Pizza Pizza Pizza - Base

There's only one kind of pizza - a good one.  The rest are all crap and there is a lot of crap out there, a lot!  You must start with a good, fresh dough and to get a good dough, you really should start the day before.  Good dough cannot be rushed and it needs time to develop.  Would you build your house on a base of crap?  No, so please don't try and build your pizza on one.  Here's the recipe for the perfect pizza dough.  When making bread and pizza dough you need to be precise so measure everything by weight instead of volume.

For 'N' number of 200g pizza bases you need:
N x 125g of flour
N x 75g of water (60% hydration - some people like 65%)
N x 2.5g of salt
N x 0.25g of instant yeast (yes, that little)

For example, if you want to make 4 pizza you will need:
500g of flour
300g of water
10g of salt
1g of instant yeast.

People will argue until they are blue in the face about what type of flour to use and it is a matter of preference, but to get the best results you need a good quality flour.  If you can get Italian 00 grade flour (the same type they use for pasta) then use that, but a good stoneground, strong white flour also works well.  Supermarkets sell many different types these days.  Check the label for the protein content, the higher the better, but you re looking for 12 or 13% at least.  Best of all, experiment with different types and see how they cook out.

Making the dough:
Start the day ahead if possible but if not, as early in the day as possible for as late a cooking as possible.  There's no hard and fast rule, but try to allow at least 8hrs for rising and resting.  Resting being a very important part.  You can't stretch out a dough that hasn't rested enough as it'll keep springing back and drive you nuts.

You can mix all the ingredients by hand from scratch (the best way) or you can initially mix them all up in a mixer until they are combined, but stop as soon as they are - you do not want to heat the dough at all.  For the by-hand method, put the flour on a clean work surface, make a well in the middle, pour in all the water and then add the salt and yeast.  Gradually combine the flour into the water until it all comes together to form a ball.  Now you are at the same stage as if you used the mixer as above.  Kneed the dough until it is smooth and elastic.  The smoother the better, but you can give yourself a bit of leeway if you are going to let the dough rise for longer.

If you have made dough for 4 pizzas, divide the dough into 4 equal portions and form into a ball by rolling and tucking the dough under itself.  Put each ball into a lightly oiled tub that has a lid.  See photo -

Put the tubs into the fridge and rest over night.  Then next day, take them out of the fridge and let them rise for about 6hrs at 26degC or 8hrs at 15degC or somewhere in between.  Once it has roughly doubled in size, they it's ready to use.  Tip one out onto a floured surface then shape/stretch it out to the size you want and then it's good to go.  Do not kneed the dough first as this will 'toughen' it up again.  Handle it as little as possible and with TLC and you'll end up with a thin base, thicker edges and a base that will cook to perfection.

Follow up posts will include pizza sauce, pizza toppings and cooking pizzas.  Ciao!

If you want to get really into pizza, then see here for further info.
AVPN - Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana
AVPN - A PDF file with all you need to know.