Without really good crust, it's hard to claim you've got a really good pizza. To celebrate the hardworking Primavera ovens, which can bake that lovely authentic Pizza Napoletana, we're including a recipe for what we think is the perfect pizza dough.
For this recipe, we highly recommend measuring your ingredients by weight. Being exact counts, and nothing works better than a digital scale. Measuring by weight is fast, plus it's easy to get the exact hydration (water-to-flour ratio) and dough ball size you want.
Perfect Pizza Dough by Weight
Ingredients by Weight
500 g Molino Caputo Tipo 00 flour
325 g water (65% hydration)
10 g salt
3 g active dry yeast
Preparation
Mix the dough in a stand mixer, by hand or in a bread machine. If you are using a stand mixer, mix the dough slowly for 2 minutes, faster for 5 minutes, and slow again for 2 minutes.
Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until it doubles in size. Punch it down and push out the air bubbles. Form the dough into a large ball, then cut it into 3 equal 275 g pieces.
To make your pizza balls, gently roll each piece of dough, then stretch the top of the ball down and around the rest of the ball, until the outer layer wraps around to the bottom. Pinch the ends together to make a smooth ball with a tight outer "skin."
Set your ball seam-side down where it can rest. Dust your pizza balls with flour, and store them under a damp towel, in a proofing tray or under plastic wrap. This will prevent the outside of the ball from drying out and creating a crust ... and becoming difficult to work with. The top of the pizza ball should be soft and silky.
Your pizza balls will need to rest for about 1 hour to become soft and elastic. Then they can be stretched easily into a thin-crust pizza.
Forno Bravo Video: Pizza Dough Balls