Cold Ferment Poolish Pizza Dough
2 stage dough recipe with great taste and texture.
Ingredients
Poolish
- 700 g Strong White Bread Flour
- 700 ml Cold Water
- 0.5 g Active Dry Yeast
Final Dough
- 300 g 00 flour
- 20 g Salt
- 0.5 g Active Dry Yeast
Instructions
Poolish
- Add the water and yeast to the bowl.Depending on what scales you have, it may be difficult to measure out 0.5g. As a rule of thumb, around ⅕ of a teaspoon should be close enough in accuracy.
- Gradually add in the flour. You can mix by hand or using a mixer with a dough hook on a low speed setting. Don't be tempted to rush this part by putting it on a high speed.
- The mix will be quite rough in texture and very wet as this is a 100% hydration recipe. Once the flour, yeast and water are fully combined, cover and leave for 2 hours at room temperature or somewhere warm like your hot water cylinder cupboard if you have one.
- After this first proof, transfer to the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours, and a maximum of 48 hours.
Final Dough
- Remove your poolish from the fridge. It should be really bubbly, almost frothy.
- Add around ⅓ of the 00 flour and mix by hand, or mixer on a low speed.
- Add in the salt to the poolish and mix through before gradually adding the rest of the flour and mixing through with a mixer on a low speed.Cover and leave at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Take the dough out of the bowl and knead for around 5 to 10 minutes on a lightly oiled surface.
- Return to a clean bowl, cover and put back in the fridge for 5 hours.
- Take the dough out of the bowl and place on to a lightly flour surface before splitting in to 6 equal sized pieces.You can do this by eye but its best to measure the total mass of the dough and divide by 6 to ensure they are actually all the same size or you may notice differences later on during stretching.
- Ball up the 6 pieces of dough. You can do this by pulling up a quarter of the dough and pushing it into the centre. Repeat this 4 tips and finish of with a little twist and pinch underneath.Cover the dough balls for around 1 ½ hours.
- One at a time, take a dough ball out of the box or wherever you're storing them.Roughly scatter some cornmeal / semolina on the work surface and press you fingers down across the dough, stretching out towards the crust. Don't use a rolling pin to stretch or you'll lose all of the air in the dough that you've worked hard to create.Using your fingers on one hand, and the side of your palm on the other, rotate the dough on the work surface to stretch out. You should get a pizza base around 12 inches if weighed correctly.
- Top, bake and enjoy!If you're using a woodfired oven or portable pizza oven (Ooni, Roccboxx etc), it should take just 1 ½ minutes or so to cook fully.If you're using a conventional oven, preheat it on the highest setting. Put a steel pizza tray in the oven whilst preheating. After the oven is preheated, take the pizza tray out of the oven and place on a heatproof surface or cooling rack. Transfer your stretched dough to the tray, top and return to the oven. It will take around 8 - 10 minutes to cook fully. Keep a close eye on it during the cooking process and turn every 2 minutes or so.