Pizza Dough
Three ingredients — flour, water, salt — and a fourth that does the actual work: time. The argument is about hydration, fermentation, and whether the home oven is even the right venue for what the dough wants to become.
The Working Recipe
Ingredients
- 00 flour (or bread flour)600 g
- Water (cool, 18°C / 65°F)390 g (65% hydration)
- Fine sea salt18 g (3%)
- Instant dry yeast2 g (0.3%)
Method
- 01
In a large bowl, whisk the yeast into the water until dissolved. Add the flour and mix with a wet hand until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest 20 minutes (autolyse).
- 02
Sprinkle the salt over the dough and add a splash of water. Pinch and fold the salt through until incorporated.
- 03
Over the next 90 minutes, perform 3 sets of stretch-and-folds in the bowl at 30-minute intervals. The dough should be smooth and airy by the end.
- 04
Cover and bulk-ferment at room temperature for 4–6 hours (cool kitchen) or until doubled and jiggly.
- 05
Tip onto a lightly floured surface, divide into 4 equal pieces, and shape each into a tight ball. Place into oiled containers, cover, and cold-ferment in the fridge for 24–48 hours.
- 06
2 hours before baking, pull the dough balls and let them come fully to room temperature. Stretch by hand (do not roll) and bake at the highest possible temperature on a preheated steel or stone.
Synthesized by Cookbook Conversations as a baseline working recipe. The arguments around it are the actual study. The conversation in the margins below is where the dish actually lives.
The Canonical Template
- 01
The Hydration
Combine flour, water, salt, and a small amount of yeast. The water-to-flour ratio determines the dough's eventual character: tight and crisp at the low end, open and blistered at the high end.
- 02
The Mix
Bring the ingredients together until just shaggy, rest, then develop gluten through folds rather than aggressive kneading. The dough should be smooth, supple, and slightly tacky.
- 03
The Bulk
Let the dough ferment as a single mass at room temperature until it has visibly grown and the surface is bubbled. Time is the active ingredient.
- 04
The Cold Proof
Divide into balls and rest under refrigeration for at least a day. Slow, cold fermentation builds flavor and a more extensible dough that opens by hand without snapping back.
No quantities. No times. The template is a skeleton — the conversation in the margins is the body.
The Arguments
Argument 01: Hydration Level
How wet should the dough be?
Manageable by hand, crisp underneath, open enough on top. The hydration most home cooks can actually handle (Bianco school).
— Chris BiancoHigher hydration is what gives Neapolitan and Forkish-style doughs their blistered, airy cornicione. Worth the difficulty in a hot enough oven (Forkish, Elements of Pizza).
— Ken ForkishArgument 02: Ferment Length
Same-day rise, or 24–48 hour cold proof?
Per Kenji's 10-day Pizza Lab test, the sweet spot is 3–5 days of cold fermentation. Under 24 hours tastes one-dimensional.
— J. Kenji López-AltForkish's pragmatic fallback: more yeast, a warmer room, and a pizza in six hours. Not his best dough, but a real one.
— Ken ForkishArgument 03: Flour Type
Italian 00, bread flour, or a blend?
Finely milled 00 produces the tender, foldable Neapolitan crumb — the AVPN specification for true Neapolitan pizza.
— Chris BiancoHigher-protein bread flour gives the structure needed for a 260°C / 500°F home oven; 00 needs much hotter than that to perform (Kenji, Serious Eats).
— J. Kenji López-AltArgument 04: Knead or Fold
Develop gluten by kneading, or by stretching and folding?
Gentle folds at intervals build strength without overheating or tearing the dough (Reinhart, The Bread Baker's Apprentice).
— Peter ReinhartA short, vigorous knead — by hand or mixer — develops gluten faster and frees up the long fermentation to do its work (general restaurant practice).
— Ken Forkish