re: My Pizza Dough Always Turns Out Tough

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Dissolve salt and yeast in 95 degree water.

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This might be your issue, depending on the yeast, the salt could be killing it off.

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Let sit for 20 minutes. Knead dough and let sit for 2 hours.

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Make dough balls and refrigerate for 18-24 hours.

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There are many different methods of dough handling. But it is also possible that letting the dough sit out and then cooling it, if the yeast is still good, it could be consuming a majority of the sugars in the dough before you get around to cooking it.

For our method, we strive to get the dough balled and in the cooler in less than 20 minutes, cross stack the dough for 1.5 hours to allow it to cool down and allow condensation to escape from the containers. Then close the dough up for overnight up to 3 days.

Here is another variable that I forgot to mention: I parbake my crusts in a 400 degree oven for 3 minutes or so to get it where I can easily slide off the peel onto my stone after all the toppings are added. I’ve read that this is acceptable and shouldn’t affect the final product, but I’m wondering…

I don’t add salt til after the dough rests about 30 minute after the initial mix. Think salting the water may be throwing off the dough

Try adding 14g of diastatic malt powder to your flour and yeast in the bowl, then the water, and give it a mix. Rest the covered dough for 30 min, then add 19g kosher salt and give it another quick mix

I used to temp the water and activate the yeast and all that, I’ve had better results throwing it all in there at once with room temp water

Are you using dry yeast or live yeast?

If you are temping water to 95 degree and using dry yeast, then the temp might not be hot enough to activate and fully develop. Hot water between 105 and 115 is ideal for proofing dry yeast.

Sounds like you are going to have to experiment with trial and error. Suggests of moisture others have given could be the culprit too. Pics look great though.

Is there a way to test my yeast to see if it’s dead? The can says it’s well within date, and I keep it in the refrigerator, but who knows.

Based on your recipe I assume you’re getting it from Ken Forkish’s Element of Pizza. He has videos on YouTube that may be worth watching.

I was having similar problems and realized I was using the wrong yeast. I have switched to the correct yeast and increased the amount of yeast in my dough as well.