Press the dough gently with our knuckle or finger to determine if it is properly proofed and ready. If the dough springs back right away, it needs more proofing. But if it springs back slowly and leaves a small indent, it's ready to become a delicious pizza!
Place the ball in a container to prove and cover with cling film. Leave the dough to prove in a warm place for 60-90 minutes or cold prove in the fridge for 1-3 days. When cold proving, take the dough out 2 hours before starting to cook.
If the yeast froths and expands in 10-15 minutes, it's a good batch; if not, you'll need to start again. Without these telltale signs, your pizza crust won't rise.
The longer the yeast has had to feast – ideally 24 to 48 hours – the lighter and more flavorful the pizza dough will be.
Standard pizza dough (with more yeast) can sit out on the counter for 2-4 hours, while a Neapolitan-style pizza dough (with less yeast) can be left out for up to 24 hours.
Keep dough in a food-safe container and cover with a lid with an airtight seal. A well-made pizza dough box prevents crusting on top and encourages complete and consistent proofing.
Pizza dough that has been left to rise for too long, or has been over-proofed, can potentially collapse. The gluten becomes overly relaxed, and the end product will be gummy or crumbly instead of crisp and fluffy.
Proofing (aka final fermentation, final rise, second rise, or blooming) is the dough's final rise that happens after shaping and just before baking. The entire dough fermentation process is sometimes referred to as the proofing process.
Covering the dough will create a warm moist atmosphere for the dough to rise nicely in. If it's cold or dry the dough won't rise as well as it should. So covering the dough while it rises keeps the moisture IN and the drying air out.
If you add up the number of hours spent on making preferment from scratch, letting the dough rise twice (bulk fermentation and second rise), and enduring the final proof, the whole process takes two days, even more. But nobody said preparing pizza dough – the really good one, at least – was easy.
It's better to leave cold pizza dough out for 30 minutes and/or follow my recommendations for using a window to let the pizza rise. If you don't want to wait for pizza dough to rise before stretching it, then make pizza on a frozen pizza crust. There are so many ways to make it taste restaurant quality.
We recommended kneading your dough for about 4 to 6 minutes! Over-kneading your dough will create a fine, crumb-like texture, giving your dough a bready texture rather than a light and airy pizza crust.
At which point during the dough making process would it be best to freeze or refrigerate? You can refrigerate the dough after almost any step, but after the first rise (or a little before) works best. Store it, covered, in the refrigerator for 1-3* days. Allow room for the dough to expand as it will continue to rise.
Pizza dough reacts similarly, turning stiff and inflexible when it's chilled. That's why it's important to let the dough come up to room temperature before stretching it. This might take about an hour, so pull the dough out of the fridge when you preheat the baking steel and/or stone.
1. Bring the dough to room temperature. If you're using frozen or refrigerated pizza dough, allow it to come to room temperature in a greased mixing bowl. Bringing the dough to room temperature before the shaping process makes it easier to stretch and less likely to tear.
Overview: How to Make Easy Pizza Dough
Knead: Knead by hand or with your mixer. I like doing this by hand. Rise: Place dough into a greased mixing bowl, cover tightly, and set aside to rise for about 90 minutes or overnight in the refrigerator.
Yes. And in fact, letting dough rise twice is highly encouraged if you're making Neapolitan-style pizza. This is because it gives a lot more time for the yeast and dough to interact with one another and create that perfect, chewy crust.
In short, the most common reasons for your pizza dough not rising are incorrect use of yeast, improper water temperatures, inadequate rising time and over-kneading the dough.
The foundation of any great pizza dough is the flour. For my homemade pizza dough recipe, I recommend using a combination of finely ground '00' flour and all-purpose flour; quality is the key here.
The idea behind stretching your pizza out is that it will be handled more delicately, meaning the air bubbles that are produced in there during the proofing process won't get lost in the shaping out process. Whereas rolling it out will deflate everything that has built up while the dough was proofing.
The best place to let dough rise is a very warm place. On a warm day, your counter will probably do just fine. But if your kitchen is cold, your oven is actually a great place.