Overnight Pizza Dough is a recipe for Pizza Dough that is prepared and covered to leave overnight, a full 24 hours. Because it’s left out at room temp, the yeast has ample time to digest and multiply at a warmer temperature. Creating a Pizza dough that is very easy on the stomach and no refrigerator space is needed. The dough should be prepared the previous day, at about the same time you plan on making pizzas the next day.

This recipe uses all-purpose flour instead of 00 flour and adds the addition of Gluten Flour to account for the protein percentage difference between soft wheat flour and all-purpose flour. Soft Wheat 00 Flour or Pizza Flour can also be used here just the same, and in that case no gluten flour is needed. With Pizza Flour you do get even better results.

Overnight Pizza Dough Ingredients

Flour, Gluten Flour, Water, Sugar, Oil, Yeast, Sea Salt. Cornmeal and/or Flour for preparing the Pizzas.

If using 00 flour or any other kind of Pizzeria Flour, omit the gluten flour.

Flour

The best flour for pizza dough is Caputo Flour or 00/0 flour. These are a fine flour with a high protein percentage, and this is where your chew comes from. As well as the flavor from stronger wheat flours such as Caputo’s, which makes for remarkable pizzas.

Weigh out the flour from the start and set aside.

All Purpose Flour

Most have all-purpose flour on hand, and this can be used as well to make pizza dough. The Slurry process of preparing the dough with all-purpose flour greatly enhances the gluten development for good stretch. Even though it has a lower protein percentage.

Gluten Flour

This is exceptional to add to a pizza dough recipe that is made with all-purpose flour to get pizzeria style dough. This increases the protein percentage, similar to Caputo’s or soft wheat flour. You still miss out on the flavors that a soft wheat flour adds. But in terms of Pizzeria style dough, it acts and handles the same way. Providing good stretch and a chew to the dough.

Gluten & All-Purpose Flour ratio for Pizza Dough: Add about 1/2 tsp of Gluten Flour (Vital Wheat Gluten) to every 1 Cup of All Purpose Flour.

Water

Water is an often overlooked ingredient and its PH level, softness or hardness (mineral content), and purity varies depending on where you live. In most cases, using room temp to warm tap water is percectly fine.

I live in the Waterloo & Kitchener area, which has extremely hard water. Kitchener has some of the hardest water in all of Canada. The city ranges between 17 and 38 grains per gallon (gpg) or 291 and 615 parts per million (ppm). Meanwhile, the water hardness average across Canada is only 10.5 gpg.

Some will add Mineral Yeast Food, or Calcium Sulfate to soft water, to create hard water. Minerals like magnesium and calcium help the amino acids in the flour to form tighter bonds. Creating a stronger gluten structure, which gives the dough its elasticity and strength. But again, most of the time, tap water is sufficient and perfectly fine. It’s only when we get into soft water that you may run into issues.

Sugar

Sugar adds sweetness to the dough and also promotes browning. It is also food for the Yeast to thrive. With high heat ovens, sugar is added in much lower quantities, if any at all. Such as the Neapolitan Dough which doesn’t contain any sugar or oil. For cooking pizzas in a home oven, you will want to add sugar to promote browning, since home ovens can only heat to 500F -550F in general.

Although I know of a few Lebanese Pizzerias, that uses a considerable amount, maybe even a shocking amount of sugar in their dough which is fermented overnight in the walkin.

Oil

Oil also promotes browning and loosens the gluten bonding a bit for soft bread like texture. Either EVOO or a Neutral Oil can be added.

Sea Salt

Sea Salt is for Flavor, and crucial to promote gluten development, which traps the air in the dough. It also slows down the yeast activity. For this reason, Salt is added later. Once all the flour is added and after the slurry has developed.

Yeast

By far the best yeast is bakers yeast that comes in blocks and are clay like. This offers up superior flavor, but is hard to source. You can visit a local bakery and request to buy some. If using Fresh Bakers Yeast, then add 3 times the amount as you would Fast Active Dry Yeast.

