How do I make pizza dough?

Home pizza is limited by oven temperature — a domestic oven reaches maybe 250°C against a pizza oven's 450°C. You can't fix that, but you can compensate: a long cold ferment for flavour and extensibility, and a preheated steel or stone to get as much heat into the base as fast as possible.

What you'll need

• 500g strong bread flour (or Tipo 00)
• 325ml water
• 10g salt
• 3g dried yeast
• Baking steel or pizza stone
• Container for the fridge prove

Step by step

1. Mix flour, water, salt and yeast into a rough dough and leave 20 minutes.The rest lets the flour hydrate fully, which makes kneading much easier.
2. Knead for 5–8 minutes until smooth.Less kneading is needed than for bread, because the long ferment develops structure on its own.
3. Divide into balls of about 250g each and put them in separate covered containers.250g is roughly a 30cm pizza. Separate containers stop them merging.
4. Refrigerate for 24–72 hours.This is the step that matters most. 48 hours is a good target — the flavour difference against a same-day dough is substantial.
5. Take the dough out 2 hours before baking to come to room temperature.Cold dough won't stretch. It tears and springs back.
6. Preheat the oven with a steel or stone inside for at least 45 minutes at maximum temperature.The stored heat in the steel is what cooks the base. A cold tray gives a pale, soft bottom.
7. Stretch the dough by hand from the centre outwards, leaving the edge thicker.Never use a rolling pin — it crushes the gas out of the rim, which is what should puff up.
8. Top sparingly and bake for 6–10 minutes until the crust is blistered.Overloading is the most common home pizza mistake — it makes the base soggy and stops it cooking.

Tips

• The grill can help: bake on the steel, then switch to the grill for the last minute to colour the top without overcooking the base.
• Semolina on the peel or board stops the dough sticking better than flour, which burns.
• Less sauce and less cheese than instinct suggests. Moisture is the enemy of a crisp base in a domestic oven.
• A baking steel outperforms a stone, because steel conducts heat into the base much faster.

Common mistakes

• Using a rolling pin — It flattens the gas out of the rim, so you lose the puffed edge entirely.
• Not preheating the stone or steel long enough — 45 minutes minimum. An under-heated surface gives a pale, soft base.
• Overloading with toppings — Excess moisture prevents the base crisping and the pizza cooking through.
• Stretching cold dough — It springs back and tears. Two hours at room temperature first.

Questions people ask