Old dough

[Fat Guy]

I figured "old dough" was more poetic than "aged dough" and more politically correct than "retarded dough," but what I'm talking about is dough that has been held at refrigerator temperatures (aka retarded) for a time before final forming and baking. I had an old-dough experience tonight that I thought I'd share with you good people.

A little background. For the past several months, I've been baking pizza about twice a week. The primary motivation is that our two-year-old son, PJ, loves pizza. I've also found it to be a fun and rewarding project. I'm not doing anything at a particularly high level here: no pizza stone, no unusual ingredients -- I'm just making easy home pizza as best I can. I've been getting results that are by no means embarrassing by using the following procedure: dough (sometimes homemade, sometimes store-bought) stretched to the size of an aluminum half-sheet pan, using cornmeal as a way to avoid sticking; a light coating of Pomi strained tomatoes; mozzarella; parmesan; 11 minutes at 500 degrees in a thoroughly pre-heated convection oven. This is what it looks like:

Anyway, these past couple of weeks have involved a lot of holiday plans and related travel, plus I've been working on an article that required mini-reviews of ten restaurants, so my pizza-making got thrown off schedule. Last Sunday morning (as in, nine days ago), I put some dough in the refrigerator thinking I'd make pizza that night. We wound up doing something else instead, the days passed, Thanksgiving happened, then the Friday Thanksgiving repeat with the inlaws, then the Saturday Thanksgiving re-repeat with a friend. All of a sudden, it was today and I had nine-day-old dough in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

I smelled it and it smelled fine, there wasn't anything growing on it and the only visible issue was that it had some bubbles/pits in the surface. I consulted with a couple of reliable sources who happened to be on Meebo at the time and they said go for it.

The first thing I noticed was that the dough was a lot easier to work with than usual. It stretched relatively effortlessly and evenly -- at no time did it seem that there was a risk of tearing it. Then I applied the toppings and baked the pizza.

It was categorically the best pizza I've ever made. I used the identical process that I've used a dozen times in a row, but the crust was absolutely superior. It was actually pretty good. It had a sourdough-ish flavor and was airy and crispy-crunchy.

Old dough rules.

[etalanian]

I am so happy to read this, because my son will often make or buy pizza dough and then something will come up and he doesn't bake it. Then he goes back to college and I find it a week later in the fridge. I have always just tossed it, assuming it would be no good.

Next time I'll make a pizza with it!

Thanks so much for passing this along.

Eileen

[Tri2Cook]

I'll have to give that a try for pizza. I've "aged" danish dough and used it for cinnamon rolls before. I checked it (smell and taste) daily until it had a flavor that I was happy with then used it that day. I was apprehensive about letting anyone try them because the sourdough taste was obvious to me and I wasn't sure if that would be considered a good thing in a cinnamon roll but they got nothing but good reviews from those who ate them. I've done it several times since then mainly just to be sure I wasn't going to kill anybody with it. Everybody that's had them is still alive and happy (I tell them up front what they're getting). In fact, I have an order for a few dozen to do next week for a friend so I'll get the dough going tomorrow for that. I'm still not at the point of trusting it enough to sell them to people I don't know though, I stick with fresh dough for that.

[JAZ]

I know that when I took a pizza class from Peter Reinhart, he advocated making the dough in advance and letting it rise slowly in the fridge at least overnight. He said that the flavor improves and also that the gluten is less elastic and makes the dough easier to work with. He didn't say anything about 9 days, though.

[sanrensho]

Seven days is no problem for refrigerated pizza dough, and I think I've done 9-10 days as well.

Although I didn't find the dough to be particularly remarkable. About the same as dough that's been held for a couple of days.

[alanamoana]

working in a restaurant, we used to keep the dough for probably around a week or so. don't know if it ever got to nine days, but it lasted a long time. i don't think there's anything wrong with it. the only thing when dealing with yeasted doughs that need a good rise, you've probably exhausted the yeast by then. with a pizza crust, that's not so important.

[Anna N]

This is very interesting as the latest "no knead" bread recipe from the NYT calls for dough that can be made and kept in the fridge for 2 weeks!

