Summary
The recipe involves preparing dough, fermenting it, and making dough balls. The steps include dissolving salt in water, mixing water with yeast, honey, and olive oil, adding flour to a bowl, using a stand-mixer, and resting the dough.
The dough is then folded and stretched multiple times over two hours, and then fermented for 24-72 hours in the fridge.
4 hours prior to baking the pizzas the dough is taken out of the fridge and turned into dough balls.
Ingredient List
This recipe yields four 13” pizzas.
| Ingredient | How much |
| Cold water | 2 cups / 450 ml |
| Salt | 1 tablespoon / 20 grams |
| Dried Yeast | 1/2 teaspoon / 2 grams |
| Honey | 2 tablespoons / 15 grams |
| Olive Oil | 1 tablespoon / 20 ml |
| '00 Flour | 3.5 cups / 750 grams |
Ingredients can be listed twice or more
Replace yeast however you see fit.
If you're making the pizza in a pizza oven (and not a grill or home oven) then leave out the honey to avoid burning the crusts.
Recipe Overview
Prepare Dough 24 to 72 hours prior to pizza baking
Ferment the dough
Make Dough Balls 4 hours prior to pizza baking
Step by Step
Mixing the water with the the ingredients makes it easier to mix with the flour.
If you’re mixing by hand, then do the opposite. Add the water first, then add the flour.
Dissolve 20 gr salt with 100 ml water. Let sit.
This will help the salt to be absorbed into the dough when we incorporate the two. No salt chunks that can hurt the gluten formation.
I like to add about 1/5th of the water at a time waiting 15 seconds between each.
Scrape the sides as necessary.
It’s important that the salt is fine, and not in grains. Otherwise it will not incorporate properly.
Use the knead setting on your stand mixer, or what the speed corresponds to.
This step is not about kneading the dough, but mixing all the ingredients properly.
This makes it easier to hydrate, and allows the flour to incorporate.
If kneading, then knead the dough for 10-15 minutes.
If using the stretch/fold method, see the methodology here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cd0Mh7FyVQ
You want to:
Add a tiny bit of water to your hands to avoid sticking to the dough
Let it stretch by hanging. Only stretch it by using your hands if necessary.
Do all four sides
Don’t worry too much about making a round ball.
If you’re having trouble doing the fold and stretch, then it’s likely your dough isn’t wet enough, and you should add a bit of water to the mix.
Start 5 hours before pizza baking.
You don’t want to handle the dough while it’s too cold. It’ll make it hard to form the dough balls properly.
Important, try to keep the top of the dough, well, the top. It has formed a sort of crust that will help keep the air inside the dough when it’s turned into a ball.
Just do it by eye. Cut it in half, and then cut each half in half again.
1 → 2 → 4 and bingo.
Some recipes call for a scale to do this, but it’s overkill. We’re not feeding the queen here (+ if one of the pizzas is slightly bigger than the others, then that’s yours 😉):
There are many methods (see this article), but I like to fold it over itself or simply just roll the balls.
If I need them to sit for four or more hours, I’ll try to do it in a cold room.
Now you can bake your pizzas.
I love pizza. I have every tool from the stone, steels or the ooni. I’ve made pizzas at home, in pizzerias, on the grills or camping.
Detailed Tips
Hand vs Stand Mixing
There is little difference in the result when we make it like this.
Salt in at the End Helps Gluten Formation
I read it in a book once, and I feel it’s helped me with making better pizzas.
Adding the salt to the almost finished dough makes for a more flexible dough.
Fold and Stretch Method Saves Energy, but Takes Time
If you’re in a rush, then the fold and stretch method can be stressful. But if you have two hours, then it’s foolproof and safe way to “knead” your dough.
Over the folds you’ll see how the dough smoothens out, and develops the gluten. After the final stretch you’ll be able to perform the window pane test to perfection.
I could never get my dough 100% perfect with kneading (machine or hand). I would overknead one day, and underknead another.
The stretch and fold took all complexity out of the process leaving me with perfect pizza. Try it!
Expert Tips for Perfect Pizza Dough
Over the years I’ve collected a series of small nuggets on how to make the best possible pizza dough. Here are the tips I wish I had known before I started making pizza:
With these tips, recipes, and techniques, you are well on your way to creating fantastic pizza dough that will elevate your homemade pizzas to a whole new level. Happy baking!
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