be increased dramatically. For this reason, protease enzyme-based reducing agents are seldom used in pizza doughs.
• Dead yeast. Dead yeast is basically glutathione, another amino acid, but this one is found in yeast cells (all of the yeast that we use contains glutathione). The glutathione is locked up inside of the cell so it never poses a problem or acts as a reducing agent under normal conditions, but when the yeast cell is compromised the glutathione is released and it acts as a reducing agent. This is the reason why frozen dough always has a softer, more extensible feel to it. The ice crystals formed during the freezing process rupture some of the yeast cells, allowing the glutathione to leach out of the cell and act as a reducing agent. Dead yeast is a very effective dough-reducing agent. And because it is derived from yeast, and since all yeast contains glutathione, if you need to label your pizzas the dead yeast reducing agent can be shown right along with the live yeast that you are also adding to your dough. In essence, it doesn’t show up as another ingredient on a package label/ingredient declaration. It is also completely natural if that is important to you. I like to say that glutathione is a “first cousin” to L-cysteine since they are both amino acids and they work in almost an identical manner when it comes to reducing snap-back/memory in the dough. So the same precautions must be followed when using dead yeast as one would use when using an L-cysteine based reducing agent.
• Onion and garlic. Both onion and garlic exert a reducing effect upon the dough, making it softer and more extensible with reduced dough snap-back. As little as .25 percent, either individually or in combination of onion and/or garlic powder, will effectively reduce dough snap-back. But it brings baggage in the form of flavor and aroma that may or may not be desirable. If it is not desirable to have the characteristic flavor, a deodorized form of these ingredients (referred to as deodorized vegetable powder) is available from many wholesale bakery ingredient suppliers. This works equally as well but without the onion/garlic flavor. A unique aspect of using onion/garlic as a reducing agent is that it is all but impossible to really overdose a dough when using it. This is because of the way it interacts with the proteins, so there is only a limited amount of dough softening/relaxing achieved with its use. While the amount of relaxing is limited, it is usually sufficient to give the desired result in reducing dough snap-back/memory when opening the dough into pizza skins.

Excessive dough memory is pretty easy to address either through formulation, dough management or additive ingredients. Some of our readers may be forming their pizza skins by use of a hot or cold pizza press. If you are in this group, this article should be of special interest to you as dough snap-back/memory can be a bit problematic when using this forming method. Whatever your forming method, use just enough of the selected reducing agent to address the snap-back/memory problem. This is a case where more is not better as it can get you into trouble as fast as it can get you out if not used wisely.

The late Tom Lehmann was a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s longstanding resident dough expert. 

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

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Create pan and thin-crust pizza with easy measurements

Tom Lehmann
Pizza Today Resident Dough Expert

Q: Can you help us develop a dough for a pan-style pizza as well as a thin-crust pizza based on 12.5 kilograms of flour? Additionally, can you show us how to make a pre-mix out of the dough formula?

A: While you don’t provide any specific information on the types of pizzas you want to make aside from pan style and thin crust, I will show how this is done using what I feel are generic formulas for both the pan style and thin-crust pizzas. I will also make the assumption that these pizzas will be baked in a deck oven as opposed to an air impingement oven.

Typical Pan Pizza Formula:

Flour: (11.4 to 12.8 percent protein content) 100 percent

Salt: 1.75 percent

Sugar: 2 percent

Shortening: (butter, margarine, lard, etc.) 4 percent

Note: Oil may also be used if

desired at 4 percent

Yeast: Active Dry Yeast/ADY at

.5 percent or Instant Dry Yeast/IDY at .4 percent or Compressed Yeast/CY at 1 percent

Water: 58 percent (variable)

Now we need to convert those percentages into actual ingredient weights. Here is how it’s done using your handy calculator:

Enter the flour weight that you want to use. In this case it will be 12.5 kilograms. and then press “X” then enter the percent showing the ingredient that you want the weight for and press the “%” key and read the answer in the display.

Here is how that looks for the above formula:

Flour: 12.5 kilograms

Salt: 12.5 x 1.75 press the “%” key and read 0.218 kilograms

Sugar: 12.5 x 2 press the “%” key and read 0.250 kilograms

Shortening: 12.5 x 4 press the “%” key and read 0.500 kilograms

Yeast: (ADY: 12.5 x 0.5 press the “%” key and read 0.0625 kilograms (IDY: 12.5 x 0.4 press the “%” key and read 0.05 kilograms.)  (CY: 12.5 x 1 press the “%” key and read 0.125 kilograms.)

Water: 12.5 x 58 press the “%” key and read 7.25 kilograms.

Note: you can manipulate the size of your dough formula up or down by adjusting the flour weight but always remember that the ingredient weights will always be shown in the same weight units (pounds, ounces, grams, kilograms, etc.) that the flour weight is shown in.

For a thin crust pizza here is a typical formula that has worked well for me for the past 30 years.

Flour (12.2 to 14+ percent protein content) 100 percent

Salt: 1.75 percent

Sugar: (optional) 2 percent

Oil: 2 percent

Yeast: 0.5 percent Active Dry Yeast/ADY or 0.4 percent instant dry yeast or compressed yeast/CY at 1 percent

Water: 62 percent (variable)

Since you want the dough to be sized on 12.5 kilograms of flour, just plug in 12.5 kilograms for the flour weight and follow the steps shown above for converting the percentages into ingredient weights.

To make a premix from the above dough formulations place 100 grams of flour in a container then add the salt, sugar (if used), and yeast (only if IDY is being used). If IDY is not being used the yeast (ADY or CY) will need to be added separately at the time the dough is mixed. Stir the above dry ingredients together and place into a suitable container such as a plastic bag making sure to identify the type of pizza the mix is intended for as well as the date that the mix was made. Securely close the bag (a twist tie works well) and set aside to store at room temperature until used. These dry mixes will keep for up to 30 days.

To use the dry mix, first add the water to the mixing bowl, followed by the weighed amount of flour (12.5 kilograms) If ADY is to be used it will need to be weighed and activated in 250-ml/grams of warm water (100 to 105 F/37.7 to 40.5 C). Once activated, it can be added at the same time the premix is added. If CY is to be used it should be crumbled and added just as it is at the time the premix is added. There is no need to suspend CY in water prior to addition to the mixing bowl.

We have found it best to hold the oil out of the dough until the flour has had a chance to hydrate which normally takes about two minutes of mixing at low speed. Once dry flour is not visually seen in the bowl the oil can be added and the dough mixed and managed in your normal manner.

There are advantages to making a dough premix which include keeping your ingredient amounts (dough formulation) as proprietary information from your staff, reducing ingredient scaling error as all of the ingredients can be weighed and assembled into the premix bags by a trusted employee rather than a number of different employees who may become distracted while weighing the ingredients. It can also speed up and simplify your dough-making process as all that is now required is to add the measured amount of water at the correct temperature, then add the flour followed by the premix and possibly the yeast if it is not included in the premix. Then mix for about two minutes at low speed, add the oil and continue mixing the dough in your normal manner.

A number of large pizzeria chains have adopted the use of premixes or “goodie bags” as they are sometimes referred to as with excellent success for the very reasons cited above. The main thing to remember is that the premixes need to be made specific to the size of dough being made (amount of flour used) with one premix bag intended for each dough. If the amount of flour used in the dough is changed the weights of ingredients contained in the premix bag will need to be adjusted to reflect the new flour weight.

Note: The small amount of flour used in making the premix is not included in the total flour weight. The flour does not even need to be the same type of flour that the dough is made from. For example, a bag of flour could be opened and set aside for use in making all of the premix bags needed regardless of the type of flour used in the dough formulation. In many instances we find that the small amount of flour used in the premix is either semolina flour or in some cases even corn flour. The type of flour really doesn’t matter as it has essentially no impact upon the dough or finished crust in any way. Instead, the flour in the premix is used as a diluent for the other premix ingredients and to mask the identity of the ingredients present in the premix.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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The Dough Doctor answers a question about the use of baking powder in pizza dough

Tom Lehmann
Pizza Today Resident Dough Expert

Q: I’ve heard that baking powder can be used in making pizza crusts. Is this true?

A: Baking powder can and has successfully been used in making pizza crusts for many years. It has also been used in making yeast-raised donuts even longer. When most of us think about baking powder, that white, powdery stuff that comes from a can comes to mind. But there are different types of baking powders that we need to be aware of.

The most common type is referred to as “double-acting” baking powder. It is usually made using sodium acid pyrophosphate and mono-calcium phosphate, along with baking soda, to achieve the desired rate of leavening gas (carbon dioxide) production. As the name implies, the reaction comes in two stages. The first one is very fast — typically within just a couple of minutes — and is intended to help aerate cake batters. The second phase is later reacting (it’s triggered by heat) and is responsible for the bulk of the chemical leavening of a cake batter. This type of baking powder is not well suited for use in pizza dough for several reasons that we won’t go into here. Just know it’s not ideal for pizza dough.

The second type of common baking powder is what is referred to as a single-acting baking powder. This type usually consists of baking soda and sodium aluminum phosphate (for the acid component). It is much slower to react, so more of the leavening gas is produced as the pizza goes into the oven and during the early stages of baking. This contributes to increased/improved oven spring of the dough during baking.

However, the same problems exist here as with the double-acting baking powder: the soda portion can be lost or significantly reduced by pre-reaction. From this we can deduce that while common baking powders can be used, they really don’t work very well in this specific intended application (making pizza dough). Having said that, if you want to see where they are used most successfully, look no further than the refrigerated “tube” dough section at your local supermarket.

Still, there is another, newer type of baking powder — a fat-encapsulated chemical leavening system. While these can be custom-tailored to meet specific applications, the most common of this type is made using a neutralizing blend of soda and sodium aluminum phosphate that has been fat encapsulated as a means of protecting both the soda and acid portions from pre-reaction. The heat of the oven/baking melts the fat off of the soda and acid, allowing them to react in a much more predictable manner and allowing them to more fully react for complete neutralization of the acid component. This means that it will not have nearly the impact upon the flavor of the finished crust as a non-encapsulated leavening system/baking powder.

It is possible to make a fully chemically leavened pizza crust using a fat encapsulated leavening system. But since there is no yeast for fermentation, the finished crust will be devoid of the characteristic fermented crust flavor. In research that I conducted a good number of years ago when I was studying the application of chemical leavening in pizza crusts, I found that with the right dough formulation there might be an application for a fully chemically leavened crust in making certain types of dessert pizzas where a different flavor profile of the crust would not be as objectionable and in some cases might be desirable.

This brings us to the most popular use of chemical leavening in making pizza crusts. You can use a fat-encapsulated leavening system in conjunction with yeast (remember the fat encapsulation now inhibits the reaction between the soda and acids formed through fermentation). This allows for a dough that will exhibit all the advantages of yeast fermentation while still effectively retaining the encapsulated leavening system for reaction during the early baking cycle. The finished pizzas made in this manner will typically have a good fermentation flavor typical to pizza dough with little or none of the flavor characteristics common to the residual, unreacted leavening acid.

We can see examples of this type of dough/crust all around us today. At the supermarket you see it in the ever-popular “bake to rise” frozen pizza category. You also will see it in some of the “take and bake” pizzas being offered by pizzerias. I’ve even used it in the production of frozen pizza dough.