I have a batch of it in the fridge which is about a week old now and I swear it gets better each day. I have taken to using it not only for small loaves of daily bread but also for the pan-fried pizza I have been fooling around with. As Fat Guy notes, it is much easier to work with after a few days rest in the fridge and I can really get a thin crust.

So I am wondering why any bread dough with nothing more in it than flour, salt, yeast and water couldn't be treated the same way. I can understand the yeast exhaustion issue but are there other issues here?

[helenjp]

The improved workability is something I've noticed with aged lebkuchen/gingerbread dough too. I usually age it 1-2 weeks, though closer to 2 weeks is better.

[SusanGiff]

FG and others: Do you use the dough straight out of the refrigerator, or bring it to room temp and let it rest/rise a little longer? I have no insights to add, just wondering.

My only similar experience was with dough that I waited an extra hour or so to use (I'd fed the kids the first pizza, and then the spouse was late home from work). Even then, the dough was noticeably easier to work with.

[OrleansAg]

My wife and I have been on a pizza kick as well. Simple ones as well, sauce (homemade or bought), cheese, herbs. That's usually it. For dough sometimes we make our own and if we think ahead we'll put it in the fridge overnight. But lately we've been using premade dough from Trader Joe's. And usually that sits in the fridge for a few days. We have had great results from that kind. Taste and "flexibility"

[Emily_R]

Actually I have an old dough question... The times I've done dough and tried to retard in the fridge for a while, even with a coating of oil on the dough, the dough develops a tough "skin" to it. Steven -- how did you prevent this? And when you say it was in a plastic bag, was all the air pressed out of that bag? Or was there still room in the bag for the dough to grow?

Thanks, and I am seriously drooling over that pizza -- it looks outrageously good!!!

Emily

[Fat Guy]

Actually I have an old dough question... The times I've done dough and tried to retard in the fridge for a while, even with a coating of oil on the dough, the dough develops a tough "skin" to it. Steven -- how did you prevent this? And when you say it was in a plastic bag, was all the air pressed out of that bag? Or was there still room in the bag for the dough to grow?

←

It was in a Zip-loc bag with the air pressed out but not religiously so. No coating of oil, just the dough in the bag. There was no skin problem, but the dough was pretty sticky. It resisted coming out of the bag, and was a little stubborn coming off the sheet pan when I cut and served the pizza.

[qrn]

My normal pizza dough is,,, make it, divide it into portions, oil the balls,put it into the cheep thin (not ziplock)gallon bags and put into the veg bin in the reefer...after 5 or 6 days (or so) take out the bags , flatten the dough in the bags,to a thin cross section, so it will defrost easier, and freeze...To use, take it out in the am and let sit on counter, till defrosted and rising.It will be sticky so use lotsa flour . cut the bag off without changing the shape it was when frozen.Do not re roll it back into a ball.

Form into a pizza round, add stuff and bake...

If You have a M/W that goes really,really low , you can defrost it using about 3 0r 4 real low 2 min. cycles, let it sit for a half hour then form and bake.

Bud

[jsmeeker]

when I first started making pizza dough, I did a recipe that called for an overnight ferment of the dough. The recipe went on to say that you could keep the unused dough in the fridge for a few days. And I have done this. I too find that the stuff that stays in the fridge longer is easier to work. However, I've never tried NINE days. Maybe 3, possibly four, is the most I've let it sit.

There really is much to be said about overnight fermenting of dough in the fridge. As mentioned previously, Peter Reinhart is a big advocate of this technique. Most of the breads I have made from his "BBA" book use it. (including a pizza dough that calls for CHILLED flour and chilled water).

I thinking that next time I want pizza, I will plan earlier. More than a day in advance. For example, I should make up some dough tomorrow for a pizza on Friday or Saturday.

[Catherine Iino]

Like others, I've made--I normally make--pizza with middle-aged dough, never having made it to 9 days. Definitely excellent flavor. The thing is, when I tried making pizza with my sourdough starter, rather than commercial yeast, the results have been awful. Couldn't get a crispy surface, couldn't get any color in the baked crust. The different species of yeast just seem to behave totally differently. So I'm interested to know that your 9-day dough produced a sour but nevertheless crispy, nicely browned crust.