I'll try to get a slice foto on tomorrow
I weigh all my ingredients, especially when "doughing".
10.5oz. bread flour, 7.6 oz. water, 1 tsp.instant rise, 1 1/2 tsp. salt.
Kneaded with mixer. Dough was fairly slack and sticking to bottom of mixer.
2 hr rise - no knockdown. Spread it out in pan & went to pit a half hr. or so later.
Still show me a slice, but I'll throw out a few things. Your pizza will always be better if you make the dough at least the day before. Possibly a few days. Use less and less yeast if you are planning 2,3, or 4 days out. Your ratios look pretty good for same day dough.
The biggest improvment I made when I was starting was an autolyse step. Add your water, yeast, salt,etc to the mixing bowl. Add about half the flour. Mix until smooth and shiny. It will look like thick pancake batter at this point. Let it sit for 20 minutes at that point. The flour is sucking up all the water, and will make for a softer more manageable dough. Then add the rest of the flour in small increments mixing until smooth and shiny between each addition.
In your cook tonight the 2 hour rise was fine, but the pan rise was probably too short. After that first half hour in the pan, I would have pressed it out to the edges of the pan again, and let it rise another hour. You would have been surprised how easily it would have manipulated at that point. If your dough is tough, let time do the work. Time fixes alot of problems with dough.
Did you oil the pan at all? Most Detroit pizzas have quite a bit of oil under the dough to kind of fry the crust, and get that crispy bottom. Also, many have some oil in the dough, but it's not necessarily crucial.
Yeast amount really doesn't matter as long as your timing is right. The less the better really, as long as you give it time. If you sprinkle 10 granules of yeast in the water it will do the exact same thing to the dough as a tsp, but it may take 24 hours. It's a more controlled rise, and flavors develop over that time.
Next time try a quarter tsp of yeast. Put the bowl in the refrigerator for about 24 hours. Doesn't have to be exact. It will rise overnight in fridge. Next day, let it warm up a bit at room temp. Punch it down, and into your pan. Don't try to hit the edges of pan yet. Let rise room temp for an hour or two. Then press out to edges of pan.
You have 2 options at this point. Another room temp rise until you are ready to top and cook, or throw it in the fridge again oiled and covered in plastic. Next day, let it come to room temp for an hour or so, and cook that sucker.
The rising stage of pizza is just as much a product of time and temperature as the cooking stage is. Your yeast amount and whether the dough is at room temp or fridge temp allows you to make it work on your schedule instead of the other way around. Use less yeast, take your time, do it in a matter of days not hours. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
Author
Topic: What is Detroit Style Pizza? (Read 6892 times)