The main takeaway here is that chemical leavening can certainly be used in making pizza dough. Having said that, the dough application as well as the type of leavening system must be carefully considered. When all is said and done, it’s definitely not the most ideal to make pizza dough in a pizzeria setting.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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Tony’s tips on making the perfect crispy thin-crust pizza

Tony Gemignani
World-champion Pizzaiolo and Pizzeria Owner

So many students ask me how to make a good, crispy thin-crust pizza. Is it the dough recipe or the technique? It’s a little of both, actually, but definitely more technique. One of my most popular thin-crust pizzas is my Chicago cracker thin. The dough has five percent cornmeal in the recipe and I use Ceresota Flour. This flour comes from the Chicago region and not too many operators know about it. It’s a very regional flour. Its bake, crispness and chew are the perfect example of how a thin-crust pizza ought to be.

If a dough is matured properly and cooked correctly, your thin crust should be pliable and strong. Many people think you need a dedicated thin-crust pizza recipe, but I can make amazing thin-crust pizzas from a standard New York or California type dough recipe as well. Here are some tips how:

• Dough docker — This is a great tool that de-gases your dough by rolling over your pizza before it is sauced.
• Trimming the perimeter — After your pizza is sauced close to the end of the crust, take your pizza wheel and trim a clean complete circle around your pizza. This will assist in making a thin crust even thinner. When you trim the dough you may notice that your dough is squared off. Press it down with your fingers for a cleaner, straighter rise.
• Dusting — When dusting, use Semolina or cornmeal. This will strengthen your dough and is much better for carryout orders. Even substituting five to 10 percent of either semolina or cornmeal instead of flour to your dough recipe will assist with a crispier crust.
• Higher hydration — Use more water in your dough recipe. The more water, the crispier your crust. Try adding two to four percent more water.
• Warmer dough — Taking your dough out of the fridge before use will cause your dough to warm up. That’s a good thing! A good rule of thumb is to never put cold dough in a hot oven. One reason is that cold dough can scorch the bottom of your pizza in a brick oven, making it cook too fast on the outside and not enough in the middle. Cold dough can also bring out more bubbles, which isn’t the best when trying to make a super thin pizza.
• Watch the sugar — Too high of a browning agent in your crust like sugar, malt or honey could make your dough brown too fast. This results in a weak pizza that isn’t cooked all the way through. A dough formula that calls for sugar at one to three percent of your flour weight will be fine as long as you allow your dough to mature for at least 24 hours and you bring your dough to approximately 65 F before use.

I have other great tips for thin-crust pizzas that I will be happy to share with you next month. Stay tuned!

RESPECTING THE CRAFT features World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani, owner of Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco and Pizza Rock in Sacramento.  Tony compiles the column with the help of his trusty assistants, Laura Meyer and Thiago Vasconcelos. If you have questions on any kitchen topic ranging from prep to finish, Tony’s your guy. Send questions via Twitter @PizzaToday, Facebook (search: Pizza Today) or e-mail jwhite@www.pizzatoday.com and we’ll pass the best ones on to Tony.

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100 Percent Sure

Tom Lehmann
Dough Expert

Q: I see that most of the dough recipes that you talk about are in percent rather than in weights. How do I go about converting the percentages into ingredient weights?

A: I get this question asked quite frequently so it never hurts to review it once again.

The easiest way to look at a dough is to look at it as a dough formulation based on baker’s percent. In doing so, the weight of each ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the weight of the total flour in the dough. So if a dough were made with 25 pounds of flour and the salt level was given as 1.75 percent, the weight of the salt would be 1.75 percent of 25 pounds (or 0.4375 pounds, which is seven ounces). Let’s go through a typical dough formulation based on percentages and convert it to ingredient weights:

Flour: 100 percent

Salt: 1.75 percent

Sugar: 2 percent

Olive oil: 1.5 percent

Instant dry yeast (IDY): 0.375 percent

Water: 58 percent

1. Decide how much flour you want to use when making your dough. The amount of flour that you elect to use is always equal to 100 percent in the dough formulation. Remember that the ingredient weights will always be given in the same weight units (pounds, ounces, kilograms, grams, etc.) that you show the flour weight in.
2. Let’s say that you opted to use 40 pounds of flour in your dough: Flour: 100 percent = 40 pounds.
3. For the salt weight, using your calculator, enter the flour weight (40) and then press “X”. Enter 1.75 and then press the “%” key. Read the weight of salt in the display window. 0.7 pounds of salt is the correct answer. If you need to change this to ounces, just multiply 0.7 X 16 = 11.2.
4. For the sugar weight, enter 40 then press “X” and enter 2. Press the “%” key and read 0.8 pounds in the display window. 0.8 X 16 = 12.8 ounces.
5. For the olive oil weight enter 40 then press “X” and enter 1.5 then press the “%” key and read 0.6 pounds in the display window. 0.6 X 16 = 9.6 ounces.
6. For the instant dry yeast, enter 40 X 0.375 then press the “%” key and read 0.15 pounds in the display window. 0.15 X 16 = 2.4 ounces.
7. For the water weight, enter 40 x 58 then press the “%” key and read 23.2 pounds in the display window. This could also be read as 23 pounds plus (0.2 x 16 = 3.2 ounces) or a total of 23 pounds and 3.2 ounces.

The advantage of showing a dough formula in baker’s percent is that it allows the dough to be made using any desired flour weight and you can manipulate the size of the dough up or down while always keeping the dough ingredients in correct balance. Keep in mind though that when working in baker’s percent only weight units can be used. It will not work with volumetric measures such as cups, teaspoons, etc. It also provides for a very fast and easy way to look at any dough formula to see if any ingredients are used at an incorrect level for the type of dough/crust being made.

You can also easily convert any existing dough formula into baker’s percent by following these easy steps.

1. Flour is always equal to 100 percent.
2. Divide the weight of the ingredient by the weight of the flour and multiply by 100 to find the baker’s percent for any ingredient.Example: Assume that we are using 40 pounds of flour and want to increase the instant dry yeast level to 3.25 ounces. First change 40 pounds to ounces by multiplying by 16 = 640 ounces then divide 3.25 by 640 = 0.0050781 X 100 = 0.50 percent (rounded off from 0.50781).
3. Do this for each ingredient and you will have your dough formula shown in baker’s percent.

In some cases I’ve seen what I call hybrid dough formulas in which ingredients are shown in both weight measures and volumetric portions. With formulas like these we must first convert the volumetric portions into weights before we can proceed with showing a formula in baker’s percent or changing it into baker’s percent. When you have any ingredients shown in volumetric portions all you need to do is to portion out the ingredient three separate times, collectively weigh the three portions and divide the weight by three. This will give you the weight measure for that volumetric portion that can be used when working your formula in baker’s percent.

Q: How do I know when my dough is properly mixed?

A: The amount of mixing a dough requires will depend upon the type of dough being made. For example, some cracker-crust doughs are made from a very “shaggy” type of dough that doesn’t come together like a normal dough that we are used to seeing. Instead, these doughs still contain a significant amount of dry flour when finished mixing and depend upon 24 to 48 hours of hydration time in the cooler to allow for full hydration of the flour/dough. For this type of dough, the total mixing time is usually two minutes or a little less.

Then there is the cracker-type dough made with a low dough absorption of 40 to 50 percent and mixed just until a tight, cohesive dough is formed in the mixing bowl. For this type of doughs the mixing time is typically 10 to 15 minutes at low speed. Lastly, we have the more traditional type doughs made with 55- to 65-percent absorption or more. This is the type of dough that most of us are used to working with and is the most commonly made pizza dough in the industry. Doughs of this type are generally best when under mixed as opposed to mixed to full gluten development. The best way to describe how this type of dough is mixed is to say that it should be mixed until the dough just begins to take on smooth, satiny appearance. If the dough is mixed beyond this point there will be undue wear and tear on your mixer. As the gluten continues to develop the dough can become more elastic making it more difficult to form into balls. Observation has shown that as the gluten is more fully developed in the mixer the finished crust will have a closer, more bread-like crumb structure that tends to exhibit tougher, chewier eating characteristics.

Regardless of the type of dough you’re making, it is better to err in favor of an under-mixed dough to start with and increase mixing time only to alleviate stickiness when scaling and balling the dough pieces.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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The Dough Doctor breaks down dough mixing procedures

I’ve noticed that the dough-making procedures used by many operators seem to be getting more and more detailed, long and drawn out. I like to think that we are just making pizza dough, not rocket fuel, so the procedure should be a bit less complex than what many of us have made it. Here are some of the things I’m talking about and how we can make dough mixing a bit easier and faster, too.

Dry blending ingredients prior to incorporation of the water is generally wasted effort and really not needed. Your dough will come out just as good if you add the flour first and then put the rest of the dry ingredients right on top of the flour when you’re ready to begin mixing.

Should the water go first or should the flour be the first ingredient in the mixing bowl?

If you put the flour in the bowl first it will be more difficult to fully hydrate the flour, often requiring several minutes longer mixing time. But if the water goes in first the flour is actually hydrated faster, which will shorten the total mixing time by several minutes. Doing it this way also allows you to put all of the other dry ingredients right on top of the flour. Don’t worry, as the agitator moves it will thoroughly incorporate all of those dry ingredients into the flour and you will achieve uniform dispersion throughout the dough.

Blending the yeast, salt, sugar and oil into the water is another thing that I tend to see done frequently. Again, this serves no real benefit to the quality of the dough. In fact, it might even adversely affect the quality. When the yeast, salt, sugar and oil are blended together there are two concerns. One is that if the dough-making process should be interrupted before the flour is added and mixing begins, there could potentially be some damage done to the yeast. This reduces its ability to give consistent fermentation, which can impact how the dough rises in the oven and how it opens into pizza skins.

It is interesting to observe that when the oil is mixed with the water, as soon as the mechanical mixing action is stopped the oil almost instantly separates and floats on top of the water. When the flour is added, a portion of it comes into direct contact with the oil. The oil soaks in and that specific portion of flour is now incapable of producing gluten. This obviously affects how the dough feels and performs after the mixing process.

A much better approach is to put the water in the mixing bowl first. If you want to, go ahead and add the salt and sugar to the water in the bowl (no need to stir or whisk), then add the flour and the yeast and begin mixing. Mix for about two minutes at low speed and then add the oil. This allows the flour to fully hydrate before introducing the oil and ensures that the oil cannot be absorbed into the flour and interfere with the gluten development. As a result, your dough will be more consistent in both feel and performance.

Suspending the yeast in the water is another practice that is really just wasted motion.

This is done out of fear that the yeast will not be uniformly distributed throughout the dough. But nothing could be further from the truth. If you are using compressed yeast, all you need to do is crumble it on top of the flour and it will be incorporated just fine during the mixing process (hard to believe, but true). Instant yeast is another type of yeast that is best when added dry right into the flour. Dispersion is again complete and thorough. When active dry yeast is used, there might be a valid reason for adding it to the water in the mixing bowl as opposed to adding it to the flour (even though it is in a suspension after hydrating it). The reason why some operators like to add the activated ADY suspension to the dough water is one of convenience rather than dough performance or quality.

