Neapolitan-Style Pizza Dough (with Poolish)
This pizza dough uses a classic poolish pre-ferment to create a crust that’s full of flavour, light in texture, and beautifully blistered when baked at a high temperature. Perfect for firing up in a pizza oven, but it works well in a frying pan too if you're cooking van-style. The recipe uses exactly 1kg of 00 flour, giving you enough for 4–6 pizzas depending on how big you like them.
10 Ingredients or less - Prep ahead
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Dough scraper or spoon
- Clean tea towel or cling film
- High Temp Oven or pizza oven
Ingredients
For the Poolish (Make 1 day before)
- 1 1/4 cups water 300 ml
- 2.4 cups 00 flour 300 g
- 2 tsp fresh yeast 6 g
- 1 tsp honey 5 g
For the Dough
- All of the poolish
- 2 1/3 cups water 400 ml
- 8 cups 00 flour 700 g
- 7 tsp salt 25 g
- 2 3/4 tsp olive oil 10 g
- 1/2 cups Semolina flour for dusting
Instructions
Make the Poolish (Day Before)
- In a large bowl, stir the yeast and honey into the water until dissolved.
- Add the flour and mix until fully combined — you’re looking for a wet, sticky batter.
- Cover the bowl with cling film or a lid and leave at room temperature overnight (12–16 hours). The poolish should be bubbly and smell slightly sweet and yeasty by morning.
Make the Dough
- Add the water to the poolish and mix well to loosen.
- Add the remaining flour and knead until it starts to form a dough.
- Sprinkle in the salt and continue kneading until incorporated.
- Pour in the olive oil and knead again until the dough is smooth, stretchy, and slightly tacky. This should take about 8–10 minutes by hand.
- Cover and rest the dough for 30 minutes, then do one stretch and fold.
- Rest for another 30 minutes, then divide into 4–6 dough balls.
- Place each ball on a semolina floured tray, cover, and leave to proof for 1–2 hours at room temperature or up to 24 hours in the fridge.
Cook Your Pizza
- Preheat your oven or pizza oven to its highest setting — ideally 250°C+ (480°F+).
- Dust with semolina flour, roll or stretch out each dough ball, top with your favourite ingredients, and bake until puffed and golden (around 7–10 minutes depending on your heat source).
Notes
If you're cooking in a pan (like a RidgeMonkey), dry-fry the base first until crisp and bubbly underneath, then flip, add toppings, cover with foil, and cook low until the cheese melts.
For more flavour, cold-proof the dough balls in the fridge for 24 hours, then bring them to room temp before baking.
You can freeze shaped dough balls — just wrap tightly and defrost overnight before using.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!