Rustic Italian Pizza Dough Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making good pizza dough? ›

There are many tricks to achieving a tasty, homemade pizza dough that rises into a beautiful pizza crust, such as making sure your ingredients are at right temperature, using half bread flour for a stronger dough and half all-purpose flour for a nice rise, substituting honey for sugar to help caramelize the crust and ...

For Crispy and Chewy Pizza Crust, Use 00 Flour

00 flour is finely ground Italian flour that contains about 12% protein, or 12% gluten. It's the traditional flour used to make Neapolitan-style pizza. Since its gluten content is similar to bread flour, it also produces a pizza crust with chew.

One of the tests bakers swear by is the windowpane test. To do this, break off a small piece of dough, pinch it between your fingers and gently stretch it. If it stretches into a paper-thin film without breaking, your dough is done and it's ready to be rolled out and put into the oven.

A baking steel helps the underside of your pizza brown and crisp to perfection. The recommended option is a baking steel, which most home pizza bakers prefer.

The Secret Ingredient to the Perfect Pizza: Fresh and Never Frozen Dough. Pizza is one of the most beloved foods in the world. It's hard to resist the lure of a crispy crust, gooey cheese, and savory toppings. But what many people don't realize is that the dough is the foundation of any great pizza.

Double Zero Flour From Italy

I discovered Antimo Caputo Chefs 00 Flour (double zero flour) through various cooking classes. I've used this 00 flour for years and it truly makes the best pizza dough, much better than all-purpose flour.

Compared to other Italian flour, Tipo 00 flour is the most refined and has the least fiber left. Tipo 00 flour normally has a gluten content of 12%. Tipo 00 is the best flour you can use for pizza.

Pizza makers prefer 00 flour because the high protein content and finely ground wheat help produce a flavorful pizza crust that is chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside, especially when they plan to cook the pizza in high-heat pizza ovens.

When you're going to use the refrigerated dough, take it out of the fridge at least 1 hour before you're planning to bake pizza, to let it come to room temperature. You can now use it just like any room temperature fermented pizza dough. Take the dough out from the fridge at least 1 hour prior to making the pizza.

How long should you let pizza dough rise? ›

Once you've made your pizza dough, you can place it in the fridge and let it rise overnight for up to 24 hours. Take it out of the fridge 20-30 minutes before you intend on using it to let it come to room temperature. This way, you can make your pizza dough the day before.

Before you begin stretching, warm up your cold dough for at least 30 minutes at room temperature. Gluten, the protein that makes pizza dough chewy, is tighter in cold conditions like the fridge, which is why cold pizza dough will stretch out and snap back just like a rubber band.

That's cornmeal, hands down. The main reason you sprinkle cornmeal or flour onto the bottom of your pizza tray or pizza stone is so that it will stick to the bottom of the pizza dough. This way when it cooks it won't stick to the pan.

Some operators turn to bakeable trays or metal pans as solutions, only to find that their inconsistent heat retention compounds crust sogginess challenges. Pizza stones, on the other hand, evenly retain and distribute heat for delicious high-heat oven crust crispness produced in any type of pizza oven.

If you're baking the pizza in the oven, whether on a pizza stone or not, I always pre-bake the dough for 4-5 minutes before adding toppings, to make sure the pizza dough cooks crisp on the outside and soft and airy in the middle. Once you add the Pizza Sauce and toppings, return it to the oven to finish baking.

Flour is the main ingredient in pizza dough, and the type you use can have a big effect on the end result. All-purpose flour will work fine, but if you want a chewier crumb and a better hole structure, you should consider buying yourself some high protein bread flour.

Pizza dough loves warmth, so if you can find a way to add some extra heat, your dough will rise faster. One way to do this is to preheat your oven to the lowest setting (usually around 200 degrees Fahrenheit) and then turn it off. Place your pizza dough in the warm oven for 10-15 minutes until it begins to rise.

Salt: Salt adds necessary flavor. Sugar: 1 Tablespoon of sugar increases the yeast's activity and tenderizes the dough, especially when paired with a little olive oil. Cornmeal: Cornmeal isn't in the dough, but it's used to dust the pizza pan. Cornmeal gives the pizza crust a little extra flavor and crisp.