A wise man once told me that the most important part of the pizza is the crust, and you need a good dough to make an amazing crust. No sauce, cheese, or topping can save a bad pizza crust. If you don’t believe me, you’ve never tried proper Neapolitan pizza!
This page is dedicated to helping you level up your pizza dough skills by providing all the resources to make the perfect pizza. Here’s all you need to know about ingredients, tools, methods, and techniques.
Pizza Flour – the Most Important Ingredient in Pizza Dough
You can’t make pizza dough without flour, and picking the right type of flour can have a huge impact on the dough, and the final pizza.
Tipo 00 Pizza Flour
The best flour for pizza baking is Italian Tipo 0 and Tipo 00. The reason is the quality and gluten content of these flours.
The Best Pizza Flours
When someone asks about pizza flour, the first name that comes to mind is Antimo Caputo. Antimo Caputo often referred to just as Caputo, is a Naples-based mill that makes high-quality Tipo 0 and Tipo 00 flours. They’ve supplied the local pizzerias for generations and is even considered one of the approved pizza flour suppliers by the AVPN (The True Neapolitan Pizza Association).
Pizza Yeast
Another important part of the equation is the yeast. The yeast’s primary task is to make the dough rise through a process called fermentation. During fermentation, the yeast eats the sugar in the flour and converts it to CO2 and alcohol. The CO2 is what makes your dough rise. The type of yeast you’re using will affect the properties of the dough, as well as the flavor. It’s therefore also important to choose a quality yeast that will give you the long, slow rise that created a tasty crust.
How to Make Better Pizza Dough
A great dough is made with the right flour, the right yeast, the right amount of hydration, combined with gluten development through kneading, and a long leave. Here are a few articles for those of you that want to improve certain steps of the dough making process.
- The Secret to Crispy Pizza at Home
- How to Improve Pizza Crust Flavor
- Pizza Cornicione – What It Is and How to Make It
Dough Hydration
One of the things that will really level up your pizza skills is to understand hydration, and how it affects the dough.
Gluten Development
Gluten gives structure yo your dough. It’s what keeps it together. But when you hydrate and knead gluten, something magical happens. A network of gluten strands starts to form in your dough, as you’re kneading. This network is ultimately what makes your dough stretchy and allows you to make a really thin Neapolitan pizza.
The gluten network also creates small pockets inside the dough, that’s filled with CO2 produced during the fermentation process. This is what creates the iconic airy, light you associate with Neapolitan pizza.
Rising
Napolitan pizza needs time. You need to let it rise for 8-24 hour, or even more. And this long leaving is what develops flavor and texture to your dough.
Store Pizza Dough for Later
When you go through the trouble of making the perfect dough, you can store the dough for your next pizza night. To learn how to properly store your dough is going to save you a lot of time and effort, and enjoy amazing pizza more often.
Are You Having Problems With Your Pizza Dough?
A dough that doesn’t turn out right can be frustrating, but don’t give up! Like Thomas Edison said when he was working on the light bulb: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” That’s exactly what I’ve done with pizza, so you don’t have to go through 10 000 mistakes.
Here’s a troubleshooting list that will help you fix the most common dough-related problems: