Everything I’ve learned in a year trying to make decent pizza dough
Growing up in Canada pizza was a staple. From after school slices, to Friday night VHS marathons, pizza was always there. Well into my adulthood not much has changed, and I’m not ashamed to admit I eat pizza once or twice a week. To me it really is the perfect food. In fact it has become a bit of an obsession, even a passion project.
Over the past year I have set out to get good at making pizza.
On the internet you’ll find any number of recipes for pizza. You’ll also find dedicated blogs, forums and videos. I have dug deep in the past 12 months and while I still have much to learn, what I have learned is that it really is all in the dough.
Dough is a challenge to get right, especially at home, but at the end of the day it is just flour and water. You don’t want it be bland so you add salt and introduce fermentation. Fermentation adds flavour, but also gas, making dough light and airy.
These are the fundamentals of dough and more than anything, the balance of flour and water is what makes it. There is a lot that can be said on the subject, and I have read my fair share (though I still have much to learn).
While I am still an amateur at best, over the past year I have refined my technique to produce pleasing home results. Not perfect, not professional, but certainly more enjoyable then a chain take-out pie.
Here, I have outlined a method for an essential homemade pizza dough (and most other kinds of basic bread). Rather than a recipe, I’ll walk you through the fundamental knowledge and technique I’ve gained. While reading this article won’t make you an expert, it should, at the very least give you the tools you need to make a flat round disk to cover with sauce, cheese, and whatever else your heart desires.
Flour + water
I’m not going to start with an ingredients list, because dough is actually best expressed as an equation:
Flour x Hydration = Water
Flour, is the weight measurement of the flour. Hydration is the percentage of your dough that is water. This is called a bakers percentage. For pizza dough 75% is a good start. So for example:
560g x 0.75 = 420g
With dough we always measure weight, never volume. Flour contains air and can be packed. Weight ensures accuracy, and as flour and water are our fundamental ingredients accuracy is important.
A note on choice of flour: while choice of flour can make a big difference in the results of your dough, all purpose flour is perfectly acceptable. Once you get the fundamentals, experiment with real Italian “00” flour. It can produce lighter more subtle crust, and is certainly the more authentic choice.
Salt
Salt adds flavour. Here we can also use a bakers percentage adding 3% (or around 17 grams of salt to add to our 560g of flour). When we make dough we mix our dry ingredients first so you can add the salt to the flour.
Yeast
While purists will insist on using a starter to introduce fermentation, in this method we’re focused on basics. Here we’ll use dry yeast to bring flavour to our dough and to produce gas which will allow our dough to rise.
Yeast can also be measured using a bakers percentage, though as yeast will feed on the flour only so much is needed. A sachet of yeast is 8g but half a sachet (4 grams) will often suffice for most home recipes.
Our 420g of water should be warm from the tap (not hot). The yeast can be added to the water and proofed. Proofing the yeast ensures the temperature of the water is right. This should take around 10 minutes. The yeast has proofed when a foam develops on the surface.
Mixing
Mixing can be done with a spatula in a large bowl. Pour proofed yeast and water into the dry ingredients and mix from the bottom until consistent. A small amount of flour on the hands will prevent sticking as you continue to fold the dough over until dough is smooth, wet, and sticky. Basically we want no big clumps of flour left, but don’t over think it, the mixture will even out in the rise.
Time
Once the dry and wet ingredients are incorporated the dough can be covered and left to rise (with saran wrap, or in large container). This is a less an exact science, as temperature is a variable which can be difficult to control. At room temperature a dough should double in roughly an hour.
Dough can also rise in the fridge, but more slowly. As the dough rises over time the dough will develop a richer flavour (you’ll note the smell of alcohol). The dough can be used after 24 hours in the fridge, or even several days. Experimenting with a cold rise can introduce nuance to your dough and is the gateway to more advanced fermentation processes.
Mass & size
In our previous flour and water calculation we’ve started with 560g of dough and 420g of water. While the salt and yeast also adds to the weight, we’re less concerned with accuracy in our weight calculation as some dough will be wasted. So if we add the flour and water alone we end up with 980g of dough.
There is also an equation which allows you to calculate the weight of dough you need based on the diameter of the pizza you want to make. There a lot of factors that go into this (like the thickness of the crust you want) but lets keep thing simple. A 12" pizza is 240 grams.
