Pizza Today -March 2023 - 46

set aside to ferment, then it was dried
in the sun for use in bread dough. The
Romans also used dough balls of barley
and water baked brown in ashes and kept
until it fermented. But the most common
pre-ferment method that is still popular
today -Pâte fermentée - was the use of
a previous days' dough to add into a new
batch of panus, or bread.
Friend or Dough
The two types of flour mixes in any
pizzeria are the direct method and the
indirect method.
The Direct Method: This is flour that
is directly mixed with yeast, salt and
water. This method sets off an alcoholic
fermentation leading to alcohol and
carbon dioxide that raises the dough. There
are many factors in manipulating the
outcome of this dough including changing
the temperature, mixing methods and
holding time before using. This mix is less
flavorful than the indirect or sourdough
mix and may give you less dough strength.
Advantages of direct method in pizza
making: The mixture can be highly
predictable, less sloppy and may fit your
schedule and staff's attentiveness. There
are many delicious examples of direct
method like the Roman-style pan pizzas
that use higher hydration and a long cold
refrigeration method of up to 72 hours
creating a large cell structure and a crisp and
light pan pizza flavored with extra virgin.
The Indirect Method: This is a final
batch of pizza dough that is made using
another, smaller batch of commercially
yeasted flour and water that has been aged.
This method with a lower hydration is
called a Biga. The French Poolish has a
higher hydration and the Pâte fermentée
is a salted, old dough saved from the last
batch of pizza dough. Adding these preferments
to your final mix puts your pizza
dough on " hyper-drive " enabling you to
use it faster.
Advantages of indirect method in pizza
making: Because the indirect method
introduces an already fermenting bacteria
into your pizza dough batch, it will
enable a stronger gluten net, moister cell
structure, better taste and browning of
46 / PIZZATODAY.COM / MARCH 2023
the cornicione (crust.) Each pre-ferment
has its own qualities depending upon the
hydration.
Crust Issues
There is a BIG conversation in the
pizza web and social media space about
the consequences of using a pre-ferment
or not. Much of the push back is that
because it is " pizza " and not " bread, " that
the change in taste, structure and bake of
the crust is nominal and goes unnoticed
by trusted customers. These excuses come
from the belief that the cheese, sauce
and toppings on a pizza tone down the
importance of the crust and crumb. This
business is hard and unforgiving so the
backstory of some of these comments may
come from the hardship of keeping a crew
trained and dedicated to taking more steps
to improve pizza dough. Shortcuts and
the " easy ways " are hard to ignore both
financially and for all our stress levels. As
a business owner, I get it. It's a tough call
and it's up to you which way to go.
Sponge Bath
Because each pre-ferment has differing
qualities, you can choose to use one that
matches best to the qualities that you want
for your specific pizza crust. The following
is just a guide for better tasting pizza
dough - only you can match your best
pre-ferment to your operation. I use all
these and sometimes a combination of one
with some sourdough starter in my pizza
dough. Here are some specifics for each
pre-ferment remembering that these may
vary depending upon flour protein levels,
the grind, PH levels, the environment and
water temperature. Let's take a deep dive.
Pâte fermentée (old dough, or scrap
dough): This is pronounced (pot fer mawn
TAY) simply a piece of fermented pizza
dough saved from the last batch. I chop
this up and put it in warm water to create
what is called a " soaker " which will better
integrate into the final pizza dough mix.
This is the only pre-ferment that contains
salt as well as flour, water and yeast and is
very forgiving. The usual amount is 40 to
50 percent based only on the total weight
of your flour. So, if 10 pounds of flour is
used, four to five pounds of old dough can
be used. This old dough should be used at
the end of the pizza dough mix because its
gluten net is already developed.
Poolish: (This originated in Poland.)
Equal parts of flour and water
(100-percent flour, 100-percent water)
are mixed into a thin starter with varying
percentages of yeast depending on the
speed of fermentation you need. Because
of the high amount of water, a poolish is
very active. A long fermentation at room
temperature with very little yeast will
struggle and bubble, increasing in volume
and at its peak will appear wrinkled and
fragrant and start to fall back down and
only be good to use for a few hours. A
shorter fermentation using more yeast will
create fermentation faster, but you may
lose some of the pre-ferment benefits. For
one percent of dry yeast to flour (three
percent fresh yeast) the fermentation time
is two hours, but this may not help with
flavor or bake. Better pizza crust qualities
are 0.5 percent of dry yeast to flour for
four hours, 0.28 percent dry yeast to flour
for eight hours, or 0.08 percent for 13 to
16 hours. It is important to know that
because you are using so little yeast that
you may need to add yeast to the final
batch also.
Biga: (This is Italian for starter or preferment.)
The typical formula for a biga
is 100 percent flour, 50 to 60 percent
water and 0.8-1.5 percent fresh yeast.
This formula varies widely depending
upon the hydration and room and water
temperatures. This stiff dough ferments
slower and can be fermented from
16 to even 48 hours depending upon
temperature control. If it is too hot, this
pre-ferment will exhibit too much lactic
acid activity.
Catch Dough Starters, Part II where
John details sourdough starters in next
issue's Knead to Know column.
JOHN GUTEKANST owns Avalanche
Pizza in Athens, Ohio.
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today -March 2023

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