My go-to 72-hour pizza dough recipe uses a slow, cold fermentation method to yield a flavorful dough with a chewy, crispy crust. Plus, it's easy enough to use for both home ovens and outdoor pizza ovens.

In 2020, I took up pizza making as a hobby during the pandemic. Along the way, I tested several different recipes many, many times (read:100+ times) across the Internet before creating my own.

My homemade pizza dough uses the magic (or science!) of a slower rise in the fridge for better flavor and texture, yielding a bubbly, crispy crust and a soft and chewy interior. It's my go-to recipe and versatile enough for both my indoor home oven and my outdoor oven (Ooni).

Journey to a Better Home Pizza

A few crucial factors can transform your homemade pizza from good to great. Proper technique is critical, from kneading to stretching to baking. The dough is equally important, including the ingredients used and the ratio of ingredients. Finally, there's a lot of science and experimentation in making great pizza dough.

But don't worry. I've done all this research for you and laid it out throughout the post below. The ultimate goal of this cold fermented pizza dough recipe is to provide you with the tips, techniques, and fundamentals you need to make an awesome pizza at home. 

There's a lot of valuable information here, and I've tried to make it as exciting and digestible as possible; definitely feel free to bookmark this page and come back to it as a reference.

Alright, ready to get going and make your own dough? Grab a cup of coffee, and let's get started! 

What is Cold Fermented Dough?

Let's start at the beginning. Fermentation is a metabolic process that chemically breaks down a substance through the use of bacteria, yeast, or other microorganisms.

For example, in pizza dough, yeast breaks down the sugars from the flour, which facilitates the dough's rise in the oven. Additionally, when feeding on the sugars, yeast produces carbon dioxide that develops air bubbles and helps maintain structure. 

The Role of Temperature

Temperature is hugely significant throughout the whole life cycle of the pizza dough.

Before Baking

All yeast-based pizza dough undergoes some level of fermentation. In the case of cold fermentation, the fermentation occurs in, well, colder temperatures (usually the fridge). At a cooler temperature, this happens much more slowly.

From research and analysis from other pizza professionals and myself, I've determined that fermentation at cooler temperatures yields better structure, texture, and flavor.

Interestingly, I read in a pizza forum once that the most optimal temperature for the dough is actually around 50°F (10°C) to 60°F (16°C), so some avid home cooks will ferment their dough in a wine cooler. But, rest assured, since most of you likely don't have a wine cooler at home (myself included), a fridge is wonderful, too and will still yield a delicious result.

During Baking

Temperature also plays an important role in the baking phase.

At a higher temperature, pizza takes less time to cook through. For example, my Ooni portable pizza oven cooks a pizza in 90 seconds at 932°F (500°C), while my home oven takes 3 to 4 minutes at 550°F (288°C).

Higher temperatures result in more exterior charring with smaller charred spots, especially leopard spotting. As an extreme example, you would never see charred spots on a pizza cooked at 200°F (93°C), while a 932°F oven is hot enough to cause charring within a minute.

The longer a pizza takes to cook, the more it "dries out." Because pizza takes less time to cook at a higher temperature, the pizza dries out less, yielding a softer crust with a doughier inside.

Below, I've compiled a few pizzas from over the years. The left-hand side shows pizzas baked in a standard oven, while the right-hand side demonstrates pizzas cooked at a higher temperature in my Ooni pizza oven.

With the help of my broiler, the pizzas on the left-hand side show some nice charring, but they are nowhere near as soft as the pizzas cooked in the Ooni.

As I said above, the Ooni pizzas take significantly less time to cook, so they're softer but still have a considerable amount of charring because of the higher temperature. Neither of these is worse or better, just different, as we will see below. 

Summary

Pizza cooked in a pizza oven / wood-fired oven usually has plenty of charring, often with smaller charred spots and a softer, doughier interior.

If you've ever had Neopolitan pizza, you might know it's usually eaten with a fork and knife because the interior is quite soft and wet. If you put a boatload of toppings on your dough and baked it Neopolitan-style, they would weigh it down, maybe even enough to tear the crust. And at a shorter baking time, the interior toppings don't cook as much. As a result, the sauce stays saucy, the mozzarella melts without crisping up, and the basil won't char.

