Dough Storage/Handling over several hours

[sholland]

Hi, I am in the UK and have been making pizza for a while, but need some advice regarding dough handling for larger quantities from a mobile van. At times I will need to use thawed, frozen dough balls and I need to keep these in a workable condition for a period of maybe up to 6 hours once thawed. I will be keeping them in covered dough trays, but do I need to keep these at a lower than room temperature, or can I keep them at room temp OK? I will need to be able to just grab a ball and stretch and cook it, so need them to be in good usable condition as and when they are needed over the 6 x hour (max) period.

Many thanks, Simon

[Giggliato]

Re: Dough Storage/Handling over several hours

Cold dough never seems to cook how I want it to, but I would suggest placing your doughballs at various temperatures for specific times and then cooking some pizza.

[sholland]

Re: Dough Storage/Handling over several hours

Yes I've found that cold dough is not good, but is there a time limit that people have found for keeping dough covered, but not refrigerated, before it does not perform as well? (i.e. really hard to stretch/handle etc)

[Giggliato]

Re: Dough Storage/Handling over several hours

That would depend on how your dough was mixed, how much yeast you used etc...

[roobqn]

Re: Dough Storage/Handling over several hours

If possible stagger when you take your dough from freezer, to fridge, to room temp. For the most part, form what I have read, 2 hours from fridge to use is optimal.
Now saying that, I have had ok success after 3.5 hours but much past that the dough has over proofed and just isn't "right".
If possible, give a dry run and see what works best in your conditions.