Pizza Today - February 2016 - 28

the short mixing times (60 to 75
seconds), it is recommended that
the IDY be hydrated in 95 F water
prior to addition to the mixer. IDY
typically has a shelf life of one year
or more at room temperature in
the unopened package. But once
opened it should be completely
used within a week or so. The best
way to save any unused IDY is to
keep it in the original bag, roll the
bag down onto the yeast and secure
the folded bag with a rubber band.
Some like to store the unused portion in the cooler, but during my
extensive use of IDY over the past
35 years I've found that it actually keeps better if stored at room
temperature. The reason for this
is because when stored in the cooler
and opened and resealed for use, after a
number of times condensation can form
in the bag that can be deleterious to
the yeast viability, especially if the IDY
will be held for more than a week in the
cooler.
I've heard that adding malt to
my dough will make the crust
crispier. Is this true?

A: In all probability it will have just

the opposite effect. There are two different classifications of malt: diastatic
(enzyme active) and non-diastatic
(non-enzyme active). The enzymes
present in the diastatic malt will hydrolize starch into sugars that are fermentable by the yeast. This results in a softer,
more sticky dough that will exhibit
faster browning properties in the oven,
resulting in a shorter baking time (to
prevent "over baking"). This reduces
the thickness of the bottom of the
crust (browned portion). The resulting
finished crust might be crispy when
first removed from the oven but could
quickly turn soft and floppy within
minutes, if not seconds, of removal
from the oven.
Additionally, remember we now have
a higher sugar level in the dough. So
as the dough is baked into a finished
2 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / F E B R UA R Y 2 0 1 6

crust, the loss of moisture from the
dough further concentrates the residual
sugars in the finished crust. Since
sugar has an affinity for water, it pulls
moisture out of the air (think of all the
steam present with a boxed pizza) as
well as from the moisture released from
the toppings on the pizza to create a
soft, soggy crust.
If non-daistatic malt is used there is
no enzyme activity present. This means
there will be no starch hydrolysis for
creating more sugar. The only sugar
contribution will be that of the malt
itself, which makes it much easier to
control the post-baking crust softening
issues. In this case, we must look at the
malt only as an added source of sugar.
If the use level is not too great we can
achieve a slight flavor improvement
in the finished crust, although with
the sauce and toppings present it is
questionable if your customers will recognize any difference. Plus the added
malt (remember, it is a sugar) will
typically require a shorter baking time.
Also, the residual sugars will again be
concentrated during baking, resulting
in a finished crust with undesirable
hygroscopic properties.
So when can we use malt? If the
flour that you are using is an un-malted
flour, it may benefit from the addition
of a small amount of diastatic malt.
In this case the benefits will be in the

form of more active fermentation
over several days of cold fermentation and an improvement in crust
color without the need to bake
at temperatures approaching or
exceeding 700 F.
If it sounds as if there isn't much
benefit to adding malt to a pizza
dough you're probably right. Any
flavor benefit is lost in the overall
flavor provided by the added herbs,
sauce and toppings. The impact
upon crust color is typically outweighed by its adverse impact upon
crispiness. If your flour is already
malted at the flourmill, there is little
reason to add additional malt.
In the off chance that your flour
is not malted, there might be some
advantage to adding diastatic malt to
your dough formula if you manage
your dough for more than 48 hours
through the cooler, or do not use an
oven capable of achieving the temperature needed to give the desired
crust color within a reasonable baking
time. Even then, you don't need to go
on a quest to find diastatic malt since
the addition of just plain old sucrose
will also work just fine by providing
fermentable sugars for the yeast to
feed upon while the residual sugar
will help to provide the desired crust
color characteristics at lower baking
temperatures.
If you are in an area where high
starch damage flour (12 to 20 percent)
is the norm, don't even think about
adding diastatic malt to your dough
formula because the enzymes (amylase)
will have a nearly unlimited source of
damaged starch to rapidly (within 90
minutes) hydrolyze into sugars to create a soft, soupy dough with all of the
unique and sticky characteristics of fly
paper. n
TOM LEHMANN is a former director at
the American Institute of Baking in
Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today's
resident dough expert.

http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM

Pizza Today - February 2016

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