An exquisite pizza that deserves a long wait

What is your favorite dish? Mine is undoubtedly the long-leavening pizza with 70% hydration , and like most Italians, i often make it at home.

The long leavening pizza with 70% hydration

Over time I have experimented with various recipes, using different types of flours.

In the end, I conclude that this proposal today is for sure the best pizza ever.

The pizza obtained with this dough is well alveolate, crunchy and soft at the same time.

Using a round pan for cooking, it will be possible to obtain a beautiful cornice, not to be confused with the soft one typical of Neapolitan pizza ….

You can see the neapolitan pizza soft and light recipe here .

Don’t be scared by the length of the recipe …

It is true that you have to prepare the dough one day in advance, but in reality the time it takes for processing is not excessive at all.

The longer task is carried out by the fridge which matures the dough without the need for our assistance.

If you don’t have a planetary mixer, you can easily knead by hand , initially pouring the ingredients into a large bowl, once you have mixed them all, pour the dough

onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for 10-15 minutes … it will still be fine.

Now we are ready to start kneading …. then get the recipe and start preparing the pizza.

Preparation of the dough in a planetary mixer

Pour the flour, yeast and sugar into the mixer, activate the hook but if we do not have it.

We can also use the leaf whisk at minimum speed to mix the powders for a few seconds.

We add the water a little at a time, we must give the flour time to absorb it completely.

After about 3 minutes we add the salt, increasing the mixing speed a little.

We continue to add the water a little at a time.

Finally we pour the oil slowly. We let it knead for about 15 minutes.

We should get a smooth but slightly sticky dough.

If the dough is too liquid, let’s not be discouraged, just let it rest for 10 minutes inside the planetary mixer off, taking care to cover it.

After this time, activate the planetary mixer again and knead for another 5/10 minutes, in this way the dough will take on consistency.

If we are not very familiar with high hydration doughs we can immediately divide the mass into two oiled bowls and let them rest covered for 30 minutes.

At this point we make a round of folds directly in the bowl, or on a floured surface with re-milled semolina.

We leave it to rest for another 30 minutes covered and repeat the folds.

How to make folds for long leavening pizza with 70% hydration

We overturn the dough on a floured pastry board with durum wheat semolina, roll it out a little to form a rectangle.

We fold the right side of the dough towards the center Fig. 1, we also fold the left one towards the center Fig.2

We will have obtained a rectangle, at this point we fold the bottom side towards the center Fig. 3 and then the top side towards the center Fig. 4.

Let’s turn it so that the smooth part remains on the surface and let it rest covered for 30 minutes and repeat the folds.

If we have chosen to make the folds in the bowl, we just need to detach the dough from the edges of the bowl, take a little dough, pull it slightly and fold it towards the center.

Let’s do it around the entire perimeter of the bowl.

We cover and let it rest.

We repeat the operation twice at a distance of 30 minutes.

Pizza needs to rest 🙂

Grease the surface of the dough with a little oil, cover it with cling film and a cloth and let it mature for 24 hours in the lower part of the fridge.

After 24 hours, take the dough out of the fridge and let it acclimate for an hour.

If we haven’t already split it before, this is the right time to do it.

Then we make a reinforcement fold and leave it covered for another hour and a half or two.

At this point, turn the dough over onto a floured surface with durum wheat semolina and roll it out trying to give it a circular shape.

Lightly grease two trays and cover them with the dough.

We cover and let it rest for another 30 minutes.

We turn on the oven at 250/275 ° static mode well in advance so it will become hot.

Season the bases with the cherry tomatoes, oregano and a drizzle of oil and bake for 8/10 minutes ..

Check the cooking by raising the pizza, if the base is slightly golden we can remove it and finish the filling with mozzarella, stracchino and cooked ham.

We bake again until the mozzarella has melted.

At the end of cooking, add sprigs of pesto …. Bon appetit🍕🍕

Who wants a slice ?!

Anna’s advice:

I want to share with you some very useful tips to get a great pizza.

• use a flour suitable for high hydration and doughs with long leavening (I use Garofalo W350)
• with the indicated quantities we can obtain two round pizzas with a diameter of 30; if, on the other hand, we want a nice high cornice, let’s use them with a diameter of 28. We can also make a single pizza in a baking pan measuring approximately 30×40.
• the oven must be preheated well before inserting the pizza, which must initially be cooked in the lower part of the oven, so if you have to cook two, be patient and bake them one at a time.
• if we use tomato puree, instead of cherry tomatoes, pour it into a small bowl and season it with extra virgin olive oil and oregano, but be careful not to overdo it with salt … especially if we add cold cuts or vegetables in oil to the filling.

While we wait for the pizza to be ready, can we prepare an aperitif? Click here and take a look at our proposals.

See you at the next pizza party 🍕🍕

And if you like, take a look at Paolone’s Youtube channel too … Thanks friends! 😉