Making large batches of dough Pizza Discuss Making large batches of dough in the Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart forums; Be careful though Mitch! Don't get it too hydrated or we may hear reports of a white slimey blob spreading ...

[texassourdough]

Be careful though Mitch!

Don't get it too hydrated or we may hear reports of a white slimey blob spreading across the outback of Australia!

Boy did I get the size of my dough tub wrong! It is about 20 inches by 14 by 7 and that is almost exactly on cubic foot or 28 liters. So it won't need to be very big! I got mine a a bakery supply store and it has a lid!

Good luck!
Jay

G

[splatgirl]

your local restaurant supply store will probably have a bucket/lid that big that's foodsafe, or you could source one online. Not that I think you'd grow an 11th toe or anything, but using plain old plastic storage bins or bags for food storage is ill-advised, at least according to the experts. Which is not to say I wouldn't/haven't done it on occasion.

[Mitchamus]

Originally Posted by splatgirl

your local restaurant supply store will probably have a bucket/lid that big that's foodsafe...

Yep - I'm going to check there first...

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Hi Mitch,
My parents went to Italy years ago and my uncle there has a brick oven that was big enough inside you could probably fit 3-4 people laying down in it. They used to mix thier dough in a large plywood box. I know it doesnt sound like the most sanitary thing, But no one ever got sick from it. Im sure as long as you have the arm power you can mix the BIG BATCHES. I also remember from when i was young my grandmother putting 10 lbs (4.5kg) of flour on the formica table and making a mountain out of it, then making hole in the middle to add her ingredients and kneading it from the middle out. It was pretty neat. Good luck, and I i can find the pictures of my uncle's oven I will post them.
Mark

[KiwiPete]

I found this interesting article about mixing large quantities of dough by hand. It uses "stretching and folding" rather than your traditional heavy kneading. Sorta makes sense, because 100 years ago bakers didn't have mixers...

The article is here: Sourdough Home - Stretch and Fold - A Gentle Way To Develop Dough

[Mitchamus]

that stretch & fold technique looks great... and so easy... I'm sure it will make great dough as well, especially as it's such a gentle method!
I'm definitely going to give that a try - thanks pete.

Mark - I was originally going to mix it all on the bench.. but I think I'll use a tub.. mix a batter using 80% of the flour, and then add the rest in gradually.
after that I'll let it autolyse for 30mins, give it a stretch and fold as per the link kiwipete sent, and then leave it for about 12hrs on the bench.
(still in the bucket)

It should be much less messy that way!

[splatgirl]

the wooden dough box used to be the standard, in pre-KitchenAid days, I think. search for that at Ebay and you'll find all manner of antique ones. Like a dough trough.

[Mitchamus]

ok the bad news is - I had a few people drop out, so I didn't get to hit the 10kg mark, only 8.4kg...

but I did manage to give it a fair knead on the bench for 10mins, followed by a stretch and fold during the knockdowns.

All up I let it prove for 3 hours with 2 stretch and folds before making my 300g balls.

I also used a 42L plastic container with a lid, which I will definitely be using again. It was so much easier than messing about with bowls.

I also used individual snap lock sandwich bags for the 30 dough balls.
they work great for stopping the dough balls from drying out, and make it much easier to store in the fridge... since you can pile them up etc..

sorry... no pics.. since I didn't hit the 10kg mark....

[splatgirl]

that means there'll be a next time!

How much flour was that?

funny, 8.4 kg of dough seems like an insane amount, but 30 dough balls isn't at all out of the question at my house. Last party I did 18 and had no leftovers. Could easily have used a few more...

waitasec. I'm not getting the math or something. 30 300g balls should be a 9kg batch of dough??

[Mitchamus]

it was 5.1kg of flour...

yes it should be... but they weren't all exactly 300gms..

most were a bit under 300g.. so I ended up with 2 small ones left over...

(the target was 28 )