Sicilain pizza with a little bit of different mixing method and balling method 8/21/2012

This post is to just explain that I did a little experiment with mixing and balling to see what would happen when using the same formulation and GM Full Strength flour.


I didn’t mixed quite as long and didn’t ball as tight as I usually do when making this Sicilian dough. I usually ball until the dough ball feels a little tight, but this time I just balled when the dough was somewhat limp (that is from the higher hydration dough, in my opinion). This dough is always a little sticky, but this time the dough was more sticky. I wanted to see if when balling not until some of the stickiness went away if the crumb structure would still stay light. I also opened the dough ball when it was still cold right out of the deli case. I am not really sure, but think the crumb structure would be compromised by the not balling as tight. As can be seen the rest of the Sicilian pizza looks about the same, but the crumb structure was tighter. The dough ball fermented well

I don’t really know, but guess that there has to be enough strength in the dough, either while mixing, or while balling for the crumb structure to become lighter. At least that is what I think happened with this dough. I should not have opened the dough ball cold and then proofed. I think if I would have waited until the dough ball warm-up and then panned the dough, then I would have more conclusive results. I think it is interesting even with minor changes that a crumb structure can turn out differently.

The Sicilian pizza tasted the same, but I prefer a more open crumb structure.

I didn’t take any pictures of the dough ball after balling, because at the time, really didn’t think it would matter that much.

Norma