Recipes

Outdoor Pizza Oven Dough

Pizza · Pizza Oven · Breads · Meal Prep

Outdoor Pizza Oven Dough
Prep 45 min, plus 1–4 days
Cook 2 min per pizza
Serves 3–4 dough balls
Level Medium

Andrew Janjigian’s dough for high-temperature outdoor ovens: flour, water, salt and yeast only — because in his side-by-side tests, doughs with sugar or oil burned before they cooked — and a cold ferment of two to three days for flavour and easy stretching.

Untested: I have not cooked this one yet — the pizza oven has not been bought. It is here for the Pizza Ovens dive, and it is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

  • 535 g (about 4 cups + 3 tablespoons) high-protein all-purpose flour, about 12% protein (bread flour works)
  • 2 g (½ teaspoon) instant dry yeast
  • 360 g (about 1½ cups + 1 tablespoon) water, ice-cold (40 °F / 4 °C)
  • 12 g (1 tablespoon) Diamond Crystal kosher salt
  • Olive oil, for the containers

Directions

  1. Mix. Pulse the flour and yeast in a food processor. With it running, pour in the cold water and process 10–20 seconds to a rough ball. Rest 20 minutes.
  2. Salt. Add the salt and process 20–30 seconds to a smooth ball. The dough should be about 75 °F (24 °C); if it is cooler, pulse in 10-second bursts.
  3. Rest. Knead once or twice, put it in an oiled bowl, and rest 45 minutes. Knead 5–10 seconds in the bowl, cover, and leave at room temperature 60–120 minutes, until puffy but not quite doubled.
  4. Ball. Divide into 4 balls of about 225 g (for 12-inch ovens) or 3 of about 300 g (for 16-inch ovens). Oil them lightly and put them in lidded containers.
  5. Cold ferment. Refrigerate at least 24 hours and up to 4 days; 48–72 hours is ideal.
  6. Warm up. On baking day, leave the covered balls at room temperature 1–2 hours, until the dough is at least 60 °F (15.5 °C). Cold dough tears.
  7. Bake on a stone of about 800 °F for 90 seconds to 3 minutes, turning.

Notes

Source Adapted from Andrew Janjigian, “Outdoor Pizza Oven Pizza Dough,” Serious Eats (2021), tested in an Ooni Koda.

Why no oil or sugar Janjigian’s own sugar-and-oil New York dough “kept burning” at 800–900 °F; only the lean dough lasted past two minutes before crossing from charred to burned.

Hydration 67% as written. He prefers 70% — use 375 g water — but it tears more easily.

Temperatures are for the oven floor (stone), read with an infrared thermometer. A pizza oven’s built-in gauge reads the air, which runs much hotter.

The Pizza Ovens dive on the Food site covers the oven, the fire and the dough in depth.