Master Pizza Dough

No-knead pizza dough (Jim Lahey, modified)

575g flour** (58%)*
20g salt (2%)
400g water (40%)
1g (1/4tsp) active dry yeast (we use a scant 1/4tsp of instant yeast)

Mix up, cover, and put it down for an 18 or so hour nap (at 72*F). The dough should more than double. Turn out onto a generously floured surface, divide into 6 pieces (about 165g each, makes 10"-12" pizzas). Working with one ball at a time, fold each side towards the center. Shape into a round and place (if not using immediately) into an oiled quart bag or 16oz deli container. Store in the fridge 3-4 days or freeze.
Bake at 550*F on a well-preheated stone or steel on upper-middle rack for 7-9 minutes (add a couple minutes if your oven only goes to 500*F) or use a pizza oven according to manufacturer's instructions. Jim Lahey's method uses the broiler; that's another option.

*Please note, these percentages are NOT baker's percentages. I frequently want to make a certain number of dough balls, and this is the easiest way for me to figure out the amounts of the ingredients needed to end up with a particular weight.


**We've used both all purpose and bread flour; they both work well. Recently, we got some Italian Antimo Caputo 00 Pizzeria flour. Boy, what a difference! This is the most stretchable dough I've ever worked with. It even stretches well when cool. We're down to 150g balls for a 12" pizza. The balls are initially very sticky, but my normal 1-2T of flour still works for 2-3 balls.