Slow and steady pizza dough
This is a long slow rise pizza dough. It is the kind of dough that you find in good pizzerias. The kind of dough that has good stretch.
The dough develops its stretch and a lot of its flavour from the long, slow rise that you give it.
- 180 ml warm water
- 5 ml sugar up to 30 ml if you want a sweeter dough
- 5 ml instant yeast
- 15 ml olive oil
- 15 ml kosher salt
- 250 g bread flour See notes
- 250 g all-purpose flour Instead of the bread flour
- 10 ml vital wheat gluten If using all-purpose flour
- Place the sugar in a stand mixer's bowl
- Pour the warm water in to the stand mixer's bowl
- Sprinkle the instant yeast over the water
- Add the olive oil to the stand mixer's bowl
- Add salt to the stand mixer's bowl
- Add half of the flour to the stand mixer's bowl
- Use the stand mixer's paddle attachment and mix the ingredients on a low speed setting for 1 minute
- Stop the mixer, add the remaining half of the flour
- Mix on low speed for 1 minute or until all the flour is combined
- Lube up the stand mixer's dough hook with cooking spray (regular or olive oil). Alternatively, pour a little olive oil on to a paper kitchen towel and wipe down the dough hook.
- Attach the dough hook to the mixer
- And knead the dough on medium speed for 15 minutes.
- Stop the mixer and tear off a small piece of dough, about the size of your thumb
- Stretch the torn off piece of dough as thin as you can make it so that held up to daylight or a bright light source, you can clearly see through it. It should be like a taut membrane.
- If the dough tears too easily, knead the dough for 5 more minutes and try again.
- If the dough still breaks, knead for 5 more minutes.
- Stop the stand mixer and remove the dough from the bowl
- Place the dough on a lightly floured counter top
- Form the dough in to a tight, smooth ball
- Clean out the mixer bowl
- Spray the inside of the mixer bowl with cooking spray or wipe it down with a paper kitchen towel damped with a little olive oil
- Place the dough ball in the mixer bowl
- Roll the dough around a few times to coat it with the oil or cooking spray in the bowl
- Tightly cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap
- Refrigerate the dough in the mixing bowl for at least 24 hours
You can store this dough in the refrigerator, in a resealable plastic storage bag or other container with a tight lid that has been wiped down/sprayed with cooking oil spray.
The dough keeps in the refrigerator for up to a week.
The dough can be frozen for several months.
When you remove the dough from the refrigerator it may be a little wet, you can fix that with a few sprinkles of all-purpose flour to wick away the moisture.
If you are using all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, add 10 ml (2 tsp) of vital wheat gluten (I use Bob's Red Mill brand) to the flour during the mixing steps.
Bread flour has a higher protein content, which makes the dough stretchier and is ideal for pizza dough. The vital wheat gluten added to all-purpose flour makes the dough stretchier and more elastic.