Best-Ever Pizza Dough

By Tracy

4 Person

25 Minutes

0 Calories

So how can I call this Pizza Dough the Best Ever? It’s simple: this dough is mixed by hand without the need for a machine. It ferments overnight to give great flavor and texture and best of all the dough lasts up to 4 days in the fridge. At the end you get restuarant quality professional pizza. The results will be the BEST-EVER Pizza you make at home, I promise you that.

Ingredients

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 1/3 cups water
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. dried yeast
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Method

01

In a large bowl or a plastic container with a lid, add in the flour, salt and yeast. Do not add the yeast and salt directly on each other as this can deactivate the yeast. Mix all of your dry ingredients together well. Mix the oil into the water.
02

Pour the blood temperature water oil mix in all at once and stir with a wooden spoon or your hand, which is what I prefer so you can tell by the feel of the dough if you need more water early on. Adjust the water to your flour, do not over-wet it.
03

Mix it until all of the flour is incorporated into the dough and is hydrated. You don’t want any lumps of flour left dry. You can see it will be a wet, saggy dough.
04

With a spatula scrape the dough off the sides of the container to join the dough. Put the lid on the container tightly or cover your bowl with plastic wrap ensuring that no air gets into your dough as it rests. Air can cause the dough to form a skin which is not good for a dough.
05

Allow the dough to sit at room temperature and ferment for about 12-18 hours. Keep out of direct sunlight.
06

After the 18 hours if you are not planning on baking off the dough you can refrigerate the dough. The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days at this stage and baked off any time. While in the fridge the flavor will deepen over that time, developing sourdough characteristics.
07

The next day the dough will have more than doubled in size with lots of the bubbles on top. Also it will smell boozy and fermented. This is exactly what you want.
08

Dust your hands and the surface of the dough with a little flour, just enough to prevent it from sticking to your hands. Gently turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Don’t knock out the air from the dough.
09

Cut the dough into 4 pieces and using extra flour to handle if needed. Lightly knead each portion of dough just to form a ball. Allow resting on a floured board covered for 30 minutes. Your pizza dough is ready to use!
10

On a flat baking tray or pizza peel, dust it with flour or semolina. With floured hands gently stretch your pizza dough to 10 inches. You can also use a rolling pin to stretch it out. If you find the dough is springing back and is hard to stretch then let it rest for 10 minutes on the board.
11

Once you have gotten your desired thickness spread on your sauce and add your topping. Bake at 450 degrees F for roughly 10 minutes or until the base is crisp and golden brown.
12

Any dough that does not get used can be refrigerated or even frozen.

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Best-Ever Pizza Dough

4.4

( By Tracy )

01 Information

Grade easy
Serving 4 servings
Prep Time 15 Mins
Cook Time 10 Mins
Total Time 25 Mins

02 Ingredients

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 1/3 cups water

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. dried yeast

3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

03 Method

Step 1

In a large bowl or a plastic container with a lid, add in the flour, salt and yeast. Do not add the yeast and salt directly on each other as this can deactivate the yeast. Mix all of your dry ingredients together well. Mix the oil into the water.

Step 2

Pour the blood temperature water oil mix in all at once and stir with a wooden spoon or your hand, which is what I prefer so you can tell by the feel of the dough if you need more water early on. Adjust the water to your flour, do not over-wet it.

Step 3

Mix it until all of the flour is incorporated into the dough and is hydrated. You don’t want any lumps of flour left dry. You can see it will be a wet, saggy dough.

Step 4

With a spatula scrape the dough off the sides of the container to join the dough. Put the lid on the container tightly or cover your bowl with plastic wrap ensuring that no air gets into your dough as it rests. Air can cause the dough to form a skin which is not good for a dough.

Step 5

Allow the dough to sit at room temperature and ferment for about 12-18 hours. Keep out of direct sunlight.

Step 6

After the 18 hours if you are not planning on baking off the dough you can refrigerate the dough. The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days at this stage and baked off any time. While in the fridge the flavor will deepen over that time, developing sourdough characteristics.

Step 7

The next day the dough will have more than doubled in size with lots of the bubbles on top. Also it will smell boozy and fermented. This is exactly what you want.

Step 8

Dust your hands and the surface of the dough with a little flour, just enough to prevent it from sticking to your hands. Gently turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Don’t knock out the air from the dough.

Step 9

Cut the dough into 4 pieces and using extra flour to handle if needed. Lightly knead each portion of dough just to form a ball. Allow resting on a floured board covered for 30 minutes. Your pizza dough is ready to use!

Step 10

On a flat baking tray or pizza peel, dust it with flour or semolina. With floured hands gently stretch your pizza dough to 10 inches. You can also use a rolling pin to stretch it out. If you find the dough is springing back and is hard to stretch then let it rest for 10 minutes on the board.

Step 11

Once you have gotten your desired thickness spread on your sauce and add your topping. Bake at 450 degrees F for roughly 10 minutes or until the base is crisp and golden brown.

Step 12

Any dough that does not get used can be refrigerated or even frozen.

04 Author