1. Kneading
Kneading is necessary to allow gluten to form. Knead just enough to create a smooth and homogeneous ball of dough. Two or three minutes suffice if you use an appliance to knead, such as a stand mixer or food processor; knead for about five minutes if you’re working by hand. Kneading for a long time will result in a very elastic dough, which may be more difficult to handle for beginners. Pizzaiolos knead their dough much longer, but they’re well practised.
2. Fermentation
Once the dough is made, leave it to prove—that’s the yeast in action! During this step, the dough fills up with carbon dioxide (the gas that makes it rise), creating air sacs and developing its aroma. The dough must prove for a minimum of 1 hour to develop an interesting taste.
Where should you prove the dough? In a place where the ideal temperature reaches 27°C to 30°C (80°F to 85°F), like a beautiful warm summer day. If it’s way too hot (higher than 60°C/140 °F), the yeast will die. If it’s a little too hot (between 37°C and 40°C/98°F and 104°F), the yeast will produce more acid molecules that will make the dough taste sour.
A good place is in the oven, turned off with the light on, but since your oven may already be preheating to cook your pizza, put your dough in the microwave instead (turned off as well, of course). Ricardo’s tip: Put a cup half filled with water in the microwave and heat it up for about 1 to 2 minutes. Then, put the dough in there (next to the cup of hot water) and close the door. The environment will be just warm and humid enough for a two-hour fermentation period.
If you want to make your dough in advance, leave it in the fridge until it has doubled in size, which should take about 8 hours. The dough can even stay in the fridge up to five days without any problem. It may end up deflating, but that doesn’t matter. When you’re ready to use it, take it out and leave it to come to room temperature for about an hour. Cold dough will be harder to stretch.
3. Shaping
Depending on the recipe, the dough will need to be rolled out to a thicker or thinner base. For very thin crusts, use a rolling pin. But for other types of crusts, simply press the dough down with your hands, from the middle to the outer edges, stretching all around the dough roll, or try the method of working the dough in the air with your bare hands. Don’t aim to make a perfect disk; regardless of its shape, your pizza will be great.
At this stage, the most common issue is that dough will refuse to stretch beyond a few centimetres. If it feels like you’re stretching an elastic band that keeps snapping back, be patient! Simply let the dough rest 15 minutes before you continue. Then the dough will stretch like magic! If you’re using a round pizza pan to cook your pie, stretch the dough directly on the lightly floured pan or on parchment paper.
If you’re using a pizza stone or grill, we suggest you stretch the dough on parchment paper to transfer your pizza onto the cooking implement more easily.
To make a good pizza crust, check out our recipe for pizza dough for 8 or our fermented pizza dough (poolish).
