Brian’s Pizza Dough Recipe
Great pizza starts with the right dough. Brian, our wholesale manager, has spent countless hours developing his special dough recipe and has been kind enough to share his secrets. Featuring Caputo 00 Flour, Brian’s dough provides the perfect canvas for any pizza.
From the dough, to the sauce and the toppings, shop all of Ditalia's Pizza Essentials Here!
INGREDIENTS
250 grams Caputo 00 Flour (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup cool water
1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1 tsp Fine Sea Salt
1/2 tsp Granulated Sugar
PREPARATION
Dissolve the yeast in warm water with the sugar. In a standing mixer bowl, add the cool water and dissolved yeast.
With the mixer on slow speed, using the paddle blade, add about 1/3 or so of the Caputo 00 flour and mix (increasing the speed) for a minute or two, until a smooth “batter” forms. This helps to develop the gluten in the dough.
Add remaining Caputo 00 flour and salt. Once the dough comes together, switch to a dough hook and use a slow/med speed to kneed the dough for 8-10 minutes.
First Proofing
Form dough into a ball and transfer to a bowl lightly oiled with extra virgin olive oil and cover with plastic wrap until rested and has slightly grown in size (approx 1.5 hours). Since very little yeast is used, the dough shouldn’t double in size, as is common for bread recipes.
Second Proofing
Remove dough from bowl and portion into two dough balls. Place on floured sheet pan, cover well with plastic wrap and a towel to make a tight seal, and refrigerate for 24 hours.
Remove dough balls from fridge 1.5 hours prior to making pizza. This allows the dough to reach room temperature, making it more workable.
HELPFUL TIPS
An alternative / quicker method is to forgo the 2nd long proof in the fridge and instead proof the dough the 2nd time at room temp (approximately 4 hours) Care must be taken so that the dough balls do not over proof (ie more than double in size). If it appears the dough would be ready too soon, it can simply be put in fridge to slow down the growing dough a bit. The goal is to have the dough “rise” in the oven – and making sure the dough doesn’t “over proof” is key!
The longer (refrigerated) second proofing yields a more favorable crust that tastes less “yeasty” & is definitely worth the extra preparation day.
The sugar simply helps with the browning of the crust in a conventional oven that tops out at about 500 degrees.
Use a baking stone or baking steel. Preheat oven for an hour at the maximum temperature prior making pizzas.
PIZZA ESSENTIALS
From the dough, to the sauce and the toppings, shop all of Ditalia's Pizza Essentials Here!
46 comments
I tried the recipe but the dough did not rise in the oven and was tough. What did I do wrong?
The flour is available at Wholefoods
Never heard of this flour …. Where can it be purchased?
Can the caputo 00 pizzeria flour (blue bag) be used in home ovens that reach 500 or is it strictly for commercial ovens? Can it be used for Brian’s Pizza Dough Recipe?
I use the tippo 00 flour that i have sent from Ditalia in St. Louis and after reading your dough recipe,may I ask what yeast to use.
I’m currently using an instant fast rising dry yeast.
Thank You in advance.
Used your recipe tonight with fantastic results.
550 is as high as my oven will go.
Working on a wood burning oven and this is the first dough recipe I will try.
Thanks
been trying several recipes and techniques for pizza dough.
This one is the best I have tried so far, may make some modifications down the road but definitely getting what I’m looking for.
Crisp, blistered crust with a great chew.
What if one doesn’t have a mixer and wants to try this recipe by hand?
I follow exact recipe and bake pie on stone at highest temp in my blue star . Always comes out great. Thank you.
Can you substitute the Caputo gluten free double 00 flour in this recipe?
Just learned about Caputo flour 00, there are different temperature flours, they use blue and red labeling to determine the difference. Would you please elaborate on this, as I heard about it, did not read about it. I heard red is for 500° and blue label flour is for higher temperatures like 900°.
Just learned about Caputo flour 00, the there are different temperature flours they use blue and red labeling to determine the difference. Would you please elaborate on this as I heard about it, did not read about it. I heard red is for 500° and blue label flour is for higher temperatures like 900°.
Just bought a huge 50lb sack of 00 caputo flour yesterday at the Italian centre. I’m going to get busy making some pizza and pasta this week. Wish me luck peeps!
Can’t wait to make this we just made a pizza oven up north
I did this, and ended up with a dough it did not rise and was tough
First time using the Caputo four. Will let you know!
Erich, I have been using Caputo 00 in my dough in my humble home oven with great success, using a baking steel. On the top rack, at 550F, pre-heated for 1.5 hours, the baking steel produces “leopard spots,” a crispy crust, and a wonderful cornicione. Re sugar, the recipe I use calls for honey and as I said, the crust is perfectly delicious. Totally agree w/you that Cento San Marzano tomatoes are the only way to go, but after I use the stick blender on the tomatoes, I add — GASP! — a little kosher salt, garlic powder, onion powder and oregano. So I suppose this makes me a heretic. ; )
There are a few rules working with Caputo flour. The first is, you should always cook this dough in high temperatures-usually 90 seconds at 900 degrees F. Second is, sugar is not used with this flour. Using ice cold water and warm water is usually for Mondako or pizza blend doughs and is not really good for Caputo flour. The salt should ALWAYS be dissolved in water before being added to the flour. Of course, you never allow salt and yeast to come in direct contact. The one thing I do like about this recipe is, the dry yeast. I’ve used both fresh yeast and dry yeast and I prefer the dry yeast.
This flour does not work well with home ovens. The best flour for that is Power Flour-which is makes a great crust.
The one thing you should always use with Neapolitan style pizzas is a DOP whole peeled tomato like Cento or Strianese tomatoes. You NEVER add anything to the tomatoes. You take a hand held mixer and mix them until you have a puree consistency. The DOP tomatoes are from a certain part of Italy that are grown in a volcanic area which adds a sweetness to the tomato-which is why you don’t add anything to them.
If you’re looking for a pizza that sticks to tradition, the Neapolitan pizza is the way to go. The ingredients are:
Caputo 00 flour
DOP tomatoes – puree (some pizza makers will even cut the top and bottoms off and wash the seeds out – see YouTube videos by Tony Geminani)
Parmesan or pecorino cheese
Buffalo or mozzarella cheese
Olive oil
Basil (I personally do not use Basil, but the Neapolitan pizza is like the Italian flag: Red, white, green. Sauce, cheese, and basil)
Happy baking!
To Julie. I have used other similar recipes with up to 72 hours in fridge and turned out great
Would it work to keep the dough in the refrigerator for 48 hours? Or you do think it will change the final result?
I have been play with pizza dough for quite some time. So far this has been the best dough I have tried.
Whole family loved it. Easy to work with and very tasty. Thanks for sharing.
