Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

[gjbingham]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Last night, I again used a 100% bread flour pizza dough that was hydrated way beyond my normal experience. I used Reinhart's recipe for Pizza Napolitana. The stuff was incredibly sticky, but when dusted with flour, handled like a dream. Really easy to stretch and shape.

I'm going back to Caputo for a comparison next time.

[Ken524]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Ken
Doughs blades on the food processors will do a pretty good job with doughs, especially the mixing part. I would suggest a bit of hand kneading to finsih as I don't know what kind of friction they create...and also the blade will tend to cut the dough rather than fold it.
Glad you're having fun!
Dutch

Thanks Dutch. I didn't do any kneading at all, and was really pleased with the texture of the dough. It was much better than what I had done previously by hand.

Next time I'll knead it a bit after processing to see if I can continue to improve it!

[Dutchoven]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Ken
Doughs blades on the food processors will do a pretty good job with doughs, especially the mixing part. I would suggest a bit of hand kneading to finsih as I don't know what kind of friction they create...and also the blade will tend to cut the dough rather than fold it.
Glad you're having fun!
Dutch

Thanks for the pics, Pete.

As an update, we had pizza (again!) last night. Shortly before making my dough, I discovered I had a dough blade for our 14 cup Cuisinart processor. It holds 6 cups of flour, so I converted the FB dough recipe for 6 cups of flour (1.5 batches). The Cuisinart did a super job mixing and kneading. I've been doing this by hand, so this is a welcome discovery!

[Ken524]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Thanks for the pics, Pete.

As an update, we had pizza (again!) last night. Shortly before making my dough, I discovered I had a dough blade for our 14 cup Cuisinart processor. It holds 6 cups of flour, so I converted the FB dough recipe for 6 cups of flour (1.5 batches). The Cuisinart did a super job mixing and kneading. I've been doing this by hand, so this is a welcome discovery!

[KiwiPete]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

A dough cutter is a really good tool, but for picking up balls of dough that stick together (mine always do, I don't use oil and they "grow" together) I use an ordinary putty knife. Works a treat, because you can cut the dough ball loose from other ones and use it to pick up the ball in one motion.

Not an original idea: I picked it up when I was visiting Pizzeria Salvo in Naples. According to some of the guys on the pizzamaking.com forum this pizzeria is as good or even better than Da Michele.

Attached are some pics:

- one is my putty knife
- the other shows the dough balls at Pizzeria Salvo (note how they stick together)
- the third one shows some dough balls on the bench and if you look closely, you can see the handle of the putty knife.

[Ken524]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Great replies. Thanks guys.

[Dutchoven]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Indispensible is a great term. I have found that we use the dough cutter to remove the dough balls from the container. Pinch it down at the in at the side and kind of scoop under.
Best
Dutch

I have found it easy to separate the dough balls that might grown together using a dough cutter. Indispensable.
James

[gjbingham]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Ken,
I've seen no ill effects from a light dusting of spray oil on top of the balls. I was just kidding about that helping to keep them from sticking.

A light dusting of flour and plastic wrap covering the balls, and tucked down between them makes them easier to separate if they rise too much.

You basically degass the dough almost completelty during the shaping phase anyway, so there's not much harm in using a dough knife (or any blade) to cut between them if they do stick together. I'm not sure if it is the dull blade that pinches the dough and almost completely seals it, but it much better than just pulling the two balls apart.

[Acoma]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

When I use the containers for my balls, and planning to refrigerate for 1-3 days, I spray oil to the interior. the ball maintains shape, and with ease, removes from the container once needed. The skin is soft, even with a small pierced hole in the lid for pressure balancing.

I did remove the last 8 balls from my containers when I had my party, sprayed oil inside ziplock bags, then sealed the bags. I placed them in the freezer. I removed them yesterday to defrost, and have plans to use them Saturday. The dough is soft now, and shows great shape.

My question, should I do anything to the balls to help for the pizzas on Saturday?

BTY, my 1k posting is coming with quality in mind, not spam....

[james]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Very funny. We need a controlled experiment. Spray top only, bottom only or both. :-) I have found it easy to separate the dough balls that might grown together using a dough cutter. Indispensable.

I guess either way, spray is a lot lighter than olive oil and won't impact the dough as much.
James

[Dutchoven]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Guys,
How curious! We have found just the opposite. We don't spray the bottom of the container, so as to keep the dough from sagging outward in the container. When they stick a bit to the bottom they seem to go up more. We spray the tops and sides, so as not to have them stick together as much. (knocking on wood) We have had no problems with the dough getting a skin or being tough and hard to stretch. We are using the dough trays that are used in most pizzerias, you know the hard plastic stackable ones. They fit in our extra fridge(just barely) and will go into use in the commercial capacity I suppose they were designed for when we open the pizzeria.
All the best!
Dutch

If you spray the bottom of your proofing container (whatever that is), and then make sure your container is airtight -- you're there.

You can easily remove the dough ball when you need it, and the airtight container keeps the dough from developing a skin -- and you avoid the oil that makes the ball tougher and resistent to stretching.

I'm getting on a proofing container kick.

James

[Ken524]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

If you spray the bottom of your proofing container (whatever that is), and then make sure your container is airtight -- you're there.

You can easily remove the dough ball when you need it, and the airtight container keeps the dough from developing a skin -- and you avoid the oil that makes the ball tougher and resistent to stretching.

James,

The plastic containers I have are darn near non-stick (so I don't need to oil the bottom of the container). The problem I had was the dough balls rose in the fridge and "grew" together. How do I keep them from sticking to one another?

[james]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

If you spray the bottom of your proofing container (whatever that is), and then make sure your container is airtight -- you're there.

You can easily remove the dough ball when you need it, and the airtight container keeps the dough from developing a skin -- and you avoid the oil that makes the ball tougher and resistent to stretching.

I'm getting on a proofing container kick.

James

[Ken524]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Spray oil!

Yeah, but we're not supposed to spray oil on the dough balls while they are proofing. Make them tough and hard to shape.

Any other ideas? Do the balls need to be placed far enough apart so they don't touch?

[gjbingham]

Re: Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight

Spray oil!