Simple Hand Tossed Pizza Dough Recipe
Pizzeria-style hand-tossed pizza dough that you can make right at home. No special pizza oven is needed either!
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: ~30 minutes not including proofing
- Yield: 2 dough balls
- Category: baking
- Method: MIxer
- Cuisine: pizza
Ingredients
- 1 packet platinum instant yeast (2 1/4 teaspoon or 1/3 of a 2-ounce block (so .66 ounces of cake yeast)
- ~304 grams of water or 1 1/4 cups * if using same day use warm water(105-115 degrees F/40-46 degrees C). If fermenting overnight in the fridge, use cold water. This will give you 64% hydration. You can go up to 350 grams of water if you want higher hydration (if you’re using a strong 00 flour)
- 10 grams or 2 1/4 teaspoons olive oil
- ~475 grams or ~3 3/4 cups 00 Pizza flour *you can use a high protein bread flour but you won’t get pizzeria style pizza
- 8 grams (1.4 teaspoons) of sea salt
Instructions
- If using Active Dry yeast, you need to proof it first. Proof the yeast by pouring the yeast into the water in a bowl of your stand mixer and gently stir until the yeast dissolves. *Cake yeast you make have to break up with your fingers. If using Instant Yeast, you do not need to proof it. Just add the water and yeast to the bowl and skip to step 3.
- Let the yeast and water stand until foamy, about 5 minutes*. If using cold water, just mix and move to the next step, as the yeast won’t quite bloom with cold water.
- Once the yeast has bloomed (if you’re using cake or active dry yeast), add in the flour and fit your mixer with a dough hook. Mix on low just until loosely combined. Add the salt while the mixer is running, stopping as needed to scrape down the sides. After 3 minutes of mixing, drizzle in the oil.
- Mix until a soft, smooth elastic ball forms; ~8-10 minutes. The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl but still be wet/tacky to the touch. If need be add a tablespoon of flour or so to help combine. If it’s too dry, you may need to add a few tablespoons of water. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a very lightly floured surface. Give it a few kneads to form the dough into a smooth ball, tucking the ‘ends’ underneath.
- Allow the dough to rest, covered, for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, using very lightly floured hands, knead the dough gently to smooth it out, then divide it into smaller portions.
- If using the same day, divide the dough in half, shape as balls, and put in 2 separate oiled bowls (covered) and allow to rise until doubled in size; about 60-90 minutes.
- Cold Fermenting – if you have the space, place it in a 6 quart oiled lidded container in the fridge for 48 hours. Remove it from the fridge for 30 minutes to take the chill off, ball it in to 2 balls, place it into 2 oiled lidded containers (making sure it has room to rise) and pop it back into the fridge for 24 hours. If you’re limited in fridge space, divide into 2 equal-sized balls, and place in 2 lidded bowls (just be sure it has enough room to rise) and refrigerate (covered) between 48-72 hours. *See the post above about NOT splitting it for bulk fermentation.
- Place one rack on the lower third of your oven. On that place a pizza stone. It’s recommended that you use 2 when baking pizza. Place another rack on the upper ledge and place the 2nd pizza stone there. When ready to use, preheat the oven to 550F. If you’ve had the dough in the fridge, bring out to room temperature at least an hour prior to baking. If you use a pizza stone, follow the manufacturer’s instructions on heating it up.
- Stretch out your dough on a very lightly floured surface (trying not to work it too much as you want the ‘gas’ left it in – that’s what causes the bubbles and crispy airiness of the dough).
- Place the dough in a pizza pan, directly on a Pizza Stone stone or on a Pizza Screen – whatever your preferred method.
- Top with your favorite toppings and bake for 8-12 minutes depending on what you’re cooking it on.
Notes
The Total Time does NOT include the proofing time since some do same day while others do 48-72 hour proofing
This makes enough dough to make :
- 3 – 265 gram dough balls
Pizza Stone
Pizza Screen
Pizza Peel
*Note: 12/7/16 The original recipe called for 2 1/2 cups of bread flour. After re-testing it I’ve found that you get better results at around 3 cups of flour plus a little extra for dusting.