On the other hand, pizza baked at a lower temperature, say 500°F (260°C) to 600°F (316°C), requires a longer time to cook through and achieve browning. A NY-style pizza is an example of this; it has a sturdier crust, does not require a fork and knife, and can hold plenty more toppings.

Conclusion: Temperature, both in fermenting the dough and baking the dough, plays a huge role in the resulting crust.

The Importance of Time

You've heard me say this several times now. Colder temperatures = slower fermentation = more complex flavors and better structure.

But how much slower is this fermentation? How long are you supposed to keep the dough in the fridge? And what exactly is the relationship between temperature and time when it comes to bread?

This is where yeast comes back into the picture. The more yeast you put into your dough, the faster the fermentation process occurs (more yeast leads to more carbon dioxide leading to more air bubbles).

Why Wouldn't I Want to Speed Up Fermentation?

It's a great question. I've told you that a slower fermentation at a colder temperature yields a better pizza...but what does that really mean? Why wouldn't you just speed things up? It would be a lot easier.

I don't disagree with you. Unfortunately, a speedier process doesn't mean a better result. For example, you could put in more yeast and let your dough rise at room temperature for a couple of hours until it doubles in size. Then it would be very quickly ready to ball and bake. Let's review the potential differences:

Dough Type	Speedier fermentation at room temperature	Slower, cold fermentation
Total Time	1 ½ hours to 24 hours	24 hours to 72 hours
Fermentation Temp	72°F (22°C)	40°F (4°C)
Yeast	Recipes typically call for more yeast	Recipes typically call for less yeast given a longer period of fermentation
Structure	Paler, tougher crusts and less bubbling	Typically better browning, improved structure, more bubbling and softer, chewier crusts
Flavor	Less complex, sometimes unpleasantly "yeastier" flavor	More complex, "aged" flavor

Speedier vs. Slower Fermentation

Keep in mind that different recipes might yield different outcomes, but these are the results I've seen, from research online and my own experimentation.

Benefits of Cold Fermentation

Let's summarize what we've learned so far. Slow, cold fermentation leads to better browning, improved structure, and bubblier, softer, and chewier crusts with a more complex flavor.

On top of that, cold fermentation, when done properly, makes the dough easier to work with and stretch...meaning more circular pizzas and minimal tearing.

Finally, there is much more flexibility in timing. 24 hours is the minimum I like to keep my dough in the fridge, but the crust gets better and better up to 72 hours.

That leaves a 2 day window in which you can use the dough at any point. With a faster, room temperature dough, there is less room for error. If a recipe has you proof the dough for 2 hours, it might be over-proofed if you accidentally leave it out for an extra hour.

What Factors Affect Texture and Flavor?

In addition to the style of fermentation, there are a few other factors that affect your resulting pizza.

Ingredients

The right ingredients (and the right ratios of those ingredients) can dramatically change your pizza.

Here are the key ingredients in pizza dough:

Flour: The two best flours to use for pizza are either 00 flour/pizza flour (Antimo Caputo makes a high quality product) or regular bread flour.

Both have high protein content (12%+) which is ideal for gluten formation. The “00” annotation refers to the fineness of the flour when it’s milled — 00 is the most finely milled flour in Italy.¹ I don't recommend all-purpose flour, here, as it won't yield the right texture.

FYI, if using Antimo Caputo flour, make sure you buy the right kind for the oven you're using.

• For standard home ovens: Buy the "Chef's Flour" (usually in a red bag), such as this one.
• For high-temperature pizza ovens (900°F or 482°C): Buy the "Pizzeria Flour" (usually in a blue bag), such as this one.

Water: Water is necessary for gluten formation. Different ratios of water to flour (the percentage of a non-flour ingredient compared to the weight of the flour in baking known as a baker's percentage) can absolutely change the final crust.

Ratio of Flour to Water

The higher ratio of water to flour, the more difficult (and stickier) the dough will be to handle. In the case of a Sicilian style thick-crust pizza, it's more similar to a focaccia-like process where you're not really hand stretching and tossing the dough so it matters less that it's sticky.

A Neopolitan dough, however, requires a lot of technique to stretch properly, so a stickier product will be a big pain. And as you might expect, there is a balance here. You want enough water to create steam in the oven so that the pizza puffs up nicely and the crust doesn't dry out too much without it being too sticky.

