What oven temperature does this dough need? As hot as your oven goes. Aim for 550°F with a steel or stone preheated a full hour, or 800 to 900°F in a pizza oven. Caputo 00 has very little available sugar, so below about 550°F it bakes pale and crackery instead of puffing. If your oven caps at 500°F, use bread flour instead.
Do I have to use 00 flour, or can I use bread flour? Bread flour works, and in a home oven it often works better, because it browns faster at lower temperatures. Hold back about 25 ml of the water at first, since bread flour's stronger gluten makes 70% hydration feel slacker to handle, then add it back if the dough feels stiff. Expect a chewier crust.
How do I know when the poolish is ready? This one runs on the clock, not on looks: one hour at room temperature, then overnight in the fridge. Once it warms back up it should be loose and webbed with bubbles when you scoop it, and smell yeasty and faintly winey. That alcohol note is normal after a cold night, not a warning.
Therese is the chef in this house. This one's mine.
I make this dough on a three-day schedule. It isn't a weeknight recipe and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
Thirty percent of the flour goes into the poolish — a loose, wet preferment that sits overnight and does most of the work before the real mixing ever starts. That's where the flavor comes from, and there's no shortcut that gets you the same thing faster.
I've drifted from the recipe I learned in a few small ways. A little more yeast, a little more honey, a little more salt. The honey is the one I'd defend: I think it feeds the yeast better. But there's a ceiling. Go much past seven grams and the extra sugar browns the crust before the middle is done.
Everything after that is a scale and a calendar. About an hour of hands-on work spread across three days, six pizzas at the end of it, and the fridge doing the rest.
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1Day 1, the poolish: bring everything to room temperature before you start. The water can be barely warm to the touch but no warmer, or you'll kill the yeast.
- 2Whisk the honey and fresh yeast into the 300 ml of water until fully dissolved.
- 3Add the 300 g of flour and mix until you have a loose, sticky batter with no dry pockets left.
- 4Cover in a closed container and rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
- 5Move the closed container to the fridge and leave it overnight.
- 6Day 2, the dough: the next morning or early afternoon, pull the poolish out and let it come back to room temperature.
- 7Pour the 400 ml of water into a large bowl, then break the poolish apart into it with your hands until it's fully broken up and evenly distributed through the water.
- 8Add the salt and mix it in completely before any flour goes in.
- 9Add the 700 g of flour a small handful at a time, kneading each addition in before the next, until everything is very well incorporated.
- 10Work in 5 g of the olive oil as the dough comes together, which takes the edge off the stickiness.
- 11Cover and rest for at least 1 hour.
- 12Knead again, working in the remaining 5 g of olive oil, then form the dough into one large ball.
- 13Cover and rest 30 to 40 minutes, then refrigerate overnight.
- 14Day 3, shaping: in the morning, give the dough one quick knead to tighten it back into a ball.
- 15If you're baking that afternoon, leave it covered on the counter. If you're baking later than that, put it back in the fridge.
- 16Bring the dough fully to room temperature before you divide it. Off the counter it's already there; out of the fridge give it two to three hours.
- 17Divide into six balls of about 290 g each, shaping each one tight and smooth.
- 18Cover the balls and rest 1 hour at room temperature before you shape and bake.
Make it yours
- Make it Yours
- Yeast: I run 7 to 9 g of fresh yeast.
- Honey: 7 g is my ceiling. More sugar than that and the crust browns before the center is cooked.
- No fresh yeast: use about a third the weight in instant dry (2.7 g) or about 40% in active dry (3.2 g).
- No 00 flour: bread flour works, and it browns better in a home oven. Hold back about 25 ml of the water at first, then add it back if the dough feels stiff.
- Ball size: 290 g divides this batch evenly into six and gives you a proper cornicione. Drop to 250 g for seven thinner, wider pizzas.