CAPUTO FLOUR PIZZA DOUGH RECIPES

Steps:

• Ingredients Prep
• First, measure out the water and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Stir lightly until the yeast is fully hydrated and the water is a slightly brown color.
• Set the mixing bowl with water and yeast to the side. In another bowl, measure out the flour and salt. Gently mix the salt into the flour using your finger.
• Have your olive oil ready somewhere nearby. We're not going to add this into the recipe until about halfway through the process.
• Mixing The Ingredients
• Using a hard spatula or wooden spoon, start to slowly stir the flour and salt mixture into the bowl of water and yeast. I find it's best to mix in a few spoonfuls of flour at a time rather than dumping it all in at once. Do this until you've mixed in roughly 75% of the flour.
• When roughly 75% of the flour is mixed into the water, add the tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and fully incorporate it into the dough mixture.
• Mix the remaining 25% if flour into the rest of the ingredients. You can stop mixing when you can't see anymore dry flour in the bowl. It should be a rough, shaggy ball of dough.
• Preparing The Dough
• Cover the bowl tightly with an air-tight lid or plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for approximately 15 minutes.
• After 15 minutes, come back and give the dough another mix with the spatula. You should find that the dough is much smoother and less sticky. Turn and fold the dough onto itself for another 1-2 minutes and cover it back up tightly.
• Let the dough sit at room temperature for 8-9 hours, or overnight.
• If your yeast is alive, the dough should be risen and bubbly when you come back to it. Punch it back down with the spatula (or your hand) and fold/turn it onto itself several times. Cover it back up and let it rise again at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
• At this point, I like to transfer the dough to a plastic container and store it in the fridge for a few hours before dividing it up. This makes the dough much easier to work with, although feel free to skip this step and go straight into dividing the dough into balls.
• Divide the dough in half into two 250 gram balls, or four 125 gram balls if you prefer smaller pizzas. Try to make each dough ball as even as possible so that it proves into an evenly round shape. This step seems unimportant but it makes a big difference in the finished product, so if you're unsure on how to make a proper dough ball see the video attached to this page for visual instructions.
• Place each dough ball into a lightly floured (semolina works best) plastic container with a lid. I like to place each dough ball in its own plastic container for convenience and easy storage in the fridge, but feel free to put several in a deep dish baking pan and cover it with plastic wrap if you don't have any plastic containers. Just make sure whatever you put it in is deep and wide enough so that the ball can expand slightly without sticking to the edges or top.
• Place the containers in the fridge until you're ready to use them.
• Proving The Dough Balls
• When you're ready to use the dough ball, take one (or more) out of the fridge and let the container sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours or until it reaches room temperature.
• When the dough ball is finished proving it should be relaxed and expanded. If you see lots of large bubbles forming on the surface of the ball, you probably overproved it. In this case, it will still be useable but the dough will be degassed which will reduce how much the crust rises in the oven. Next time, don't leave it to prove so long.
• Make a pile of semolina flour on a clean surface. If you don't have semolina, you can use regular flour as well but semolina has a nicer texture and doesn't absorb as much moisture.
• If you stored your dough balls in individual plastic containers you can simply flip it over and let the dough ball drop onto the pile of flour. If not, you can carefully use a dough scraper or a spatula by wedging underneath it and lifting it up so you can drop it onto the pile of flour. In either case, make sure not to squeeze or pinch the dough ball or you'll lose all the gas that's been building up inside it (which is the whole point of the proving process).
• At this point you can gently shape the dough by hand into whatever kind of pizza base you like. I recommend starting from the middle and gently pushing the air and gas out to the sides. If you want a nice fluffy crust, don't pinch or squeeze the outer edges. The goal in shaping the dough is not to flatten it but rather to push the air and gas from the middle out to the outer crust. This way, the outer crust will expand and stay soft when baked instead of becoming flat and hard.