How to Use a Dough Tray

Dough trays provide a convenient way to manage pizza dough.

Pizza dough and bread dough are very similar, and the same recipe can be used for both. However, the requirements of a bread bakery and a pizzeria are very different. In a bakery, the bread is baked in batches at specific times, and then sent out to be sold at wholesale or retail. In a pizzeria, the demand for dough is sporadic but ongoing. There is a clear need for ways to keep a quantity of dough prepared and ready for use, but held without drying in the cooler. This is done with dough trays.

Things You'll Need

• Mixer
• Pizza dough
• Kitchen scale, or bakery balance scale and weights
• Dough trays and dolly
• Cooking spray or flour

Instructions

1. Prepare a batch of pizza dough in a mixer. Allow it to rise as a bulk dough until nearly doubled, then punch it down either by hand or in the mixer.

2. Turn out the dough on the counter. Place a digital or balance scale near your work area. If you are working with a balance scale, prepare it for the desired weight of dough by adding counterweights.

3. Portion and scale the dough as needed. The weight will vary depending on the size and crust style of your pizzas. For example a 1-lb. dough ball will make a vary large thin crust pizza, but only a medium deep-dish pizza.

4. Shape the dough balls into rounds, and transfer them to clean dough trays that have been lightly sprayed with cooking spray or dusted with flour. A standard dough tray will hold six large dough balls, or more depending on size. Allow room for each dough ball to double in size.

5. Repeat until the dough is all used up, or all the dough trays are full. Stack the dough trays on their wheeled dolly, crisscrossing them rather than nesting them.

6. Wheel the stack of dough trays into a walk-in cooler, and allow the dough balls to cool for at least one hour, or longer for larger portions. Once the dough has cooled, stack the drawers so that they all point the same way, nesting the lower trays under upper trays and sealing out the air. This prevents the dough from drying. Cover the top tray with a lid.

7. Remove the trays one at a time as needed, during service. Check the dough every hour to ensure that is rising adequately, but not too much. If the dough is slow, it should come to the kitchen a little earlier so it has time to warm up. If the dough is rising too quickly, move it to a cooler portion of the walk-in or put in the freezer for 30 minutes to slow the yeast.

Tips & Warnings

• The most common material for dough trays is thin plastic, which is lightweight, easy to clean and cools fairly quickly. Wooden trays are less common now, but help dry the crust slightly and make it more crisp when it bakes. Stainless steel trays chill the dough quickly, but are heavier to work with.

References

• PMQ Pizza Magazine; What's with the Wood Dough Trays???; May/June 2004
• Encyclopizza Chapter 5; Pizza Dough-making; John Cornell; 2002
• Encyclopizza Chapter 6; Pizza Dough Management; John Cornell; 2002