Improved Ooni Pizza Dough Recipe: 65% Hydration, Double Fermented, No-Knead Method
Ooni’s professional line of pizza ovens are amazing. They’re inexpensive, portable and reach temperatures of almost 1000F (500C) – just like the best pizza ovens in Naples. But all that hardware isn’t going to get you any closer to the perfect homemade pizza without the right pizza dough recipe.
This pizza dough recipe is a variation of my standard homemade pizza dough recipe and it’s perfect for high temperature pizza ovens like those made by Ooni. It’s 65% hydration, which means it will maintain moisture and softness on the inside while being crispy and charred on the outside. The dough is also double fermented, which gives it a unique tangy flavor, a bit like an authentic sourdough, and makes it easier to digest.
The best part about this pizza dough recipe is that it follows my no-knead methodology, meaning no getting your hands dirty or wondering if you kneaded it enough.
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Why This Recipe Is Better Than The Official Ooni Recipe
Ooni has an official pizza recipe they offer on their website that you may have already seen. It’s a perfectly fine pizza dough recipe, but in my opinion it’s a little basic
The official Ooni recipe has a hydration level of 60%, which is well within the range of a standard Neapolitan style pizza dough. My pizza dough recipe has a 65% hydration level which gives it a bit of extra moisture while not being so hydrated that it becomes too sticky to work with.
That extra hydration is going to make the pizza dough softer on the inside and give it a bit of extra “oven spring” as soon as it hits that super hot surface of the Ooni oven. When moisture is heated under extreme temperatures, it expands. In the context of a pizza dough, this means your crust will expand and puff up more as it bakes than it would using the official Ooni pizza dough recipe.
A 65% hydration pizza dough recipe is going to give your pizza a fluffier, airier and more delicate texture when it comes out of the oven.
I’ve also added olive oil to this recipe, which isn’t necessarily standard for Neapolitan pizza dough but not uncommon either. This small amount of extra-virgin olive oil will give the dough a very slight boost in flavor as well as make it softer and easier to work with when shaping it out.
Double Fermented, No-Knead Method
The best part about this pizza dough recipe, compared to the official Ooni recipe, is that it’s double-fermented and follows my no-knead methodology.
Double fermented means the dough is left to ferment twice – once for approximately 12 hours at room temperature, and then cold-fermented for 12-24 hours afterwards. The second fermentation is optional, but in my opinion it makes a big difference.
The benefit of fermentation is in the texture and flavor of the finished product. When pizza dough ferments the yeast consumes sugars and produces acids and CO2 gas in return. The gas and acids give the crust a unique sourdough-like flavor, while breaking down the sugars and starches makes the pizza easier to digest.
The first step in the fermentation process is leaving the pizza dough to rest at room temperature for 12 hours, which is where my no-knead method comes into play.
Gluten is formed in pizza dough by one of two ways – kneading and time. Kneading is the traditional method where the dough is turned and folded by hand for 10-15 minutes. During this time, gluten is released from the flour and a complex network is formed giving structure to the dough.
But this same gluten bonding process will occur automatically if the pizza dough is simply allowed to rest for an extended period of time – which is exactly what I’ve done here. This gives you the benefits of a fully formed, structurally sound pizza dough without having to do any manual labor or worry about if you’ve kneaded it enough.
During this time, the dough is also fermenting while it’s flavor and texture improves. It’s a win-win scenario.
Need Your Dough Faster? Make These Simple Adjustments:
If you don’t have 24-48 hours to wait for the perfect pizza dough to ferment, you can still make an excellent pizza if you just make a couple of adjustments to the recipe.
- Increase the amount of active dry yeast to 1/2 teaspoon (or more).
- Add a teaspoon of honey to speed up the yeast activity
- After mixing the ingredients, knead the dough for 10-15 minutes, or until it’s smooth and elastic.
- Let the dough rest until it doubles in size.
- Punch the dough down to release the air and fold it over on itself a few times.
