Years ago as a younger lady I was lucky to work in a pizza restaurant during
summer vacation. I was a pizza jack of all trades so to speak.
Tony a Sicilian chef showed me how to make pizza dough in the large hobart
mixer.
The dough itself was easy: bread flour, water, compressed yeast ( he
preferred it ) a bit of sugar and salt , and a "minor" amt of olive oil.
I was truly amazed at the power of yeast as he only used one commercial
yeast cake for a 50 lb bag of flour!
The trick I found out to ensure the dough properly relaxed ( no dough
enhancers were used): A overnight chilling in the pizza cooler ( retardation
of the dough ).A slow rise of dough occured and then
he would occassionally walk into the cooler to Punch down the dough ).
This process relaxed the gluten, mellowed it so to speak. Also any excess
sugar and co2 were released which caused a better dough texture and less
burning at high brick oven temperatures. His dough stretched out
beautifully.
I never forgot that lesson and always chill my pizza dough overnight. You'll
find the dough easier to stretch or roll since everything is relaxed.
Now speaking of dough conditioners for any yeast dough: even pizza, you
could try 1 tsp lemon juice to 3 cups flour, or a bit of liquid or powdered
lecitin ( found at health food stores ) or a tsp+ of crushed vitamin c table
to 3 cups flour but I don't think you really need an enhancer for the pizza
if you try the chilling method first.
General baking:
Following is a homemeade formula you can use. There are many
commercial dough conditioners on the market which work wonderful. Many
people do try making their own first before buying the commercial stuff.
This is a recipe for enhancer which I found on the Net.I personally havent
tried it as I find lemon juice relaxes the dough for me.
MM: DOUGH ENHANCER
---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.03
Title: DOUGH ENHANCER
Categories: Breadmaker, Substitutes
Yield: 32 servings
1 c Lecithin granules
1 tb Vitamin C powder
1 tb Ginger, ground
Mix all ingredients and store in tightly closed glass
jar. Add to breadmaker in amount equal to yeast with
other dry ingredients. Start machine. Apparently, the
ginger gooses the yeast and makes it act more swiftly,
the ascorbic acid strengthens the gluten, and the
lecithin aids the oil in causing the strands of gluten
to slip against each other more easily and thus rise
better.
-----
Joan,"Flour Power"
v
`[1;33;41mRainbow V 1.18.3 for Delphi - Registered