Quick Rise Pizza Dough Vs 72 Hour Cold Fermented Pizza Dough

Simple, yet flavorful ingredients make for a fantastic pizza!

I love to experiment with food and see how different methods affect the flavor, texture and how it cooks. Surely pizza dough that is a quick rise, same day ferment will have differences when compared to a 72-96 hour cold fermented pizza dough.

My speculation is that the quick rise room temperature pizza dough will have a less chewy, tender texture and have a less developed flavor than that of the longer cold fermented dough. The cold fermented dough may have a more dense, chewy texture and I think it will brown better while baking. This is my first time as I’m writing this post doing this experiment and am very excited to see the results!

Now, let’s make some dough!

Once you learn how to use percentages when making pizza dough, you will never need to use a recipe again! Pizza dough is all about feel and you should be able to make a pizza without using a recipe after a few times of making a dough. Use your senses!

The following percentages are used when going off a specific weight for the flour. I use 500 g flour for 2 good size pizzas. In this experiment, you should make a batch of dough and let it cold ferment for the 72 to 96 hours. The 2 pizzas are going to be compared side by side for the experiment and a little planning is needed. Halving the amount of ingredients is something you may consider unless you want to have a good amount of pizza dough on hand. A good problem to have!

For example, 500 g flour x .65 = 325 g. This is the amount of water needed. The following shows the percentages for each ingredient needed going off the 500 g flour.

The water is 65 %

The salt is 1.5 %

The yeast is .2 %

Ingredients:

500 g 00 flour

325 mL water

7.5 g salt ( I typically go with 7 g)

1 g yeast

Tools needed:

Digital scale

Large mixing bowl

Large container with tight fitting lid

Pizza Stone or baking sheet

Pizza peel

Bench scraper

Wooden spoon

How to make it:

In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, water and yeast. The temperature of your water should be warm, around 90 degrees. If you’re in the summer months and your house is warmer, you may be able to get away with using room temperature water. Using your wooden spoon, mix the ingredients together until a shaggy dough is formed. Let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes. This step is autolyse. You can leave the yeast out at this time if you wish, though I like to add it in now. The salt will get added later.

After the autolyse period is done, lightly knead the dough in the bowl for about 1 minute, then on a floured work surface. Place the dough onto the work table and knead for around 2 minutes to get the gluten to develop. At this point in time, the salt can be added to the dough and can be continued to be kneaded for a few more minutes. The dough tends to be sticky in the beggining and I like to wet my hands with a little bit of water. Once you feel the gluten develop nicely and the starting to smooth out, place the dough into a well oiled container with good head room and coat the dough lightly with the oil. Cover the container and let sit for about 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes is done, stretch and fold the dough 4 times. To do this, you grab 1 corner of the dough, stretch the corner to the other side of the dough and rotate 90 degrees. Do this a total of 4 times and turn the dough over to place the seam side down. Let sit for 30 minutes. Repeat the process one more time letting the dough rest for 30 minutes before dividing the dough in half. You can weigh it out or go by eye. One half is going to stay in the same container, lid fit tightly and place in the refrigerator for 72 to 96 hours. The other half is going to be placed in the bowl that the shaggy dough got mixed in. In the beginning of this post, I recommended that you have some dough already made that has been cold fermenting for the allotted time. Make sure to oil the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes to 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size. How fast the dough rises depends on how warm the ambient temperature is. Warmer environment will make the dough rise quicker.

When you’re ready to make some pizza, remove the cold fermented dough from the refrigerator about 1 hour before you want to make the pizza. Shape the dough into a 11-12 inch pizza. If the dough wants to retract when shaping, cover and let sit for about 10 minutes before trying to shape again. Top with your favorite pizza toppings. For the sake of the experiment, keep the ingredients the same as you want the flavors to be the same when comparing the 2 pizzas. I like to use a pizza stone as it helps the crust get a little snappier. Bake 425 for about 15-18 minutes. For the quick rise pizza dough, let rise in a warm place until doubled in size and repeat the above step to make the pizza.

Let both pizzas cool to a comfortable temperature before trying.

When I did this experiment, I found the cold fermented dough has more flavor and browned a little bit more with the same bake time. The quick rise dough rose more before baking and during baking resulting in a thicker pizza. It also had more of a tender bite to it. The cold fermented dough was a little more chewy with a better crisp factor to the crust with less rise and thinner pizza. Overall I like both pizza doughs and the end results of the finished pizzas. Both were good in their own ways. I like the flavor of the cold fermented dough better and liked the texture of the quick rise better. If I had to choose between the two, I’d say it depend on a few bullet points. How many people I’m making pizza for and if I know I have a to plan to make some pizza. For that I’d go for the cold fermented dough because all the hard work is done prior and all that has to be done on the day of baking is forming, topping and baking the pizza. Alternatively, if I want some pizza on a whim, the quick rise pizza dough is exceptional and can be done within a few hours.

Tell me what method you like better!

Enjoy

Logan