There's also a peak absorption rate for each type of flour brand. Bakerpedia defines peak water absorption as

"the water taken up by flour to achieve the desired consistency and create a quality end-product. It is the optimal amount of water you can add to a dough before it becomes too sticky to process."

Bakerpedia

King Arthur bread flour, for example, has an estimated 62% absorption rate while Caputo 00 flours have a lower rate at 55% to 57%. In my recipe, I use a 62% ratio of water to flour to accommodate both types of flours, and I haven't noticed too much stickiness with the Caputo flours at that level.

Salt: Salt is another critical ingredient in pizzamaking. It plays many roles, from strengthening gluten to creating better elasticity and lowering stickiness. And there's the obvious one: providing flavor!

Salt also slows down fermentation, which is super important as we mentioned in helping develop flavor. Typically, salt % in doughs range from 2% to 3%; I lean towards 2.5% to 3%, but if you prefer less salt, you could definitely get away with just 2.5%. Keep in mind, that decrease in salt might speed up fermentation slightly.

Yeast: Both active dry yeast and instant yeast are commonly used in pizza making, though I prefer instant yeast.

Unlike active dry yeast, instant yeast can be added directly to dry ingredients; active dry yeast traditionally needs to be "activated" in water to dissolve (in the last few years, commercially available active yeast allegedly does not need activation, but I recommend doing it to confirm the yeast is actually still alive). My favorite brand is SAF Instant Yeast.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil: This is typically not used in true Neopolitan dough, but it’s commonly found in many home oven pizza recipes as it slightly increases moisture levels without creating stickiness and can improve browning. You can omit this if using an outdoor pizza oven.

_{1 A thorough review of pizza flours can be found here on Serious Eats. There aren’t significant differences between 00 and regular bread flour, but you’ll likely find that pizza made with 00 comes out slightly airier than bread flour which is chewier. As a result, bread flour is more often used for NY style doughs and 00 for Neopolitan style.}

Best Equipment

For the best homemade pizza, a little bit of equipment can go a long way.

• Kitchen scale: Kitchen scales are incredibly useful and important in baking. Measuring cups just don't cut it when it comes to accuracy and ease. Plus, kitchen scales can be super cheap! You can easily find one on Amazon for $10.
• Baking steel: As Cook’s Illustrated points out, a baking steel cooks 30% faster than a stone. They even recommend the stone + steel combination as optimal, where you put the baking steel on top of the stone to retain heat longer. One other note about stones to keep in mind is that it’s more prevalent to cracking and as a result, doesn’t last as long as the steel.
• Large Mixing Bowl: A larger bowl will make mixing much easier. Just make sure your bowl will fit in the fridge!
• Bench scraper: This is really great for getting any sticky bits of the dough off a cutting board or workspace.
• Pizza peel: A pizza peel is very helpful for launching the dough into the oven. It takes a bit of practice, but once you’ve gotten used to it, it’s hard to use anything else.

How to Make Cold-Fermented Pizza Dough

Let's walk through the process of making this pizza dough, step-by-step.

Mix all dry ingredients

• In a mixing bowl, stir all dry ingredients together until combined.

Add the wet ingredients

• Make a well in the center of the bowl and slowly add in the water and olive oil. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with your hands or a wooden spoon and knead for 2 to 3 minutes until no dry bits remain; the dough will have a shaggier texture and won't be a smooth ball yet. That is perfectly okay.

Autolyse

• Let the dough rest, covered with plastic wrap, for 20 minutes at room temperature. This step is called autolyse — it helps hydrate the dough, kickstarts gluten formation, and makes kneading much easier.

Knead

• Knead the dough for 5 minutes to begin building strength in your crust. It should look smoother than before, but it's okay if it's not completely smooth yet.

Perform 3 sets of stretch and folds to strengthen the dough

• Perform 3 sets of stretch and folds to strengthen the dough, each spaced apart by a 30 minute rest period. Timeline below:
  • Stretch and Fold #1: perform 30 minutes after kneading, then let rest for 30 minutes covered
  • Stretch and Fold #2: perform 30 minutes after stretch and fold #1, then let rest for 30 minutes covered
  • Stretch and Fold #3: perform 30 minutes after stretch and fold #2, then let rest for 30 minutes covered. At this point the dough should be quite strong (when you stretch it, it should resist quite a bit) and show visible gas bubbling. If you’re not seeing this gas bubbling, let sit out for another hour or so until you observe this.

