Need help with last step of Peter Reinhart's Detroit Pie

[kirklove]

Hi. New to making Detroit style pie. Following Peter's recipe from his 'Perfect Pan Pizza' book. Measured everything to the gram, dough looks and feels perfect and behaves exactly as described in each step (folding, resting overnight in fridge, panning and dimpling all four steps to fill pan). However, at the last step when I add half the cheese (block and mozzarella) the dough is not rising at all. It stays exactly the same height as I last dimpled it even four hours later. (FYI I'm using Instant Yeast as Peter suggests).

Questions:

1) Should it sit at room temperature covered for those last four hours?
2) Should it sit in the refrigerator for those four hours?
3) Am I possibly overworking the dough in the dimpling stage and ruining it?
4) Something else I might be doing wrong or overlooking?

Head-scratcher as every other stage behaves exactly as described except this last critical stage. Resulting in a denser, barely risen pie when baking.

Thanks

[Gulf]

Hi Kirk,

Welcome to the forum. I can't help with your question. Maybe some of our members can. But, just in case that Peterreinhart still gets notifications from our forum .

[kirklove]

Thanks Joe

[Alex_FB]

Hey there kirklove -

Peter reached out with the follow response .

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1) Should it sit at room temperature covered for those last four hours? Yes, at approx. 68-72 degrees F.
2) Should it sit in the refrigerator for those four hours? No, unless you want to hold it for another day or two.
3) Am I possibly overworking the dough in the dimpling stage and ruining it? Not likely. The dough is usually quite resilient. Is it possible that the room is cooler than 68 degrees F Also, even if it hasn't risen, does it look bubbly?
4) Something else I might be doing wrong or overlooking? Are you sure the yeast is viable? Is it old? Did you put the dough into the fridge immediately after the final stretch and fold or did you let it rise once before chilling it? Did you start the countdown 4 hours after the dough filled the pan, or immediately after pulling it from the fridge. The 4 hour countdown should begin after the dough fills the pan (which usually adds another hour to the process). Are you dividing and panning the dough the day before, after the final stretch and fold, or on the next day?

Head-scratcher as every other stage behaves exactly as described except this last critical stage. Resulting in a denser, barely risen pie when baking. My first inclination is either that the yeast is spent (or mostly dead) or that the salt is too high (are you weighing it or using a teaspoon? Weighing is best, when possible).

[kirklove]

Amazing. Thanks for the extra info. Super helpful.

Hey there kirklove -

Peter reached out with the follow response .

--

4) Something else I might be doing wrong or overlooking? Are you sure the yeast is viable? Is it old? Did you put the dough into the fridge immediately after the final stretch and fold or did you let it rise once before chilling it? Did you start the countdown 4 hours after the dough filled the pan, or immediately after pulling it from the fridge. The 4 hour countdown should begin after the dough fills the pan (which usually adds another hour to the process). Are you dividing and panning the dough the day before, after the final stretch and fold, or on the next day?

Yeast is definitely viable. And followed all the steps properly. Going back into the book and remeasuring my pan, I believe I was not using enough dough and that resulted in me stretching the dough too thin.