Pizza Today - April 2020 - 22

My dough is sticky and doesn't
easily come out of the mixing bowl.
Any tips?
A: On one of my recent trips out
to a pizzeria I observed how the mixer
operator was struggling with the dough
while cutting it into pieces so it could
be removed from the bowl and taken to
the bench for cutting and balling. After
watching him work with the first dough,
I asked him to let me know when the
next dough was finished mixing.
When the dough mixing was complete, I had him put the mixer in first
speed and begin mixing. I then showed
him how to pour a very small amount
of oil down the inside of the bowl so it
would get spread around by the dough
ball as it was driven around in the bowl
by the hook. After just a few revolutions,
the mixer was stopped and I instructed
him to now remove the dough from the
bowl without cutting it into pieces. Presto! The dough literally popped out of
the bowl without any effort at all. That

sure made his job a lot easier. While I've
known about this trick for more years
than I care to admit to, it was new to
him. Like they say, "It's the little things
that sometimes count the most."
How important is it to have the
water temperature right for active
dry yeast?
A: The water temperature used to
activate any type of dry yeast is really
pretty important if you have a concern
over yeast performance, and I think we
all have an interest in that. In all cases,
active dry yeast must be hydrated
before it can be added to the dough, and
in some cases, instant dry yeast must
also be hydrated. Take note that the
correct water temperature to use when
hydrating IDY is 95 F. If the water
temperature is too hot the yeast cells
can be heat/thermal damaged, but if
the water is too cold, you stand the risk
of allowing some of the plasma material contained within the yeast cell(s) to

leach out during the hydration process.
This material, when removed from the
cell, can result in the development of an
unusually soft or in some cases sticky
dough consistency, and extensive damage to the yeast cells from which the
material was removed. All in all, good
things do not happen when dry yeast
is allowed to hydrate in water at a temperature other than that which is recommended by the manufacturer.
Also, while we're on the topic of
hydrating dry yeast, keep in mind that
when the directions say to hydrate the
yeast in water at say, 100 to 105 F, only
a small quantity of the total water needs
to be at that temperature, only about five
times the weight of the yeast. The rest of
the water should be at a temperature that
will give you a finished dough within the
desired or targeted, temperature range. n
TOM LEHMANN is a former director at the
American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today's resident
dough expert.

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Pizza Today - April 2020

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