This is dough is my go to pizza dough. It’s super reliable and always delivers the goods especially if you are tight on time.
Makes 4 x 250g dough balls
A FEW HOT TIPS
– don’t skip any steps in the dough you will pay the price
– buy some good size sealable containers that can fit in your fridge
– if you are making this ahead of time you can do the last rise in the fridge to slow things down then bring it out when your guests arrive
– if you leave the last rise for too long the dough can over proof and become airy and impossible to work with. If this does happen to you re ball the dough and they’ll be good to go in another half hour or so but just not quite as good.
AUTOLYSE – combine the flour and water in a mixing bowl until a rough dough ball forms and is no longer sticking to the edges. Cover with a wet tea towel and leave for an hour.
2)
MIXING – Flatten the dough out onto the bench and sprinkle over 5g of dried yeast and knead by hand for 5mins until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.
3)
KNEADING – Add the salt and knead through the dough. The reason we didn’t add it in the step before as the salt tightens up the dough so you don’t want to add it to early as it can make it hard to build the strength in the gluten.
4)
BULK PROOF – Pop the dough into a well oiled sealed container with enough room in it so it can double in size. The hotter your environment the quicker this will happen. Mine took approx 1hr.
5)
BALLIN – using scales weight out the dough into 4 x 250g portions then shape them into balls with 1 of two methods. Tuck the dough in on itself like to push the inside out so it looks like a ball of mozzarella. Alternatively use a cupping motion on the bench pushing down in a circular motion to form a ball.
6)
FINAL PROOF – Flour the base of a sealable container then pop the dough balls on top and seal them up until they double in size!
Now you are ready to stretch your dough and make pizza!
If I want to use this dough the next day do I do the bulk proof, portion out and then chuck in the fridge? Leaving the final proof to the day of cooking?
Correct once you balled them up place them in the fridge covered (they will slowly prove in the fridge) then once they warms to room temp on the day of cooking should be ready to go
2 Comments
Chel
28th November 2025 at 2:09 pm
If I want to use this dough the next day do I do the bulk proof, portion out and then chuck in the fridge? Leaving the final proof to the day of cooking?
nickrecipearcecom
28th November 2025 at 2:16 pm
Correct once you balled them up place them in the fridge covered (they will slowly prove in the fridge) then once they warms to room temp on the day of cooking should be ready to go