The Dough Doctor
By Tom Lehamnn

Question:
We’re baking our pizzas in an air impingement oven. The bottoms of the pizzas are fully baked, but they don’t remain crispy for more than a few seconds. If we try to bake the pizzas any longer, the cheese burns. Is there anything that we can add to the dough to get a crispier bottom crust?

Answer:
There isn’t anything that you need to add in this case, because the problem isn’t due to the dough but rather the oven--more specifically, the top finger profile or the baking temperature, or a combination of the two. If your baking temperature is too high, the cheese can get burned before the crust has a chance to develop the desired level of crispiness. In that case, you can either reduce the temperature, or change the top finger configuration to reduce the airflow to the top of the pizza. This will allow you to bake the pizza longer without burning the cheese. In some cases, a bright-coloured (shiny) pan can cause the same problem: The pan will reflect rather than absorb much of the heat directed toward it, resulting in less heat actually getting to the bottom of the pizza. This results in requiring either an unusually long baking time, or an unusually high baking temperature to get a decent bottom crust colour. This causes the cheese and toppings to get too much heat, unless the top airflow is reduced by a considerable amount. In this case, the best approach is to change over to a dark-coloured, anodized or seasoned pan, and reduce the baking temperature to realise a long-term cost savings in the operation of your oven.

Question:
When looking at a number of your dough formulas from the Recipe Bank (www.pmq. com/tt2/recipe/), I noticed that you always add the water to the mixing bowl before adding the flour. What effect does this have on the dough?

Answer:
Adding the water first effectively shortens the overall dough mixing time. When the water is added first, the flour hydrates significantly faster than if the water is added to flour already in the bowl. We have observed that the total dough mixing time is reduced by approximately 2 minutes when the water is added first. The only other advantage: When the other dry ingredients (such as salt, sugar and instant dry yeast) are added right on top of the flour, the length of time that the flour takes to get mixed with the water serves to disperse the dry ingredients into the flour, which can benefit the yeast hydration when instant dry yeast is used. If active dry yeast is used, it should be first hydrated in a small amount of warm water (38°C to 41°C) and allowed to hydrate for 10 minutes, and then added to the water in the mixing bowl. When compressed yeast is used, a common mistake is to put it into the water and run the agitator until the yeast is fully dissolved (suspended) in the water, but this causes more unnecessary running of the mixer. Simply crumple the yeast right on top of the flour, making sure to avoid dropping it on the salt or sugar, and then begin mixing in the normal manner. The yeast will fully disperse into the dough mass during the mixing process.

Question:
We presently use extra-virgin olive oil, both in the dough and on it when we put it in the cooler. Is there anything we can do to help reduce the cost of the olive oil?

Answer:
I like to use a pomace oil in and on the dough. Because this form of olive oil has a more robust flavour and costs less than extra-virgin, it’s a good candidate for when you’re making dough. (Save the extra-virgin oil for dipping oil or for use on salads and pasta dishes.) Or you can purchase or make your own blended oil. A blend of 20% olive oil and 80% vegetable oil, such as canola oil, makes a good and economical replacement for straight extravirgin olive oil in most dough making applications.