Pizza Today - March 2016 - 28

the other dry ingredients right on top of the
flour. Don't worry, as the
agitator moves it will
thoroughly incorporate
all of those dry ingredients into the flour and
you will achieve uniform
dispersion throughout
the dough.
Blending the yeast,
salt, sugar and oil
into the water is

another thing that I tend
to see done frequently.
Again, this serves no real
benefit to the quality
of the dough. In fact,
it might even adversely
affect the quality. When
the yeast, salt, sugar and
oil are blended together
there are two concerns.
One is that if the doughmaking process should
be interrupted before the
flour is added and mixing
begins, there could
potentially be some damage done to the yeast.
This reduces its ability to give consistent fermentation, which can impact
how the dough rises in the oven and
how it opens into pizza skins.
It is interesting to observe that when
the oil is mixed with the water, as
soon as the mechanical mixing action
is stopped the oil almost instantly
separates and floats on top of the water.
When the flour is added, a portion of
it comes into direct contact with the
oil. The oil soaks in and that specific
portion of flour is now incapable of
producing gluten. This obviously affects
how the dough feels and performs after
the mixing process.
A much better approach is to put the
water in the mixing bowl first. If you
want to, go ahead and add the salt and
sugar to the water in the bowl (no need
to stir or whisk), then add the flour and
the yeast and begin mixing. Mix for

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about two minutes at low speed and
then add the oil. This allows the flour
to fully hydrate before introducing the
oil and ensures that the oil cannot be
absorbed into the flour and interfere
with the gluten development. As a
result, your dough will be more consistent in both feel and performance.
Suspending the yeast in the
water is another practice that is
really just wasted motion. This

is done out of fear that the yeast will
not be uniformly distributed throughout the dough. But nothing could be
further from the truth. If you are using
compressed yeast, all you need to do
is crumble it on top of the flour and it
will be incorporated just fine during
the mixing process (hard to believe, but
true). Instant yeast is another type of
yeast that is best when added dry right

into the flour. Dispersion
is again complete and
thorough. When active
dry yeast is used, there
might be a valid reason
for adding it to the water
in the mixing bowl as
opposed to adding it to
the flour (even though it
is in a suspension after
hydrating it). The reason
why some operators
like to add the activated
ADY suspension to the
dough water is one of
convenience rather than
dough performance or
quality.
Is there any time when
ingredients need to be
added or blended in a
specific manner? When a
high-speed mixer such as
a VCM is used, regardless of the yeast type
being used, it must be
suspended in the dough
water. This means if
active dry yeast or instant
dry yeast is used, they
must first be hydrated.
Once hydrated, the suspension can be
added directly into the dough water. If
compressed yeast is being used, just put
the yeast directly into the water and
whisk it until the yeast is suspended.
Or whisk the yeast in a portion of
the dough water and pour back into
the mixer. The salt and sugar are then
added, followed by the oil. The flour
goes in last.
The most critical aspect here is to
begin mixing immediately after the
flour is added to minimize oil soakage
into the flour. All this is necessary due
to the short (60- to 75-second) mixing time common to VCM and other
similar type mixers. 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 - March 2016

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