Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Reprinted with permission from The Elements of Pizza by Ken Forkish, copyright © 2016. If you refrigerated the dough ball, let it come to room temperature for an hour while you preheat the oven and prepare your toppings. Make pizza anytime in the 4 hours following the second stage of fermentation. Alternatively, you can rest the dough ball for 4 hours at room temperature, and then refrigerate to hold for up to the next evening. Place the dough ball on lightly floured plate, flour the top, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest at room temperature for 6 hours for the second fermentation. Shape the dough into a medium-tight round, working gently and being careful not to tear the dough. Hold the dough for 2 hours at room temperature (I’m assuming 70° to 75☏) for the first rise. Cover with a tight-fitting lid or plastic wrap. Place the dough ball seam side down in a lightly oiled container. The skin of the dough should be very smooth. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes, then knead it on a work surface with a moderate dusting of flour for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. The target dough temperature at the end of the mix is 80☏ use your probe thermometer to check it.

Continue for just 30 seconds to 1 minute. Then use the pincer method to cut the dough in sections with your hand, alternating with folding the dough to develop it back into a unified mass. Mix by hand, first by stirring your hand around inside the dough tub to integrate the flour, water, salt, and yeast into a single mass of dough. Add 166 grams of flour (preferably 00) to the water-salt-yeast mixture. Add the yeast to the water and stir or swish it around until dissolved.

Measure 0.1 gram ( 1⁄10 of 1⁄4 teaspoon) of instant dried yeast. Measure 5 grams of fine sea salt, add it to the water, and stir until it’s dissolved. Flour Water Salt Yeast reveals all the formulas, processes, tips, and tricks Ken established in his years of experience as a professional baker. For a recipe this small, a large bowl will be fine-you don’t need to pull out the dough tub. Using your digital scale, measure 116 grams of 90° to 95☏ water into a container.

Flour water salt yeast pizza