Pizza Dough
Three days in the fridge, a hot stone, and dough shaped by hand so the rim keeps its air.
- Prep
- 25m
- Cook
- 8m
- Waiting
- 48h 20m
- Total
- 48h 53m
- Serves
- 4 x 250 g bases
- Effort
- Moderate
Scale
Units
Method
| 600 g | 1 Mix and leave 20 minutes before adding the salt 25m The rest lets the flour hydrate before the salt tightens the gluten. | 2 Knead 8 minutes, then rest 1 hour 1h 10m | 3 Ball up and cold-prove 48–72 hours 48h Flavour, extensibility and blistering all come from this. | 4 Stretch by hand from the centre out, leaving the rim alone 5m A rolling pin crushes the gas out of the edge. Use your knuckles. | 5 Bake at the hottest your oven goes, on a preheated stone 8m 45 minutes of preheat. Domestic ovens brown a pizza in 6–9 minutes at best. | |
| 390 g | ||||||
| 2 g | ||||||
| 15 g | ||||||
| 1 tbsp | ||||||
| for the peel | ||||||
| sparingly | ||||||
- 1
Mix and leave 20 minutes before adding the salt
25m- strong white flour 600 g
- water 390 g
- instant yeast 2 g
The rest lets the flour hydrate before the salt tightens the gluten.
- 2
Knead 8 minutes, then rest 1 hour
1h 10m- from 1 Mix and leave 20 minutes before adding the salt
- fine salt 15 g
- olive oil (optional) 1 tbsp
- 3
Ball up and cold-prove 48–72 hours
48h- from 2 Knead 8 minutes, then rest 1 hour
Flavour, extensibility and blistering all come from this.
- 4
Stretch by hand from the centre out, leaving the rim alone
5m- from 3 Ball up and cold-prove 48–72 hours
- semolina for the peel
A rolling pin crushes the gas out of the edge. Use your knuckles.
- 5
Bake at the hottest your oven goes, on a preheated stone
8m- from 4 Stretch by hand from the centre out, leaving the rim alone
- toppings sparingly
45 minutes of preheat. Domestic ovens brown a pizza in 6–9 minutes at best.
Why three days
Cold fermentation does two useful things at once. Flavour compounds accumulate from slow enzymatic activity, and the gluten relaxes enough that the dough stretches instead of springing back. A same-day dough can be good; it cannot be extensible and flavourful at the same time.
Notes
- Weigh the water. Hydration is the one variable that changes everything here.
- Preheat the stone for 45 minutes, not 10. It is a heat battery, and the base is cooked by conduction.
- Top it lightly. Excess moisture is the single most common cause of a soggy middle.