Recipe #

Ingredients #

• Flour (ideally 00)
• Salt (non iodized - kosher salt, sea salt)
• Yeast (Fresh, Active Dry, or Instant Dry)
• Water

Tools #

Making a pizza is a combination of art and science - science part requires exact measurements, starting with volume/weight of ingredients. Use a kitchen scale, eyeballing ingredients doesn’t work.

Pizza Dough Amount Calculator #

Variables:

Ingredients Needed:

Prep Tools #

• kitchen weighing scale
• contact instant thermometer
• sharp knife or bench scraper
• stand mixer or about 12-20 minutes of intense kneading by hand
• large non reactive mixing bowl
• cling wrap
• proofing box or a flat container with enough space

Baking Tools #

• Wood Fired/Propane Outdoor Oven
• Household Oven - Pizza Steel
• Pizza Peel (metal - wood peel is too thick and leads to sticky pizza)

Prep #

Planning in advance helps, ideally start about 48-72 hours before consuming pizza, at least 24 hours will produce decent results, for raises less than 24 hours - double amount of Yeast and skip fridge part.

Mix #

• Mix tap water with salt, make sure salt is completely dissolved in cold water.

  ignore instructions on yeast packet about water temperature,water temperature should be in 12℃ - 20℃ range. For long rise we do not want yeast to go nuts right off the bat.

• add about 5-7% of flour in water and dissolve it completely using hand or whisk
• add yeast and dissolve completely
• add remainder of the flour and get kneading

Knead #

• knead for ideally 20, at least 10-12 minutes by hand or stand mixer

Use a watch/timer to keep track of time, even though it feels like forever it usually is not enough. Kneading this dough by hand is hard, you should feel tired by the end of it, there is a reason why people who do this for a living have strong arms.

• at the end dough should be soft and bounce back on touch

Ferment #

Phase 1: Room Temp Rise #

• take a clean mixing bowl and oil it lightly
• drop the dough ball in the mixing bowl and cover it with plastic wrap
• let it sit at room temperature for 8-10 hours

Phase 2: Fridge Rise #

• once it doubles in size, place it in the fridge for at least 24 and up to 72 hours

this is the time where dough ball develops complex nutty flavors, this part is the difference between a bland taste and a nutty, earthy taste

Cut #

• Take dough out from bowl onto a clean lightly floured work surface
• use a sharp knife or bench scraper and a weigh scale to cut pieces of same weight as defined in recipe
• form them into tout dough balls using lower edge (where the pinkie finger is) of hand.

Phase 3: Proof #

• coat bottom of your proofing box liberally with flour
• place balls with enough space between them into the box
• let the dough balls proof for 3-4 hours at room temperature

over proofing can lead to dough that is not easy to handle, if that happens you can rescue it using this technique from Modernist Cuisine

Baking #

Turn On Oven #

Roll #

• cover work surface with flour

• throw some flour on the ball

• use bench scraper or sharp knife to cut dough ball (flattened at this point)

• create a ridge of sorts by pressing a ring on the outer edge

• press down the middle and let it expand

  flouring the dough ball and work surface is critical for this, at no point dough should stick to your hands or work surface

• pick it up and use your knuckles to stretch out thick areas gently

  this step takes practice, yield from first batch might be low - around 50% it is recommended to make more so some can go to waste in name of science.

Result may look like this:

Top #

wait until last pizza is done before placing new one on peel, if pizza sits on peel for too long moisture from sauce leaks to bottom and makes it sticky and impossible to slide off the peel.

• Ensure pizza peel is completely dry
• Coat pizza peel lightly with flour
• Slide pizza peel under rolled pizza dough in a one swift motion
• top with with sauce
• add toppings
• give peel a gental lateral shake, your pizza should move freely on the peel

if pizza sticks to peel, you can try salvaging it by picking up the corner that sticks and blowing some dry flour under it

Bake #

Result: #

disclaimer