Is there any time when ingredients need to be added or blended in a specific manner? When a high-speed mixer such as a VCM is used, regardless of the yeast type being used, it must be suspended in the dough water. This means if active dry yeast or instant dry yeast is used, they must first be hydrated. Once hydrated, the suspension can be added directly into the dough water. If compressed yeast is being used, just put the yeast directly into the water and whisk it until the yeast is suspended. Or whisk the yeast in a portion of the dough water and pour back into the mixer. The salt and sugar are then added, followed by the oil. The flour goes in last.

The most critical aspect here is to begin mixing immediately after the flour is added to minimize oil soakage into the flour. All this is necessary due to the short (60- to 75-second) mixing time common to VCM and other similar type mixers.

The late Tom Lehmann was a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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Q: Why is my dough wet and sticky when I remove it from the dough box?

A: While some may believe that this is caused by excessive dough absorption, the truth of the matter is that it is caused either by failure to cross-stack the dough boxes during refrigeration or not allowing the boxes to remain cross-stacked long enough to properly cool the dough before sealing the boxes closed. The moisture that you are seeing is the result of condensation being formed on the inside of the box as warm, moist air from the dough contacts the cold surface of the dough box. When the dough boxes are sealed too soon a dead air space is created in the box (which insulates the dough and significantly slows its rate of cooling, thus allowing the condensation to go on for a significant length of time). In addition to being sticky, these doughs will typically have a short usable life of only one day, after which the dough may “blow.” Or the individual dough balls may stick together, forming a single giant dough mass in the box. The easiest way to prevent this from happening is to take the dough to the cooler as quickly as possible after mixing, scaling and balling, then cross-stack the open dough boxes for at least two hours, or more, depending on the weight of the dough balls.

Q: One of the pizza dough formulas that we inherited with the shop contains a product called PZ-44, what can you tell me about this product? What does it do for our pizza dough?

A: PZ-44 is commonly referred to as a reducing agent for wheat-based doughs. In other words it makes the dough softer and more extensible with an added benefit that it effectively reduces dough memory or snap-back after forming the dough into a pizza skin. The product itself is a combination of dairy whey and L-cysteine. It and its sister product Reddi-Sponge have been around for what seems like forever. They are very effective at what they do but care must be taken in their use. Too much of either product can literally liquefy a dough. While L-cysteine use levels are typically measured in parts per million (ppm) based on the total flour weight, PZ-44 is based on a percent of the flour weight. This is due to the fact that it is diluted with whey to make scaling and handling much easier. Most of us consider PZ-44 as an optional ingredient in hand tossed or sheeted crusts, but in pressed crusts it is so instrumental in preventing snap-back after pressing that it is almost considered to be a required ingredient. As a side note, we also have what is called “dead yeast” to work with, too. This product is essentially a mirror image to L-cysteine/PZ-44 as it functions in the exact same manner with the same results. The only difference is that dead yeast can be labeled simply as “yeast” if you come under labeling regulations, so it appears as a more consumer friendly name on your product label/ingredient declaration.

Q: We have a mixing bowl that is developing rust in the bottom. Is there anything that we can do to prevent this?

A: All of the newer mixing bowls are made of stainless steel, but the older ones (which might include yours) are made from a regular carbon steel that can be prone to rusting. To prevent this from happening the manufacturers coated these bowls with tin plate, which is quite durable. But with time this tin plate coating slowly wears away. To the best of my knowledge I am not aware of any approved coating that can be applied to the inside of the bowl, other than tin plate, that will hold up to the abuse dished out by a dough hook rotating inside the bowl with upwards of 80-pounds of dough being pushed ahead of it. The way I see it you have three options: 1) Send your bowl out to be re-plated; 2) Buy a new stainless steel bowl; 3) Make it a practice to regularly wipe the inside of the bowl dry and coat the inside of the bowl with a very light film of food grade oil (such as canola). While this won’t totally solve the problem, it will keep the rust at bay and keep everyone happy in the meantime.
 
Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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Q: What’s causing your crust to be too chewy?

A: There are a number of factors that can contribute to a tough and chewy crust characteristic. For example, use of a flour that is overly strong (high in protein content) for the dough management procedure being used can result in an excessively tough and chewy characteristic. I am always reminded of a major pizza chain that made its reputation selling thin-crust pizzas, and then one day the decision was made to introduce a thick-crust pizza that was aptly referred to as being “thick and chewy” in nature (truer words were never spoken). My belief is that, with the existing technology at the time, the new crust formula utilized the same flour as its thin-crust counterpart. With fermentation already on the short side, not much of the protein was weakened/mellowed by fermentation. This resulted in a crust that was indeed thick as desired — but tough. How tough was too tough? For me it was when I couldn’t eat more than one slice of the pizza because my jaws were getting sore from the chewing. In this case, a lower protein content flour, such as a bread flour or even an all-purpose flour, would have probably been a better choice as it would have provided the same thick crust but with a more tender eating characteristic.

When we encounter an excessively tough and chewy thin-crust pizza, the problem might be due to improper dough management techniques (such as a finished dough temperature that is too low, which therefore results in insufficient dough fermentation). Another cause for a tough and chewy crust characteristic is trying to sheet the dough too thin, thinking that it will make for a crispier finished crust. Just the opposite is true. Our dough formula and dough management procedure can be “spot on,” but if we sheet/roll the dough too thin we end up degassing the dough, making it more dense. The heat then passes right on through the dough without ever getting it hot enough to fully bake it and we end up with a crust that might have some resemblance of crispiness when it comes out of the oven but soon progresses from crispy to tough and chewy. The answer here is to use a different method to open the dough into a pizza skin (hand formed or pressed) or to open the sheeting rolls slightly to give a thicker pizza skin better able to create a heat/thermal block.

Once in a while I encounter instances where the problem is related to sauce issues. In these cases the sauce has been overly diluted with water, too much sauce has been added to the pizza skin, or the pizza skins are dressed in advance of an order and allowed to set out for a period of time before going to the oven. We typically see a similar issue with the sauce and moisture from the vegetable toppings in a DELCO (delivery/carry out) situation. In this case the pizza is placed into a box, and then maybe into an insulated bag and allowed to sweat for upwards of 30 minutes. Sometimes the combination of moisture from the top of the pizza soaking into the crust and steam released from the hot pizza work their magic to create tough and chewy crust.

Lately I have seen pizzas being baked at too high of a temperature, resulting in the crust getting nice and brown while the inside of the crust is just barely baked. As the pizza begins to cool the crust may actually collapse a little or at very least it begins to take on a tough/chewy characteristic. At one time we used to see this as a common problem with the different types of conveyor ovens (both infrared and air impingement), but now I see the problem more frequently with stone deck ovens where we have the ability to bake the pizza at very high temperatures. Still, with a ton of toppings on the pizza it is difficult, if not impossible, to get a decent bake on the pizza under these conditions. Thin, lightly dressed pizzas can be baked quite well under these conditions, but if you are going to be more generous with your toppings a lower baking temperature and longer baking time will probably result in a better finished product.

Lastly, even sugar or some other browning agent, such as milk or eggs in the dough, can contribute to a tough and chewy crust characteristic. In this case the mechanism is similar to that of baking in an oven that is too hot — the browning agent gives a nice brown crust color signifying that the crust is properly baked, but in reality only the outer portion of the crust is thoroughly baked. This is not to say that you cannot or should not use any of these ingredients in your dough formula, but you should be aware that you may need to adjust the baking time and/or temperature when any of these browning agents are used if you want to achieve the crispiest and most tender eating characteristics in your finished crust.

The late Tom Lehmann was a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s longstanding resident dough expert. 

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

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The Dough Doctor talks about the use of fats in pizza dough

Tom Lehmann, former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert

Q: What is the difference between using shortening and oil in pizza dough, and does it make a difference if the shortening is melted?

A: There are a number of different aspects to using oil or shortening in pizza dough. To make the explanation a little easier, I’ll categorize how they function in the different aspects.

• Dough mixing. We have all heard of how humidity and weather affects the amount of water we need to add to the dough. Research that we conducted a number of years ago showed this not to be true, so what was really happening to cause us to associate weather to dough absorption?

We found that when oil was used in the dough it was common to add it along with the water. As we all know, the oil separates from the water almost instantly and floats to the top of the water where it comes into direct contact with the dry flour. The flour now absorbs a portion of the oil, rendering it incapable of producing gluten during the dough mixing process or through biochemical gluten development. This is why we make a roux of flour and oil/fat to thicken gravy because if we just used flour alone the water content of the stock base would hydrate the flour proteins allowing for gluten development while stirring the gravy, resulting in a stringy texture to the gravy.

When gluten is not formed, the flour cannot absorb as much water and the dough is less elastic after mixing, giving the dough the appearance of having added too much water. One might say, “But I’m sure I added the correct amount of water. Maybe it’s because it is humid or raining outside today that has caused the flour to require less water?” I think that’s how it all got started, which we now know isn’t the case at all.

So what are we to do? The answer is to use what we refer to as the delayed oil addition mixing method. By this procedure the oil is not added to the dough until the flour has had a chance to hydrate. This usually takes about 2 to 2½ minutes beginning with the onset of mixing. A visual examination of the dough will confirm that there is no more dry, white flour present in the mixing bowl. At this time, the oil should be added and mixing continued as normal. This procedure has proven to give more consistent doughs not only at the pizzeria but also in large commissary operations where dough weights range from 800 to 2,000 pounds.

When shortening (semi-plastic fat) — which might include butter, margarine, lard, etc. — is added to the dough, it can be added right along with the other ingredients since it is not necessary to delay its addition due to the fact that shortening is not readily absorbed into the flour. If the shortening is melted it will now perform like an oil with regard to absorption into the dough and it must be added by the delayed oil addition method.

• Dough consistency and performance. Since the viscosity of oil really doesn’t change when it is added to the dough, it will influence the dough viscosity in much the same way as water, making it more fluid or softer. Because of this, some erroneously believe that the oil should be included as part of the dough absorption. This is incorrect as the absorption value is indicative of the ability of the flour to carry water, not oil.

With this said, the amount of oil added to a dough formula must be balanced against the amount of water being added to achieve a desired dough viscosity. Keep in mind though that the oil, if properly added, will not be absorbed into the flour proteins to assist with gluten development. Instead, it will only contribute to the lubricity/softness of the dough, hence the dough will become softer with the addition of oil than with the addition of water. This is why we can’t include oil in the dough absorption value. Semi-plastic fats on the other hand maintain their crystalline, semi-plastic characteristic and don’t exert the same dough softening effect as oils do. This is a major reason why when high fat levels are desired in a dough formulation, semi-plastic fats might be a better alternative to using oil.

For these same reasons, we have found that shortening works better than oil when making thick crust or deep-dish pizza. In this case the shortening helps to lubricate the dough for ease of expansion, it coats the cell walls within the dough for improved gas retention and the crystalline nature of the fat helps to strengthen the dough as it rises/proofs prior to baking.

• Finished pizza crust. The type of fat used in the dough can also impact certain characteristics of the finished crust in specific applications. For
example, in a DELCO (delivery carry-out) application, the use of oil in the dough tends to produce a crust at the consumer level with slightly more tender eating properties than one made with shortening/semi-plastic fat which tends to be a little more tough or chewy. In a dine-in application where the pizzas will be consumed soon after baking, there does not seem to be a noticeable textural difference in pizzas made with either semi-plastic fat or oil.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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Solving a Soggy Pizza Crust Bottom

Q: We are experiencing a clammy bottom on our pizza, but our conveyor ovens were just recently cleaned. Where should we start trouble-shooting?