Fast Active Dry Yeast is the popular yeast to get and readily available in stores. Only a very small amount is used. Because the pizza dough will have 24 hours to age. This allows the yeast, even though it’s only a small amount, ample time to digest everything in the dough. Creating a final product that is very easy on the stomach.

This recipe uses 1/8 tsp of Fast Active Dried Yeast. If using Fresh Bakers Yeast, then add slightly over 1/4 tsp dissolved in the Water with Sugar & Oil only. Salt is always added much later and along with the remaining flour.

How to make Pizza Dough

The Overnight Pizza Dough goes through the following 4 stages; Pizza Dough Slurry, Pizza Dough, Proofing, Portioning, Aging or Final Proof. It takes a full 24 hours to age, and for this reason you want to start this dough at about the same time the previous day as you plan on making pizzas the next day.

Pizza Dough Slurry

A Pizza Dough Slurry is the first step. It allows some flour to get fully saturated. Which in return strengthens the gluten bonding and gives the yeast a head start. There is a big difference in just mixing everything together to form the dough or starting with a slurry.

How to make a Pizza Dough Slurry

Weigh out your total flour and set aside. Place Water, Sugar, and Oil with Yeast into a bowl. Add an equal amount of Flour or thereabouts as there is water and whisk well. You don’t have to be exact here, just add the flour from the weighed out amount at about the same amounts as the water. Leave it sit for at least 30 minutes or more, or until good bubbling throughout the slurry occurs.

Pizza Dough

After the Slurry stage, add the remaining Flour (reserving 1 cup), followed by the Salt and knead the dough. Knead the dough until it comes together, a bit whiter in color and smooth and elastic. The one below was done by hand which is much harder than doing it in a Dough Mixer. But a good 10 minutes or so of kneading if perfectly fine.

If using a Dough mixer, then empty the slurry into the mixing bowl and mix on the lowest setting. Add all the flour, reserving 1 C of Flour to add later, if needed. The goal is to get a tacky dough, that when you hand is pressed, it sticks but comes away clean. Add more flour if needed if the dough is too sticky.

Pizza Dough Proofing

Once the Pizza Dough is made up, cover with plastic and leave it to proof. This is an overnight pizza dough, so place into a large pot and cover and set on the counter or in the oven overnight. After 20-22 hours, it can be portioned out into individual dough balls.

You want a tight and complete cover. I use a garbage bag to cover the pot and later use that same garbage bag to cover the dough, when they are placed into the trays. You can also use Saran wrap.

Pizza Dough Sizes

Once the overnight Pizza Dough has had about 22 hours of proofing. It is ready to be divided, shaped, covered and left to age or go through the final proof, 2-4 hours before you plan on making pizza. This timeframe is good to create the air pockets in the dough, but still firm enough to handle.

Scrape the dough out of the pot and place on the counter. Use a bit of flour lightly, where needed to handle sticky parts. Weigh out dough portions for whatever size you need and shape into a tight ball. Place the dough balls on a baking sheet or dough tray with ample spacing between. Because these will proof and expand, you really don’t want them expanding into each other. Which makes it tricky to separate them without overly distorting their shape.

Below is the standard westernized pizza dough weights

• Small Pizza or Calzones: Portion the Dough to 200g to 233g.
• Medium Pizza or Twisty Bread: Portion the Dough to 377g to 454g.
• Large Pizza: Portion the dough to 525g to 610g.

Neapolitan Style: The dough must be between 200g – 280g to obtain a diameter between 22 cm – 35 cm or approxiamately 250g -280g for a 12 inch and the lower end for a 10 inch or small.

How to portion out Pizza Dough

You will need a digital scale and some flour on standby because the dough will be sticky. Use a very small amount of flour to handle sticky parts of the dough.

1. Empty the Dough on the counter.
2. Sprinkle a small amount of flour over the dough to make it easier to handle.
3. Slice off a portion of dough and weigh it to the desired weight.
4. Roll into a tight ball, using more flour if needed to make it manageable.
5. Place at one corner of the baking sheet or dough tray. Repeat until all the dough is portioned out.

