Pizza Today - February 2019 - 28

boxes into the cooler use an off-set
placement pattern - place one box
further back and the next box on top
of it further forward, which will leave
alternating ends of the boxes open for
air circulation. After the dough balls
have cooled to 50 to 55 F they can be
sealed in the boxes to prevent drying.
Do this by pushing or pulling on each
box so it nests over the box beneath it,
thus sealing the box closed. Once this
is done the dough can be allowed to
cold-ferment in the boxes just as they
would in a walk-in cooler.
Another effective option is to use
aluminum sheet pans rather than
dough boxes. In this case the dough
balls are placed directly onto the sheet
pans and covered with food-contactapproved plastic bags. The bottom of
the bag is brought up over the top of
the dough balls, and the top of the bag
is brought down over the front of the
pan and tucked under the pan as it is

placed on the rack in the cooler.
IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
THE DIFFERENT BRANDS OF INSTANT DRY
YEAST (IDY)?
A: As long as the basic color is the

same or similar you shouldn't see any
difference in performance of IDY from
the different manufacturers. Do be
aware, though, that there are different
types of IDY that are designed for
specific dough formulations. So these
may perform differently than the
conventional red bag IDY that we
are all familiar with when used in a
typical pizza dough formulation. If
in doubt, always check with the yeast
manufacturer to be sure you have
the correct one for your application.
Additionally, if your IDY is packaged
in a vacuum-sealed bag (it will be
hard as long as the vacuum seal is
unbroken), do not use the yeast if the

bag is soft. This is an indication
that the seal has been compromised
and the quality of the yeast is
unknown.
I USED TO WORK IN A BAKERY
WHERE WE ADDED THE SALT TO THE
DOUGH TOWARDS THE END OF THE
MIXING STAGE. THIS WAS DONE TO
REDUCE THE DOUGH MIXING TIME,
OR SO I WAS TOLD. WOULD THIS
PROCEDURE HELP TO REDUCE THE
MIXING TIME OF OUR PIZZA DOUGHS?
A: The delayed salt addition

method works well to help reduce
the dough mixing time only when
we are mixing doughs to full or
near-full gluten development (such
as when making commercial breads
and rolls, but it does not work with
pizza doughs since pizza doughs
are under-mixed to begin with).
Most pizza doughs are mixed to
only ½ to 2/3 of that.
IF I'M ADDING BUTTER OR
MARGARINE TO MY DOUGH DO I
HAVE TO MELT IT FIRST?
A: No, you can add it right on

top of the flour, but I should add
that it should be at or near room
temperature before adding it to
your dough. This will ensure that it
gets mixed into the dough rather
than just incorporated as one single
lump or several pieces of hard
butter/margarine. If the dough
is going to receive a very short
mixing time, such as when using a
vertical cutter mixer (VCM), I've
always played it on the safe side
and melted any plastic fat (butter,
margarine or shortening) prior to
addition. The same would go for
mixing some of the cracker-type
doughs that call for very short
mixing times. n
TOM LEHMANN is a former director
at the American Institute of Baking
in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza
Today's resident dough expert.
2 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / F E B R UA R Y 2 0 1 9
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