• After the first stretch and fold, the dough will still be somewhat shaggy.

• After the last stretch and fold, dough is bubblier and smooth.

Cold ferment the dough

• Cover dough and let sit in the fridge for 24 hours to 72 hours.

Ball the pizza dough

• After 24 to 72 hours, take the dough out of the fridge. If your dough feels very cold to touch, let sit out for an hour to warm up slightly (it should still feel cold — i.e. 45F/7C degrees is fine — but not frigid).
• On a work surface, divide dough into 5 equal portions. Form each piece of dough into a ball, then place each ball in a large pizza container; generously dust the container and the dough balls with flour if using an outdoor pizza oven or oil if using an indoor pizza oven. Alternatively, you can place each ball into an individual container.
• The more tension you create in forming the pizza dough ball (i.e. the tighter the ball), the more gas you’ll trap leading to a bubblier, more circular pizza. When you loosely ball the pizza, you’ll lose that shape and the trapped gas.

• Video below for details on how to properly ball pizza dough:

Proof the dough at room temperature

• On the day you’d like to make the pizza, take the dough out at least 3 to 5 hours in advance until it is fully proofed and reaches room temperature. If your kitchen runs warm, it may only take 3 hours; otherwise, it will likely take 5.
• Your dough is ready when it doesn’t feel cool to the touch and has spread out from a spherical ball into a flatter circle but still has some structure to it. If your dough sits out too long, it can overproof, making it more difficult to handle — you will likely see that it’s extremely bubbly and flattened.

Preheat your oven (standard home oven method)

• There are two main methods of baking your pizza in a home oven. I recommend trying both and seeing which method produces the best pizza for you. Regardless of which method you choose, preheat your oven with your baking tool of choice inside at least 45 minutes before baking at the hottest temperature it goes (mine goes to 550°F/288°C). This step is critical as it ensures the oven stays as hot as possible so that the pizza cooks faster and doesn’t dry out.

• Top rack method: For this method, put your baking steel on the top rack of your oven. The top rack should be about 5-6 inches from the broiler. If your broiler is weak, you can move the top rack to be 2-3 inches from the broiler. Once you’re ready to form your pizza, switch the oven to the broil setting to preheat the broiler. When you’re ready to launch your pizza, you’ll broil it for 2 minutes, then turn off the broiler but keep the oven on at the hottest temperature until the pizza is finished cooking (an additional 1-2 minutes).
• Switching racks method: Put your pizza steel in the middle rack of your oven, and arrange your top rack so that it is 5-6 inches from the broiler. When you’re ready to launch your pizza, it’ll cook on the middle rack at the oven’s hottest temperature for 3-4 minutes until the bottom is browned. Then, you’ll turn the broiler on and transfer the pizza to the top rack to finish cooking the top for ~1-2 minutes.

Preheat your oven (portable pizza oven method)

• Have an Ooni, Roccbox, or other outdoor portable pizza oven? Refer to your instruction manual and make sure to preheat the oven at least 30 minutes before the pizza is fully proofed.
• For my gas-powered Ooni Koda 16, I typically preheat until the center stone reaches 900°F/482°C.

Flour the pizza dough

• Once your dough has come to room temperature, you’re ready to form the pizza.
• I like to use a 50/50 mix of semolina flour (or cornmeal) and 00 flour to flour the dough and peel.
• Flour your pizza peel. Carefully pick up the dough from its container and place onto the pizza peel (avoid degassing the dough as much as possible). You can use your hands or a bench scraper to carefully transfer the dough. The gentler you are with picking up the dough, the less likely you will have uneven spots creating tears when stretching, so try your best not to squish the dough in any way.
• Flour the top and bottom of the dough. You don’t want the dough to stick to the peel. You can check that it’s not sticking by sliding the dough around the peel. If it is sticking, add a bit more flour to the bottom. I like to do this every minute or so to ensure my dough is not sticking, especially once I start adding the sauce and toppings. The faster you're able to form and top the dough, the less sticking that will occur (and the less flour you'll need to add).

Stretch the dough

• Form a rim for the crust by gently pressing your index finger around the perimeter of the dough, about ⅔” from the edge.

