Dough Handling FAQ
As long as you're sticking to the preparation instructions, the dough handling will succeed! Did something go wrong? We listed the most common issues users experienced and how to sove them easily.
The dough balls stick together or come out deformed after defrosting
Reason: The dough balls were placed too close to each other before defrosting. During the defrosting, the dough balls can double in size! When the dough balls are placed with too little distance, they will touch and push each other out of shape.
Solution: When placing the frozen dough balls into a tray, make sure to leave enough space between them. If you're running out of space, you can brush the sides of the dough balls with a little oil. This will make the removal easier.
Reason: The environment was too humid – maybe the dough balls thawed at one point an were frozen again.
Solution: Make sure to keep the cold chain intact at all times. Don't re-freeze the dough balls once they were defrosted. Defrosted dough will keep fresh in the fridge for another two to three days.
Reason: The frozen dough balls were moved into a very warm environment (e.g. into a prover) - in this case condensation water will build up at the surface of the dough.
Solution: It's important to rise the temperature step by step: The dough balls should at first be defrosted at cooling temperature around 7°C and then be moved to room temperature. After moving them to room temperature, you can use a prover to make them rise quicker.
The dough balls are dry or have visible cracks on the surface
Reason: The dough balls were exposed to too much air/ventilation.
Solution: It's important to cover up the dough balls after placing them into the tray. You can use a matching lid or stack another tray on the first one.
ATTENTION: Especially during the preperation of dough balls with a higher weight, fine lines can appear on the surface. These lines have no negavtive impact on the dough's quality and will disappear during the defrosting process!
The dough balls stay flat or don't rise evenly.
Reason: The core temperature is too low.
Lösung: During dough preparation, the management of time and temperature is essential. Before you use the the dough, it has to defrost in cooling temperature (approx. 7°C) for at least 24 hours. Then it has to be prove for another hour in room temperature. The exact time span for proving varies depending on the type of dough: The Pizza Dough Puro contains not a lot of yeast and needs longer to proof, the Pizza Dough Nonna Plus in contrast is developed to rise extra quickly. Here are some simple tricks to make sure the dough is ready to use:
- The dough ball has doubled in size
- When pushing the dough ball in a bit, it will get back in shape
- The dough sounds hollow when you slightly tap on it
The dough collapses
Reason: The surrounding temperature was too hot and the dough has been rising too much.
Lösung: Again, the solution here is a proper management of time and temperature! Before working with the dough, it should not be standing in warm temperature too long - the rule of thumb is to let the dough rest an hour at room temperature (approx. 20°C) before use.
A collapsed dough does not automatically has to be discarded. It is more difficult to handle but since it had more time to rise, the flavour can be more intense!
Attention: In some seldom cases it can happen that the dough turns rotten in a surrounding that is too hot. Rotten dough has to be discarded immediately! These are signs that you should throw the dough out:
- The smell changed from aromatic and yeasty to rotten or like rotten fruit
- The dough's surface is dry and has cracks
- There is visible mould
You read all of the possible reasons and feel like none of them apply?
- Check your chain of production closely. Where could possible sources of errors be? Time an temperature management is the most interesting issue here.
- Document the process chains in your business from delivery to dough handling in the kitchen. This way we can identify psossible errors faster!
- Ask our export team for help!
