Personal Best Pizza

[Mitchamus]

Hi Rossco,
thanks for documenting another one of your 'experiments' - they're always a great read.

cheers,
Mitch.

[BackyardPermaculture]

Jay,

Thanks for your very informative posts on here - I've been learning a lot. One thing I should note about my results is that it's currently winter here and my kitchen is quite cool right now, as was the tap water used to make the biga and final dough. I also have my fridge at 2 degrees C.

As I understand it, warmer water may well kick off the yeast in the biga quite dramatically?

Cheers,
Mick

[texassourdough]

Temperature is a big factor. General rule of thumb is that the rate of multiplying for yeast doubles for every 17 degrees in the range of say 40 to 100 F. While that may not sound like much, five degrees increases the rate by about 40 percent so a biga that peaked in ten hours would take about seven to peak...

(For my sourdoughs I compensate for temperature by reducing my expansions from four times (adding 400 grams to 100) to three times (adding 300 grams to 100). The lower expansion allows the yeast to max out its rate (as it is limited by the amount of food) sooner - well except for the slower rate of multiplication due to colder temps. That way my levain is still peaking the next morning when I get up - instead of over the hill..

Bake On!
Jay

[robs]

I was not criticizing your approach

I didn't take it as criticism. I'm very new to playing around with the dough proportions and probably don't have enough knowledge therefor the question on reducing the bubbles. Didn't realise that salt retards the yeast so will definitely remember that.

Thanks for the reply. Should of posted somewhere else instead of hijacking this thread on heliman.

[texassourdough]

Hi Robs!

Agreed on the hijack but there is an ongoing logic to this thread so...

I think it is important to experiment until you find what you want. With only four or five ingredients (flour, yeast, water, salt, and maybe oil) and two key other variables (time and temperature) the "practices" of the maker can have big influence which is why I suggest people change only one item/factor at a time (as best possible). Even things like when and how you add the salt and mix it in has an effect that impacts on both proofing time and resulting texture. (For example, sourdough experience suggests that adding salt AFTER forming the dough encourages uneven hole structure - which I think arises from the difficulty in getting full mixing and the local retardation of the yeast in the saltier areas). (Too little mixing and you can get really uneven texture that is bad - it seems hard to get enough mixing to get uniform texture in my experience).

It is all a complex dance!

Be well!
Jay