01/04/2025
Few people/pizza chefs asked me How I maintain a big amount of pizza dough at room temperature when I have long events in summer season Without over proofing it.
This is for me the most beautiful and fascinating part of being pizza chef , and at the same time the trickiest part!
Some of them claim them self as pizza chef ๐ this is the basic that a pizza chef must know!
Short answer: You have to make different batches of dough and change and adapt the recipe based on your needs, length of event, and temperature,
different amount of water , different amount of yeast and also salt. Just to mention some.
Also the flour you choose makes the difference.
For example: the batch with less yeast and water would last longer and viceversa obviously.
Then you have to calculate well when to ball each batch, to end up with each ball of dough ready when you need it,
so you have to also predict the amount of pizzas that you are going to make per hourโฆ
If I have to use some pizzas at 1pm and others at 5 pm I cannot obviously make them the same, otherwise i would end up with the dough that is : ready all in the same time.
As you all know yeast contained in the pizza dough are alive organisms that produces carbon dioxide that makes the dough grow.
As you all know the heat makes the yeast work faster, so in summer season when you have temperatures over 30 degrees and high levels of humidity the dough raises faster and it can overproof to early, and this can affect the workability of the dough and the entire service
When you work at room temperature you have to adapt your recipe to your needs and to the temperature you have, there is not standard recipes! There are basic recipes that needs to be adjusted.
Everything can be more standardised if you are home or in a restaurant where you store for a certain amount of time your dough in the fridge to slow down the fermentation, and take it out justt when you need it.
also in winter for example is obviously easy to mรฉnage it , and make less changes.
But all this comes with experience, the dough needs to be constantly monitored from when you make it until the end, you canโt just leave it alone.
This is Pizza passion