Dough - Bench proof or right into the fridge?

[scottz]

Re: Dough - Bench proof or right into the fridge?

Hi Guys,
Here is another suggestion I would love to get your opion on. Whilist in Bali last year, we went into a itallian resturant as we all felt like wood fired pizza. They were fantastic when they came out, that good in fact I got the head chef over to pick his brain.

He said what he does is cuts down the yeast from 6gs per 1 kg of flour to 1g. After mixing and letting it 'start to get going' he balls it and fridges it for 3 days. Makes for a crispy but fluffy dough that is highly stretchable.

I am yet to try this, my last venture I tried 3-4gs yeast per 1kg flour. After 3 days it had risen way too much, so Im trying the 1g this time. Will let you know how I went.

Any thoughts would be good.

Cheers
Scott

[texassourdough]

Re: Dough - Bench proof or right into the fridge?

Hi Scott!

The enzymes that break down starch are not as temperature affected as yeast and bacteria so extended retards tend to create a dough that is degraded in a sense. Some people seem to like it, others don't. While there are some on this forum that seem to go much longer than three days, I personally think the dough starts going downhill pretty severely after that. I make my dough to be at peak condition in about 24 hours. While as you suggest, rather gassy after two or three days it still works fine. Better to cut the yeast to match your expected retard period. 1 gram per kilo sounds light IMO for a three day retard, but...it could easily vary with the yeast/salt/???

Just do it!

Good Luck!
Jay

[JamieC]

Re: Dough - Bench proof or right into the fridge?

The PBS series called _America's Test Kitchen_ had a show featuring New York Style Pizza.

Their dough recipe included:

• 16.5 oz bread dough,
• 1 t Sugar,
• 1/2 t instant yeast,
• 1 1/2 cups ice water,
• 1 1/2 T table salt and
• 1 T oil.....
• Mix in Food processor for 10 seconds, then autolyse for 10minutes, followed by another 30-60 seconds in Food processor and straight to the refrigerator for at least 24 hours!

The idea of using ice cold water and skipping the ferment at room temperature for immediate refrigeration and a long cold ferment is to have smaller bubbles in the crust and more flavor for a thin, crisp crust.

Any comments?

Lee,

I'm not sure how much responsibility the proofing method plays, but for what it's worth, the Test Kitchen recipe you quoted is my all-time favorite for cooking in my (unmodified) electric oven on a stone. The FB "standard" dough recipe using Caputo 00 just doesn't come to life without the high temps of a WFO, tastes pretty flat.

Jamie