🍕Ingredients:

• Use ‘00’ flour (like Caputo Pizzeria, Anna, King Arthur)

• Mix yeast in warm water till dissolved, about 1 minute.
• Add salt to yeast and water mixture, stir, and let rest till salt is dissolved ( another minute or so)
• Add olive oil
• Thoroughly mix in flour. Mix by hand to thoroughly integrate the flour and water mixture to get a single mass of dough
• Pinch the dough with the fingers to cut the dough in sections by squeezing the mass. Then shape it back to a single mass. Repeat process for about 1 minute.
• Cover and rest for 20 minutes at room temp

🍕 KNEAD AND LET RISE:

• Put dough on a work surface with a light dusting of flour and knead the dough for a minute or two. The skin should be smooth. Don’t add more flour. It will be sticky to start with.
• Place the dough ball back into a lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly.
• Rest for 2 hours ( at 72 degrees, (room temp))

🍕SHAPE THE DOUGH BALLS:

• Cut dough into dough balls making each about 265 grams.
• Pick up a ball and stretch one side of the dough bottom a little and fold the flap under the ball itself, rotate 45 degrees; repeat - stretch one side of the bottom dough and fold under the dough ball. Do 5 or 6 times. Put seam side down on surface. Close any openings on the bottom seam by pinching the seams together. Top should be smooth and a little bouncy.
• Cup your hands around the dough ball and drag it toward you. This will create more surface tension on the top of the ball. Drag dough ball toward you once or twice more.

🍕COLD FERMENTAION:

• Place the dough balls into a covered dough box, or individually, into a round plastic container with a tight fitting lid. Container should be larger than the dough ball to give room for it to rise.
• Put the containers in the refrigerator for 18 to 48 hours.

🍕SHAPE THE PIZZA:

• Take dough balls out of the refrigerator 1 1/2 hours before making the pizza. Bring to room temperature.
• Gently ease out the dough, without deflating it, into a flour bath (a shallow bowl filled with fine semolina flour and gently toss the dough to coat both sides).
• Turn out onto a well floured surface and shape back into a circle
• Start shaping the dough. Start in the middle and press the air bubbles outward toward the edge of the pizza. Press to about 1 inch from the outer edge. Keep the outer crust nice and puffy.
• Once pressed out to 6 to 8 inches or so, start gently stretching the dough with both hands into a larger circle without touching the outer crust. Lift up and rotate on knuckles, again with touching the outer crust.
• Shake off excess flour by transferring the dough quickly from hand to hand.
• Place on a floured peel and reshape into a round as necessary
• Top pizza and bake.