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Dough

Hydration, fermentation, flour types, and the science behind great crust.

Pizza Fritta Recipe: Naples' Folded, Fried Pocket Pizza

Pizza Fritta Recipe: Naples' Folded, Fried Pocket Pizza

Authentic Neapolitan pizza fritta recipe — 60-65% hydration dough, ricotta and smoked provola filling, deep-fried at 350°F. Plus the post-war Naples history that made it famous.

Maturation vs Fermentation: Pizza Dough Terms Explained

Maturation vs Fermentation: Pizza Dough Terms Explained

Maturation and fermentation aren't the same thing. Yeast inflates the dough, enzymes soften it. Why the distinction changes how you handle cold-fermented pizza.

Pizza Crust Tough and Chewy? 6 Causes and Fixes

Pizza Crust Tough and Chewy? 6 Causes and Fixes

Tough, chewy pizza crust has six root causes -- protein mismatch, under-fermentation, low hydration, over-kneading, over-baking, or wrong flour for your oven. Diagnose yours here.

Desired Dough Temperature Formula for Pizza

Desired Dough Temperature Formula for Pizza

The DDT formula takes the guesswork out of water temperature. Calculate it in two minutes for consistent fermentation every time.

Gemignani's Master Dough with Tiga Starter: Competition-Level Pizza at Home

Gemignani's Master Dough with Tiga Starter: Competition-Level Pizza at Home

Tony Gemignani's Master Dough with his Tiga starter is the foundation recipe from The Pizza Bible. A 3-day process that produces pizza crust with more flavor complexity and better structure than any straight dough.

Over-Proofed Pizza Dough: How to Tell and Rescue It

Over-Proofed Pizza Dough: How to Tell and Rescue It

Over-proofed pizza dough is fixable. Learn the poke test, visual cues, and the gentle re-ball technique that brings slack dough back to life.

Oil in Pizza Dough vs Butter and Lard: Fat Science

Oil in Pizza Dough vs Butter and Lard: Fat Science

Not all fats behave the same in pizza dough. The science of crystalline vs liquid fat explains why butter and lard outperform olive oil for oven spring.

How to Freeze Pizza Dough (And Thaw It Right)

How to Freeze Pizza Dough (And Thaw It Right)

Freeze pizza dough after balling and cold ferment for up to 2 months. Gemignani's water-thaw method and the complete freeze-thaw timeline explained.

Same-Day Pizza Dough: Two Forkish Recipes (6 or 8 Hours)

Same-Day Pizza Dough: Two Forkish Recipes (6 or 8 Hours)

Ken Forkish's same-day pizza dough recipes from The Elements of Pizza. Two variants -- Saturday (8 hours) and I Slept In (6 hours) -- using tiny yeast amounts and full-day room-temperature fermentation.

How Many Pizzas from 500g Flour?

How Many Pizzas from 500g Flour?

500g of flour makes 2-3 pizzas for most home bakers. The variable is dough ball size, not hydration. Here's the exact math by style and oven.

How Long Can Pizza Dough Stay in the Fridge?

How Long Can Pizza Dough Stay in the Fridge?

The 48-72 hour sweet spot explained. What actually happens to your dough during cold fermentation, and how to get the best results at every timeline.

Why Does My Pizza Dough Keep Shrinking Back?

Why Does My Pizza Dough Keep Shrinking Back?

Pizza dough that snaps back during stretching is under-matured -- the gluten network is too tight. Here are the four causes and their specific fixes, from tempering to extended proofing.

Kenji's Foolproof Pan Pizza (No-Knead Cast Iron Recipe)

Kenji's Foolproof Pan Pizza (No-Knead Cast Iron Recipe)

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's foolproof pan pizza: no kneading, no stretching, no peel. Press dough into an oiled cast-iron skillet, cold ferment 8-24 hours, and bake at 550F. The exact formula with baker's percentages and the science behind the fried crust.

Neapolitan Margherita for Home Ovens: The Complete Recipe

Neapolitan Margherita for Home Ovens: The Complete Recipe

The definitive home-oven Neapolitan Margherita — 70% hydration dough, two-stage bake, and Napoletana sauce. Synthesized from Forkish, Iacopelli, and Gemignani.

Forkish's 24-48 Hour Pizza Dough (Cold Fermented Recipe)

Forkish's 24-48 Hour Pizza Dough (Cold Fermented Recipe)

Ken Forkish's most-used pizza dough recipe from The Elements of Pizza. Four ingredients, 10 minutes of work, 24-48 hours of cold fermentation. The exact formula with baker's percentages and the science behind every number.

Can You Use Bread Flour for Neapolitan Pizza?

Can You Use Bread Flour for Neapolitan Pizza?

Bread flour makes excellent Neapolitan pizza at home -- and often outperforms 00 flour in home ovens. Here's exactly what to adjust and why.

