Inga’s Pizza Dough
This is my ultimate pizza dough recipe and cooking technique. I’ve been experimenting over the years and I’m pretty happy with this recipe!
I make my pizzas in an Ooni pizza oven, but you can also cook them in a barbecue with a lid. Either way, cooking at a really high temperature makes for a beautiful blistered and puffy crust.
The dough is low in hydration (needs less water), as pizza needs a firmer dough.
500g strong flour
275g water, room temperature
3g instant yeast*
10g salt
*You need only a small amount of yeast, as you leave the pizza to prove for quite a long time.
Put the flour, water and yeast into the bowl of an electric mixer, or a large bowl if mixing by hand.
Roughly mix with a wooden spoon until you have a shaggy dough.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a tea towel. Leave for 1/2 hour.
Remove the cover and add in the salt. Mix with a dough hook in an electric mixer for 6-8 minutes or until the dough is stretchy and elastic. Or knead by hand for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy.
Cover again and leave for about 2 hours or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.
Remove the dough from the bowl, and on a board or bench top, cut the dough into pieces. Weight them to get them even - about 150g for small pizzas, 200g for medium and 250g for large. Roll each cut piece into a ball.
If making the dough for later, put each ball into a zip lock bag and freeze. They freeze really well and its great to have pizza dough on hand.
To make pizzas from frozen, defrost the balls, take out of the bags, and make pizzas as below.
To make pizzas straight away, take each ball and stretch to a round pizza shape on your board or bench top, using your hands and a little flour. Don’t use a rolling pin! Leave to prove for 1/2 hour on a lightly floured tray.
To use a pizza oven such as an Ooni, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Cooking pizzas on a barbecue is pretty straightforward. Preheat the barbecue to maximum, lid down. A high heat is essential! Heat a pizza stone if you have one, or a metal baking biscuit tray/slide instead, dusted with flour.
To make the pizza, spread the pizza with your toppings of choice being careful not to overload the delicate dough.
Slide a metal peel or large spatula under the pizza and transfer to the pizza stone or metal tray. Cook on the barbecue with the lid down until the edges are blistered, brown and puffed up. Depending on your barbecue it could take between 2-5 minutes. Keep checking to make sure the pizza doesn’t burn.
Remove using the peel or spatula to a waiting plate and eat!