If the dough has a sour or off smell, it may have gone bad due to bacteria or yeast growth. If the dough has a strange or abnormal color, such as gray or green, it may have gone bad due to bacteria or mold growth. If the dough is sticky or slimy, it may have gone bad due to bacteria or yeast growth.
Pizza dough that has been left to rise for too long, or has been over-proofed, can potentially collapse. The gluten becomes overly relaxed, and the end product will be gummy or crumbly instead of crisp and fluffy.
Over-kneading your dough will create a fine, crumb-like texture, giving your dough a bready texture rather than a light and airy pizza crust.
It's better to leave cold pizza dough out for 30 minutes and/or follow my recommendations for using a window to let the pizza rise. If you don't want to wait for pizza dough to rise before stretching it, then make pizza on a frozen pizza crust. There are so many ways to make it taste restaurant quality.
If the dough doesn't spring back at all, you've likely over-proofed the dough.
At which point during the dough making process would it be best to freeze or refrigerate? You can refrigerate the dough after almost any step, but after the first rise (or a little before) works best. Store it, covered, in the refrigerator for 1-3* days. Allow room for the dough to expand as it will continue to rise.
If the dough is not knocked back the fermentation rate slows down as time goes by. Of course, there are only so many times that you can knock it back and expect it to rise again. But in most cases, we don't have to worry about it as there is no good reason to degas the dough multiple times during bulk fermentation.
The secret to great dough isn't kneading or throwing . . .
It's good old-fashioned H20. “Water, water, water,” says Falco. “Pizza dough made at home should be 50 percent water. Pizza needs to cook longer in a home oven, which means the dough needs to be more hydrated.”
1. Bring the dough to room temperature. If you're using frozen or refrigerated pizza dough, allow it to come to room temperature in a greased mixing bowl. Bringing the dough to room temperature before the shaping process makes it easier to stretch and less likely to tear.
You wouldn't want to bake a pizza using dough that has gray spots. It's only going to make the pizza turn out bad, and it could make you sick if things go really bad. Place pizza dough that has started to turn gray in the garbage and be done with it.
Because of the fineness of the grains, 00 flour is the ideal flour for pizza. 00 flour is a finely ground Italian milled flour ideal for pizza due to its delicate and fluffy crust.
By letting the dough rest overnight in the fridge, you slow the fermentation process and create a perfectly delicate crust. The kicker? It only takes 25 minutes to prep and works for a host of other recipes besides homemade pizza.
Thermal shock: Ceramic stones are more likely to break or shatter due to thermal shock if your pizza stone is placed in a hot oven and exposed to a high heat too quickly. Pizza steels will not break because they are made of a heat-friendly, shatter-proof material.
Too little yeast and your dough won't rise enough, and the pizza base will taste bland. Use too much yeast and your dough may over-ferment. Tell-tale signs are your dough expanding too much or tasting and smelling a bit sour, with an almost alcoholic aftertaste (the yeast produces alcohol as it ferments).
Warm dough is much easier to work with, so be sure to allow your pizza dough to warm up to at least room temperature before stretching it. Prepare your work surface with a sprinkling of flour to keep the dough from sticking.
Pizza dough reacts similarly, turning stiff and inflexible when it's chilled. That's why it's important to let the dough come up to room temperature before stretching it. This might take about an hour, so pull the dough out of the fridge when you preheat the baking steel and/or stone.
I suggest this technique more and more often in my classes and recipes, as it allows us to more fully hydrate the dough, almost to the point of over-stickiness, yet still create a very workable, dynamic dough, one that pops in the oven and creates more of the large irregular holes that artisan bakers (and consumers) ...
Bread Loaves made with over-kneaded dough commonly end up with a hard crust and dry interior. Often upon cutting, slices will crumble. If your perfect bread loaf turns into a crumbly mess, don't worry. The overworked dough will work great when used as croutons or breadcrumbs.