Your Pizza Dough Bible

So, you've scored the ultimate pizza oven. Now it's dough time! Grab the flour, salt, and yeast, and let's make dough magic! 

One of our favourite flours is Caputo Pizzeria, and we also love their active dry yeast.

But before you roll up your sleeves, let's first tackle two important questions. How long do you want to prove your dough and what hydration do you prefer?

• The length of time you choose to prove your dough will affect flavour. If you're after a taste explosion, a longer prove will bring a whole new level of deliciousness to your slice. Lets be real though, we don’t always have 3 days to prepare for a pizza party. So don't worry, even a quick rise will produce a homemade pizza to blow your mind. 
• Next up, think about hydration. The higher the hydration, the lighter and airier the pizza. Be warned though, higher hydration is more sticky to work with. We would recommend starting at 60% and working your way up as you become a pizza dough pro. 
• Once you've got those decisions sorted, we've got you covered with our downloadable dough guide below, giving all the details you need - the quantities of flour, water, salt and yeast, and the times and temperatures for bulk and ball proofs.

How to make pizza dough

A quick word about yeast: We've based our guide on Caputo active dry yeast. If you prefer to use compressed yeast, you should double the weight given, and If you're using instant dry yeast, reduce the weight by 20%. Both compressed and instant dry yeast should be mixed with warm water before adding to the flour as they need activation.

The instructions below use a stand mixer and dough hook. If you are mixing by hand, follow the same steps 1-6, then knead until the dough is no longer sticky and feels more smooth and velvety, with a good stretch. This may take 5-10 minutes.

1. Based on the dough you have selected from the ultimate pizza dough guide, weigh the flour, warm water (37°C/100°F), salt and yeast accurately.
2. Add the flour and yeast to a large mixing bowl. 
3. Start mixing at a low speed. 
4. Slowly add the water, holding back about 60ml for later. 
5. Continue mixing at a low speed. Once the dough starts coming together, add the salt. 
6. Continue to mix for 5 minutes on a slow speed, then add the remaining water. 
7. Keep mixing - the dough should be ready in about 20 minutes and have a smooth, velvety consistency. Be careful not to over knead, to avoid the dough becoming hard and difficult to stretch out.
8. Form a large dough ball, then cover and set aside to bulk prove at room temperature or in the fridge. 
9. After the bulk proving time, divide the dough into 250g pieces. If you've bulk proved in the fridge, leave the dough at room temperature for 2 hours before dividing into pieces. 
10. Fold and shape each piece into a tight ball, dunk in a mix of 50:50 flour and semolina and place each dough ball in a Babadoh. 
11. Cover with the lid and leave at room temperature for 4 or 6 hours according to the guide. 
12. Open up each proofed dough ball and step into Pizza Paradise.