Advanced pizza dough recipe w/poolish

First off, this is a long post but definitely worth the time to read, if you are on a mission to find a great homemade pizza recipe.

There are tons of generic, bland pizza dough recipes out there and most of them start like this: "Dissolve one packet of active dry yeast in one cup of warm water until it foams, add 2 cups of flour, and blah, blah, blah..." Some of those doughs barely turn out okay, others are total disasters for home cooks; the crust has no coloration, has a gum line, is too chewy or tough, tasteless, etc. You name it.

I'd like to show people a different approach to a much tastier crust; an approach that will yield a light, airy and nicely browned crust once it comes out of the oven. Granted, it involves a bit more work and might sound complex but it really isn't all that difficult and once you have made this dough a few times and got the proverbial hang of it it's a breeze to make and the outcome will be one that rivals your local pizzeria-type crusts.

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But before I go any further into this recipe I'd like to address some of the tools you'll need to succeed. A stand mixer, such as a KitchenAid or Cuisinart is preferred unless you're into hand kneading the dough. A digital scale, which measures both in metric and imperial such as the Cuisinart KS-55 They are fairly inexpensive and a handy gadget not only for pizza doughs but for all things that require exact measuring.

A high-quality pizza stone, and I am not talking about the ones you can find at the big retail chains, is also money well-spent. Stones from retail chains are too thin, don't hold any heat and crack easily. My suggestion is a rectangular stone made from cordierite such as the ones made by American Metalcraft. They might be a tad more expensive but last a lifetime if treated correctly. They are thick, hold heat extremely well and have a high resistance to temperature/thermal shock which means no cracking. Believe me, instead of spending $20 over and over for those flimsy stones invest the $40-$50 and get the high-quality stone. It will give you superior results.

If you want to go all out on your stone, go to a Pottery supply store and get a 1-inch thick kiln shelf. They are usually manufactured from different composite materials, have a high heat tolerance (1200°F +) and posses a remarkably high resistance to thermal shock. I bought mine, a rectangular 17"x17", at a local supply store for $30 and could not be happier even though I was very satisfied with my old AM cordierite stone I've had for years.

Lastly, a wooden pizza peel. They're inexpensive, can be found online or at your local restaurant supply store and get your pizzas in the oven with ease.

There are more utensils/tools that are needed (pizza cutter, pizza trays, metal pizza peels, dough scrapers, etc) but those are minor ones, although a metal pizza peel is beneficial to getting the finished pizza out of the oven without tearing the crust or burning yourself.

Okay, enough with all the must-haves and technical stuff. Let's move on to the fun stuff...dough making.

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This recipe uses a pre-ferment called poolish. Now, what exactly is a poolish? I don't want to become too technical here as to not confuse you but a poolish generally consists of flour, water and baker's yeast - in this case Instant Dry Yeast - and is quick way to add more taste, texture and flavor to a dough or crust that will be used the same day. In other words, you can make the poolish in the morning, let it ferment for a few hours until it reaches the "breaking point" and then do the final mixing of the dough. More detailed info about a poolish can be found here. Even though Wikipedia mentions the term 'sponge' it is not to be confused with a poolish. A poolish is thinner in consistency and uses equal parts of water and flour by weight (not volume!), resulting in 100% hydration.

You don't need to be a pro baker to understand the chemistry behind a poolish but the nice thing about a poolish is that it will "tell" you when to use it. Once the poolish 'breaks', which means that it has peaked and then falls onto itself, or collapses if you will, that's a good time to use it. However, you still have a decent amount of time to use it even after it started to collapse. You don't have to rush to complete the final mix at the exact moment of the break. That way, you don't have to sit on top of the poolish the entire time of its pre-fermentation watching for the break point. The photos below illustrate this.

Photos #1 through #4 show the rise and fall of the poolish, with Pic# 4 showing the "breaking point", where it starts to collapse (visible by the small 'crater' that's forming in the middle of the surface). The entire fermentation time was 4.5 hours.

Anyway, let's start with the recipe/formula for this entire dough (imperial measurements & Baker's Percent (BP) incl.) :

Note: This dough formula will make two 14" pizzas at 424 grams/15 oz. each.

