The Dough: Lean for Heat, Richer for Lower Heat, Slow for Flavour

Dough balls in a wooden box after their long rise. A Neapolitan dough is only flour, water, salt and yeast.

The most useful thing to know about pizza dough for a wood-fired oven is also the least obvious: the hotter the oven, the plainer the dough must be. Sugar and oil brown quickly. In a kitchen oven at 500 °F they help a crust colour in twelve minutes. In a pizza oven at 850 °F they make it burn in one.

The rule: at high heat, no sugar, no oil

The Neapolitan rules are blunt: “Never add any fat or sugar to the dough” (AVPN). The reason is not only tradition.

Andrew Janjigian tested it for Serious Eats. His own New York–style dough, with sugar and oil, “kept burning” in a portable oven at 800–900 °F. In side-by-side tests, only the dough of flour, water, salt and yeast lasted past two minutes before crossing from charred to burned. “Using only flour, water, salt, and yeast … prevents burning.”

So a pizza oven wants two kinds of dough:

• A lean dough — flour, water, salt, yeast — for Neapolitan pizza at full heat.
• A richer dough with a little oil and sugar for New York–style pizza, baked at a lower temperature (about 750 °F, with the flame turned down) for four or five minutes. Ooni’s New York recipe works exactly this way.

The numbers

Dough	Flour	Hydration	Salt	Other	Ferment	Oven
AVPN Neapolitan	”00”	56–63%	2.2–3.75%	0.1–3 g fresh yeast per litre of water	12–24 h	floor 716–806 °F, 60–90 s
Ooni classic (same-day)	“00”	60%	2.9%	—	~3 h	930 °F, 1–2 min
Janjigian outdoor-oven	~12% protein AP	67% (he prefers 70%)	2.2%	—	24 h–4 days, cold	800 °F, 90–180 s
Kenji cold-ferment Neapolitan	bread or “00”	65%	2%	—	8–12 h + 2–4 days cold	—
Ooni New York	bread flour	65%	3%	1% sugar, 5% oil	overnight, cold	750 °F, 4–5 min

Hydration and percentages are baker’s percentages, calculated from each source’s quantities.

Hydration is the weight of water as a percentage of flour. Higher hydration makes a lighter, more open crust that is harder to handle; Neapolitan dough is surprisingly dry at 56–63%, because a 90-second bake doesn’t drive off much water.

Flour

• “00” is an Italian grade that describes how finely the flour is milled, not how strong it is. The AVPN asks for “00” or “0” with a strength (W) of 250–320 for long rises.
• Bread flour or a strong all-purpose flour (about 12% protein) works well. Janjigian prefers all-purpose at about 12%, because bread flour without oil made “a slightly tough crust.”
• The Flour dive, coming later in this program, covers the grades in depth.

Time: the long, cold ferment

The AVPN requires 12 to 24 hours of fermentation. Home recipes go longer, in the refrigerator: Janjigian’s dough keeps “at least 24 hours, up to 4 days — 48 to 72 hours is ideal.” Cold fermentation builds flavour and relaxes the gluten so the dough stretches easily, and gives a three-day window to use it.

Bring it back to room temperature. Cold dough tears and won’t stretch. Janjigian wants the balls at 60 °F or warmer, which takes one to two hours covered on the counter; Ooni’s New York recipe takes the dough out three hours before baking.

Sourdough

The AVPN allows sourdough at under 10% of the flour in place of yeast. A sourdough pizza has a tangier flavour and needs a longer rise. The collection’s sourdough version is Sourdough Pizza Dough, and the same starter makes Ooni’s Man’oushe with Za’atar.

Shaping

• By hand, never with a rolling pin — for Neapolitan pizza. The AVPN forbids the rolling pin because it presses the air out of the rim. (A few flatbreads — flammkuchen, lahmacun, pita — are rolled on purpose; see beyond pizza.)
• Press from the centre outward with the fingertips, pushing the air into the rim (cornicione), then stretch over the backs of the hands.
• Ball size: the AVPN uses 200 g for a 22–24 cm (9-inch) pizza and 280 g for 28–35 cm. Ooni uses 250 g for 12 inches and 330 g for 16 inches; its New York balls are 380 g for 16 inches.
• Ooni’s test for thinness: “you should be able to see through the base when you hold it up to the light.”

The recipes

• Neapolitan Pizza Dough (AVPN Method) — lean, 24 hours
• Outdoor Pizza Oven Dough — Janjigian’s cold-fermented dough, the most forgiving
• Sourdough Pizza Dough
• New York-Style Pizza — dough, sauce and bake, at lower heat
• Uncooked Pizza Sauce

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In this dive: The history · What makes it Neapolitan · How the oven cooks · Choosing an oven · The Ooni Karu 2 Pro · Wood and fire · Using the oven · Safety and the law · The dough · Pizza styles · Beyond pizza · Corrections