Q Is there a surefire way to determine when my pizza dough has been properly mixed?   A There are two methods to make this determination—a visual test and a physical test. The latter is a bit complicated; it requires you to form the dough into a ball and … More

Q: Can you explain the roles that salt, sugar and oil play in the overall final dough product?   A: Good question! Many people don’t realize that salt, sugar and oil do more than add flavor to pizza dough. Let’s consider these ingredients one at a time to determine … More

Q: What’s the best way to add yeast during the dough mixing process?​ A: Lately I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the basics of dough production. In the coming months, I plan to address many of these questions, one at a time, in this space. Yeast is an essential … More

Q: What is the best way to handle leftover pizza dough?​ A: You can incorporate scrap dough into your fresh dough at a rate not to exceed 15% of the new dough weight. Just cut the scrap dough into pieces and add it to the dough mixer about halfway … More

Q: We have a small store in a high-traffic location and would like to offer an early-morning breakfast item. Any suggestions? A: How about a small, individual-size breakfast pizza or breakfast calzone? To make a breakfast pizza, size your dough to make a 6” or 8” pizza (thin crust … More

QUESTION:  Can you offer any tips on how to convert my thin-crust pizza dough to a deep-dish dough?   ANSWER: Last month we tackled the pesky problem of tough, chewy deep-dish crusts. So it makes sense to delve a little deeper into the deep-dish dilemma: How do you add … More

QUESTION:  Our deep-dish pizzas are too tough and chewy. What’s the secret to a light, tender deep-dish crust?   ANSWER: This problem can be addressed in a number of ways. One way would be to add enough reducing agent—such as L-cysteine, glutathione or protease enzyme—to the dough to sufficiently … More

QUESTION:  What is the difference between malted and unmalted flour? ANSWER: Malted flour contains sprouted barley malt, a source of amylase, which is an enzyme that breaks some of the flour’s starch down into sugars. The yeast uses these sugars as nutrients to support fermentation. Unmalted flours don’t contain … More

QUESTION: We have been struggling with soggy pizzas and soft crusts for some time now. No matter what we do, we can’t fix the problem. We bake our pies in deck ovens at 550°F, and we probably use more toppings than we should, but that’s what our customers want. … More