Step-by-step explanation of how I make pizza.

I often get questions about my recipe and process for making pizza. I am making this post for future reference, so that in the future I can just post a link to it. 

§1. Equipment 

• Here’s what you need: A kitchen scale with at least 0.1 accuracy (meaning it can measure 0.1g). 

• A baking steel or pizza oven such as an Ooni or Gozney. 

• A wooden or perforated metal pizza peel to launch the pizza, a cooling rack, and a pizza cutter. 
• An infrared thermometer.
• A kitchen scale with at least 0.1 accuracy (meaning it can measure 0.1g).

• A dough calculator app. I use the Ooni app. There are plenty others. 

Optional: A stand or spiral mixer.

§2. Ingredients 
For the dough: high-gluten, unbleached, unbromated flour; yeast (fresh, active dry, or instant) or sourdough starter; finely ground salt, olive oil, water. For the sauce: a can of crushed tomatoes, fresh basil, salt, and pepper.
§3. Making the Dough
1 First, figure out what size pizza you want to make. That will determine the size of dough balls you want. For 16” pizzas, I typically use 450g dough balls. For 18” Pizzas, I typically use 625g dough balls, and 700g for 20” pizzas. Give or take 10g on any of those.
 
2 If you don’t already know, learn to use baker’s percentages. Here’s my standard dough recipe for making pizza at home:
95% Bread Flour
5% Whole Wheat Flour
64% Water
3.1% Salt
1.5% Oil 

.5% Yeast for cold fermentation
.05% Yeast for room temp fermentationHere’s a concrete recipe for 3 450g dough balls: 760g Bread Flour

40g Whole Wheat Flour 

512g Water

25g Salt 

14g Oil 

4g Yeast (Cold Ferment) or 0.4g Yeast (room temp ferment)Combine flour, 90% of the water, and yeast. Let rest for at least 30 minutes, then add salt, and gradually add the rest of the water. Finally, and the oil. For room temp ferment, let it bulk ferment at room temp for 20 hours, and then divide and shape into balls 4 hours before baking. For cold ferment, let it bulk ferment at room temp for 2 hours, and then divide and ball, and put them into the fridge until ready to use.
§4. Making the Sauce Season the crushed tomatoes with fresh basil, salt, and pepper to taste. It’s that simple.
§5. Additional Toppings Make sure you have any additional toppings prepped before baking. For easy to find cupping pepperoni, you can get a stick of Boar’s Head or Margherita pepperoni and cut them yourself.
§6. Stretching the Dough Press out the dough in a bowl of flour, and then stretch over your knuckles. Look up videos if you need help stretching your dough. The key thing to getting a round pizza is letting gravity do the work.
If you’re using a baking steel, pre-heat it as hot as possible, for as long as possible (minimum 1 hour). For propane pizza ovens, preheat the stone to 700ºF, and turn the heat all the way down just before launching.