A: There is no escaping this one –– you have to begin trouble shooting with a thorough inspection of the oven. Cleaning the oven is one thing, but getting it put back together again might be a whole different story. Since you didn’t mention anything about the top of the pizzas, I’ll assume that the tops are coming out okay.

With conveyor ovens, as you know, there can be any number of different finger arrangements, all in different positions in your oven to provide the best bottom bake characteristics for your specific pizza. If, during finger inserts were installed incorrectly, or in the wrong (different) position, the quality of bake from that oven could be significantly compromised. I would begin my quest for resolution by removing all of the bottom finger panels/sleeves, and then checking each one against my finger profile map (which should be stored in your office or on the wall). Then make sure they are correctly installed (fit snugly into the air manifold) as you re-assemble the oven.

If, while reading this, you asked yourself: “Finger profile map? What finger profile map?” Now might be a good time to give some thought to either getting one from your oven supplier (only if you bought your oven new from them, as they will have this information on file), or you can make your own by removing the bottom fingers and inner sleeves and photographing them right next to the oven, in the order they were removed from the oven, for identification purposes.

Q: When a dough ball dries out and a dry patch of dough develops, should this dough be tossed in the garbage, or can it be sprayed with water and still opened into a pizza skin?

A: I don’t recommend spraying the dough balls with water and then opening them up. This can increase the adherence of dusting fl our to the dough ball, potentially resulting in a bitter taste. Instead, if it isn’t too bad, just open the ball up as usual, then orient the side with the dry, crusty patches to the bottom of your peel or pan/tray/screen. This way, the crusted area gets the most heat during baking. This will allow the patches to color up reasonably well.

If the dry patches are oriented towards the sauce, there is a possibility that they may result in a localized area with a dense structure and tough eating characteristics. A lot will depend upon how dry and crusted the dough actually is. The bigger question is this: Why are your dough balls drying out?

If you’re managing dough through the cooler overnight or longer, do you lightly oil the tops of the dough balls after placing them into the plastic dough boxes, before putting them into the cooler? Omitting this important step can allow the dough to begin drying out while the dough boxes are cross-stacked in the cooler. It can also hasten the drying of the dough surface after you remove the dough from the cooler and begin using it on the following day(s).

I think the most common cause of the problem, however, is failure to replace the lid on the dough boxes promptly after removing a dough ball. This seems to be especially troublesome during busy periods. It is true that the dough balls won’t develop crusty patches in the few minutes that it normally takes to open a full box of dough balls into skins. But when a box is opened and one or more pieces are removed and the lid is not replaced for a long period, that’s when trouble develops. ?

The late Tom Lehmann was a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s longstanding resident dough expert. 

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

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The Dough Doctor talks white pizza, laminated dough

Tom Lehmann, former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert

Q: We want to do something a little different and offer a white pizza. Can you give some suggestions to help get us started?

A: The two approaches that I’ve used successfully to make white pizzas (pizzas made without the traditional red/tomato-based sauce) work quite well for making a number of different types of pizza.

Both of the white pizza approaches that I use are based on using your regular pizza dough/crust as the base, and then adding a smooth ricotta cheese or Alfredo sauce to replace the red sauce. To make the pizza with ricotta cheese, just spread the pizza with a thin layer of smooth ricotta cheese and begin building the pizza from there. If the ricotta cheese is too stiff to spread easily just blend it in a small mixer or food processor using a small amount of cream to smooth it out to a consistency that can be easier to manage.

My other approach to a white pizza is to use Alfredo sauce. This can be a commercially purchased Alfredo sauce or a very basic one that you can make yourself by melting
together Parmesan cheese, cream and seasoning with white pepper and garlic. For added flavor dimension to either the commercial product or the one that you make yourself I like to blend in a small amount of basil pesto, too, as this really helps to “pop” the flavor.
To me, one of the most important aspects of a white pizza is the correct pairing of the sauce to the toppings. While it is true that you can use just about any toppings on a white pizza that you would use on a traditional red sauced pizza, I believe elegance of the white sauce is brought out better when paired with some toppings more than others. For example, I don’t think any other pizza shows its elegance better than a white pizza topped with seafood. To make this type of pizza, apply the white sauce and then sprinkle generously with dried dill weed. Add small size/high count shrimp, pieces of firm, white flesh fish, a few pieces of clam meat, imitation crab meat, and garnish with pieces of fresh tomato (cherry tomatoes cut in half work great), red onion and a couple of garlic cloves sliced thin. Then sprinkle on a light application of a 50/50 shredded mozzarella/shredded Parmesan blend (about two ounces for a 12-inch pizza is about right). Optional toppings that could also be added are capers and strips of roasted peppers. Bake the pizza as you would any other pizza and serve with a couple of lemon wedges.

Another excellent white pizza presentation is made with pieces of pre-cooked chicken breast. To make this pizza you will add cut up pieces of chicken breast over the top of the sauced pizza skin followed by red onion rings, pieces of fresh tomato, yellow and green peppers cut into strips, mushroom slices and just a “kiss” of marjoram and tarragon for complexity of flavor. Finish with a blended cheese consisting of three parts shredded mozzarella and one part Parmesan or Asiago cheese. Optional toppings can include dollops of roasted garlic, pre-cooked bacon crumbles, Mandarin orange slices or some lightly toasted almond slices.

For the meat lovers there is a white pizza for you, too. Starting with our sauced dough skin, lightly sprinkle on some thyme and rosemary, followed by your favorite steak/beef strips, or combination of meats, then add roasted red onion, roasted red and green pepper strips, slices of fresh garlic clove and mushroom slices. Finish with shredded provolone cheese. Optional toppings can include smoked provolone to replace the regular provolone cheese, a sprinkle of truffle oil immediately after baking or a few slices of seeded, roasted jalapeño pepper.

Lastly, for the vegetarians a great white sauce pizza with vegetable toppings can also be made. While many times the pizza is built on a sauced skin, in this application we will take a slightly different approach. Begin by brushing the dough very lightly with sesame oil, apply some sliced or diced garlic over the dough and then use the white sauce that you would normally put on the dough to coat the vegetable toppings of choice. This is easily done by tossing the vegetables in a small bowl along with the white sauce. If necessary, you can add additional sauce to coat the vegetables. Spread the coated vegetables over the oiled pizza skin and finish with an application of three-parts provolone and one-part shredded Parmesan cheese followed by a light dusting of Romano cheese. Optional topping vegetables can include cauliflower, broccoli, snow peas and canned whole kernel corn.

White pizzas can be whatever you want them to be. They can be an everyday menu option to a red/tomato based sauce, or they can be held to a higher standard and only offered on certain nights of the week. In this regard, the seafood pizza might make for a very good Friday night special.

Q: We would like to experiment using a laminated type of pizza crust, but all of the procedures we have found for making laminated dough are for making pastries and the process is quite long and drawn out. Is there an easier way to make a laminated pizza crust?

A: Yes, there is. What you have been looking at sounds like the traditional method for making a laminated dough, which includes sheeting the dough, adding a roll-in fat to the surface of the dough, followed by a number of folding and sheeting operations with several hours of rest between each folding and rolling operation.

A much easier way to make a laminated dough but without all the work is to incorporate 15-percent hard fat flakes (based on the dough weight) into the dough at the mixer. In this process, the dough is mixed in your normal manner, but about four minutes before the completion of dough mixing the hard fat flakes are added to the dough and mixed in just enough to ensure thorough incorporation (which will normally take about an additional four minutes of mixing).

After mixing, the dough can be processed in the same manner as you do your regular dough. As the dough is opened into pizza skins the fat flakes will orient in a somewhat horizontal fashion. And as the dough bakes the fat flakes will melt and be absorbed into the surrounding dough, giving the finished crust the appearance and textural properties of having been laminated.

Hard fat flakes are available from most bakery ingredient suppliers. Depending upon the supplier, you might have a choice to make when choosing the fat flakes. If this is an option, choose the largest diameter, thickest, and highest-melting-point flakes available. Be aware that some flakes are offered as colored or non-colored, my preference for pizza work is the non-colored version, but if your only option is the colored flakes be aware that they will add a slight yellow color to your finished crusts.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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The Dough Doctor talks salt, breakfast pizza

Q: We are thinking about opening earlier in the morning to get in on some of the breakfast trade. Do you have any suggestions as to what we could make that would be well accepted?

A: While some stores make smaller, individual-sized pizza topped with ham, bacon, breakfast sausage, cheddar cheese, rehydrated potato slices, red and green peppers, onion and mushroom –– some even add an egg or two on top of the pizza –– this is still a lot of work. It takes time that precious few people are willing to part with during the early morning hours. The name of the breakfast game is hot, tasty and fast with an added bonus if it is easy to eat and can be eaten on the run or while commuting on public transportation. The one thing that we can make that fits perfectly into that description is a breakfast calzone. They’re easy to make, hold up well and offer a fast turnover as they can be held under heat lamps while awaiting sale. No special dough is required as we can use our regular pizza dough.

To begin, scale your dough into 4-ounce pieces for a 7-inch calzone. Form each dough piece into a ball and place into dough boxes, wipe the top of each dough ball with salad oil and cross stack in the cooler for one hour. Then down stack and cover or nest the boxes. The dough balls will keep in the cooler for up to three or more days.

To use the dough balls, remove dough balls from the cooler, leaving them covered, and allow to temper at room temperature until they reach 50 F. When the dough balls have reached 50 F, begin rolling the dough into circles, use your sheeter/dough roller if you have one, or you can do it manually using a rolling pin or pie pin. Open each dough piece into a 7 to 7½-inch diameter circle, lightly wet the edge of the dough with water, add desired filling (precooked scrambled eggs go great here), and fold over to form a calzone. Tightly press the edge to crimp it and brush the surface lightly with melted butter or butter flavored oil. Allow the formed calzones to rest for about 5 minutes before placing onto screens for baking.

The breakfast calzones can usually be baked at the same temperature as your regular pizzas, but you might need to adjust the baking time slightly. As soon as the calzones exit the oven, place into paper sleeves and store under heat lamps to hold for sale. These breakfast calzones are great when sold with a 12-ounce cup of coffee for a set price. Since the calzones will only be offered during the early morning hours, I have found it convenient to use a part-time crew to work the “breakfast shift.”

Q: We occasionally get a request for a pizza without any added salt, but since we put the salt in the dough and in the sauce, plus the cheese is already salted, there isn’t anything we can do. If we were to try to do something, what would you suggest?

A: As pizza continues to evolve and our population ages, we seem to be getting more and more requests for pizzas to address specific health concerns. For example, a hot topic a few years ago was low-carbohydrate pizza, and now it’s gluten free. Who knows what it will be next?
Amongst all of these trends, we continually get requests for low sodium and low cholesterol pizzas. The quest for low sodium has been going on for more than 40 years now, and it continues to evolve with new and improved products being offered allowing us to develop products with both taste and functionality at lower sodium levels than previously possible.

The newest approach to sodium reduction centers around some of the latest encapsulation technology. This is where the ingredients are modified and coated in a proprietary manner so as not to have the metallic taste so often associated with some of the other reduced sodium salt substitutes. This product is readily available as a sea salt blend with 70 percent less sodium than table salt. When used at your normal salt level in the dough or sauce it will provide a 70-percent reduction in total added sodium content without negatively impacting the finished flavor. When combined with a reduction in level, an even greater sodium reduction can be achieved.

