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Three dough balls rest on a floured surface, ready for baking into poolish pizza. Fresh parsley and a garlic bulb lie nearby, with a metal dough scraper and wooden cutting board in the background. The scene suggests ingredients for homemade bread or pizza.

Poolish Pizza Dough with Fermented Yeast Starter


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  • Author: Lisa
  • Total Time: 27 hours 47 minutes
  • Yield: 6 - 10 inch pizzas 1x

Description

Calling all pizza lovers! This yeast starter pre-ferment poolish pizza dough is an absolute game changer for a flavorful, light, and airy pizza crust. Get ready to master the art of making gourmet poolish pizza dough with basic pantry staples right in your own kitchen. Trust me, you will never think about that store bought cardboard ever again after one bite of fresh baked pizza dough like this! The flavor of the pizza dough will have you coming back slice after slice. Simply add your favorite pizza toppings and bake for a delicious pizza!


Ingredients

Units Scale

Poolish Starter

  • 300 g Cold Water
  • 5 g Active Dry Yeast
  • 5 g Honey
  • 300 g Bread Flour

 

Main Dough

  • 300 g Cold Water
  • 25 g Salt
  • 10 g Olive Oil
  • 700 g Bread Flour

Instructions

Poolish Starter

  1. In a large Tupperware container with a lid, combine the water, yeast, honey, and flour. You can mix this by hand with a spoon. It will be a very wet loose dough.
  2. Let mixture sit at room temperature for 1 hour, covered with lid.
  3. Refrigerate covered mixture for 15-23 hours.

Main Dough

  1. After 15-23 hours, remove poolish starter from fridge and bring up to room temperature for 30 minutes.
  2. After 30 minutes, in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the poolish with the cold water and mix on low speed with a dough hook until combined.
  3. Next, add the salt and mix until combined.
  4. Then add about half the flour, mix and repeat for the second half of the flour.
  5. Add the olive oil and mix one last time only until combined. Dough should be a little rough looking but pull away from the sides of the bowl.
  6. Cover the dough and bulk rise for 1 hour.
  7. After one hour, divide dough into six equal sized balls.
  8. Place in a covered proofing box and rise one last time for 2-3 hours.
  9. Using semolina on your work surface flatten out each dough ball with the palm of your hand. Then pick it up with your hands at ten and two like driving a car, and rotate the dough letting gravity do its thing and stretch the dough out. Do this until the dough is the right size and resembles a circle.
  10. Top pizza and bake. For high heat pizza ovens, bake at 800 degrees for about 60-90 seconds. For normal indoor ovens, bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Notes

My sweet spot for a perfect proof is about 27.5 hours with 22 hours for the initial poolish and 3 hours on the final rise. The prefect time in your climate will take practice to learn as it can vary based on humidity levels.

To slow down your final proof, you can cold ferment in the fridge.

Do not let the dough sit for too long with toppings prior to baking or it may get soggy in the middle.

Bake within 4 hours or refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Fermentation/Rise: 27 hours, 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 2 minutes
  • Category: Pizza
  • Method: Pizza Oven
  • Cuisine: American, Italian