• 507 grams / 17.8 oz Bread flour - BP 100%
• 304 grams / 10.2 fl oz water (80°F) - BP 60%
• 7 grams / 1.75 tsp Instant Dry yeast (IDY) - BP 1.4%
• 10 grams / 2.4 tsp organic sugar - BP 2%
• 10 grams / 2 tsp sea salt - BP 2%
• 10 grams / 2.2 tsp olive oil - BP 2%

The poolish consists of all the recipe's water (304 grams/10.2 fl oz), the equal amount of flour (304 grams/10.7 oz) and 65% of the total amount of yeast (4.5 grams/1 tsp). That will leave us with 203 grams/7.1 oz of flour, 2.5 grams/5/8 tsp yeast and the rest of the ingredients. salt, sugar and oil. As you can see, I used only 65% of the yeast and not all of it in the poolish.

If I would add all of the IDY to the poolish, the poolish would ferment too quickly and it would have peaked and fallen back on itself and would require that you finish the dough sooner than planned. With all of the IDY called for in the recipe, if it would all be used in the poolish, there would not be enough yeast for the final dough to ferment properly. That's why the rest of the yeast goes in later with the other ingredients.

To make the poolish, pour 304 grams/10.2 fl oz of water into the mixing bowl, add the equal amount of flour 304 grams/10.7 oz and 65% of the yeast or 4.5 grams/1 tsp. If your mixer has a paddle attachment use this one to combine all ingredients until it has become a smooth, somewhat thicker, pancake-like batter. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let it ferment for about 4 to 4.5 hours, depending on your ambient temperature. If the ambient temperature is on the warmer side, the fermentation time might shorten due to faster yeast activity. So keep an eye on it after about 3 hours.

After the poolish has peaked or reached its 'breaking point', you have a window of about 1-2 hours for it to be used before it over-ferments. I like to use the poolish when its right at its peak. That's when I add the salt, the sugar, the oil, the remaining flour and the yeast - in that order. Switch your mixer over to the dough hook and knead until no raw flour is visible any longer, about 2 minutes on low speed. The dough at this point should have a rough, coarse-looking consistency (Pic # 1). Disconnect the dough hook, scrape it clean from the dough residue and cover the bowl once again with plastic wrap and give it a 20 minute rest period. This ensures that the flour is properly hydrated and also gives the final fermentation a little jump start. After 20 minutes, you will see that it already has begun to rise (Pic # 2).

Reattach the clean dough hook and start kneading the dough on Speed 2 of your mixer for about 8 minutes to achieve a proper gluten matrix. This is important because a well-developed gluten matrix allows the dough to trap air bubbles created by the yeast which, in turn, allows the dough to rise beautifully. The yeast feeds on the sugars in the flour and the added sugar, and then starts to release carbon dioxide which is the reason for the dough to rise. A weak gluten matrix however would not be able to handle the gassy air and the result will be an under-risen and flat dough. Once the dough pulls away from the sides and the bottom of the bowl it's almost ready to be taken out and shaped into a round ball, so watch the kneading time. You can perhaps give it a couple more minutes of kneading after the dough has cleared the sides but not much more than that.

Flour your kitchen counter or wooden board, move the dough from the bowl to the floured surface and start shaping it into a round ball until the dough ball shows a nice surface tension, meaning a smooth, tight skin (Pic # 3).

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and brush the surface of the dough with a small amount of oil - I use olive oil but vegetable oil will do just fine, too - and cover it with plastic wrap (Pic # 1&2).

Now that this is done, you can set the dough aside and let it rise. Due to the high amount of yeast, the dough will double in size within 2 - 3 hours (Pic # 3), depending again on the ambient temperature of your kitchen. I usually place it in my oven, on the middle rack, with the oven light turned on which provides a temperature-controlled environment for the dough to rise properly. The temperature inside my oven ranges normally from 75°F to 80°F, which I believe is an optimal temperature for a proper rise.

Once the dough has doubled you will have two options:

• Punch the dough down, divide into two equal parts at 424 grams/15 oz. each, re-shape them into two individual dough balls and let them rise again to give the final crust more flavor, covered by a damp tea towel....or....
• Don't punch it down, divide into two equal parts at 424 grams/15 oz. each and carefully re-shape them into two dough balls and use immediately. Make sure that you are not degassing the dough too much during the re-shaping, which can lead to a denser, less airy crust with subpar oven spring.  

The final bake should be done with the oven at its highest temperature setting and with the stone pre-heated on the lowest rack for at least one hour. 90 minutes will be even better. The result should be a beautiful homemade pizza that rivals those from a professional pizzeria.

If you have any other questions, post a comment and I will answer them to the best of my knowledge.

Happy mixing, kneading and baking!