MetaChat - Mecha cooking gurus? Any suggestions?

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12 May 2006

Mecha cooking gurus? Any suggestions? I have been making some really great pizza, but...I need some help.→[More:]Due to laziness, and well, some good sense, I buy a ball of pizza dough for a buck-sixty from a local Italian bakery/deli. It's usually trying to burst out of the bag it's in.

I take it home, flour up my hands and try to make this dough into a round-ish, flat-ish pizza crust. Sometimes, it's easy to work with and I get a decent, I dunno, 12-14" crust.

Lately though, it doesn't wanna get any larger than maybe 8". I am using a pizza stone and a paddle with corn meal on it, so I can't rely on stickiness to keep it larger.

I have looked around a bit on the internet, but...I can't be certain where this dough is in the rising cycle really. I am not a baker at all - I am outta my element here!

Anyone have any advice?

post by: richat at: 10:02 | 6 comments

Hmmm. Perhaps you could try just kneading the dough for about 15 minutes after you get it home, and then let it rise for an hour or so before making pizza with it. It might be more workable then. Can you ask the bakery/deli about it?

posted by JanetLand 12 May | 10:43

Punch down the dough and then knead it as JanetLand says. Place it in a warm spot. If you don't have a warm spot turn the oven on just enough to keep the stove top warm. After it rises do one more cycle. Takes longer but the more you do the rise thing the nicer the crust.

Around here we try for four times but that means you need to start early.

posted by arse_hat 12 May | 12:15

Yeah, it needs more rising and kneading. Problem is it's not elastic enough -- and you get that elasticity by working the gluten into a lather. So, knead some more and let it rise another time.

Also, ask the bakery if they switched flour. It's possible that they changed, and the new flour has a lower gluten content. That would explain why the dough acts differently now.

Here's an article about kneading that explains what I'm trying to say.

posted by mudpuppie 12 May | 12:37

Thanks for the tips. Bummer though, because it was really cool to be able to pick the dough up on the way home from work and throw a pizza together. Perhaps I will grab one tomorrow and try to do the kneading/rising cycle a couple more times.

Thanks!

Off to try and work some gluten into a lather!

posted by richat 12 May | 12:54

Richat, you can pick one up on the way home today and have it tomorrow. Keep it in a cool place in a bowl big enough to accommodate a doubling in size.

posted by mudpuppie 12 May | 19:04

MetaChat always gives you what you knead.

posted by wendell 12 May | 22:17

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