- Let the dough rest for an additional hour (optional, but makes it stronger)
- Divide the dough into balls and let them prove at room temperature for 1 hour
The instructions may vary depending on the kind of yeast you’re using and temperature of your house. In any case, you’ll still make an excellent pizza dough but it won’t have the benefit of all that extra fermentation which improves the flavor, texture and digestibility.
My Ooni Pizza Dough Recipe:
AuthorDomenicCategoryPizza Dough RecipeDifficultyBeginnerFirst, measure out the water and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Stir lightly until the yeast is fully hydrated and the water is a slightly brown color.
Set the mixing bowl with water and yeast to the side. In another bowl, measure out the flour and salt. Gently mix the salt into the flour using your finger.
Have your olive oil ready somewhere nearby. We're not going to add this into the recipe until about halfway through the process.
Using a hard spatula or wooden spoon, start to slowly stir the flour and salt mixture into the bowl of water and yeast. I find it's best to mix in a few spoonfuls of flour at a time rather than dumping it all in at once. Do this until you've mixed in roughly 75% of the flour.
When roughly 75% of the flour is mixed into the water, add the tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and fully incorporate it into the dough mixture.
Mix the remaining 25% if flour into the rest of the ingredients. You can stop mixing when you can't see anymore dry flour in the bowl. It should be a rough, shaggy ball of dough.
Cover the bowl tightly with an air-tight lid or plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for approximately 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, come back and give the dough another mix with the spatula. You should find that the dough is much smoother and less sticky. Turn and fold the dough onto itself for another 1-2 minutes and cover it back up tightly.
Let the dough sit at room temperature for 8-9 hours, or overnight.
If your yeast is alive, the dough should be risen and bubbly when you come back to it. Punch it back down with the spatula (or your hand) and fold/turn it onto itself several times. Cover it back up and let it rise again at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
At this point, I like to transfer the dough to a plastic container and store it in the fridge for a few hours before dividing it up. This makes the dough much easier to work with, although feel free to skip this step and go straight into dividing the dough into balls.
Divide the dough in half into two 250 gram balls, or four 125 gram balls if you prefer smaller pizzas. Try to make each dough ball as even as possible so that it proves into an evenly round shape. This step seems unimportant but it makes a big difference in the finished product, so if you're unsure on how to make a proper dough ball see the video attached to this page for visual instructions.
Place each dough ball into a lightly floured (semolina works best) plastic container with a lid. I like to place each dough ball in its own plastic container for convenience and easy storage in the fridge, but feel free to put several in a deep dish baking pan and cover it with plastic wrap if you don't have any plastic containers. Just make sure whatever you put it in is deep and wide enough so that the ball can expand slightly without sticking to the edges or top.
Place the containers in the fridge until you're ready to use them.
When you're ready to use the dough ball, take one (or more) out of the fridge and let the container sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours or until it reaches room temperature.
When the dough ball is finished proving it should be relaxed and expanded. If you see lots of large bubbles forming on the surface of the ball, you probably overproved it. In this case, it will still be useable but the dough will be degassed which will reduce how much the crust rises in the oven. Next time, don't leave it to prove so long.
Make a pile of semolina flour on a clean surface. If you don't have semolina, you can use regular flour as well but semolina has a nicer texture and doesn't absorb as much moisture.
If you stored your dough balls in individual plastic containers you can simply flip it over and let the dough ball drop onto the pile of flour. If not, you can carefully use a dough scraper or a spatula by wedging underneath it and lifting it up so you can drop it onto the pile of flour. In either case, make sure not to squeeze or pinch the dough ball or you'll lose all the gas that's been building up inside it (which is the whole point of the proving process).
At this point you can gently shape the dough by hand into whatever kind of pizza base you like. I recommend starting from the middle and gently pushing the air and gas out to the sides. If you want a nice fluffy crust, don't pinch or squeeze the outer edges. The goal in shaping the dough is not to flatten it but rather to push the air and gas from the middle out to the outer crust. This way, the outer crust will expand and stay soft when baked instead of becoming flat and hard.