As there isn’t much that you can do about the salt that is already in the cheese, we have found that by using fresh basil as opposed to dried basil on the pizza, we can get away using a reduced amount of high quality, whole milk mozzarella or provolone cheese. In most cases, the reduction in cheese level is around 30 to 40 percent while still retaining a desirable cheese flavor and appearance along with the commensurate reduction in sodium.

Following these guidelines you should be able to accomplish a 40- to 50-percent reduction in added sodium content to your pizzas. As a cautionary note, I would advise against advertising these pizzas as a low or reduced sodium pizza as that would most likely be construed as a medical claim and could have unexpected ramifications. Instead, I would suggest that you simply state the facts, such as for those customers wishing a pizza with less added sodium than our regular pizzas we are pleased to offer pizzas made using a 70-percent reduced sodium content salt in the dough and sauce with a special cheese topping. You could then follow this up with a statement to the following: “Samples of this pizza have been determined to contain approximately XXX milligrams of sodium.” The only down side to all of this is that you will need to inventory a quantity of special, sodium reduced  dough and sauce and keep them correctly identified so they don’t become confused with your regular dough and sauce.

While discussing “healthy” pizzas you can also offer your customers a pizza with 50-percent less cholesterol than your regular pizzas (assuming a cheese pizza only). This is easily accomplished by using a 50/50 blend of your regular cheese with a cholesterol free tofu-based cheese analog. While these were once referred to as nothing more than melted plastic on a pizza, the newer versions are much better and exhibit pretty decent melt properties, and when combined with your regular cheese as a 50/50 blend, it can make for a pretty decent pizza if reduced cholesterol is what you are looking for in a pizza.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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The Dough Doctor answers questions about flour differences and their impacts on pizza crust

Q: What is the difference between enriched and un-enriched flour, and bleached flour versus unbleached flour?

A: As in many things that we like to eat, the most nutritious part is the part that we sometimes remove before consumption (as is commonly the case with potatoes and apples). Wheat is no exception to this, either, since we typically remove the outer layer of the wheat berry (which we call the bran) prior to consumption. As a result, some of the essential vitamins and minerals are lost during the milling process. To restore these lost vitamins and minerals, the flour is “enriched” to the same level of vitamins and minerals as it would have if the bran portion was still present in the flour. The only main difference between enriched and un-enriched flour is in the fiber content that is lost when the bran is removed. Otherwise, enriched and un-enriched flours are essentially the same in performance and flavor characteristics. Un-enriched flour, if desired, can be enriched when used in a product formulation by adding specially formulated enrichment, usually in a wafer form, which when dissolved in a portion of the dough water restores the vitamin and mineral content of the flour to that of commercially purchased enriched flour.

Bleaching of bread flour is done to remove the beta carotenoid pigments from the milled flour giving it a brighter, whiter appearance. At one time in our history white flour was reserved for use only by royalty, leaving the peasants only the whole grain flours to make their bread. Once out from under the thumb of said royalty, the peasants prided themselves in eating white bread just as royalty did. This resulted in a desire to produce whiter flour resulting in a brighter, whiter colored crumb structure in the finished bread.

In the 1970s, consumers began a quest to find greater comfort in their food, bread included. This resulted in a demand for bread with a richer, more yellowish crumb structure. The answer to this was in unbleached flour with the yellow pigments still intact, not having been bleached out. Hence millers offered their different flour types in both bleached and unbleached forms. The only difference between bleached flour and unbleached flour is one of aesthetics, based on the color of the crumb structure of the baked product. Today’s consumer has become accustomed to the yellowish crumb color imparted by unbleached flour and in some way believes the color is more appealing and the product better/healthier to consume.

Q: We have developed a crust formula/recipe based on replacing 25 percent of our regular pizza flour with whole-wheat flour. But, lately, we have detected a slight “off” aroma in our whole-wheat flour. Can you tell me what is causing this?

A: Whole-wheat flour contains the fat portion of the wheat berry/kernel. This is called the germ portion of the kernel, and it is located at the angular end of the kernel opposite the pointed/rounded end. Germ oil is rather unstable, and hence it turns rancid rather quickly. To prevent this from happening it is suggested that whole-wheat flour not be stored outside of refrigeration for more than 10 to 15 days. If a longer shelf life is needed, the flour should be refrigerated or frozen to extend its shelf life.

In all probability, what you are picking up on is the development of this rancidity. Since the free fatty acids responsible for the rancidity are steam distilled off during baking, the finished/baked product generally doesn’t have a rancid aroma or taste immediately after baking. The flavor and aroma soon return after a few days of storage. Since most pizzas are consumed either immediately or just a short time after baking, it is doubtful that this will present a problem for you. But if you were making bread or some other product where it might be subjected to a week or more of room-temperature storage before being consumed, the outcome might be significantly different and not as favorable. So with this in mind, how long can you effectively keep whole-wheat flour? Some might argue three months to a year, but my advice is to not order more whole-wheat flour than you can use in a 30-day period of time.

Q: We prepare all of our doughs from a bag mix that we put together ourselves containing a small amount of flour, all of the salt, sugar and instant dry yeast (IDY). In addition we add flour, water, oil and whole eggs to the mix when preparing the dough. Is it possible for us to use dried eggs in the mix as a replacement for the shell eggs that we are presently adding at the time of mixing the dough?

A: There should not be any problem in using dried whole eggs as a substitute for the fresh shell eggs that you are presently using. Dried whole eggs should be available from any distributor supplying ingredients to the baking industry. To replace the shell eggs with dried whole egg you will need to get a weight on the number of eggs that you are adding to your dough and then take 25 percent of that weight as the amount of dried whole egg needed to replace them with. The dried whole egg can be dry blended into the dry mix and stored at room temperature just as you presently store your dry mixes/goodie bags.

An advantage to using dried whole egg as opposed to shell eggs is one of sanitation. You won’t need to worry about disposing of the eggshells properly or about the potential for cross contamination, which should make your local health department a bit happier, too. Since the shell eggs that you are presently using are a part of the total dough absorption, be sure to increase the water content of the dough by three times the weight of dried whole egg used.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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Is there a correct way to mix ingredients?

Q: I see differences in dough make-up procedures. Some call for stirring or whipping the salt, sugar, yeast and oil into the water and then finally adding the flour and mixing, while other procedures call for just adding all of the ingredients to the bowl and mixing. Is there really a difference?

A: The truth of the matter is that there isn’t much –– if any –– difference between all of the different dough make-up procedures. So why do so many variations exist? I think it all boils down to what someone did or started doing at one time and the procedure has been just passed down from one generation to another.

I don’t think that there are any really right or wrong ways to assemble a pizza dough, but I firmly believe that the process can be modified to eliminate or at least reduce the possibility of encountering dough or crust problems down the road. I have always been a firm believer in the KISS principal (keep it simple, stupid) when it comes to making any kind of dough, be it for bread, rolls or pizza crust. I think a double dose of simplicity is needed when we have an inexperienced, non-family member responsible for mixing the most important aspect of our pizza. Additionally, we have found at least one glaring falsehood that is directly related to how the dough is assembled.

Many dough-making procedures call for adding the water to the mixing bowl first, and then adding the salt, sugar and the yeast (fresh/compressed/block) and mixing or whisking these ingredients into the water. The thought process is that this more thoroughly disperses those ingredients, especially the yeast. The flour is then added and the dough is mixed.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with this procedure, it does require additional valuable time to incorporate those ingredients into the water, and if the individual should become distracted or leave the ingredients suspended in the water for a period of time, the salt and sugar can impact the yeast, affecting its performance for the better or worse (which could manifest itself as the dough is allowed to ferment in the cooler over a period of two or more days). In one case that I recall, this procedure was responsible for the dough occasionally blowing for no apparent reason. What we found was when the suspension was allowed to be made and to set for up to 30 minutes before adding the flour and mixing, the yeast would begin to actively ferment. So when the flour was finally added and the dough mixed, the dough was showing signs of fermentation in as little as five minutes after mixing. This is due to the fact that compressed yeast has about a 20-minute lag phase from the time it is added to the dough, or ingredient suspension in this case, until it begins to actively ferment. This is why we try to get the dough divided and into the dough boxes and in the cooler within a 20-minute period of time after mixing when the dough will be refrigerated for several days as part of the dough management program.

In this case, the fermenting dough was changing in density (becoming less dense), making it more difficult to cool. This resulted in the dough boxes being nested/covered before the dough was sufficiently chilled to control the rate of fermentation. So as the dough was stored in the cooler, it continued to ferment until it completely filled the dough box. Our solution in this case was to simply add the compressed yeast right on top of the flour (no need to suspend it in the water) just before dough mixing commenced.

In all of my years studying the different ways pizza doughs are assembled and mixed, I have come up with a procedure that addresses some of the issues common to other methods and that works well in most applications using a planetary mixer.

The procedure goes like this:

• Add the water to the mixing bowl, then add the salt and sugar (if used). There’s no need to stir or agitate.
• The flour is then added and any other dry ingredients such as gluten, milk powder, or additives are placed on top of the flour.
• The ingredients are then mixed for 10 seconds at low speed and the hydrated yeast suspension is added and mixed in. If a hydrated yeast suspension is not used, such as when using instant dry yeast (IDY) or compressed yeast, these can be added immediately after the flour without any mixing prior to their addition. The ingredients can then be mixed for about two minutes in low speed to allow the flour to fully pick up all of the water in the mixing bowl.
• The oil is then added and incorporated by mixing for another minute at low speed after which the dough can be mixed in the normal manner. When a VCM type of mixer is used the only difference is that the yeast, regardless of type used, should be added as a suspension, and then the time the dough is allowed to mix to hydrate the flour will only be about 30 seconds after which the oil is added and mixing continued to your normal mixing time.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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Can you get a deck-oven taste from your conveyor?

Q: We are new to air-impingement ovens, and I now want to begin developing a hearth-baked type of pizza. We have done some testing but all that we have been able to make is a crust that is crispy — it still doesn’t have the desired hearth-baked characteristics that I’ve seen coming from a hearth-type oven. Is there any way to make this type of pizza crust in our oven?

A: For a good number of years research has been going on to develop a hearth-baked crust characteristic using an air-impingement oven. We have found that a multi-faceted approach is necessary in order to successfully achieve the characteristics.

The baking time and temperature must be addressed, as well as the dough formulation and the baking platform itself. To begin, air-impingement ovens will need to be profiled in a pretty typical pizza profile with the bottom fingers fully open and most of the top fingers closed with just enough top heat to achieve the desired top bake to the pizza. With the newer generation ovens the baking temperature will be between 465 and 500 F with a baking time of 4.75 to 5.5 minutes. When an older generation air-impingement oven is used the finger profile remains the same but the baking temperature is normally adjusted to 500 F to 525 F with a baking time of around six minutes.

