Sometimes you don’t have 48 or 72 hours to let dough mature – but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on a really good pizza! With this 8-hour pizza dough, you’ll get a light, aromatic crust – without long waiting times.
Why does an 8-hour pizza dough work? 🤔
For the dough to develop enough structure and flavor in a short time, a few adjustments are needed:
✔ Higher amount of yeast than with long dough fermentation
✔ Warmer dough fermentation (18–22 °C)
✔ The right type of flour so that the gluten network remains stable
🥖 Ingredients for 6 pizzas (275 g dough balls each)
🔹 1 kg pizza flour (Tipo 00, W-value 220–260, e.g., Molino Dallagiovanna Sofia or Caputo Doppio Zero)
🔹 620 g water (62% hydration), of which:
🔸 590 g for the dough
🔸 30 g lukewarm water for dissolving the yeast
🔹 4 g fresh yeast (or 1.4 g dry yeast)
🔹 27 g fine sea salt (2.7%)
🔹 2 g honey or malt (optional, helps the yeast)
💡 Tip: With standard Tipo 00 flours like these, you normally won’t see any small brown spots in the dough. If you ever switch to a Tipo 0 flour with added wheat germ and notice some, that’s not a defect – I explain why in Brown spots in pizza dough.
👨🍳 Step-by-step instructions
1️⃣ Prepare salt water & pre-dough
💧 Pour 590 g of water into a large bowl and dissolve 27 g of fine sea salt completely in it.
🥣 Then stir in approx. 200 g of the flour and mix well.
2️⃣ Add yeast mixture
🧪 Dissolve the yeast in 30 g of lukewarm water (optional with honey or malt), let it sit for 2 minutes, and then add it to the bowl.
3️⃣ Gradually incorporate flour
👋 Gradually incorporate the remaining flour while stirring constantly until a homogeneous dough is formed.
4️⃣ Kneading
💪 Knead the dough by hand for about 8–10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Alternatively, you can finish kneading it in a stand mixer.
5️⃣ Stretching, Folding & Proofing 🏋️
🕒 Let it rest covered for 30 minutes, then perform one Stretch & Fold.
🔄 After another 30 minutes, perform Stretch & Fold again.
✂️ Then divide the dough into 6 dough balls of approx. 275 g each.
📦 Place the dough balls in a lightly oiled dough box or on a floured baking sheet with a lid and let them rest for 6 hours at room temperature (approx. 20 °C).
🔥 Baking & Topping
📌 Preparation:
- Preheat oven or pizza oven to maximum temperature (250–450 °C)
- Ideally bake on a pizza stone or baking steel
📌 Topping:
- Classic: Tomato sauce, Fior di Latte, basil & olive oil
- Rustic: Parma ham, arugula & Parmesan – all after baking
- Experimental: Pumpkin cream, gorgonzola & walnuts
⏳ Baking time:
- Pizza oven (400–450 °C): 60–90 seconds
- Home oven (250 °C): 6–8 minutes
💡 Conclusion: Perfect dough for spontaneous evenings!
This 8-hour dough is ideal when you don’t have time for long fermentation but still want a fluffy and aromatic pizza. If you do have more time, you can also store the dough balls in the refrigerator after portioning them for a few hours and bake them later.
👉 Try the recipe & tell us how your pizza turned out!
📸 Tag us on Instagram or Facebook – and with a bit of luck, we’ll repost your creation!
Feel free to use the hashtag #PizzaLaden 🍕🔥
8-Stunden-Pizzateig – Zutaten (für 6 Pizzen à 280 g)
Ingredients
- 1 kg Pizzamehl z. B. Molino Dallagiovanna Sofia oder Caputo Doppio Zero
- 590 g Wasser kalt
- 30 g lauwarmes Wasser zum Auflösen der Germ
- 27 g Meersalz fein
- 4 g frische Germ / Hefe oder 1,4 g Trockenhefe
- 2 g Honig oder Malz optional
Instructions
- Salz im Wasser auflösen → 590 g Wasser + 27 g Salz in einer Schüssel vermengen
- 200 g Mehl einrühren, gut vermischen
- Germ in 30 g lauwarmem Wasser (mit Honig/Malz) auflösen, dann zugeben
- Restliches Mehl nach und nach einarbeiten → homogener Teig
- Von Hand 8–10 Minuten kneten, bis der Teig glatt ist
- 30 Min. ruhen, dann Stretch & Fold
- Nach 30 Min. nochmal Stretch & Fold
- In 6 Teiglinge teilen, in Box legen
- 6 Stunden Stückgare bei Raumtemperatur (ca. 20 °C)