Ingredients
Directions
First, measure out the water and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Stir lightly until the yeast is fully hydrated and the water is a slightly brown color.
Set the mixing bowl with water and yeast to the side. In another bowl, measure out the flour and salt. Gently mix the salt into the flour using your finger.
Have your olive oil ready somewhere nearby. We're not going to add this into the recipe until about halfway through the process.
Using a hard spatula or wooden spoon, start to slowly stir the flour and salt mixture into the bowl of water and yeast. I find it's best to mix in a few spoonfuls of flour at a time rather than dumping it all in at once. Do this until you've mixed in roughly 75% of the flour.
When roughly 75% of the flour is mixed into the water, add the tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and fully incorporate it into the dough mixture.
Mix the remaining 25% if flour into the rest of the ingredients. You can stop mixing when you can't see anymore dry flour in the bowl. It should be a rough, shaggy ball of dough.
Cover the bowl tightly with an air-tight lid or plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for approximately 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, come back and give the dough another mix with the spatula. You should find that the dough is much smoother and less sticky. Turn and fold the dough onto itself for another 1-2 minutes and cover it back up tightly.
Let the dough sit at room temperature for 8-9 hours, or overnight.
If your yeast is alive, the dough should be risen and bubbly when you come back to it. Punch it back down with the spatula (or your hand) and fold/turn it onto itself several times. Cover it back up and let it rise again at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
At this point, I like to transfer the dough to a plastic container and store it in the fridge for a few hours before dividing it up. This makes the dough much easier to work with, although feel free to skip this step and go straight into dividing the dough into balls.
Divide the dough in half into two 250 gram balls, or four 125 gram balls if you prefer smaller pizzas. Try to make each dough ball as even as possible so that it proves into an evenly round shape. This step seems unimportant but it makes a big difference in the finished product, so if you're unsure on how to make a proper dough ball see the video attached to this page for visual instructions.
Place each dough ball into a lightly floured (semolina works best) plastic container with a lid. I like to place each dough ball in its own plastic container for convenience and easy storage in the fridge, but feel free to put several in a deep dish baking pan and cover it with plastic wrap if you don't have any plastic containers. Just make sure whatever you put it in is deep and wide enough so that the ball can expand slightly without sticking to the edges or top.
Place the containers in the fridge until you're ready to use them.
When you're ready to use the dough ball, take one (or more) out of the fridge and let the container sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours or until it reaches room temperature.
When the dough ball is finished proving it should be relaxed and expanded. If you see lots of large bubbles forming on the surface of the ball, you probably overproved it. In this case, it will still be useable but the dough will be degassed which will reduce how much the crust rises in the oven. Next time, don't leave it to prove so long.
Make a pile of semolina flour on a clean surface. If you don't have semolina, you can use regular flour as well but semolina has a nicer texture and doesn't absorb as much moisture.
If you stored your dough balls in individual plastic containers you can simply flip it over and let the dough ball drop onto the pile of flour. If not, you can carefully use a dough scraper or a spatula by wedging underneath it and lifting it up so you can drop it onto the pile of flour. In either case, make sure not to squeeze or pinch the dough ball or you'll lose all the gas that's been building up inside it (which is the whole point of the proving process).
At this point you can gently shape the dough by hand into whatever kind of pizza base you like. I recommend starting from the middle and gently pushing the air and gas out to the sides. If you want a nice fluffy crust, don't pinch or squeeze the outer edges. The goal in shaping the dough is not to flatten it but rather to push the air and gas from the middle out to the outer crust. This way, the outer crust will expand and stay soft when baked instead of becoming flat and hard.
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Related Questions:
Can You Buy Pizza Dough For Ooni?
You can use any store bought pizza dough with your Ooni pizza oven, but for the best results it’s ideal to make your own. To make your own Ooni pizza dough, you can follow Ooni’s official pizza dough recipe or my own personal recipe (improved recipe) I’ve listed above.