Why Your Pizza Dough Isn't Rising: 10 Fixes

Why Your Pizza Dough Isn't Rising: 10 Fixes

Your dough has been sitting on the counter for three hours and it looks exactly the same as when you mixed it. No bubbles, no expansion, no life....

Water for Pizza Dough: Mineral Content, pH, and Whether It Matters

Water for Pizza Dough: Mineral Content, pH, and Whether It Matters

Water is the second-largest ingredient in pizza dough by weight. It constitutes 55-75% of the flour weight in most formulas. And yet, no ingredient...

W-Value and P/L Ratio: Reading Italian Flour Specs

W-Value and P/L Ratio: Reading Italian Flour Specs

Protein percentage is the metric American bakers know. It's printed on every bag, discussed in every recipe, and used as shorthand for flour strength....

Sourdough Pizza Dough: Adapting Your Starter for Pizza

Sourdough Pizza Dough: Adapting Your Starter for Pizza

If you maintain a sourdough starter for bread, you already have the most powerful flavor tool available for pizza dough. Sourdough pizza produces a...

Scaling Pizza Dough for Parties: Batch Sizes, Timing, and Logistics

Scaling Pizza Dough for Parties: Batch Sizes, Timing, and Logistics

Making pizza for two people is technique. Making pizza for twenty people is logistics. The dough science does not change when you scale up. Everything...

What Does Salt Actually Do in Pizza Dough?

What Does Salt Actually Do in Pizza Dough?

Salt is one of four ingredients in the simplest pizza dough, yet it's doing more work than the other three combined. Remove the yeast and your dough...

Poolish, Biga, and Preferments for Pizza Dough

Poolish, Biga, and Preferments for Pizza Dough

A preferment is a portion of the final dough's flour and water, mixed with a small amount of yeast, and fermented hours before you make the dough...

Pizza Dough Troubleshooting: Sticky, Tough, Dense, or Bland

Pizza Dough Troubleshooting: Sticky, Tough, Dense, or Bland

Most pizza dough problems fall into four categories: sticky, tough, dense, or bland. Each has specific causes rooted in the interaction between flour,...

Pizza Dough Recipe by Weight: 4 Formulas for 4 Styles

Pizza Dough Recipe by Weight: 4 Formulas for 4 Styles

Cups and tablespoons are the enemy of consistent pizza dough. A "cup of flour" can weigh anywhere from 120g to 160g depending on how you scoop it. That...

Pizza Dough Kneading: Hand vs. Stand Mixer vs. No-Knead

Pizza Dough Kneading: Hand vs. Stand Mixer vs. No-Knead

There are three fundamentally different ways to develop gluten in pizza dough, and they produce noticeably different crusts. Hand mixing gives you...

Pizza Dough Hydration Guide: What Percentage Should You Use?

Pizza Dough Hydration Guide: What Percentage Should You Use?

Hydration is the single number that determines more about your pizza than any other variable in your dough formula. It controls how the dough handles...

Pizza Dough Cold Fermentation: The Complete Guide

Pizza Dough Cold Fermentation: The Complete Guide

If there is one technique that separates memorable pizza from forgettable pizza, it is cold fermentation. Not better flour, not a more expensive oven,...

Overnight Pizza Dough: The Simplest Recipe That Works

Overnight Pizza Dough: The Simplest Recipe That Works

This is the gateway recipe. If you've never made pizza dough before, or if every recipe you've tried felt like too many steps, too many ingredients, or...

How Long to Proof Pizza Dough: Time, Temperature, and Signs

How Long to Proof Pizza Dough: Time, Temperature, and Signs

The most common question in home pizza making -- "how long should I proof my dough?" -- has no single answer. Proofing time depends on yeast quantity,...

Caputo Pizzeria vs. Chef's Flour vs. Nuvola: Which Bag to Buy

Caputo Pizzeria vs. Chef's Flour vs. Nuvola: Which Bag to Buy

Caputo is the most recognized flour brand in pizza making. Walk into any Neapolitan pizzeria — in Naples, New York, or Tokyo — and you'll likely find...

Best Flour for Pizza Dough: Tipo 00, Bread Flour, and Everything Between

Best Flour for Pizza Dough: Tipo 00, Bread Flour, and Everything Between

Flour is the foundation of every pizza dough, and choosing the wrong one for your style and oven is a mistake that no amount of technique can overcome....

Baker's Percentages Explained: The Only Way to Read a Pizza Dough Recipe

Baker's Percentages Explained: The Only Way to Read a Pizza Dough Recipe

If you have ever tried to replicate a pizza recipe and gotten a completely different result, the problem is almost certainly how the recipe was...

Autolyse for Pizza Dough: Why Resting Before Kneading Works

Autolyse for Pizza Dough: Why Resting Before Kneading Works

The autolyse is the least intuitive step in dough-making. You mix flour and water, then you walk away. No yeast yet. No salt. Just flour and water...