my go-to pizza dough recipe
my go-to pizza dough recipe
the most consistent way to make dough -- seriously.
The one way I make dough consistently.
And that is the method I’m about to describe to you now. It’s an ambient temperature (pretty much meaning, room temperature or whatever temp your room is at) dough recipe that involves very little kneading or thought. You can use this recipe to make 4 dough balls or 14 dough balls, completely up to you.
Credit goes where credit is due.
I honestly was all over the place with my pizza dough recipe before. I would try a bunch of recipes from books like “The Elements of Pizza” by Ken Forkish (fantastic book, by the way), but I never felt confident with a recipe that I could pull off over and over again.
But one day as I was scrolling through Instagram, I stumbled upon a dough recipe that Ben (@mushypeaz) shared that used only a “room temperature” ferment, meaning that the dough literally sat out on the counter until it was ready to be used. This following Instagram post back in October 2023 inspired me to try out an ambient temp dough recipe and the rest is history. I messaged Ben as an accountability message to myself moreso to try out the recipe. You can see the quick exchange below.
Using the recipe above, I experimented with my own proportions and ingredients until I felt like I got it right every time. It was like a Lego piece clicked into place.
Before I get to the recipe, I’ll also shoutout @akpizzaguy for really pushing ambient temp dough on Instagram as well. It’s been fantastic seeing all the truly incredible pies he posts on a regular basis. Check him out below.
Let’s get to it.
The end results of ambient temperature dough are fantastic. You get a nice crisp and crunch with a decent amount of flavor development still because the dough has enough time to ferment slowly. The key is LOW amount of yeast. It might seem like you’re measuring out not nearly enough yeast but trust me, you are.
26ish hour RT (room temperature) pizza dough
ingredients:
- 524.34 grams 00 flour (or bread flour)
- 340.82 grams water (room temp)
- 14.68 grams salt
- 0.16 grams instant dry yeast (about 1/16 tsp if you can measure that small)
notes:
Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl roughly, at least until all the wet and dry ingredients are combined without dry spots.
Rest 20 minutes with a tea towel covering the bowl.
Coil fold or stretch and fold every 30 minutes for 2 hours. That’s a total of 4 stretch and folds. See here for a Youtube tutorial (it’s only a 30 second video!) The key is to wet your hands heavily in between each fold. Make sure to cover with saran wrap in between folds.
After the folds, let bulk ferment for 18 hours in the bowl (meaning just let it rest while covered with saran wrap).
After 18 hours, divide the bulk dough ball into 4 dough balls each weighing approximately 220 grams. You may have more or less per ball depending on loss of some dough sticking to your hands in the folding process, no worries honestly.
Put each of the divided dough balls into individual deli containers or a container like the first photo at the top of this post and cover with saran wrap for another 6 hours.
You’re ready to use! Fire up that pizza oven or home oven and get your pizza baked :)
resources:
- my handy-dandy pizza calculator — use this if you want to make more or less than 4 dough balls. I’ll probably make a video on how to use it sooner than later but the instructions should be fairly self-explanatory. Email me if you have questions!
- a video walking through this ENTIRE process. helpful, right?
I’ll be posting a recap on how pizza drop #2 went soon as well — if you’re curious about the menu check it out here:
If you’re local to SF, I’ll be sending out notifications on upcoming pizza drops! Stay tuned and subscribe on Substack!