Baking flatbreads and breads in your pizzeria In 1980, I had a job as a short-order cook working the graveyard shift at a roadside diner called The Breakfast Barn in rural North Carolina. Being the young punk that I was, I thought I knew everything a...

The Dough Doctor addresses mixing protocols and reducing agents There seems to be an abundance of questions on how much a pizza dough should be mixed. While there are just too many variables involved to give any hard and fast numbers, the best advice...

How oil, hydration and the mix impact your dough The addition of oil is a very important aspect to achieving consistent dough performance. We all know that oil will float on top of water, right? So, if we add the oil and water together to our dough m...

The Dough Doctor discusses when and how to add yeast to your mix What is the best way to add yeast to the dough? A: This will depend upon the type of yeast you’re using. If you’re using active dry yeast (ADY) you will need to activate it prior to...

How high hydration levels create artisan pizza dough Probably the biggest change in pizza dough formulation in recent years has been the introduction of bread baking techniques into the process. Starters, natural fermentation, autolyze, indirect mixi...

The Dough Doctor talks refrigeration We’re setting up our first shop, but we have reach-in coolers rather than a walk-in cooler. How would you recommend that we store our dough balls in a reach-in cooler? A: Since reach-in coolers are not as effici...

The International Pizza Consultant talks naturally leavened dough   Anthony Falco is an International Pizza Consultant, with projects on four continents and dozens of cities around the world. He was the keynote speaker at Pizza & Pasta North...

How to correct a dough that is too wet and sticky Q: My dough feels fine after mixing, but after 24 to 48 hours of cold fermentation in dough boxes the dough is always wet and sticky. I’ve tried reducing the dough absorption to no avail. A: The num...

Question: We are just a small tavern pizzeria and we would like to make our dough once a week and freeze it rather than making it fresh during the week. Is this possible? Answer: Yes, it is possible, and it makes a lot of sense to do so, too. Freez...

Learn how to make a Sicilian Pizza and Get a Sicilian Pizza Dough Recipe Bakery Pizza, Casalinga, Rustica, Upside Down Pizza, Square Pie (even when it’s a rectangle) … there are many relatively thick, focaccia-like pizzas baked in a pan that can ...

Highway to the non-danger zone The danger zone is not that sweet spot that only Maverick lives in with Kenny Loggins providing the soundtrack. It’s the temperature where bacteria grow. It’s the un-fun, not sexy part of the job, but it’s the mos...

A look at New York Style Pizza, the most popular dough style in America It is estimated that 70 percent of the pizza consumed nationally is based on the New York-style pizza that evolved in response to the product’s equipment and cultural differenc...