This is my current weekly routine when it comes to making dough.
This dough is based on the dough that Vito makes with some YouTuber. You can watch the video here, and I’m staying pretty true to the method, but during the colder months, I have to make some adjustments to get a better rise.
View the original video here.
https://youtu.be/OjsCEJ8CWlg?si=RJhc-FuOoy7RG9fA
I’m typically making four pizzas each Sunday. I’m trying to get 4 balls, about 280g+, depending on how things rise. This recipe is based on that.
Step 1 Poolish
About 16-24 hours before you assemble your dough, you need to make your poolish. Poolish is a pre-ferment that is included in your final dough. I was scared to make a poolish but dove in one weekend and was quickly surprised that it’s not hard or scary at all. If I’m having pizza on a Sunday for dinner, then I usually start my Poolish around 3pm the previous day.
Poolish ingredients:
- 200 grams of water room temp
- 5 grams of honey
- 5 grams of yeast
- 200 grams of 00 or AP flour
Use a kitchen scale and make sure you measure things accordingly. Then its time to combine!
Combine yeast and honey with water:
Add your yeast to your water and let it bloom for about 5 minutes. You can also add your honey here and make sure it’s all dissolved before you add it to your flour.
Add water and flour:
In a small bowl add your flour first then mix in your water/yeast/honey mixture (DONT FORGET TO MAKE SURE ITS COMBINED)
- Mix until everything is incorporated. Its going to be sticky. I use a spatula and make sure everything is incorporated.
- Let it sit for 15 minutes, uncovered.
- Seal it and let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour. You can use a lid if your bowl has one or some plastic wrap
- Place in the fridge overnight for 16 – 24 hours but nothing more; otherwise, it will become acidic.
A short time later
When it’s time to make the dough, remember to take the poolish out of the fridge about an hour before you want to start working with it to bring it up to room temp.
Now its time to make your dough. Here is what you’ll need.
- Poolish, recipe above
- 300 grams of Manitoba flour or bread flour
- 200 grams of 00 or AP flour
- 300 grams of water
- 20 grams of salt
Note: I’ve run this recipe without using the Manitoba flour and using the same portion of Caputo 00 Blue Pizzeria flour. It works out fine. I will say I’ve since picked up some Manitoba flour to use in this recipe, and while the taste is pretty much the same. The dough feels like its a bit more resilient while stretching. The chew is good once cooked as well, still soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside.
Assembling the dough
- Add all the poolish, bread flour, and 00 flour in a large bowl. If you are using all 00 flour then add it here too.
- In a measuring cup, add water and salt. Mix to dissolve the salt.
- Integrate the flour into the polish while adding the water little by little. When doing this, I do it with a single hand while keeping the other hand clean to pour the water.
- You should have a very wet dough once all of the water has been added.
- Now, dump the dough onto a clean work surface and start working on it. There are lots of pizza dough kneading videos online. You should check those out and see what works for you.
- After you have worked the dough, you should be left with a more cohesive yet shaggy dough. Cover it with a little bit of oil and let it sit for 15 minutes.
- Now, gently detach the dough from the counter and shape it into a tight ball. Again, there are some great videos on YouTube about this. Plus, just getting in there and making balls is the best learning method.
- Cover with olive and a damp towel. Let it sit for 1 hour. Now, if you are running a room temp that is cold or it’s the fall and your house room temp is on the cooler side. Consider placing your covered dough ball in the oven with the door cracked and the light on.
- Now that the dough is ready, cut it into 280 – 300 gram pieces. Gently shape it into a ball. From experience, your size might vary a bit depending on how things rise. Just try to get them to all be the same weight here.
- Place the dough balls onto a baking tray, keeping them four fingers apart.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 1 – 2 hours.
- Now make some pizza!
In conclusion
Making your own dough isnt tough, but it takes a bit of practice and some forethought. There are, of course many dough recipes and techniques out there. Sure this makes a good dough. But you should also do your own research by making a batch every week to dial in your preffered methods and recipe. Everybody likes a bit different style of pizza or try a new style.
Except Chicago style, thats not pizza.