Dough Explosion

[sarah h]

To prepare for a pizzafest last night, I made some dough, wrapped it in Saran and put it in the fridge for retardation; the first photo shows why you shouldn't wrap your dough too tight ! Seems retardation does not always happen when the dough is refrigerated!

The dough still turned into great pizzas but taking photos of those never seems to happen as the production and baking part tends to be a bit of a zoo and they disappear so fast after!

I used the leftover dough to make some flatbread (though some puffed up too much to call them flat) - some with just coarse salt & rosemary, some with caramelized onion too.

All in all ... delicious!

[Chef]

Re: Dough Explosion

Looks like the pillsbury doughboy and the michelin man had a party in your fridge!!!

Glad all turned out ok!!

[nissanneill]

Re: Dough Explosion

I always just threw my old unused dough in the bin as I never has a use for it.
I did trey to freeze it but didn't fire the oven up for 6 weeks and it didn't thaw in a manner that I was prepared to try to use.
Guess I need to rethink it now eh!

Neill

[Mojoe]

Re: Dough Explosion

Kind of like rust never sleeping... yeast only slows down in the fridge. I've made a few late night, cold rise bread doughs for early morning baking and it never ceases to amaze me.

[BrianShaw]

Re: Dough Explosion

Very dramatic!

[CanuckJim]

Re: Dough Explosion

Sarah,

Here's an experiment for you to try. I don't know what formula or flour you're using for you pizza dough, but next time when you plan to retard it, cut the yeast back by half so the dough does not over-fement in the fridge (that's what happened). Also, if you're relying on a refrigerator dial or a cheap fridge thermometer, don't. Get a good one (about $25) and set your fridge between 38 and 40 F. Looks to me like you had a combination of too much yeast and a too warm fridge. It's only a batch of dough; give it a shot. The only thing you'll have to do with this method is to make sure the chill is off the dough and fermentation has begun again before shaping.

Jim