<aside> 💡 dough calculator: https://www.frenchguycooking.com/pizzadough 70% water

</aside>

Poolish

<aside> 💧 70% sounds like a lot. Trust me an don't panic when it gets sticky. The reason for such a high water percentage is that your home oven's maximum temperature is only about 400°C. For an original Neapolitan pizza you need much higher temperatures as it ideally cooks in 60-90 seconds. With 350-400°C max heat, the pizza will take 6-8 minutes and much much more water will evaporate within cooking time and all the chewy goodness evaporates too.

</aside>

Makes 1 Pizza:

• 144.3 g flour Tipo 00
• 101 g (or ml) cold water
• 4.3 g salt
• 0.3 g fresh yeast

Makes 10 Pizzas

• 1443 g flour 550 or tipo 00
• 1010 ml cold water
• 43 g saot
• 3 g fresh yeast

Tomato Sauce

• 400 g canned tomatoes
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 0,5 tsp salt
• 0,5 tsp black pepper (grinded, obviously)
• one clove of garlic (it's not a part of the classic sauce so make sure no Italians see it)

<aside> 💡 You only need to combine all the ingredients and blend them if you're using whole tamatoes.

</aside>

Exemplary recipe for 3 pizzas

1. In a big bowl, add 303 grams of cold water.
2. Dissolve 13 grams of salt.
3. Add 43 grams of flour and mix it well. (~10%)
4. Add 0.9 gram of fresh yeast or half a gram of instant yeast.
5. Gradually add the remaining 390 grams of flour. (~90%)

1. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes. A gluten structure will develop.
2. Cover it or put it in an air-tight container and let the enzymes break down the complex sugars for at least 24 hours in the fridge.
3. Divide it in three parts and form dough balls.
4. Let them rise in an airtight container for 4 hours at room temperature. In this time, the yeast will eat up the broken down sugars and start farting and burping so that the crust will become as airy as possible.

Alternatives to dough preparation

Pizza Base

Grand Finale

1. Preheat your oven (and pizza stone) to the max. temperature for at least 30 minutes (250°C-300 °C).

2. bake your pizza just with tomato sauce for 3 minutes.

   

3. When the dough turns lightly golden it's time to add Mozzarella (di Bufala), Parmesan and a tiny splash of olive oil on top as well as on the crust

4. bake for 3-4 minutes

5. add basil just before serving

6. optional: if you don't like to go traditional every time I can also suggest adding Rucola / Proscuitto / Chorizo / Spinach ... but of course, you may let your imagination run wild.

Additional tips:

• Mise-en-place is essential! You need to be quick with your pizza. Have all the ingredients within reach and don't let your unbaked pizza sit for too long on a warm surface because it will stick!!! I experienced all kinds of reasons for sticky dough... I cannot protect you from such experiences and after all, that's how we improve with time and practice.
• Apply as little pressure as possible on your dough after it has risen. All the air that is caught inside is crucial for an airy crust. So make sure you're not applying pressure on the crust while preparing.
• Burst thin bubbles with a fork or a knive. They will burn too quickly.
• Your air-tight container for fermentation should be not too wide. The dough needs to push against the sides so that it can "rise".
• if your oven doesn’t get as hot (especially from the top → crust doesn’t get golden) spread a bit of oil on the crust before baking → caramelizes faster!!