Neapolitan Style Pizza Dough

This recipe produces a light pillowy dough that works great for backyard fire pizza ovens. Servings in the table below make 12” pizzas, each dough ball weighs approximately 280g.

Minimum time required: 6 hours before eating
Ideal time required: 30 hours before eating.

Note: Use instant yeast (also called bread machine yeast), not active dry yeast.

	Ratio	1	2	4	6	8	10
Flour	100%	171g	341g	682g	1,023g	1,364g	1,705g
Water	65%	111g	222g	443g	665g	887g	1,108g
Salt	2%	3.4g	6.8g	13.6g	20.5g	27.3g	34.1g
Yeast	1.5%	2.6g	5.1g	10.2g	15.3g	20.5g	25.6g

Process

Add the water and salt to a bowl stir to allow the salt to dissolve.
- If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.
Add 10% of the flour to the water mix throughly until there are no clumps. This should look like a crêpe batter, or a loose pancake batter.
Once mixture is smooth, add the yeast continuing to mix. It’s important to buffer the yeast from the salt. Too much salt exposure will kill the yeast.
- If using a a stand mixer, switch to the dough hook.
Slowly add the flour sprinkling in 10-25% of the remaining dough at a time, allow the dough to absorb the flour completely before adding more. Scrape down the sides while the dough mixes.
Once all the flour has been added you can leave it in the stand mixer, on low for ~10 minutes, or ideally turn the dough and all the loose flour bits onto a clean work surface. Kneading by hand is best, but the stand mixer left for longer does a good enough job.
- Don’t add any more flour to the dough.
Knead until the dough ball when poked springs back completely, or using an instant thermometer the middle of the dough measures between 23º - 26º Celsius (73.4º – 78ºF). Expect this to take ~20 minutes.
Allow the dough to rise for at least 2 hours covered with a damp cloth, or with clingfilm. It’s important to keep the dough hydrated and not allow a skin to form on the dough.
Once proofed, divide into 280g dough balls, place in a tightly sealed container. Allow the dough to rise for 2-4 hours more [1]. At this point it should have doubled in size again. See notes
- Longer proofs can be done at room temperature for up to 24 hours, or in the fridge for longer. If using the fridge skip the 2-4 hour proof, and once dough balls are formed put the tray into the fridge. Before baking, allow the dough to completely come to room temperature