Pizza Dough

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

• 360 ml tepid water
• 1 tsp dry yeast
• ½ tsp plain white sugar
• 600 g bread flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• Coarsely ground cornmeal or semolina flour
• *Enough for 4 smallish pizzas*

Sourdough Started Pizza Dough

• 285 ml tepid water
• 150 g active sourdough starter at 100% hydration
• 525 g bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• Coarsely ground cornmeal or semolina flour
• *Enough for 4 smallish pizzas*

Pizza Dough

• Coarsely ground cornmeal
• *Enough for 4 smallish pizzas*

Directions

Pizza Dough

1. In a maxed-out oven, preheat two pizza stones or one pizza stone and one pizza steel at 550°F for one hour.
2. Into the bowl of a stand mixer, add 360 ml of tepid water, 1 teaspoon of dry yeast (3 tsp for 2 hour rise without cold ferment), and ½ teaspoon of plain white sugar.
3. Let it bloom for 10 minutes before adding 600 grams of bread flour to give the dough a hydration of about 60%. Next, add 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and knead on medium speed for about 5 minutes.
4. Pre-divide the dough into your desired portions. Since we are making calzones, make sure that you are using a double portion of dough.
5. Then, stretch each divided portion into a taut ball. The rounder and more taut the ball is, the easier everything will be later on. Place each portion of dough into individual well-oiled bowls, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 3 days (or let rise for 2 hours, or until doubled in size).
6. For cold fermented pizza dough, allow your pre-made dough to proof at room temperature for two hours. Start by generously flouring the dough as well as your work surface.
7. Roll out the two ends of the dough and leave a sort of mound of unrolled dough in the middle, which you can then rotate and roll from the center. Pass the dough repeatedly over your knuckles until gravity stretches it out to about a 10-inch round.
8. Prep your pizza peel by dusting it with a bit of coarsely ground cornmeal, which is going to allow the pizza to slide off into the oven with ease. Take care of any final shaping and stretching.

Sourdough Started Pizza Dough

1. Mix the Starter & Water – Combine 285ml tepid water with 150g active sourdough starter in the mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve.
2. Add Flour & Rest – Mix in 525g bread flour and let it sit for 30 minutes (autolyse).
3. Add Salt & Knead – Add 1 tsp kosher salt, then knead on medium speed for 5-7 minutes until smooth.
4. Bulk Fermentation – Let the dough rise at room temp for 2.5 - 3 hours, doing 4 sets of stretch-and-folds every 30-45 minutes.
5. Cold Ferment – Cut into 3 or 4 (I like 3) pieces and shape each into balls, pulling the dough under itself. Wipe containers about the same size with oil and transfer, dough seam side down, to the fridge for at least 24 hours, up to 72 hours.
6. (A half hour before you bake, max out your oven with a pizza stone, or a thick metal something inside)
7. Shape & Bake – Bring to room temp for 2-4 hours before shaping and baking. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and coax it into a disc shape with a very slight hump in the middle and ring around the outside, like a pirate hat. Continue to will the dough into a circle, evening out the middle as you go. When it's big enough, you can pass it knuckle over knuckle to stretch it.
8. The Peel – Move the dough onto a cornmealed pizza peel (this allows the pizza to slip off onto the oven stone) and top it accordingly. Note: if your sauce is warm already, your dough will be harder to shift off the peel.
9. Bake until done.