I made the mistake of using probably too old active dry yeast (and didn’t test it prior to using it…says this ex-scientist in shame). The dough has been “rising” since noon yesterday and on this warm day in the Greater Boston area, I moved it outside and still no dice (hasn’t come even close to doubling). I never throw cooking failures out so I’ve prepared my household for the possibility of tough pizza tonight (which we’re going to grill).
But…is there something I can do to salvage this sad dough? Can I sprinkle newly-purchased yeast over the top and mix it in? Or do I accept my fate and hope that the toppings will avenge me (4 pizzas planned: (1) margherita with tomato sauce a la Lahey, (2) leftover sausage/broccoli/beans, (3) freshly prepped garlic scape pesto with…? (4) canned clam sauce with…?)
1.) add new yeast to a cup of warm water with a little sugar and let proof. You can do this with less but have no idea how much dough you’re dealing with.
2.) warm your dough to around 85°F and roll out 'till flat in a warm place.
3.) knead #1 into the dough, and you’ll most likely need 1.5x the flour to get the dough right.
Not sure how much time you have but I would toss the current pizza dough batch which didn’t form the gluten network (which won’t make really a pizza if you use) but start from scratch and use more a flour-yeast ratio similar to the 5-Minute a day bread and use the dough after 2 hours. Lahey’s dough uses less yeast and should go overnight to get a good pizza dough consistency
I might be tempted to mix a 1/2 tsp. of active dry yeast with 2 TBSP of warm water and a pinch of sugar. Let it activate and then massage into the dough. Then knead by hand with as much flour as you judge necessary and let rise. If you don’t want to start over again what do you have to lose.
Thank you all for your responses. I ended up trying to make a pan pizza, by baking it in a PSTOOO (proverbial ess-ton of olive oil). As predicted, the dough was tough but the guys didn’t seem to mind. One half was margherita-like, and the other half had B’s leftovers from last night (chicken sausage/broccoli/pinto bean).
The smoked Gouda didn’t make it on there. I was in a foul mood but reminded myself that SNAFUs happen and more important, people got fed.
Thanks again, Onions.
Some photographic evidence.
Pre-oven (which I was trying to avoid…guess we could have tossed it on the grill):
It’s always frustrating when that happens, but I would have done exactly what you did, and what the poster suggested re: the unleavened crust. In the long run, everyone got fed, were reasonably happy, and you’ll get it right next time.
