Ok, so I built a badass outdoor oven a couple months ago and i’ve been trying to get on your guys’ level, but it seems the more I read and learn, the worse my pizzas have gotten. The oven is perfect. I can get over 1,000degrees (f) real easy and I seem to have the cooking down pretty good. The problem is the dough. It’s tastes great, but it’s really tight so when you stretch it out it shrinks right back up to like 8″ diameter so it’s impossible to get it very thin. I’ve been told to beat up the dough more before letting it sit. I also am unclear how/when i’m supposed to let it sit. I’d love it if someone could critique my plan. Here it is:
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**The Dough:**
I’m basically using the [stadlermade.com](https://stadlermade.com) pizza dough calculator for 6 pizzas.
820g Caputo 00 flour (59%)
533g water (39%)
25g Fine Mediterranean Sea Salt (2%)
1g SAF Instant Dry Yeast (<1%)
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**Preparing Dough:**
I mix it with a dough hook in a Kitchenaid 4.5qt mixer. Water and salt first, then 15% of the flour, then yeast, then the rest of the flour. Once it’s good and mixed I let it sit room temp for 1 hour. Then I do 4 rounds of stretch+fold every half hour. The last time I stretch+fold, I cut them up into pizza balls and stick them individually into ziplock bags. Into the refrigerator they go for approximately 44 hours. I pull them out and let sit for about 4 hours until they achieve room temp and are ready for cooking. At this point, i’m hoping they are basically just ready to slide out of the bags and stretch into pizza.
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What do you think? Any holes in my plan? Ways to improve it?
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THANK YOU!
by GreenTSimms
3 Comments
Hello /u/GreenTSimms!
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if your dough is still not extensible after 44 hours balled in the fridge, i’d try letting them rest at room temp for another couple hours. depending on the temp of your room, it may need 6 or even 8 hours to relax
It sounds like your primary question is how you can get a stretchier, more workable dough, correct? I’m far from a pizza expert, but I consistently get dough that is soft, workable, and tastes great. My humble suggestions:
– simplify the recipe. Instead of doing a multi-day, multi-temp preparation, try a 6-8 hour room-temperature prep. If you’re using Caputo Blue, that’s honestly where it shines.
– ball your dough ~6 hours before cooking. For me, that’s the sweet spot where the dough balls can relax without without getting droopy.
– if you insist on putting the dough in the fridge, give them plenty of time to warm up to room temp. I usually take mine out ~6 hours before I plan to bake them.
Hope this helps! Good luck!