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Pizza Dough

Neapolitan-Style Pizza Dough for a Home Oven

The Turning Peel · Updated 2026-07-19 · 4 min read
Neapolitan-Style Pizza Dough for a Home Oven
The gistFor four home-oven pizza dough balls, mix 500 grams flour, 325 grams water, 12 grams fine salt, and 1 gram instant yeast. That is 65% hydration, 2.4% salt, and 0.2% yeast, yielding about 838 grams total or four 209- to 210-gram balls. Ferment briefly at room temperature, refrigerate 18 to 48 hours, then warm the divided dough before stretching. Temperature changes the schedule, so the dough—not your calendar invitation—gets the final say.
Contents

This is a home-oven dough with Neapolitan inspiration

Traditional Neapolitan pizza is tied to particular ingredients, methods, ovens, and cultural practice. This dough borrows its lean formula and soft, extensible handling, then adjusts hydration and fermentation for a domestic kitchen. It is Neapolitan-style, not a claim of certification and certainly not an attempt to fit a wood-fired oven inside the laundry cupboard.

The recipe makes about 838 grams of dough: four balls of roughly 209 to 210 grams, suited to pizzas around 10 to 11 inches.

Formula and baker's percentages

Hydration is 325 divided by 500, or 65%. Salt is 12 divided by 500, or 2.4%. The total dough weight is 838 grams. Divided by four, that is 209.5 grams per ball.

Use a digital scale, including one capable of measuring 1 gram yeast reliably. Volume measures turn a precise little formula into improv theater.

Mix without chasing perfect smoothness

Put 300 grams of the water in a large bowl and stir in the yeast. Add all the flour and mix until no dry pockets remain. Cover and rest for 20 minutes. This pause lets flour hydrate before salt tightens the dough.

Dissolve the salt in the remaining 25 grams water. Pinch and fold that mixture into the dough until absorbed. The dough will feel slippery and uncooperative briefly; keep folding rather than adding flour.

Turn it onto a clean surface and knead for 5 to 8 minutes, or use repeated folds in the bowl, until it becomes cohesive and moderately smooth. It need not resemble polished marble. Dough develops during fermentation too, which is fortunate because your arms have other appointments.

Begin fermentation, then divide

Cover the bowl and leave it at a moderate room temperature for about one hour. After 30 minutes, perform one fold: lift an edge, stretch gently, and fold it over the center, repeating around the bowl.

After the hour, turn out the dough and divide it into four pieces of roughly 209 to 210 grams. Shape each into a tight ball by folding edges underneath and rotating against an unfloured surface. Avoid tearing the outer skin.

Place the balls in individual lightly covered containers or a lidded proofing box with room to expand. Refrigerate for 18 to 48 hours. Cooler fermentation develops flavor and makes the schedule flexible, but refrigerator temperatures and yeast activity differ.

Warm the dough before stretching

Take the containers from the refrigerator about two hours before baking. Keep them covered so the surface does not form a skin. In a cool room they may need longer; in a hot room, less.

Ready dough should look expanded, feel aerated, and spread slightly while retaining structure. Press a floured fingertip gently near the edge. The mark should ease back slowly rather than snapping shut or leaving the dough collapsed.

If a ball becomes extremely slack and fragile, it may be overproofed. Handle it gently or turn it into a small pan pizza instead of adding enough bench flour to qualify as masonry.

Stretch with air left in the rim

Flour the top of one dough ball and the work surface lightly. Turn the ball out, keeping its top side facing up. Press from the center outward with fingertips, stopping about 1/2 inch from the edge. This moves gas toward the rim.

Lift the disk and stretch it over the backs of your hands, rotating carefully, or continue pressing and turning on the counter. Do not use a rolling pin if you want a puffy rim; it expels the gas you spent a day cultivating.

Stop around 10 to 11 inches or when the center is thin but not translucent and fragile. If the dough springs back, cover it and rest for 10 minutes. Force is not gluten's love language.

Our guide to baking Neapolitan-style pizza at home covers the stone or steel, topping quantities, launch, and turn. The pizza dough collection holds the underlying rule: temperature and feel adjust the clock, while the measured formula keeps the starting point stable.

Do not taste raw dough because uncooked flour can carry harmful microbes. Wash hands and surfaces after handling raw flour, and keep dough covered and refrigerated through its cold fermentation.

FAQ

What does 65% hydration mean in pizza dough?

Hydration is water weight divided by flour weight. Here, 325 grams water divided by 500 grams flour equals 0.65, or 65%. Baker's percentages express every ingredient relative to flour, which is always 100%. The system makes scaling easier and prevents a cup measure from wandering into the formula wearing an inaccurate little hat.

Can I use all-purpose flour for this dough?

Yes. A reasonably strong all-purpose flour can make good home-oven pizza, though absorption, extensibility, and browning differ by brand and region. Start with the stated water and avoid adding large amounts of flour during mixing. If the dough remains unmanageably wet after rest and folds, adjust the next batch by a few grams rather than improvising a snowstorm.

Why does the recipe use so little yeast?

The dough ferments for many hours, so a small yeast quantity is enough under typical conditions. More yeast can speed the schedule but may cause the dough to overproof before baking. Kitchen and refrigerator temperatures matter greatly. If your scale cannot measure 1 gram reliably, use a scale with finer resolution rather than estimating a dramatic spoonful.

Can I freeze the pizza dough balls?

Yes. After dividing and rounding, lightly cover each ball and freeze it in a suitable sealed container. Thaw in the refrigerator, then allow enough covered time at room temperature for the dough to relax and become extensible. Fermentation may behave somewhat differently after freezing. Label the date and avoid repeatedly thawing and refreezing the same dough.

How do I know when pizza dough is overproofed?

Overproofed dough may spread flat, feel fragile, smell strongly fermented, and tear or deflate with little recovery. A gentle fingertip indentation may remain rather than slowly easing back, though that test is only one clue. Very warm dough also feels slack, so consider temperature. Bake it as a pan pizza if stretching becomes impossible; dinner need not share the dough's identity crisis.