• Once the rim has been formed, be careful not to deflate the outer edges, as this helps create the characteristic risen crust in the oven. 
• To stretch the dough, there are two methods I recommend.
  • Lift and stretch. Lift the dough and place your knuckles on the inside rim of the dough. Let the dough gently stretch by rotating your knuckles in a circle until it reaches the desired diameter.
  • Triangle stretch. With the dough on the peel or parchment, make a triangle with both your index fingers and your thumbs and gently push outwards. Keep turning the dough and pushing outwards until you’ve stretched the whole dough.

Add your base sauce (tomato sauce, olive oil, cream) using a ladle or spoon.

Top the pizza with desired toppings

• See the video below for a full demonstration on stretching and topping the pizza.

Launch and bake the pizza

• If using a pizza peel, make sure the pizza is not sticking to the peel before launching. If it is, add a bit more flour, then hold the handle of the peel and gently and carefully slide the dough around to ensure it’s not sticking at all.
• To launch, hold the peel parallel to your baking sheet/stone/steel and firmly slide the pizza onto it. There’s no need to rush it; you can do this slowly to get the hang of it.
• Immediately close the oven and bake according to your desired method.

Serve!

• Remove the cooked pizza from the oven, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to prevent the bottom of the crust from getting soggy. Allow pizza to cool for about 30 seconds to a minute, then transfer to a large cutting board, cut into slices and serve.

Example Timeline

See below for an example timeline of how you can make this pizza dough and bake it during the weekend.

• Friday, 9:00am - 9:15am: Mix dough ingredients

• Friday, 9:15am - 9:45am: Let rest in autolyse

• Friday, 9:45am - 10:20am: Knead dough for 5 minutes, then let rest for 30 minutes

• Friday, 10:20am - 10:50am: Perform the first stretch and fold and rest 30 minutes

• Friday, 10:50am - 11:20am: Perform second stretch and fold and rest 30 minutes

• Friday, 11:20am - 11:50am: Perform last stretch and fold and rest 30 minutes

• Friday, 11:50am: Cover and place dough in fridge for 24 to 72 hours

• Sunday, 7:40am: Remove dough from fridge and form into dough balls. Let sit for 5 to 6 hours until they reach room temp

• Sunday, 12:00pm: Preheat oven

• Sunday, 12:45pm: Stretch, top, and bake pizzas

Storage Instructions

• Bulk pizza dough can be stored in the refrigerator for cold fermentation for up to 72 hours. After 72 hours, the dough may begin to over ferment/overproof, though I typically haven't had issues within the first 96 hours in the fridge.
• Extra balls of dough can be stored in the fridge for up to 72 hours.
• If I accidentally leave the dough in the fridge for too long (i.e. 5 to 6 days), I will turn it into a quick focaccia bread instead. I'll place the dough in a rectangular sheet pan or tray coated with lots of olive oil and let it proof at room temperature for a couple of hours, gently stretching until it reaches the sides of the pan. I'll then bake it according to my focaccia recipe here, adjusting the baking time depending on how much dough there is and what pan I'm using.

FAQ

For any troubleshooting questions, make sure to check out my Pizza Guide which includes a number of FAQ or leave a comment below. I developed this recipe with metric measurements, so for best results, please use a scale.

Note: I updated this blog post with a lot of additional information on 8/28/22 and 6/3/23. I also streamlined the method for more clarity. If you have any questions about the changes, please leave a comment below.

References

• _{https://www.stadlermade.com/pizza-dough-calculator/}
• _{https://www.theperfectloaf.com/sourdough-pizza-dough-and-recipes/}
• _{https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-science-of-kneading-dough-1328690}
• _{https://www.pizzacraft.com/blogs/pizzacraft-blog/all-about-yeast}
• _{https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2017/09/29/using-the-autolyse-method}
• _{https://www.slowrisepizza.com/}
• _{https://bakingsteel.com/blogs/news/72-hour-pizza-dough}
• _{https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016230-robertas-pizza-dough}
• _{https://bakerpedia.com/processes/water-absorption/}
• _{https://thepizzaheaven.com/salt-in-neapolitan-pizza-dough/}
• _{https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2015/09/25/active-dry-yeast}
• _{https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=4646.0}
• _{https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/10432-the-ultimate-pizza-setup-baking-stone-plus-baking-steel}