72 Hour Pizza Dough Recipe

Main Course

72 Hour Pizza Dough Recipe

5 from 4 votes

Once you cold ferment your pizza dough, you'll never go back! This 72 hour pizza dough recipe has you first proof the dough at room temperature, then it's transferred to the fridge to finish fermenting. During this long fermentation process, the yeast slowly feeds on the flour and water, releasing CO2 and creating lots of glorious air bubbles.

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Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 5

Total Time: 3 15

Makes: 4 (12-14 inch) pizzas

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

400 g '00' FLOUR
350 g all purpose flour
475 g tepid water (around 75ºF)
20 g salt
3 g active dry yeast (about 1 teaspoon)

Pizza Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Toppings

6 oz whole milk mozzarella, grated by hand
4 oz provolone cheese, grated by hand
4 oz fontina cheese, grated by hand
6 oz freshly sliced pepperoni
fresh basil leaves
freshly grated parmesan cheese
semolina flour, for dusting

Instructions

Make the pizza dough. Weigh flour, yeast and salt into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add water and mix for 5-10 minutes or until dough is smooth.
Let rise at room temp. Transfer to a greased container with a lid or a mixing bowl covered with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm-ish place in the kitchen for 12 hours.
Portion into 4 balls. After 12 hours, turn the dough out onto a well floured surface. Portion the dough into four equal portions (you can use a scale to make them all the same weight) and form them each into smooth, tight balls. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray lightly with non-stick spray. Place the dough balls on the sheet, spreading them apart to accommodate rising and then lightly spray the dough balls with non-stick spray.
Cold ferment in the fridge. Wrap the baking sheet with plastic wrap and transfer to the fridge for 24-60 hours.
(At this point, you could also place a couple of the dough balls on a sheet tray and freeze them until solid and then transfer to a ziplock bag. Before using, allow to defrost in the fridge overnight in a lightly greased ziplock bag.)
Bring to room temp. 1 hour prior to baking, remove the baking sheet from the fridge (still covered) and allow the dough balls to come to room temperature.
Make the pizza sauce. In a small saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and oregano and cook 3-4 minutes until fragrant but not burned. Add hand-crushed tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and add tomato paste, salt and sugar.
Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until sauce has deepened in color and thickened. Cool and transfer to an airtight container until ready to use. Any leftovers can be frozen and kept for 6 months.
Preheat the pizza stone or steel. Preheat your oven to 550ºF with your pizza stone/steel in the oven and allow to preheat for 45 minutes.
Assemble the pizzas. When your oven is heated, take one of the dough balls and gently stretch it into a 12-14 inch circle. Make sure the remaining dough balls are covered so that they don't dry out. Lightly dust a pizza peel with semolina and transfer your pizza dough to the peel.
Top with about 2/3 cups of pizza sauce (more or less depending on your tastes), sprinkle liberally with the cheese blend, and top with pepperoni and any other desired toppings. Don't go too heavy with the toppings or you'll have a hard time getting it off the peel.
Bake. Right before you're ready for your pizza to go into the oven, switch your oven to broil on high. Gently slide the pizza off the peel and directly onto your pizza stone or steel. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the top of the pizza is bubbly/browned. Using the peel, carefully transfer the pizza from the stone to a cutting board. Top with parmesan and fresh basil leaves torn into pieces.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes before slicing. Repeat with remaining dough balls.