Final Proof

You only want to age or go through the final proof of the portioned out pizza dough, a max of 4 hours. Any longer than this and the dough can become too soft to handle, making it easy to distort the shape. Once you have the dough balls portion out and shaped. Place them on a baking sheet or dough tray with ample room to account for expansion. Cover completely and leave on the counter until ready to make pizzas, about 2 hours is ideal. With 1 hour of that time preheating your oven. This can be pushed up to 4 hours, but this is really pushing it, about 2 hours is ideal. This of course will depend on how warm your kitchen is.

Preheat the oven

With the Oven preheated to the highest setting for at least 1 hour and a pizza stone placed on the lowest rack. You’re ready to make some Pizzas! Just be sure to keep them covered to prevent a skin from forming while you make your pizzas.

It is during this 1 hour of preheating the Oven, that you can prepare all of your Pizza Toppings, Pizza Sauce, and Cheese, if you haven’t the day before after making the pizza dough.

I set the oven up for the PIE/413 Cook method, I created to get even better pizzas at home with a home oven. This is to place a Pizza stone on the lowest rack position and the second rack in middle position. Check out the How To Post to learn more and cook up some amazing Pizzas!

Scraping the dough from the trays

When removing the Dough from the trays, the dough will be very sticky. With a dough scraper, scrape it in a bit, just enough so that you can lift up the dough. Gently pull the scraper away and then scrape all the way in to grab the dough gently. Flip it over into your other hand and gently pull the scraper away from the dough. Then place the dough on a cornmeal or flour surface, depending on what you are making, and sprinkle a bit of Flour on top to make it easier to handle.

A small amount of oil can be brushed on the trays, before placing the dough balls in. To make it a bit easier to scrape away the dough. You can also brush oil on top to minimize on the plastic sticking to the dough.

Shaping Pizza Dough

If you’re making Pizzas or Twisty Bread with the dough, then you will want a cornmeal surface. For Calzones or Garlic Fingers, just a floured surface will do.

Place the Dough on the Cornmeal or Floured surface. This is a sticky dough, so sprinkle a bit of flour on top.

Create the Crust

You do not want to roll this out or otherwise touch or flatten the outside edge at all. You want as much air to stay in the crust so that it rises with good air pockets in the crust, making it light an airy. With your fingertips, press about 1/2 inch to 1 inch away from the edge to form the crust. You can flatten or press down with your palm towards the center to flatten it.

Stretching Pizza Dough

With the outer side of your hand holding the dough on the inside of the crust, use your other hand to do the same to the opposite side and gently stretch the dough, going around.

Hand Tossing Pizza

Hand tossing the Pizza preserves the crust while streching the dough out. It also gets rid of any excess cornmeal or flour.

Once you have the dough stretched a bit. Pick it up, but do not touch the crust at all. Rest it on your hand with the crust over your thumb and your fingers together in an open palm position. Toss the pizza to the other hand slapping the dough. You want the Pizza to land how it was positioned before you tossed it. Not in the center but around the pizza and inside the crust. Slap until you get the desired size and place on a pizza screen. This is a room temp dough, so the slapping is gentle and it will stretch really easy.

Pizza Dough Portioning Options

This Pizza Dough recipe makes about 1500g of Pizza Dough and can be broken down or portioned out for the following;

• 3 Medium Pizzas @ 454g per 12 inch
• 2 Medium Pizzas @ 454g each and Twisty Bread or 12inch Garlic Fingers @454g
• 2 Calzones @200g each, 12 inch Garlic Fingers or Pizza @454g, and Twisty Bread @454g
• 7 Calzones @200g or 5 Calzones & Twisty Bread, or Garlic Fingers, or Pizza @454-500g
• 1 Large Pizza @525-625g and Medium Garlic Fingers & Twisty Bread, both @ about 454g each
• 5 Neapolitan style pizzas @250-280g each

Pizza Dough uses

This Overnight Pizza Dough can be used to make Pizzas, Calzones, Twisty Bread, Garlic Fingers, Donair Pizzas!

You can certainly use less dough for a medium or large pizza for a less bready pizza, following suit after the Neapolitan style. Mix and match any combination as you see fit. You got about 1500g of Pizza Dough to work with making for a generous Pizza Night Feast.