In order to bake the pizzas at this time and temperature without getting excessive crust color it is necessary to delete any sugar, eggs or milk from the dough formula since any of these will contribute to excessive crust color development under these baking conditions. These changes by themselves will contribute to a pretty nice eating characteristic, but the characteristic charring on the bottom of the crust will be missing, and to some extent, the finished pizza may have an excessively hard outer edge/crust, AKA pizza bone. To address these issues so that we can get the desired amount of crust char without developing a pizza bone, a special baking disk has been developed specifically for this application. When the formula changes are made and combined with the oven baking profile and special baking disk, it is entirely possible to achieve a hearth-baked pizza characteristic using an air-impingement oven.

Q: We occasionally get a gum line developed in the center of some of our pizzas, but not all of them. Do you have any guess as to what might be responsible for this sporadic occurrence?

A: The most common cause of this problem has to do with the way the toppings are applied to the pizza skin prior to baking. When saucing the pizza skin, take extra care so as to move any sauce away from the center of the skin leaving just a thin sauce layer in the center. Then as you apply the cheese do the same thing, taking care so as not to just dump all of the cheese into the center of the skin and try to spread it out over the surface of the pizza skin. Instead, apply the cheese so as to create a slightly thinner layer of cheese in the center of the pizza skin.

Don’t worry about the center of the pizza not getting a uniform dispersion of sauce and cheese. As the pizza bakes the sauce and cheese will flow back into the center section but not before the center section has had a chance to begin baking, thus eliminating the gum line from the center of the pizza.

Q: We have a very small shop with only reach-in coolers so we are not able to store dough balls from one day to the next. At times we have saved our last dough balls of the day to the following day and we really like the flavor of the finished crust. Is there any way we can get this kind of flavor in the dough that we mix and use during the same day?

A: Yes there is! The secret is in using an overnight sponge to develop and provide flavor, much like using a sour, but a lot easier to manage.

Begin by making a “sponge” or pre-ferment that will be allowed to ferment overnight. To size the sponge correctly use about five pounds of flour for each 25-pound bag of flour that you will use for making dough on the following day. Mix this with .1 percent instant dry yeast (IDY) based on the total flour weight and 50 percent (2.5 pounds for each five pounds of flour weight) of cold tap water, and mix just until it is incorporated (about five minutes at low speed). The sponge should be lightly oiled and covered with a piece of plastic to prevent excessive drying then allowed to ferment at room temperature for 18 to 24 hours.

To use the sponge, weigh a portion of the sponge (7.5 pounds for each 25 pounds of flour that you want to use — but remember to weigh out only 20 pounds of flour since there is already 5 pounds in the amount of sponge that you have portioned out). Add all of the regular dough ingredients, including the full amount of yeast to the dough, but reduce the water content by 2.5 pounds since there is already 2.5 pounds of water in the portioned out sponge. From this point on the dough is mixed and processed by your normal manner. The fermented sponge will provide a level of both dough conditioning and enhanced fermentation flavor to the finished crust.

Tom Lehmann is a former director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today’s resident dough expert.

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From start to finish, a sound process ensures a consistent final product

Q: I’m new to the pizza industry and I’ve heard you mention “dough management” in your articles and presentations, but I don’t understand exactly what it is.

A: Dough management encompasses everything you do with or to the dough from the time it comes off of the mixer until you actually dress and bake the dough/pizza skin. The main control mechanisms for dough management are time and temperature, which must be controlled. Without time and temperature control, you cannot have effective dough management. I have developed an outline for what I feel is the most effective dough management possible. By removing as many variables from the procedure, we can achieve excellent consistency of the dough over months, or as in my case, years of use.

This isn’t the only method of dough management that works, but I do think it gives the most consistent results over time. One place where the procedure is commonly changed is immediately after mixing. The dough is allowed to bulk ferment for a period of time before cutting/scaling and rolling/balling. The potential problem here is that the dough is now more gassy and less dense than it was immediately after mixing, making the dough a better insulator and more difficult to effectively cool within a specific period of time. By this method, if the dough temperature is even just a couple degrees too high, the dough can end up getting down stacked while the dough is still at a temperature conducive to more rapid fermentation. This sets the stage for disappointment in the morning in the form of a blown dough, or opening the dough box only to find one large dough mass rather than the individual dough balls that were originally placed into the box on the previous day.

Time is also a critical element of effective dough management. I like to cross stack the dough boxes in the cooler for varying lengths of time depending upon the weight of the dough balls in the boxes at the time. For example, in our cooler we use the following cross stack times:

• For dough balls under 12 ounces: 90 minutes
• Dough balls weighing 12 to 16 ounces: 2 hours
• Dough balls weighing 17 ounces to 22 ounces: 2.5 hours
• Dough balls weighing over 22 ounces: 3.5 hours.

These are what work for us, in our cooler. Since all coolers are different, you will need to experiment to find the times that work best in your specific cooler. Please note that these times are intended for dough balls that will be stored for not more than three days in the cooler. If you plan to hold the dough balls longer than this, we suggest adding an additional 30 minutes to each of these times.

While on the subject of coolers, if you use a reach-in cooler, in all probability you won’t have enough room to cross stack the dough boxes so in this case just stagger the position of the boxes end to end as you place them into the cooler, this leaves the ends of the boxes open for improved ventilation and cooling. Also, since reach-in coolers do not have the efficiency of a walk-in cooler, we recommend reducing the finished dough temperature for all doughs that will be managed in a reach-in cooler to 70 to 75 F.

The time of day that the dough is made is also an important consideration in effective dough management. Due to traffic in and out of the cooler during the day (working hours) we suggest that the dough be made towards the end of the day when the traffic volume is less, allowing the cooler to operate more efficiently and at a lower, more consistent temperature.

Another way to look at effective dough management — time + temperature = consistency.

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

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Tom Lehmann

Q: I’ve seen any number of different ways in which the dough ingredients are staged/ added into the mixing bowl. Is there really a difference, or is it a case of just whatever you are taught to use?

A: I think some ingredient staging procedures can actually cause harm to the dough while others may not harm the dough. But they can be more labor intensive, thus detracting from other things we have to do in the shop. Here are some examples:

1. Adding the water to the mixing bowl followed by the salt and sugar, and then mixing for several minutes to dissolve the salt and sugar. This serves no useful purpose, as the salt and sugar will completely disperse as the mixing commences. It just adds additional time onto the total prep time for your dough.
2. Adding the compressed yeast to the water in the mixing bowl and then mixing for several minutes to thoroughly suspend the yeast in the water. Again, this serves no useful purpose. It only adds additional time to make dough. The compressed yeast will be thoroughly dispersed throughout the dough if you simply crumble it onto the flour just before you begin mixing.
3. Adding the salt, sugar and oil to the water in the mixing bowl and then mixing for several minutes also has no useful purpose. In this case again, the salt and sugar will be thoroughly incorporated into the dough without the need to put them into the water. And in this case, as soon as you stop the mixer to add the flour, the oil will immediately separate from the water, float to the top and soak into a portion of the flour rendering it impossible to develop gluten when the dough is mixed.
4. Adding instant dry yeast (IDY) to the water in the mixing bowl and mixing until the IDY is completely suspended in the water. In addition to adding time to your dough preparation, this can also have an adverse impact upon the functionality of the IDY as it should not be hydrated in water colder or warmer than 95 F. Doing so can result in a release of glutathione from the yeast. Glutathione is an amino acid present in all yeast, but it can be washed out of dry yeast by hydrating it at the wrong temperature. Because glutathione is also a reducing agent much like L-cysteine (think dead yeast), it can cause an unexpected softening or weakening of the dough, especially if it will be held in the cooler for several days. If you must pre-hydrate IDY, do it in a small quantity of water at 95 F, stir well to suspend, then allow to hydrate for five minutes before adding it to the dough, either in the water or into the dry flour.
5. Adding active dry yeast (ADY) to the water in the mixing bowl along with the salt, sugar and possibly the oil, then mixing at low speed to suspend the yeast. This is not a recommended practice for a couple of reasons. First, the water temperature in which the ADY is hydrated should be between 100 and 105 F. If the water is colder than this there is a probability that some glutathione will be leached out from the dry yeast cells, resulting in less than optimal yeast activity, plus an added bonus of a potentially softer, more extensible dough than planned. Since you may see the softer dough condition while the dough is still in the mixer, you might reduce the absorption of following doughs to correct this (erroneously thinking that the dough absorption was too high). You might also add a little additional flour to the dough to help dry it up. In both cases, you will only compound your dough problems, as your dough may still not perform well over several days in the cooler despite your “corrective” action. In the event that the water temperature in the mixing bowl was adjusted to the recommended ADY rehydration temperature of 100 to 105 F, your resulting finished dough temperature will probably be much higher than desired, resulting in a rapidly fermenting dough that is difficult to manage in the cooler. This can lead to a reduction in the yeast level to a point where the dough can now be managed without it “blowing”, but the yeast level is now so low that finished pizza crusts may not have the desired raised edge (or, in some cases, there might not be sufficient yeast to raise the center of the pizza, resulting in a collapsed center or an extremely soggy center).
6. The weather influences the amount of water (absorption) added to the dough. This is a totally false observation, but we still see it, so what is really happening is that when the oil is added to the water (a common procedure) the oil separates from the water as soon as the mixer is stopped, allowing for the flour addition. Now we get a situation where a portion of the flour absorbs the oil and not the water. That portion of the flour will not create gluten as the dough is mixed, thus creating a dough that may appear to be softer than normal, leading to the addition of more flour to the mixing bowl to correct the condition (when in fact, the amount of flour was just fine). The best way to eliminate this problem is to use what we refer to as the delayed oil addition mixing method. By this mixing method, the oil is not added to the dough until it has had a chance to mix for about two minutes with the water. This allows the flour to more fully hydrate before the oil is added, thus significantly reducing the problems resulting from the oil soaking into the flour. Once you begin using this mixing method you may find the weather really doesn’t have the impact upon the dough absorption that you once thought it had.

As you can see, the way the ingredients are staged, or added into the mixing bowl, really can have an impact upon the finished dough/crust quality.

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

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Q: What is the best way to determine if my dough has been correctly mixed?

A: While I don’t think there is a level of dough/ gluten development that is correct for all pizza doughs, I do think that for the vast majority of pizzeria operators mixing the dough just until it takes on a smooth, satiny appearance is sufficient. Mixing longer than this can make for a dough consistency that is more difficult to round/ball, and at the same time is harder on your mixer too. Some of the more notable exceptions to this are when frozen dough –– or emergency doughs –– is made. Frozen doughs exhibit improved tolerance to freezing and frozen shelf life if given complete gluten development in the mixing bowl. Emergency doughs, on the other hand, are mixed and used all within a very short period of time, as opposed to our regular doughs. They will typically exhibit improved performance characteristics (form easier, rise in the oven better, and exhibit reduced bubbling during baking) if mixed to about 75 percent of full gluten development. Another way to look at achieving this level of gluten development is to mix these doughs about 50 percent longer than you mix your regular pizza doughs, assuming you’re using a refrigerated dough management procedure. or, just mix the dough until it has a smooth, satiny appearance and refrigerated dough management process. package directions, it will get thoroughly distributed throughout the entire dough then mix it about 50-percent more. This will get you reasonably close to where you want to be. The reason why these doughs are given more development in the mixer than other doughs is because they will not be exposed to the normal

Q: I’ve heard that I shouldn’t dissolve instant dry yeast in the water before I add it to the dough, but does it really get mixed in if I don’t?

