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It’s that time of the year again, the days are getting shorter and the cold fronts are rolling in like customers on a busy Friday night. It seems that when those cold fronts start coming down from Canada to pay a visit, my phone starts ringing and the problems are explained. Most of the problems are as such: My dough is blistering and bubbling; My dough isn’t rising properly; My pizzas aren’t baking right; My pizzas don’t have the crisp that they used to have. Do any of those problems sound familiar to you? If they do, you’re not alone. I’ve been getting those calls for the past several weeks and they will probably continue throughout the winter. Many of the problems that are experienced in pizzerias are related to one form or another of temperature control. This is the time of the year when the dough prep area suddenly becomes colder than normal, or the area where we hold/stage our dough outside of the cooler is colder than normal, it is also the time of the year when our furnace comes on and warms already dry, cold air, further lowering the relative humidity in the air to a point where it can dry any dough that is left uncovered and exposed to the air in just a few minutes.
So, how are we to cope with these problems? While we
can’t effectively combat all of these issues, we can do a lot to prevent
seasonal problems with our dough. I think the most important thing is to begin
by controlling the temperature wherever we can. This includes the shop
temperature, the water temperature and the dough temperature. When we’re in the
transitional seasons, make sure your shop thermostat is set in the automatic
position, not in the off position as I find it many times is. This will prevent
you from having to come into a cold shop in the morning after a cold front moved
through the area during the night. You can also make sure your employees pay
special attention to keeping doors closed. Just recently I was in a shop that
was experiencing temperature related problems and I observed a delivery door
that was left open so long that I felt compelled to ask someone to close the
door to ward off a case of frostbite on parts of my delicate body. Then there is
the water temperature. In some cities the tap water temperature is significantly
colder during the winter months than during the summer months. If you are not
taking the temperature of the water that you add to the dough it is easy for you
to begin adding colder and colder water to the dough until all of a sudden a
problem arises apparently from out of nowhere. And then there is the finished
dough temperature. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. It is important
to accurately take and record the temperature of each, and every dough that you
mix in your shop. The importance of this is that it will keep you aware of how
the seasonal surroundings are affecting your
dough.
Keep in mind that the temperature of your dough is
influenced by the conditions in your shop. Colder dough temperatures are telling
you that your shop might be getting colder/cooler and warm dough temperatures
might be telling you that your shop is getting warmer. You can bring those dough
temperatures back into specification by using colder or warmer water to make
your dough. But you will need to look at the temperature where you will be
staging your dough after it is removed from the cooler and determine how best to
address the temperature issue in that area.
For some of us, especially those living in the northern
tier states, humidity can also become a problem during the winter months. It’s
not uncommon to see cold Canadian air coming to visit with less than 50 percent
relative humidity. This in itself is not a problem, but when we heat that air to
about 70F without putting any more humidity into the air, the relative humidity
will plummet to less than 25 percent. For reference, that about as dry as a
desert in the summertime. No wonder it dries our dough and makes it all nice and
crusty like an elephants skin. In this case the only effective course of action
is to add moisture to the air. This is accomplished through the use of a
humidifier. These can be freestanding units, or they may be installed on your
heating furnace. Just keep an eye on them to make sure they’re regularly
serviced and operational. Remember the old adage about an ounce of prevention
being worth a pound of cure. That probably goes double for humidifiers since
they are so prone to problems with mineral deposits affecting their
operation.
Overall, stay aware of what’s happening in your shop,
and make sure your employees are tuned in to it too. Keeping doors and windows
closed is imperative to maintaining good operating temperatures in your shop,
and while you’re at it be on the alert for bags of cold flour that came in on
that last delivery. It will take a bag of flour about two days to warm up to
room temperature if it is coming in from an unheated storage facility, so it
will help if you know what your “normal” flour temperature is when you open a
bag for making a dough. This way you can make an adjustment to the dough water
temperature if you need to use a colder than normal bag of flour and possibly
head off another one of those days when nothing seems to go right with your
dough.
Question:
How much should I mix my
dough?
Answer:
This question is a commonly asked one, and the answer is
always the same. Mix your dough just until it forms a smooth, satiny appearing
skin. At that point, remove a piece of the dough from the mixer and form it into
a ball. If you can form it into a ball without the skin of the dough tearing, it
has been sufficiently mixed. If the skin on the dough ball tears while you’re
forming the ball, just mix the dough another minute or so and recheck it again.
Once you know what the mixing time is you can mix your doughs to this time, but
be aware that your flour does change from time to time, and you should
periodically check the dough to make sure you are still on the right mixing
track.
Can you over mix the dough? Yes you can, but it would
take an additional 10 minutes or so beyond the optimum mixing time to do that,
and the net result would be having a dough that is rather tough and more
difficult to form into balls. That’s the good news; the bad news is that it will
be putting a lot more stress and strain on your dough mixer which will
ultimately lead you into a first name basis with your friendly mixer repair man.
Sorry, but I really don’t want to get to know him all that
well.
- PMQ
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