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–+ servings
Neapolitan pizza dough on the pizza peel.

Neapolitan Poolish Pizza Dough Recipe

Todd Mitchell
AVPN approved recipe for Neapolitan Poolish Pizza Dough - makes two AVPN dough balls about 9.5 ounces each.
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Prep Time 3 hours 25 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Resting time (2 periods) 1 day 1 hour
Total Time 1 day 4 hours 30 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American, Italian
Servings 2 Dough balls
Calories 1228 kcal

Equipment

  • 1 Stand Mixer (Optional)
  • 1 Wood-burning pizza oven AVPN says this is required, but use what you've got!
  • 1 Pizza Cutter

Ingredients
  

  • ½ Tsp Yeast Active, dry yeast
  • 2 Ounces Water (1/4 cup) Tap is fine unless it is very hard or very soft, in which case use bottled.
  • 2 Ounces 00 Pizza Flour (Approximately 1/2 cup) This is for your Poolish.
  • 6 Ounces Water Tap is fine unless it is very hard or very soft, in which case use bottled.
  • 1 ½ Tsp Sea salt
  • 2 Cups 00 Pizza Flour
  • 2 Tbsp Semolina flour (if you don't have semolina, any flour will do, including 00 or all-purpose)

Instructions
 

Making the Poolish Starter

  • In a Mason jar or small bowl, add your yeast to the water and whisk.
    Wait 5 minutes to ensure the yeast is bubbling slightly so that you know it is active.
  • Add the flour and stir with a knife until it has a batter-like consistency. Scrape the knife clean on the side of the jar/bowl and cover. Leave at room temperature for 3 hours.
    Poolish before fermentation.
  • After 3 hours, the Poolish should have bubbles formed from the fermentation process.
    You can make your pizza now or within the next 3-5 hours. If you are going to wait longer (up to 24 hours), refrigerate the Poolish.
    Poolish after fermentation.

Making the Pizza Dough

  • Pour the water into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer.
    Pour the salt into the water and whisk (or stir) until the salt is dissolved.
    Using a wet spatula, add your Poolish starter.
    Add about 1/2 cup of flour into the water.
  • Start your stand mixer using the hook attachment on its slowest setting.
  • Slowly add more flour. Not all flour hydrates the same, so it may be that you'll need a little less or a little more flour.
  • If you don't have a stand mixer, you can do this all by hand. Just make a "volcano" of all of the flour and pour the water into the middle. Slowly move and mix the "volcano" walls into the water.

Checking the Dough

  • The dough will form into a single compact ball.
    · When this happens, stop the mixer and check the texture.
    · Dust your hands with flour and pull the dough off of the hook.
    · Knead the dough in your hands.
    · The texture and moistness should be consistent throughout. If it is not, return it to the mixer and check again.
    · The dough should be slightly tacky and smooth but should not be leaving much sticking to your hands. If it is, return it to the mixer and continue adding flour - slowly.
    · The final dough ball should be "fat" in appearance and sticky, soft, elastic, and smooth to the touch.
    Pre-fermentation dough ball

First Fermentation

  • Place the dough on a clean surface and cover with a damp cloth for one hour. The damp cloth is important to keep the outer surface from drying out.
    Damp cloth placed over the dough.

Second Fermentation

  • Remove the damp cloth and separate the dough into two balls of equal size (this recipe will make two dough balls approximately 9.5 to 9.9 ounces - which is right at the upper size limit).
  • Work the two halves into balls (the traditional technique is to shape them the same way Italians prepare fresh mozzarella balls).
  • Place the two balls into one or two sealed containers - the dough balls will double in size, so make sure they have enough room.
    Dough balls before fermenting.
  • Let the dough rest for 24 hours at room temperature.
    Poolish-infused dough has really fermented nicely.

Stretching the Dough

  • After the second fermentation, the dough will have become extensible (meaning you can stretch it) but not very elastic.
  • Put 1 tablespoon of semolina flour on your work surface
    Work surface has been prepared with semolina flour and the dough ball is being stretched.
  • Remove one dough ball from its container onto the floured work surface.
  • Stretch the dough by hand from the center to the edge. Create a round shape but ensure that the edge of the crust is about 0.5" tall and 0.5" to 1" wide and the rest of the crust is very thin (less than two pennies, if you can).
    (If needed, add more flour to the work surface so the pizza does not stick, but do not use more than you need)
  • With this recipe (which makes two ~9.5 ounce pizza dough balls), you should be able to make up to a 12" pizza.
  • Put 1 tablespoon of semolina flour and a pinch of cornmeal on your pizza peel (so the dough will not stick when launched into the oven).
    Floured pizza peel
  • Transfer your dough to the pizza peel.
  • You will want to quickly apply your toppings and get the pizza into the oven before the dough sticks to the peel.
  • Launch the pizza into the oven on the hottest part of the stone without being in the flames.
  • Before rotating the pizza, make sure that Rotate the pizza one quarter turn every 45 seconds. Generally, the pizza will be done in 6 minutes or less. So watch it closely!
    Margherita pizza almost cooked
  • Remove the pizza from the oven and let it rest for about 3 minutes.
    Margherita Pizza resting
  • Cut and serve immediately.
    A slice of Margherita pizza

Notes

This recipe makes 2 pizza dough balls of about 9.5 ounces each, which will each make up to an 11" or 12" pizza.
Conventional Oven option:
  • If you are going to cook this in a conventional oven, you'll want the highest temperature you can get the oven to. 
  • If you have a pizza stone (or pizza steel), that's going to help a lot in getting the most authentic crust. If not, a pizza pan (or cookie sheet) will still turn out a great pizza.
  • You can either start the pizza on a pan (or cookie sheet) and transfer it to the stone after about 10 minutes (when the crust is firm enough to be safely transferred). At this point, turn off the oven and let the pizza cook on the stone for another 5 minutes. Remove and let rest on a cutting board for another 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
  • Alternatively, you can start by launching the pizza directly to the pizza stone in your oven. This is more tricky and you might want to practice with some dough with no toppings!

Nutrition

Calories: 1228kcalCarbohydrates: 256gProtein: 36gFat: 3gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.4gSodium: 3507mgPotassium: 399mgFiber: 10gSugar: 1gCalcium: 60mgIron: 16mg
Keyword Neapolitan Pizza, Pizza Dough Poolish Recipe, Poolish, Poolish for Pizza
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