A: I know old habits are hard to break, mass and it will be properly hydrated for peak performance so long as your total dough mixing time is five minutes or longer. by prehydrating the yeast, you may actually be doing it more harm than good. This is because the yeast has biochemical gluten development that we but rest assured, by adding the instant dry been specifically engineered to beadded get with doughs that are subjected to the yeast (IDY) to the flour as directed in the in this manner. When added directly to the water there is a probability that some of the vital amino acids within the yeast cells will be flushed out, resulting in lessened yeast activity and possible inconsistencies in dough feel due to the presence of glutathione, one of the amino acids flushed out of the yeast cells. glutathione acts essentially the same way that L-cysteine (the active ingredient in PZ-44) does, so doughs may become softer, and not hold up as well during long-term refrigerated storage. If you’re looking for this type of effect, like L-cysteine, it’s available in a commercial form sold as “dead yeast.”

Q: We like the quality of bake that we get on our pizzas, but we would like to get a little more crust color without affecting the bake or flavor of the finished crust.

A: The typical reaction to getting what you want to achieve –– either a longer bake, or a hotter bake, or adding sugar to the dough formulation –– will potentially influence either the textural properties or the flavor of the finished crust, so we will assume that some other action must be taken. In this case, we have a couple of options. one is to simply brush the edges of the crust with oil. This will improve the edge color, but it will not influence the bottom crust color. If the edge color is what you’re looking for, this is a good way to get the improvement you’re looking for. The other way is to add dried, bakery- grade sweet dairy whey to the dough formulation. Whey is about 70 percent lactose (milk sugar), so it has a very low sweetness rating, so it will impart essentially no sweetness to the finished crust. Lactose is also reducing sugar so it aids in the Maillard browning reaction during baking, thus enhancing crust color development. As a side benefit, it is also nonfermentable by the yeast, so it will still be present even after much fermentation time, or days in the cooler. because the whey is added to the dough, it will influence the crust color on both the top and bottom of the crust. The amount of whey normally used to impact crust color starts out at two or three percent of the total flour weight and goes up from there until the desired effect on crust color is achieved. While whey is in a dry, powder form, it has very little influence on dough absorption properties, so when starting out using whey, don’t add any additional water with the whey powder unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary.

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

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Q: We have been getting some customer requests for natural or organic pizzas. Is there a way we can do this economically?

A: The words “natural” and “organic” are consumer buzzwords in the food industry. There have been supermarkets, delis and restaurants developed to cater to this market niche. The interesting thing about natural or organic is that your product doesn’t have to be 100 percent natural or organic to be embraced by the average consumer. For example, just stating that your pizzas are made using 100-percent organic or natural tomatoes in the sauce can suffice in the eyes of the consumer to make your product better than others. Organic flour is readily available from a number of commercial sources, and it fits pretty well into the existing specifications of many pizza flours being used in the industry. It shouldn’t pose a problem to just replace your existing flour with an organic flour and genuinely state that your crust is made with 100-percent organic flour. Additionally, there are a number of organic ingredients that you can purchase to use in making your dough or in topping your pizzas.

Q: We have had a number of requests from customers asking us where our topping ingredients come from. What’s this all about?

A: With all of the recent food issues concerning imported this and that, is it any wonder that our customers now question where our ingredients come from? We are seeing an emerging trend where customers are pushing back from stores using imported ingredients, while embracing those that utilize locally grown or domestic grown toppings/ingredients. For example, where I live, we have a new restaurant that specializes in using locally procured foods whenever possible. The name of the restaurant says it all, LOCAL. Some stores have made it a point to secure as much of their produce from local markets as is possible, but wait a minute! It isn’t as easy as just running over to the local farmer’s market and picking up your onions, garlic, tomatoes and whatever. There are now guidelines published called GAPs (Good Agricultural Practices) that were written and intended to be used as guidance for fruit and vegetable growers to follow as a way of ensuring that safe food/produce is being made available to their customers. It is highly recommended that all growers adhere to these guidelines as with time it is a probability that these guidelines will evolve into a safe produce handling law of some type.

To learn more about these GAPs, go to www.fda.bov and look for the Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables. By asking your local produce vendors if they are following these GAPs, and only buying from those who do, you will be taking a major step in helping to ensure a safe and wholesome food supply, and who knows? It might also help to keep your pizzeria out of the headlines as a restaurant responsible for sickening a multitude of people. Using fresh and locally grown produce can be an asset to your business, just be sure to do it in the safest manner possible. After all, the words “fresh” and “locally grown” conjure up warm and secure feelings with our customers, so it’s important that we do all that is possible to protect that image.

Q: What is one of the better, more profitable segments of the pizza industry that you see right now?

A: Artisan pizza is rapidly gaining in popularity. The reason for this is because as pizza ages, consumers are looking for something a little different, not too far from mainstream, but not your run-of-the-mill box store pizza that they are so familiar with. Anymore, when I hear a group of people talking about how great a pizza was it’s better than even money that the pizza came from a store with an artisan concept. To be done correctly, the entire store should be designed around the artisan pizza concept.

Also, the preparation area should be open so as to allow your customers to see or watch the pizzas being made. A good friend of mine has gone so far so as to have bar seating right in front of the dough prep area so his customers can sit and watch the pizzas being made in real time.

For artisan pizza, less is actually better. Rather than slathering the top of the dough skin with sauce we like to use a much lighter application of sauce, or no sauce at all. Sometimes it works well to just use pieces of tomato –– either fresh or processed to replace the sauce. Furthermore, a much lighter application of a very flavorful cheese is in order. For example, many traditional pizzas will use upwards of six to seven ounces of cheese on a 12-inch pizza, while an artisan pizza may contain as little as only four ounces of cheese.

Flavoring is another place where artisan pizzas differ. While dried basil and oregano are the norm for many mainstream pizzas, artisan pizzas are typically flavored with fresh, green leaf basil and possibly oregano along with fresh garlic, making for a very bright and flavorful profile. As an added bonus, many consumers report that they can actually taste the cheese and tomato on an artisan pizza, where with the more traditional pizzas these delicate flavors are lost in the pungency of the dried herbs and excessive use of cheese.

Possibly the one greatest component of artisan pizza that really makes it stand apart from other types of pizza is its appearance. Since these pizzas are baked at high temperatures, the crust will be mottled hues of light brown, dark brown and something that might be described as black, which is the char that forms on random points of the crust as a result of baking at those very high temperatures. This char provides an added dimension of depth to the flavor of the baked pizza.

The crust also has a pronounced raised edge with a very open, porous crumb structure, much like that of an English muffin. Crispiness, while definitely present, doesn’t seem to be as much of an identifying characteristic with artisan pizza as it is with other types of pizza. The key elements of an artisan pizza are ambiance, appearance and flavor. You will need to do an extensive market study to find out if this type of pizza is right for your specific store location. At the very least, elements of the artisan pizza might be able to be incorporated into your existing line of pizzas to provide more variation for your customers to enjoy.

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

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Q: This might seem like a rather basic question, but how do you make a decent take-and-bake pizza?

A: Several years ago take-and-bake pizzas appeared to be something of a novelty item, but today the novelty has worn off, and take-and-bake pizza has gone mainstream with even some of the big-box store chains beginning to offer them. To begin, take-and-bake pizzas are never prepared on a par-baked crust. Instead, they are made on a raw dough pizza skin, thus allowing the dough to further rise when baked in the consumer’s home oven to produce a lighter textured finished crust with an overall fresher, more pizzeria-like, presentation. I like to say that there are two kinds of take-and-bake methods. One type is used by the operator that wants to make a take-and-bake product to supplement their regular pizza offerings. In this case their standard dough formula is used but the procedure is modified slightly to make the take-and-bake pizza. These modifications typically consist of the following:

1. Adjust the cold fermentation time of the dough to the shortest time possible to allow for opening of the dough balls into pizza skins. This is typically between four and 18 hours.
2. The dough balls are opened into pizza skins as soon as possible after removing them from the cooler. This might be from about 15 minutes to an hour or more, but the emphasis should be on getting the dough balls opened into pizza skins as soon as possible.
3. The opened pizza skins should be placed on lightly oiled screens and placed on a wire tree rack in the cooler for at least 30 minutes after which time they can be stacked, with a piece of parchment paper separating the individual skins up to 10-skins high. Lightly wrap or cover each stack of formed skins and keep in a convenient (reach in cooler under the prep table) cooler for use in filling customer orders.
4. To fill an order, remove a skin from the stack and place onto an ovenable take-and-bake tray, or on to a piece of parchment paper, brush the top surface very lightly with oil to help create a barrier to sauce penetration into the dough, then dress the pizza to the order as you would any other pizza. Place it into a box and send out with an instruction sheet  giving instructions for storing and baking the pizza once the consumer gets it home. Be sure to mark on the box top “keep refrigerated” just to be safe.
5. As an added customer benefit, it is suggested that the pizzas be wrapped in some manner to maintain integrity of the toppings on the pizza while it is being transported home by the consumer. If the take-and-bake pizza is prepared on a silicone baking sheet as opposed to an ovenable tray, a corrugated pizza circle should be placed under the pizza to provide the needed support for wrapping the pizza and handling once it arrives at the consumer’s home.

The other method is for operators who want to develop a dedicated take-and-bake store operation. By this method the dough formula is modified in addition to using the four procedural changes outlined above. The formula changes suggested are as follows:

1. Reduction of dough absorption by 2 percent from that which is normally used with your flour.
2. Reduction of the yeast level by 50 percent from that which you normally use.
3. Addition of a fat encapsulated chemical leavening (sodium aluminum phosphate + soda) at a level of approximately two percent of the total flour weight.
4. Adjustment of the finished dough temperature to 70 to 75 F.
5. Addition of at least five percent sugar, or seven percent sweet dairy whey to the dough formula to promote crust color development in a home type oven.
6. It is suggested that the dressed pizzas be either stretch or shrink wrapped to better hold the toppings in place while the pizza is being transported home by the consumer.
7. In addition to baking instructions, the purchase date — as well as a use by date — should also be provided on the overwrap covering the pizza. Don’t forget to add “keep refrigerated” and “remove overwrap before baking” to the packaging, too.

Q: I have heard you speak at Pizza Expo and I know that you are not a strong advocate of bulk fermenting the dough prior to scaling and balling it and placing it in the cooler, but I’ve forgotten your reason for this.

A: My main objection to bulk fermenting the dough prior to scaling, balling, and placing it in the cooler for use over the following day(s) is due to the fact that during bulk fermentation the dough becomes significantly more gassy than it is immediately after mixing. Hence, it becomes less dense, a better insulator, and more difficult to uniformly cool.

More often than not, this ultimately leads to the dough “blowing” at some point. The common corrective action for this is to reduce the yeast level to a point where the dough won’t blow anymore, but this now creates a problem where the dough won’t rise properly after being fully dressed and placed into the oven, with the end result being the development of a “dreaded” gum line under the sauce across most of the center of the pizza. This now sends us off on a “wild goose chase” trying to remedy the gum line, and the truth of the matter is that the only thing that will effectively address the gum line issue is to find and address the causative factor, which by then has been forgotten, or is clouded in all of the problems resulting from that dreaded gum line.

When the dough is taken directly from the mixer to the bench for scaling, balling, placement in the pizza boxes, and cross stacking in the cooler, the more dense dough cools down more efficiently, and faster, thus preventing blowing of the dough and all of the related problems associated with it.