How Do You Make The Perfect Ooni Pizza?
Making the perfect Ooni pizza, as with any kind of pizza made in any kind of oven, starts with a well-made pizza dough. To make the perfect Ooni pizza dough, find a good recipe and follow it carefully. I recommend fermenting your pizza dough in advance for optimal flavor and a delicate texture.
How Do You Roll Out Ooni Pizza Dough?
It’s always better to shape a pizza dough by hand rather than rolling it out with a rolling pin. Rolling out a pizza dough will squeeze out all of the air and gas that built up during the proving process which will bake into a flat crust with poor texture. To shape your pizza dough by hand, start in the middle and gently push the air into the outer crust. Do this until the pizza dough reaches your desired size.
Which Caputo Flour For Ooni?
The best Caputo flour to use for making Ooni pizza dough, in my opinion, is Caputo Chef’s Flour. Caputo Chef’s Flour is delicate, like all 00 flours, yet strong enough to make a dough that is elastic and easy to work with. If you don’t have Caputo flour available to you, you can always use regular all purpose flour to make an excellent pizza dough as well.
Hi – Great article and well thought out recipe. I had 1 question re: the balls of dough. How long can they remain in the fridge or can they be frozen for later use?
Thanks
eric
Hi Eric!
The dough balls can be left in the fridge for 1-2 days, just make sure to let them proof at room temperature for a few hours before you use them. If you prefer, you can refrigerate the dough for longer, up to a week, but you’ll need to re-knead, re-ball and proof them to build the gluten back up.
thank. you!
How much yeast if I am using instant dry yeast?
Hi Michael,
Normally, I use 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast (as per the recipe). You can either substitute instant dry yeast 1:1, or use about 25% less.
Yeast can be tricky to work with because there are so many variables like hydration, the type of flour and temperature that affect the outcome.
If you find your dough hasn’t risen at all, you may need to use more yeast or leave it to rise in a warmer spot. If the dough is overblown and smells alcoholic, you might want to experiment with less yeast or a slightly colder spot to rise.
Hope that helps! If not, I have a few articles specifically on yeast that might be useful that you can find in the archives.
-Dom
Thanks. Do you have a rough equivalent in grams?
Sure. A 1/4 teaspoon should be roughly equivalent to 1.2 grams. Yeast is one of the few ingredients I give using teaspoons because most people don’t have a scale capable of measuring such small amounts. Hope that helps!
One more question — when I double the recipe here the amount of flour etc double but the amount of yeast stays the same, is that right?
Hi Michael,
That’s odd, it should double all of the ingredients.
But yes, you should double the amount of yeast if you’re doubling all of the other ingredients. And as always, feel free to tweak the amounts when you see how they work in the real world (your kitchen).
Cheers
This is the perfect recipe, I’ll never use anything else again! Now I just want to make a larger batch. If I want to freeze the dough balls for future use, at what point should I do that?
Hi Michael. I’m glad you liked the recipe!
To freeze your leftover dough, follow the directions just as you did before by letting it rise, dividing it into balls and letting them proof.
However, this time let the dough balls you want to freeze proof in a freezer proof container like a tupperware, etc. Once the balls are proofed (at room temperature), stick the entire container in the freezer.
After several hours, when the proofed balls are completely frozen and solid, remove the balls from the container and seal each one tightly in a plastic bag, or plastic wrap, for storage in the freezer.
When you’re ready to use the dough balls, remove one, or more, from the freezer and let them thaw at room temperature. Once the balls reach room temperature (and are completely thawed), they should be ready to use.
Some people freeze the balls before proofing and let them proof after thawing, but I’ve found this method works for me and saves time since each ball is already proofed.
Hope that helps!
Dom
Have you subbed sourdough starter for yeast with the recipe? Saw elsewhere on your site you recommended 50% be starter when using, just wondered if you had any idea how this affected ferment and rise times as written.
