2-Hour Bench Rise – New York Style Pizza
The most recent in my series of pizzas aimed at getting large voids in my crust rim ended in disappointment again today. I thought I was on to something with the changes I’d made to my dough handling and retarding. I had hoped that the bench rest was the key to void size. In that light, I varied only the amount of time that I allowed the dough to rest after it had come out of the refrigerator. I increased the rest time from one hour to two hours.
The rise was notable and I proceeded to stretch the dough carefully, not touching the rim. I placed the blank onto a 16 inch pizza screen and topped it with Neapolitan sauce, cheese and pepperoni. After baking for 9 minutes at 480 degrees, I removed the pizza from the oven and hurried to slice into the rim. Inside, I found the same small, tight voids that have been haunting me for months.
In frustration, I turned to my friends at pizzamaking.com and asked for suggestions. The most notable one was that it may be my bread maker causing the tight cell structure. Though I barely mixed this batch of dough, I want to eliminate that as a possibility by hand mixing my next batch.
The pizza tasted great and had a wonderful slice texture. I was otherwise very pleased with this pie. Here are some pictures of the final product.
