I’ve looked at a lot of different pizza dough recipes or formulas and I notice that there is a lot of variation in the amount of yeast called for. Why?
The yeast in the dough formula is responsible for leavening the dough, giving it that desirable light, airy texture. It is also responsible for fermentation, which provides both flavor and conditioning to the dough allowing it to be formed or shaped without a lot of snap-back. Hand in hand with the yeast level is the temperature of the finished (mixed) dough. At higher dough temperatures the yeast is more active, and at lower dough temperatures the yeast is less active. What this means is that the finished dough temperature can have an affect on the yeast level used. For example, if you were mixing a dough that will be used within the next two hours or so, the dough temperature might be on the high side, say, 85 to 90˚F, and the yeast might be on the low side, at about 0.75 percent as compressed yeast. If the yeast level were higher, in the 1.5 to 2 percent (based on the flour weight) range, the dough might be fermenting so fast that it would be difficult to handle, and the useful life of the dough could be easily reduced to just an hour or so. Dough management can also have a role in determining the yeast level. For example, I recently came across a fellow who was retarding his dough overnight in plastic dough boxes and he had reduced his yeast level to only 0.25 percent of the flour weight (as compressed yeast). It seems that he wasn’t cross stacking his dough boxes in the cooler, thus allowing the dough to cool down quickly or uniformly. As a result, the dough’s heat was trapped in the boxes and the dough cooled down very slowly. Through trial and error, he found that yeast levels any higher than he was already using would result in a totally “blown” and useless dough by the following morning. Note: When the dough boxes are cross stacked for about two hours after being placed into the cooler you can use just about any yeast level within reason and not experience problems with blown dough. This is due to the more efficient cooling of the dough when the boxes are cross-stacked. When making an emergency dough we typically use both elevated dough temperature and a higher yeast level to speed up the dough conditioning process, allowing us to have a dough that is ready to begin forming into skins after only a couple of hours. These doughs do tend to move (ferment) quickly though, and as a result they typically have a useful life of only a couple of hours, but in this situation, it sure beats the alternative of not having any dough to work with. As you can see, yeast levels used in our doughs are highly dependant upon a number of factors. It isn’t just an amount that is picked out of the air, but instead, it is an amount that gives the dough the desired performance, flavor, and useful life characteristics so important to our everyday operation.
I keep seeing your dough formulas with percentages rather than amounts or weights. Why is this, and how do I convert to weight measurements for making a dough?
Answer: This question has been asked and answered many times before, but it never hurts to review it again. Those percentages that you are referring to are known as baker’s percent. This is a way of expressing a dough formula where the weight of each ingredient is expressed as a percent of the total flour weight. Flour in this case is always expressed as 100 percent, regardless of the weight or amount used. Formulas expressed in baker’s percent can only be used for weighed ingredients. Ingredients or recipes shown in volumetric portions cannot be expressed as or converted from baker’s percent. The reason for showing formulas in baker’s percent is because you can determine if a formula is in balance at a glance when in baker’s percent, and it also allows you to build the dough to any size based on whatever amount of flour you wish to use. Formulas that are given in baker’s percent, with weighed ingredients, are a snap to increase or decrease in size without any “special” changes to ingredients. To find the ingredient weights needed to make a dough from a formula given in baker’s percent you will need to have a simple pocket calculator having a “%” key. Come to think about it, I’ve never seen one selling for $10.00 or less that didn’t have that handy “%” key. Here is a typical dough formula that we will convert to weight measures as an example: Flour: 100% The first thing to do is to decide how much flour you will want to use. Pick an amount that is appropriate for your bowl size. If you don’t know how much flour is recommended for your bowl size, here are some rough recommendations: 20-quart bowl = 5-pounds; 25-quart bowl = 10-pounds; 40-quart bowl = 20-pounds; 60-quart bowl = 40-pounds; 80-quart bowl = 50-pounds. These are starting points for planetary type mixers commonly used to mix pizza dough. Depending upon the power of your mixer, and to some extent the dough formulation, and the flour strength, you may be able to use a little more flour, or you might need to use a little less. Let’s say that we have elected to use 40-pounds of flour in our dough. Begin by entering the flour weight. This can be as pounds, ounces, kilograms, or even grams. Remember that your answers (ingredient weights) will be in the same units in which the flour is expressed. For this example we are expressing the flour weight in pounds. Enter the flour weight in the calculator, then press “X” and the percent shown for the ingredient that you want the weight for (Salt: 1.75), then press the “%” key and read the answer in the display window. 40 X 1.75 press the “%” key and read 0.7-pound in the display window. If you want to change 0.7-pound to ounces simply multiply 0.7 X 16 = 11.2-ounces (lets call it 11.25-ounces). Here it is for the rest of the example formula given above: 40 X 2 press the “%” key and read 0.8-pound (0.8 X 16 = 12.8-ounces, round it off to 13-ounces) 40 X 3 press the “%” key and read 1.2-pounds (0.2 X 16 = 3.2-ounces so lets call it 1-pound and 3.25-ounces. 40 X 0.375 press the “%” key and read 0.15-pound (0.15 X 16 = 2.4-ounces rounded to 2.5-ounces. 40 X 55 press the “%” key and read 22-pounds. There it is. You have successfully converted a formula given in baker’s percent to a working formula based on 40-pounds of flour weight. If you want to change the size of the dough, you can either multiply or divide it, or you can just plug in a new/different flour weight and recalculate the ingredient weights and you’re ready to go again. Here is a quick tip for figuring the total weight of your dough using baker’s percent. Add up the total of all the percentages, divide this number by 100 and multiply times the flour weight. For our example the total/sum of the percentages is 162.125 divided by 100 = 1.62 (close enough). Now, whenever you are using this formula, regardless of the flour weight, all you need to do is to multiply the flour weight in your dough by 1.62 to get the total dough weight. In our example with 40 pounds of flour the total dough weight would be 40 X 1.62 = 64.8-pounds. If we were to increase the flour weight for our dough size to 45-pounds the total dough weight would be 45 X 1.62 = 72.9-pounds. You have now completed baker’s percent 101. Don’t be afraid of the next formula you see given in baker’s percent. Practice with it a few times and it will become second nature to you.
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