How do I make a sweet tasting dough for a dessert pizza?
You can modify your regular pizza dough for use in making a dessert pizza with the following changes:
_ Replace the olive oil or vegetable oil in the formula with butter, or table grade margarine, at a level of 8 percent of the flour weight. This will provide a richer flavor.
_ Add or increase the sugar level to 15 percent of the flour weight. This will provide the level of sweetness needed in a sweet tasting dessert pizza crust.
_ Increase the yeast level to the equivalent of 5 percent compressed yeast, this will equal 2.5 percent active dry yeast, or 1.75 percent instant dry yeast. This is necessary to ensure good yeast activity in the presence of the higher sugar level.
While whole eggs could be added to the dough, I don’t encourage you to do this as it allows for the possibility of cross contamination of other foods with raw eggs, which can lead to potentially serious microbial issues.
When putting your dough ingredients together in the mixing bowl, hold the butter or margarine back and add it after the dough has had a chance to mix for three or four minutes. This will significantly shorten the dough mixing time. Mix the dough just until it forms a smooth ball in the mixer. The finished dough temperature should be between 80 and 85 F. Scale the dough and form into balls, wipe with a butter-flavored oil, and place in dough boxes. Cross stack the dough boxes in the cooler for about 2 hours, then down stack the boxes and cover the top box to prevent drying. On the following day, remove the dough from the cooler and allow it to warm at room temperature for about 1 hour, then shape into skins. Allow the shaped skins to rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes, then dock the dough and par-bake it at 375 to 400 F, just until the structure is fully set. Invert the par-baked crusts on a screen and allow to cool. After cooling, the crusts can be stacked for storage, covered to prevent drying, and used over the next couple of days to make dessert pizzas.