Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice because I’m struggling to achieve a light, airy Neapolitan cornicione.
The pizzas taste great, but the crust never seems to get that big, open, puffy structure. It always ends up fairly dense.
I use PizzApp for calculations
Process (24-hour room temperature)
Recipe:
Caputo Blue Pizzeria (W260-270)
61% hydration
3% salt
IDY
270g dough balls
Fermentation:
Mixed the evening before
Bulk fermented for around 18–19 hours
Balled around 4–5 hours before baking
The dough made good pizzas, but by the time I came to use it the dough balls were almost completely flat in the tray, covered in small bubbles and felt very over-relaxed. They had very little strength left. Because of that I thought I was probably over-fermenting.
Yesterday’s test (12-hour room temperature)
Same recipe:
Caputo Blue
61% hydration
3% salt
IDY
Gozney Arc XL
Fermentation:
Mixed at 8:00am
Bulk fermented until 11:30am
Balled at 11:30am
Baked around 8:30pm
This dough felt noticeably stronger than my previous dough and held shape better. They didn’t flatten into pancakes like the 24-hour dough. However, the crust still didn’t puff up much. Even though I left a rim when shaping, the cornicione stayed fairly dense with a tight crumb rather than becoming really light and airy. I left a decent rim on some pizzas to try this, my crust just stayed dense and sometimes undercooked. I use a infrared thermometer so I know my stoke is hot enough,
I do mix by hand, so I’m thinking it could also be gluten strength?
My questions
Does this sound more like a flour strength issue, a fermentation issue, a shaping issue, or a baking issue?
Should I be able to get a really airy cornicione using 100% Caputo Blue, or is it worth moving to a 50/50 Caputo Blue + Caputo Red blend for a 24hr RT?
Is 61% hydration limiting my oven spring?
Thanks again 🙂
by lvtx