The Pizza Therapy Forum and Pasta Therapy Forum

[pizza]

David writes

My dough has been coming out more like a cracker, a bit dry and crunchy.

I’m using a conventional oven pre-heated at 400 F. and a non-stick perforated pizza pan. When I buy dough this set-up has been fine.


Have you seen this result before? Any guidance would be fabulous.


Thank You,

David

My response:

Hi Dave,

I make my oven as hot as possible:

500 F Preheated for at least 45 minutes to an hour.

Also make sure your dough is hydrated enough.


Any other suggestions, pizza makers?

thanks in advance,

albert
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[dfandreatta]

What dough recipe do you use?

Be sure your ingredients are fresh - particularly the yeast.
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"Papa Don"
Apollo Beach, Florida

[Anchovy pizza's]

I've been having the same problem I also use a convection oven , I use a 11/2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of oil ,I was thinking it might be to much oil ?

[dfandreatta]

I assume that at 1-1/2 cup of water you're using about 4 cups of flour, and 1/4 cup of oil is 4 tablespoons (2 Tbs/ounce). That might be a little much. I use that much when I make Chicago deep dish dough, which calls for 5-1/2 C flour and 1/2 C corn meal (the original recipe called for even more, part "salad oil" and part olive oil - I opt to only use 1/4 C olive oil).

You might check out http://www.thefreshloaf.com/ - there are quite a few posts there about pizza dough. It's a good web site for serious home bakers, lots of people there who are far more experienced in the science of dough than I. I am on a quest to more fully understand the purpose of ingredients and their relationships to each other.

Hope that helps.
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"Papa Don"
Apollo Beach, Florida

[goman]

I agree that you need a dough with a higher hydration (water content). When I make dough for my home oven I do about a 60% water to flour ratio by weight. If you don't measure by weight try this simple recipe:

4 cups good bread flour (or 2 cups bread flour, 2 cups Caputo 00)
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
2 teaspoons of sea salt
Cold tap water - amount varies

Place in mixer with paddle (not dough hook) and mix dry ingredients. Slowly add water until the dough is like firm peanut butter, sticking to the sides of the bowl. If it forms a ball you need to add a small amount of water until it softens. Once it is incorporated turn the mixer off for 10 minutes (this is called autolyse) while the dough hydrates. This will also improve the gluten formation.

After 10 minutes change to the dough hook and knead for 5 minutes adding just a few pinches of flour at a time until the dough forms a very soft ball - just coming off the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a well floured board and knead by hand for 2-3 minutes. This will incorporate a little more flour into the dough but it should still be very soft, but not sticky anymore.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the fridge overnight. Next day remove from fridge about 2 hours before pizza time and make dough balls. Keep covered while they warm up and start to proof.

This style of dough works best if you do not use a rolling pin. Work it by hand so it is fairly thin in the middle and thicker around the edges.
Bake pizzas in the hottest oven you can manage on a good pizza stone preheated for at least one hour.

Enjoy.
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