This is a good place to start. A single 12" pizza feeds two people well, cut in quarters to ensure a nice fold. It’s also fairly easy to shape, and if you don’t have a pizza steel, or stone, a pan will do fine (you’ll find 12 inch pizza pans at the Dollar Store for 2$ each).
Once our dough has risen, we can scrape it from it’s container on to a well floured surface. If you have a scale, divide your dough into sections of 240g. This means our earlier flour and water calculation should give us roughly 3 pies.
Shape
Each piece of 240g dough must first be shaped into a ball. Sprinkle flour on your hands and shape the dough by tucking the edges of the cut dough under itself. The dough ball should be smooth, even and round.
Note: If you’re following this like a recipe, now is good time to set your oven your oven as high as it can go. Seriously.
How you shape and stretch your dough into a disk will partly depend on how it will bake (we’ll get to that in a minute). But basically in this case we just need to stretch it into a 12" circle. Starting from the edges of of your ball, pull away from the centre, spinning the dough as you go. The disk should maintain an even density as you stretch, and maintain it’s disk shape. As it stretches, you may let it rest a moment. This promotes gluten development and the dough will release tension as it stretches making it easier.
Of course, you can also cheat a bit. While pizzaiolo napoletano will always stretch with their hands alone, its not uncommon for take-out pizza makers (here in Canada especially) to use a rolling pin to work the dough a little faster, and get it even and thin.
Once your pizza is stretched to size, and evenly thin it’s ready to top and bake.
Note: pizza is not defined by tomato sauce, and cheese. For a great simple pizza bianca just drizzle a bit of oil on your disk and bake. In fact, the more you look at it’s history and it’s contemporaries in other styles in cooking, you realize the differences between pizza, pita, naan or other leavened flat breads are mostly academic.
Bake
Again, those pizza purists will tell you to cook directly on a stone, or a pizza steel transferring your disk to the oven with a peel. These tools of the home pizzaiolo are fairly easy to get, but not completely necessary for good results. I find a pan works fine to start in a decently hot oven.
In our case, the pan will help to finish your disk, pushing up to the edges ensuring a perfectly round pie and a thicker crust. You don’t need to oil the pan necessarily (though you could to help it crisp faster) but a pinch or two of cornmeal does help preventing sticking and adding texture.
Let your oven heat up, as hot as it gets. I’m lucky enough to have a gas stove which lets me get temps of 550F (~287C). That might seem hot until you realize that pizza napoletana, cooked in wood fire ovens often cook at over 700F. The hotter the oven the quicker it cooks.
Recipes only take us so far we have to pay attention. This isn’t a set it and forget it kind of thing, so we need to watch our pie. Place the pan in the oven directly on the bottom rack, or your stone (the hottest surface).
The dough should crust, and brown enough to deliver a bit of a bite (crunch) but not be burnt, cooking around 15–25 minutes depending on heat and toppings.
Toppings, tools of the trade, and getting better
So this is how it all gets started, or at least where it has started for me. Every week I push what I’ve learned a little further. I add another tool to my kit (a pizza peel, a stone, tools for cutting, or storing dough). I source a fresher cheese, or one with more/less moisture. I find a better puckering pepperoni, I try a more exotic sauce, and in general try to perfect the pizzas and styles I’ve tried and loved. I’ve also had a chance to travel, and as pizza is an obsession I’ve experienced a wide range of possibilities and techniques I hope to master and copy.
Week after week, experiment after experiment, I’ve definitely seen progress. I have also seen a lot of failures (overcooked, undercooked or not perfectly round). While it is at times frustrating, the great thing about food and cooking is that over time we manage to feed a lot of people. We help carry forward the culture and traditions of the food we love. This is why we do it isn’t it?
Here on our Italo-canadesi, I’m hoping to continue to tell my story or failures and success. I want to explore some of the great pizzas styles I’ve tried both authentic old world. I also want to bring you back to the roots, a childhood spent in-front of a Pizza Pizza with a Brio and slice.
I invite you to follow along as I get better, sharing my gains and losses as I journey from my status as an amateur to an amateur who makes really great pizza.
I also promise future posts will be shorter. Here I just really wanted to capture everything I’ve learned and I hope it’s helpful to you in your pizza making. Let me know in the comments what I’ve got wrong, and if you try to follow a long and get it right.
