Ask Tim the Baker

Many professional bakers know Tim Huff as our Manager of Technical Services. What is not so well known is just what a depth of practical knowledge he possesses on everything from fermentation processes to low cholesterol cooking. Whether your question concerns the quality of a bagel crust or the quality of a cake’s crumb structure, Tim usually has an answer that’s not only insightful, but useful in day-to-day baking in a commercial environment.

Tim the Baker
Tim's Best Q&A
Some parlors build their pies on a crust prepped from a mix. Some work with frozen dough, or use pre-baked crusts. With all the emphasis on speed and simplicity, is doing a dough from scratch ever worth the aggravation? Maybe the most important reason to even think about a scratch pizza crust dough is the fact that it may be your best opportunity to differentiate your product from the ones available on just about every corner in America. Building a crust from scratch provides you control; you change what you need to as you need to; quality, cost, and even identity are literally in your hands. Plus, it doesn’t need to be that hard.
I was taught to build my crusts from flour, water, yeast, and salt. Anything else was considered heresy. Am I limiting my options unnecessarily? You could expand your horizons almost infinitely by adding sugar, shortening, egg, milk, specialty flours, spices, or other flavorings to your repertoire.
Are there some flours that are better for one type of crust or another? The key to this one is protein content. The thinner the crust, the more protein content you’ll want. Most pizza people purchase flour in one of four ranges: 10-11%; 11-12%; 12-13%, and 13-14%. At the extremes, 10-11% would be a good choice for a deep dish crust; 13-14% ideal for a crispy thin crust.
What’s the big deal about pizza dough temperature? Probably the biggest “deal” is that it’s your key to consistency. Consistent dough temperatures translate into consistent crust quality. The challenge is that of the four factors that influence dough temperature --shop temperature, flour temperature, bowl friction, and water temperature -- only water temperature is immediately controllable by you. So, grab a thermometer. Assume an ideal dough temperature of 80 degrees. Assume that each of the other three factors involved (other than water, that is) should average 80. Then, if you know that the three other factors in fact measure: Shop = 70 (ST) Flour = 70 (BT) Bowl = 15 (hard to measure, so we used a rule of thumb here) Then 3 x 80 (or 240) – ST + FT + BF = water temperature required to produce a dough temperature of 80 under these conditions, or in this case, 85 degrees.

Sending Tim a question is as easy as e-mail. While he can’t answer every inquiry personally, you can be sure someone will get back to you, usually within 48 hours. You’ll want to return to this page periodically – it’s updated regularly!