I tested this flour out using my standard Neapolitan dough recipe, fresh yeast, and 62% hydration. The results were impressive with a nice elastic dough and a light and crunchy bake, and only with a tighter crumb than normal in the crust than usual.
- Baker: Rich Payne / Dough & Behold
- IG: @dough_and_behold
- Makes: 6 x 275g dough balls
- Prep time: 20 hrs room temp (21ºc) total proving time.
- Bake time: 60 - 90 seconds in Ooni pizza oven @450ºc
- Flours used: Cotswold Pizza Flour
Regenerative AP Flour Pizza Dough Method
- First off, add 90% of your water to the bowl.
- Crumble all your fresh yeast into the bowl (Or dried yeast) and whisk gently to dissolve.
- Add all of your flour to the bowl
- Turn your mixer on to a slow mixing speed (30-40%) and wait for the ingredients to combine and mix until there are no dry bits. I usually set a timer for 5mins for this.
- Add a little bit more water but not all of it whilst this mixes.
- Once there are no dry bits of flour, cover the bowl and let it rest for 30-45mins. This allows the dough to absorb the water properly and let the gluten begin to develop.
- After around 45 mins, add all your salt into the mixer and all of the remaining water.
- Mix at a slow speed to start with while to salt and water is mixed in, and then increase the speed a little for a minute or two. When it looks like the dough is becoming smooth, stop the mixer and let the dough rest for about 10 mins.
- After 10 mins, give the dough another mix for around 5 minutes. If at the end of this your dough feels nice and smooth, then take it out of the mixer.
- If the dough still looks a bit lumpy, let it rest and repeat this process one or two more times until you are happy. You will notice how the dough becomes smoother as you let it rest.
- Once happy with your dough, place it onto a clean work surface and gently shape it into a ball. You can use a dough scraper to kind of push it along your work surface to develop surface tension so you end up with a nice, tight, smooth dough ball.
- Place this Dough ball in a lightly oiled container with a lid.
- Leave out at room temp overnight to bulk prove.
- At 8am the next morning, empty the dough from your container out onto a work surface and divide it into 6 x 275g dough balls.
- Weigh the doughballs to make sure they are all even weights.
- To shape the dough ball grab it in one hand and fold it into itself a few times to make a tight, smooth ball.
- Once you are happy your dough balls have enough surface tension place them into either a small dough tray with a lid, or for best results at home, I oil an individual breakfast bowl and place the Dough ball inside and cover it with cling film (or even better you can get silicon covers online that mean you use less cling film plastic)
- Once your balls are in the bowls and covered, leave them out at room temp for another 5 hours and you are ready to bake. (You can ball up the night before you go to bed if you want to give your dough balls even longer time to rest) Both methods work well.
Opening out your dough balls:
- So, you’re ready to make pizza!
- You will need a separate bowl or dinner plate with two or three handfuls of fine Semola / Semolina flour. This is to drop your dough ball into before you open it out.
- Gently place your doughball into the floured bowl and turn it a few times in the semola flour making sure it is completely covered in flour and there are no sticky bits of dough remaining. This is really important as it will stop your dough sticking to your pizza peel once you have stretched your dough ball.
- Once your dough ball is completely covered in semola flour, gently remove it from the bowl and place onto your clean, dry, working surface.
- Bring your hands together to form a “V” shape and gently press down into the centre of the dough ball.
- Your aim here is to push down on the dough ball and press the trapped air in the dough all the way to the very edge. This is what gives you a light and puffy crust.
- Don’t press all the way to the very edge of the dough ball, give yourself an edge room of 1-2cm.
- Once you have made your first set of presses, turn the doughball over and press your fingers into the centre of the dough ball, pushing all the air to the other edge of the dough ball. You will begin to see your pizza base take shape.
- Repeat this process a few times until you have a 7-8inch circle with a defined puffy edge.
- Now pick up your semi stretched out dough ball and rest it on your knuckles, you want the very edge of the dough to be resting on your knuckles and then gently rotate the dough ball in a circular movement, almost like you are holding a steering wheel of a car. As you make each turn the dough that is hanging down will stretch a little and your pizza base will increase in size as it stretches.
- The more you practice this, the more it will become second nature to you and you will get a really good feel for how strong your dough ball is.
- When you have stretched it to around 10 inches, you are ready to top your pizza. It’s really important not to stretch your pizza base any larger at this stage, as, once you have topped it you then slide it onto your pizza peel and give it a final shape.
- Top with a good spoonful of tomato sauce, about 80g (I use Mutti Polpa, but any sauce your prefer will do) and spread evenly over your pizza base.
- Next add a grating of Grana Padano over the base, then take your ball of buffalo mozzarella and tear it into 5 or six pieces and place evenly over your pizza.
- Slide your pizza onto your peel and give it a little shimmy to check the dough isn't sticking at any point. If it is sticking, don't panic, just slide it back onto your work surface and toss a little bit of Semola flour underneath the offending sticky areas and then slide it back onto your peel, give it another shimmy, and check it's all good.
- Now, your pizza probably won't be looking very round at this stage, so now is the time to give it a final shape. Making sure you don't squeeze any air out of your crusts, gently place your fingers underneath the crust at the top and with your thumbs, gently pull the dough out a little to the edge of the peel.
- Imagine the pizza is a clock face, start at 12 o'clock and work your way around the whole pizza, gently pulling it into a circular shape that fits the whole of your pizza peel, when you are happy with the shape, you are ready to launch!
- Post bake garnish with fresh basil leaves and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
- Although this recipe uses the Regenerative All Purpose Flour, it follows the same process as my Signature Pizza dough recipe, (using Cotswolds Pizza Flour ) You can find this reel on Cotswolds Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube channels.
Making the pizza:
- Open out your dough ball and stretch it to around 10inches, then
top with tomato sauce (Mutti Polpa is my go-to favourite). - Grate on a little Grana Padano.
- A few torn basil leaves.
- Slice up some fresh mozzarella and add to pizza
slice up some fresh red & green Jalapeno peppers and place on top. - A drizzle of olive oil.
- Then immediately, post bake, while the pizza is still steaming hot, quickly grab a ball of Buffalo Mozzarella and tear it into smaller pieces and add to the pizza along with another drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.
- The Buffalo mozzarella will melt slightly into the pizza and become soooo soft and delicious.
- Enjoy!
