Welcome to our guide on handling the Signature by Country Range Doughballs – the perfect base for creating a variety of delicious, oven-fresh dishes! Whether you’re baking up classic pizzas, mouth-watering garlic breads, or creative calzones, our doughballs offer convenience and quality that save you time while delivering exceptional results.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the best practices for handling, storing, and baking these versatile doughballs to ensure every dish is a success. Let’s get started!
Thawing
Thaw the dough balls in the chiller for 10 to 16 hours by placing them in a plastic dough tray. Make sure to leave some space between the doughballs to allow for proofing.
Stack the dough boxes in a straight manner, ensuring there are no gaps between them. This step is crucial to prevent the dough from drying up and forming a crust. Please ensure top tray is covered, ideally by empty dough box and stack stored off the floor. If feasible, its good practice to check the dough every 6 hours and rotate the stack if needed.
Once the dough is fully defrosted, it can be kept in the chiller for 18 hours for proofing and use.
Proofing
Remove trays from the chiller to the kitchen as needed, allowing at least 2 hours, for the dough to proof at room temperature (20°C – 22°C). Millennium recommends 4 hour+ proofing in room temperature for optimal performance.
A properly proofed doughball will feel firm and springy when pressed, returning to its original shape when poked.
An underproofed dough ball will resemble “playdough” with no bounce back at all.
An overproofed dough ball will be aerated and increased in volume but won’t return to its original shape, collapsing when prodded.
An perfectly and fully proofed doughball should roughly double in size.
Please be aware that when proofing dough in a stack, trays should be rotated, as the bottom and top tray tend to proof faster than the middle one. If the dough seems a bit wet or you need to accelerate the process, cross-stack the trays, but be cautious of crust development.
In general, underproofed dough can be returned to the fridge and used up until end of chilled shelf life.
Leftover dough that is fully or overproofed should be discarded at the end of service.
Stretching
Using a scraper, lift the doughball out of the proofing box and place it on a flat surface dusted with a mixture of semolina and flour, or rice flour.
Using your fingertips, gently press the dough while turning it at the same time to form the outer rim, being careful not to deflate the dough ball. Any holes in the base should be fixed by pinching, and any large bubbles should be pierced with a firm pinch as well.
Top the pizza as required, then lift it with a floured peel and place it on the stone oven floor.
Baking
Bake the pizza in stonebake for 5 minutes at 300°C, with bottom heat at 60% and top heat at 40% turning occasionally to achieve even bake. The crust should be airy and golden brown.