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

The post Dough Doctor: Take-and-bake formula appeared first on Pizza Today.

Photo by Josh Keown

Q: I’m tinkering with adding a take-and-bake component to my pizzeria, but it makes me nervous because I don’t want to be blamed when customers fall asleep and burn their pizzas! How can I avoid this?

Brent Bishop
via Facebook

A: I’m on record as being a take-and-bake fan. It makes sense on so many levels. It’s just so darn convenient for the customers.

One of my favorites is a stuffed pizza or a calzone. The bake time for these can be high, so it’s important you provide your customers with some guidance. Remember, you are now turning control of your product over to them — and that can be a scary thing! Be sure you provide them with these tips for any take-and-bake pizza product you serve:

• Bake the stuffed pizza or calzone within one hour or refrigerate. Best results are achieved when the stuffed pizza or calzone is baked fresh, so avoid freezing.
• If you refrigerate the stuffed pizza or calzone, remove it from the fridge and let it stand at room temperature for at least one hour before baking.
• Bake only one stuffed pizza or calzone at a time.
• Make sure the baking tray does not touch the sides or back of the oven.
• For a crispier bottom crust, slide the stuffed pizza or calzone directly onto the oven rack for the last two minutes of baking time.

Now that we have that out of the way, here are sample directions that should be printed and given to every customer, every time:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F (or whatever specific temperature your formulation calls for. 425 is probably about right for just about any take-n-bake pizza).
2. Remove wrapper, sauce cup and instructions. Place the stuffed pizza or calzone and baking tray on the center rack of your oven. Make sure the center rack is placed six to eight inches from the bottom of the oven.
3. Average baking time is between X and X minutes (fill in what’s appropriate based on the product).
4. Stuffed pizza or calzone is perfectly baked when the bottom and top of the pizza are golden brown. Check the bottom of the pizza by lifting the edge with a spatula.
5. Remove the stuffed pizza or calzone from the oven and let it stand for a few minutes before cutting into slices, then serve and savor the flavor.

I’d also include these tips at the bottom of the instructions:

• The baking tray provided with your pizza is to be used ONE TIME ONLY.
• The baking tray may discolor during baking. This is normal.
• Discard the baking tray after one use. DO NOT use it to reheat or bake again.

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a contributor to Pizza Today.

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What cause pizza gum line? How to avoid gum line in pizza.

In last months’ Dough Doctor article we began discussing the causes for the development of the “dreaded” gum line. This month, we take a look further. Check out some common causes and how to remedy the problem:

Here are potential cause of the gum line in pizza crust:

Failure to cross stack the boxes of dough as they are placed into the cooler.

Cross stacking the dough boxes in the cooler allow for more efficient cooling of the dough balls by allowing heat to escape from the boxes through the open ends. Failure to cross stack will trap heat in the box, allowing fermentation to continue for a longer time than desired. Additionally, condensation is also trapped in the box, resulting in dough balls that are over fermented (gassy) or blown and excessively sticky when trying to open the dough balls into pizza skins. In some cases, cross stacking cannot be done so we need to be a little creative in how we allow the heat and moisture to escape. For example, when using a reach-in cooler, there is seldom enough space to allow for cross stacking, but there is usually sufficient space front to back in the reach-in to allow for off-setting the dough boxes as we place them into the cooler, thus creating the desired ventilating effect.

Cannot be done so we need to be a little creative in how we allow the heat and moisture to escape. For example, when using a reach-in cooler, there is seldom enough space to allow for cross stacking, but there is usually sufficient space front to back in the reach-in to allow for off-setting the dough boxes as we place them into the cooler, thus creating the desired ventilating effect.

Another option to consider when cross stacking isn’t an option is to oil the dough balls and place them into plastic bread bags, closing the open end by twisting it into a pony tail and tucking it under the dough ball as it is placed onto a sheet pan or shelf in the cooler. The thin plastic bag allows the dough to cool quite well and the snugness does not allow for the development of condensation within the bag or around the dough ball. If individual plastic bags are not used, the dough balls can effectively be placed onto aluminum sheet pans, lightly oiled and placed into the cooler for a couple of hours. A food contact-approved plastic bag can be slipped over the tray, allowing the dough balls to effectively be stored for as long as three days without and problems.

Allowing the dough to bulk ferment prior to scaling and balling of the dough. By allowing the dough to bulk ferment prior to scaling and balling the dough what we end up with is a less dense, more gassy dough being formed into balls. In this condition, the dough balls are more difficult to cool as the gassy nature of the dough creates an excellent insulation, thus impeding rapid and thorough cooling of the dough balls. It also increases the possibility gassy or blown dough, which is typically addressed by reducing the yeast level, with the dough suffering the afore mentioned failure to rise in the center section leading to the potential development of a gum line. It is better to take the dough directly to the bench for scaling and rounding soon after mixing, as the more dense dough will be more conducive to rapid and uniform cooling without problems related to gassiness.

Failure to take the balled and boxed dough directly to the cooler.

In some cases we see the dough balls handled and managed correctly right up to the point where they are ready to take to the cooler; however, they are then set aside and allowed to proof, in the ball form, for a specific period of time. Again, this practice results in the dough becoming less dense, more gassy, and more difficult to cool, or at least cool uniformly. In severe cases, this can lead to the dough blowing, or at least over fermenting in the dough boxes to the point where they are difficult to individually remove from the dough boxes due to the dough balls growing together. Or, in really severe cases, the dough balls can grow together to create a solid mass of dough in the box, ultimately resulting in loss of the dough, or at least the need to re-scale and re-ball the dough and then wait for it to loosen up enough to form it into pizza skins. Again, the incorrect action is to simply reduce the yeast level to a point where this is no longer a problem as you are setting the stage for a gum line.

Failure to allow the dough to adequately temper at room temperature before opening the dough ball into a pizza skin, dressing it and taking it to the oven. (This can be especially problematic when working with a conveyor oven)

In this case you must remember that any conveyor, air impingement or otherwise, will only put a specific amount of heat into the dough. This is controlled mostly through baking time and temperature, but air impingement baking also allows for the adjustment of airflow over the pizza while it’s being baked. In every case though, these baking parameters are fixed and locked into place when the pizzas go into the oven, so if we do not allow the dough sufficient time to warm up slightly after removing it from the cooler, we can be faced with trying to bake pizzas on dough that varies in temperature. With those fixed baking parameters, this means that the pizzas made using the colder dough may not be baked as thoroughly as those baked using a warmer dough. The result is that if the oven is set up to provide the minimum bake time needed for the pizza (with normal temperature dough), those baked with a lower temperature (cooler) dough may be insufficiently baked to the point where it will exhibit some collapse after baking to create a gum line. In cases like this, it is better to set the oven up to provide a slightly longer baking time than the absolute minimum as this will allow for enough latitude in baking to ensure thorough baking of any pizza made using a dough ball at any reasonable temperature.

Sheeting or stretching the dough too thin when opening the dough ball into a pizza skin. Forming the pizza skin too thin, especially across the center section, on thin crust pizzas can result in a condition where the heat to the bottom of the pizza conducts right on through the crust and is absorbed by the sauce only to be dissipated as steam. When this happens, the bottom crust may not get sufficiently hot to fully bake and results in an instant gum line. Even if it does bake, the amount of crust actually developed is so thin that only the very surface has any crisp to it, leaving the rest of the bottom limp and soggy. The use of a sheeter/dough roller seems to exasperate this condition due to the fact that the sheeted dough has had most of the entrapped air and fermentation gas forced out of it, making it very dense and prone to this problem even at dough thicknesses approaching 3/16 inch. If a sheeter is used to open the dough balls for thin crusts, it is recommended that the sheeting rolls be set so as to give a sheeted dough piece that is about 75 percent of the desired diameter. The dough should then be opened the rest of the way by hand.

Following this method, we have had excellent results getting thin crust pizza skins with an even thickness, that still retains sufficient gas to spring in the oven, thus preventing the heat from passing all the way through the dough, and resulting in a finished crust that has a uniformly crispy texture to it with no signs of a gum line.

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

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Five Tips to Achieve a Crispy Pizza Crust

For some of us achieving a crispy crust pizza is like chasing down that legendary Golden Fleece, but it really doesn’t have to be such a massive undertaking. Below are some tips to get you on your way.

Tip No. 1: The protein content of the flour can influence the potential crispiness of the finished crust.

We have found that flour with a protein content of at least 12 percent is necessary to achieve maximum crispiness. Since most “pizza flours” contain anywhere from 12 to 14 percent protein content, most of us should be okay in this regard. But if you happen to be using an all-purpose or H&R type flour, the lack of protein in the flour might be limiting the potential crispiness of your crust.

Tip No. 2: Fermentation has a great influence on crispiness due to the softening affect that it has on the dough.

The softer, more relaxed, dough consistency allows for improved expansion properties of the dough during baking, resulting in a more open, porous internal structure within the crust. This open structure effectively inhibits heat transfer through the crust, allowing the surface of the crust to reach a higher temperature during baking, thus creating a crispier finished crust.

Tip No. 3: The amount of water added to the dough can have a significant effect on the crispiness of the finished crust, but not in the way as many of you may think.

It’s actually the addition of more water to the dough that helps to create the conditions for a crispier finished crust. The water will make the dough somewhat softer, allowing it to more freely expand during those critical first few seconds of baking. This creates the desirable, open crumb structure that effectively blocks some of the heat transfer through the dough and allows for a better bottom bake (ultimately leading to a crispier finished crust).

Tip No. 4: Incorrect finished dough temperature can wreak havoc on your efforts.

If the dough temperature is too high, we may find that the dough exhibits a pronounced tendency to “blow” during storage.

Tip No. 5: Incorrect dough management procedures can also effect crust crispiness for reasons similar to those cited in Tip No. 4 above.

For example, if the dough is allowed to ferment at room temperature for any significant amount of time prior to taking it to the cooler after mixing, the dough will begin to ferment, making it less dense, more open and porous. In essence, the dough becomes more difficult to cool down in the cooler, leading to over-proofed dough balls in the box.

A similar problem can develop if we bypass the important cross-stacking step when putting the dough up in the cooler. The cross stacking of the dough boxes allows heat to freely escape from the dough, resulting in effective and consistent cooling of the dough. If the dough boxes are not cross-stacked, the heat is trapped within the dough boxes. Since yeast is a living organism, it produces heat (heat of metabolism) as it metabolizes nutrients and ferments. This too will result in dough balls that are either grown together, blown, or just wet and sticky on the following days.

Assuming we’re baking in the right type of oven, on the right type and color of pan or disk (if used), and the baking time and temperature are within reason, these tips might provide just the ticket to getting the crispy crust we’ve been looking for. You might note that many of the tips seem to have a common denominator — that is to allow the dough to rise slightly (oven spring) during the first few seconds of baking, which helps to establish an open, porous crumb structure within the dough/crust, thus preventing excessive heat transfer through the dough. This allows for more of the bottom bake to go into baking and drying the bottom of the dough, ultimately resulting in a crispier finished crust.

Don’t worry about the top of the pizza not getting sufficiently done when you block some of the heat from the bottom of the oven. The top heat of the oven will handle the top of the pizza just fine. But if you should find a problem, it is easily corrected by either increasing the oven temperature or extending the baking time slightly.

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