This is my first go with a 65% hydration dough. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to work with; I knead by hand so as expected it was a a bit sticky at first but I used a dough scraper to help get it off the work surface. I specifically did not add flour to the work surface while kneading to avoid any hydration alteration. After just a few minutes of kneading, the gluten began to develop and it wasn’t sticky at all. I credit Caputo Chef Flour for that.
This is a 24 hour refrigerated proof followed by 4 hours at room temp. The dough was easy to stretch but I still feel like I should get a little bigger pizza: these were roughly 250 gr balls and they measured 9” across before baking. I’d like to get them to 12”. In addition to overall size, my crust edges don’t seem to be as well defined as what I see posted here often.
I start my stretching with pressing the dough ball flat with my fingers and then creating an edge margin about an inch wide. Then I finger massage the dough from the center to the inner one inch margin, making quarter turns as I go. Finally, I suspend the dough over my knuckles and spin it.
Is there something else I should be doing to gain overall size and thickness with my crust? I’m thinking to simply make a larger batch of dough so my dough balls are larger than 250 grams.
by JoeB_Utah