Pizza Dough
Sixty-five per cent hydration means 325 ml of water to 500 g of flour — wet enough for an open, airy rim, dry enough to stay manageable in your hands. The yeast is deliberately minimal: the flavour does not come from it but from a day in the fridge, where enzymes break the starch down into sugars.
- Prep
- 30 min
- Rest
- 26 h
- Total
- 26 h 30 min
- Servings
- 2
- Level
- Medium
- Per serving
- 930 kcal
Ingredients
Makes: dough for 2 pizzas, 30 cm each
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Autolyse first
Mix the flour and water until no dry patches remain and leave it for 30 minutes. The flour hydrates by itself and the kneading time halves.
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Step 2: Yeast, then salt
Work in the yeast, then the salt a minute later, and the oil at the end. Salt slows yeast down, so the yeast gets a head start.
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Step 3: Knead for 10 minutes
Knead until the dough is smooth and springy. It stays slightly tacky, which is normal at 65% hydration.
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Step 4: Check the gluten
Stretch a piece between your fingers: it should go thin enough to see light through without tearing. If it tears, knead 3 minutes more.
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Step 5: Bulk ferment
Cover and leave at room temperature for 2 hours, until the dough has visibly grown, by about half again.
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Step 6: Divide into balls
Split into two 420 g pieces and roll each into a tight ball, pinching the seam underneath. A slack ball spreads into a pancake instead of holding its height.
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Step 7: A day in the fridge
Put the balls in a closed container for 24 hours, up to 48 if you like. The dough softens and starts to smell of bread and yogurt — that smell is the flavour.
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Step 8: Warm up and stretch
Take it out 2 hours before baking: cold dough will not stretch, it snaps back. Press out from the centre with your fingers, leaving the outer 2 cm alone — all the gas has collected there and a rolling pin would crush it. Bake at your oven's maximum, 250–280 °C, on a preheated stone.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Baker's maths is simple: water divided by flour. 325 ÷ 500 = 65%. Want it thinner and crisper, go to 60%; want a more open crumb, go to 70%, but the dough gets noticeably stickier.
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Tip
Whatever your oven's maximum is, that is the minimum pizza wants. Give a stone or steel at least 45 minutes to heat through.
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Variation
No fridge space? The same 3 g of yeast will give you usable dough in 4–5 hours at room temperature. Simpler flavour, but a real pizza.
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Storage
The balls keep 3 days in the fridge and a month in the freezer. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then 2 hours at room temperature.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 2 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 930 kcal | 1,860 kcal |
| Protein | 26 g | 52 g |
| Fat | 9 g | 18 g |
| Carbohydrates | 188 g | 376 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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