My Pizza Dough is not proofing and develops a crust on top
Hello everyone,
Let me start by saying that this forum has helped me soooo much and I really appreciate it! I make dough for a pizzeria and have been doing it for about six months. Now that we are moving into the colder months it seems that I may need to change a few things to keep the same consistnecy. I am making a 25 kilo batch of 00 caputo flour. I am mixing for a total time of 14.5 min in a Hobart 60 quart with an S Hook. I let the dough rest 5min after 7.5 min of mixing. I then put the dough in 5 buckets with lids and then put it in the walk in for a 24 hour fermentation. the problems I am having are the following.
It seems eventhough the dough is covered, a crust develops on the dough during early fermentation, then is softens, yet there is a bit of discoloration.
The dough sometimes barely doubles in size and it seems to be harder to roll balls.
The dough does not cook as well, meaning it is lacking nice bubbles etc. It is tender and flavorful.
The dough temp is cooler after mixing than normal.
thank you in advance for your input.
yep! You said it yourself.
Even a few degrees makes a big difference to the yeast. The water could be colder this time of year too. Temperature is very important.
With warmer dough there is condensation between the lid and the dough keeping away a 'crust.' Then the cool dough is too early into the walk-in before the yeasts get a good start.
Right away I can think of two possible solutions to boost the yeast activity:
1) Raise the temperature of the water in the dough. Good if you can repeat the temperature used earlier in the fall. Use a thermometer to reduce guess work.
or if that is impossible: 2) Leave the dough out in the room longer to warm up before storing in the walk-in.
I will give it a try, Thank you!!!!