I have worked with sourdough starter - on and off - for about 20 years. It's close to being somewhat of a love/hate relationship. Maybe more like a love/I don't like you today relationship.

When sourdough works, it provides the best flavor, texture, and appearance. It can be a little finicky, especially if you don't dote over it. Which I don't. I keep the house too warm or too cold. I don't feed often enough or introduce too much air and it starts developing new bacteria. I'm always able to go back to the mother and start a new active batch and everything is groovy again, but I know that I'm not as attentive as I need to be for optimal results.

This is all a delicate way to say that there have been some failures on intended pizza nights and I end up ordering pizza delivery or slamming together an alternate meal when the dough just sits. And of course, the next night the dough is perfect and ready to go. Fortunately those outcomes have been few and far between. However, they kind of hang over your head causing an underlying stress every time you attempt a bake.

I'm happy to say that I haven't experienced an epic fail for quite some time and have a fairly predictable process. The key is the cold ferment - that extended rise in the refrigerator. Since you start your dough on Tuesday for a Saturday bake, you can watch it over the next few days and be sure that it is rising and will be ready on your pizza day. If the dough looks stuck, you can even pull it out of the fridge for a few hours to give the yeast a chance to get more active and then putting it back to cold ferment further. While I had used cold ferments in the past, I never went beyond a couple days. Observing what many pizzaiolos do, I discovered that three, four, five or more days of cold fermenting allows for a lighter, more delicate crust with exceptional flavor (and provides a window into your dough's development for a surprise-free bake).

The basic process is this: mix ingredients, knead, rest, short knead, cold ferment bulk dough for 24 hours; make dough balls, cold ferment for another three days, remove from refrigerator a few hours before bake and you're ready to make pizza goodness. Easy, right? Yes. Fool proof? Ummmmm...

On sourdough recipes, I have had a lot of success with this process. But, I did have one batch recently that took an additional day for reasons unknown. Which got me thinking. 

Cold ferment adds to flavor, texture, and digestibility. Sourdough already has a head start in these areas, but what about a dry yeast recipe? Could you take away the rising issues while adding in the flavor and texture qualities just by using the same method?

I made my dry yeast recipe on a Tuesday, putting the bulk dough in a sealed container into the refrigerator for 24 hours. Despite sitting in a cold environment, the dough nearly doubled in the container. On Wednesday, I took it out and let it rest and warm up a bit. While I don't actually let it come to room temperature, the less cold it is, the easier it is to form into balls. With the balls formed in the dough pan, it goes back into the fridge where I don't even look at it until Saturday morning to see this...

After letting the dough warm to room temperature, they were a dream to work with. Opening the dough balls to form the pizza was about as easy as it comes. It opened easily and the dough stretched well without tearing. 

The crust developed a nice char and had that light while crispy texture I look for in my sourdough crust. The flavor, while not quite sourdough level, was very good nonetheless. Certainly miles above the same recipe when prepared and baked in a single day. 

That's all well and good, but if it's not repeatable nothing has been gained.

So, the next week I tried it again and even let the dough go for additional days. While six days is still within the success window, it's pushing it. Four days has been the sweet spot while five days still provides great results.

Over a few test batches, my process wasn't always consistent, which is good, because I'm not either. On the first attempt, I put the bulk dough ball in the refrigerator as soon as I formed it after the second short knead. The dough never really doubled although it had risen some before I took it out the second day to form into balls. I was taking that into consideration on the second attempt and left the container out before putting it into the refrigerator. 

Then I forgot about it.

I had been upgrading one of my computers and the dough sat out for several hours. It had visibly risen by the time I remembered it and the next day it had more than doubled. Like, more than I was comfortable with. I was in some new territory here. 

I had been planning to have my friends over for a socially distanced pizza night and decided to do another batch of dough as backup even though I knew it would be one day behind.

Come Saturday, the original dough batch was fine. It had slowly risen and by the afternoon had developed nice air bubbles meaning it was ready to go. The extra couple hours at room temp and increased initial bulk rise had no adverse effect. The backup batch wasn't quite there, but I had thrown a curve on that one since it was one day behind. Also since I always use the Antimo Caputo 00 Blu flour, I wanted to experiment a bit with the backup batch by using a high gluten bread flour. I did end up using one of the bread flour balls and I could tell it wasn't quite ready. Despite sitting out for four or so hours, I popped that dough batch back into the refrigerator and by the next night it was ready to go.

This backup batch was quite the surprise. While definitely not a Napoletana dough it made for a completely different pizza. The high gluten flour made for a light, chewy crust that puffed up considerably in the oven. The areas where air bubbles developed on the edges charred in the high heat. While neapolitan crust will be somewhat chewy, it retains some crunch on the outside. These bread flour ones weren't crispy at all - and not in a bad way. 

While I do like this recipe and will likely do a batch to add in a few of these pizzas to the regular pizza night (leaving a number of balls left over to make sandwich rolls), I prefer the standard Neapolitan dough. 

That's not to say this won't be the favorite of others. I usually run a pizza over to my next door neighbor when I'm doing bakes. Typically she doesn't give any feedback on whether she liked it. I assume she did, but really didn't know. After dropping off a cheese and sun-dried tomato pesto pizza with the bread flour, she texted me a short time later raving about it, especially the crust.

They say "know your audience" so this may become part of the rotation if more people like this recipe.

Short recipe variation aside, the four day cold ferment process is proving to be both consistent and as good in taste and texture as the sourdough. Purists may argue that point, and there will likely be a slight edge to the sourdough in a side by side comparion, but otherwise I find it difficult to justify sourdough when the end result of a more consistent process is so close.

I'm keeping an open mind and will experiment more, but I feel confident enough in the results thus far to share.