Hey Jonathan, good question. You absolutely can use sourdough starter in place of yeast, in fact, depending on the quality of your starter, it can actually work even better than regular dry yeast. Both in terms of fermentation and taste.
As for how much to use, that really depends on how strong your starter is. In general though, dry yeast is very powerful so you’ll need to use more sourdough starter to replace it. I recommend starting with 50 grams of sourdough starter for every 1kg of flour (or 5%) and then working from there depending on the results.
This will most likely require some experimentation because each sourdough starter is a bit different. Good luck!
Thank you! V. excited to break in my Karu 16 and wanted to work in my sourdough practice from the get-go! Will try your recipe first to get a hang of it though.
Domenic, apologies, am I just missing it, or can you point me towards the video you reference about making proper dough balls?
Thanks.
Hi Jonathan.
This is something I really need to make a video about myself. Making a proper dough ball is incredibly simple to do but difficult to explain.
Until then, refer to this video: https://youtu.be/oZxNbL5XB7w?t=92
Good luck!
I made a double batch and cooked 6 small pizzas in my Koda 16 tonight.
The crust was outstanding with a puffy outside and a nice soft chew. The dough was easy to handle and launched without too much flour on the peel. Bravo
Looks like you nailed it. Good job!
How do get the bottom of the pizza cooked?
Hi, Peter. Since this is an Ooni pizza dough recipe, I’ll assume you’re using a pizza oven. To get the bottom of your pizza cooked, make sure the oven is preheated for 20-30 minutes prior to cooking. If you’re using a pizza stone in a home oven, the same advice applies, except you need to preheat the stone for 60-90 minutes instead. This should give your pizza a nice golden brown color on the bottom. Good luck!
Hi Domenic,
I’ve been successfully using your recipe guidelines for a few months now and wanted to let you know how pleased I’ve been with the results. My mom, first generation Italian-American, taught me her method which is very close to your technique; no kneading involved, just flour, water, yeast, olive oil and a touch of salt….but I never knew about 00 flour until I found your blog! What a difference, plus your calculations for the hydration levels has helped now that I have a wood fired pizza oven. By the way, my great-uncle Vincent Madonna (Italian immigrant and bicycle racer) had a pizza shop in Providence, RI in the 1930s, “Madonna’s Famous Pizza Pies”‘ .I grew up pretty darn particular in regard to pizza thanks to my ancestry! Just wanted to thank you for this blog and helpful tips.
Hey Amy. Thank you so much for the kind words–it always means a lot coming from someone with a family tradition of making pizza. Keep up the good work!
Hi Domenic,
What temperature and for how long do you recommend that we cook each pizza in an Ooni oven?
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Chelsea,
I always recommend cooking pizza at the maximum temperature, with a few exceptions for different styles. Use an infrared thermometer (if you have one) to see when the pizza stone in your Ooni reaches 800-900F before starting to cook… this usually takes around 20 minutes. As for timing, I don’t cook each pizza for a set period of time, rather I watch for visual signs that the pizza is finished cooking, especially the cheese. If using fresh mozzarella, watch for the cheese to start bubbling (but not browning) before taking it out. If using regular dry mozzarella, look for a few small brown bubbles beginning to form–if there are lots of big brown bubbles, it’s probably overdone. A Neapolitan pizza usually takes around 2 minutes to finish.
Of course, there are lots of variables (including personal taste) to factor in here, so these are just general rules of thumb. Once you’ve cooked a few pizzas successfully and know what you like, it will become natural for you. Good luck!
HI Domenic,
Clarification request regarding freezing the dough (you’ve addressed this a couple of times so apologies for the repetition), I’d essentially take the dough all the way through the recipe until just after step 15 (1-2 hours out of the fridge to bring to room temp) and the dough is about to be shaped into a pizza when I put it in the freezer right? I’m pretty new at this and it seems to me that pizza dough requires several transfers between the fridge and room temp to rise, shape up, and proof correctly so I wanted to confirm that I’m inserting the freezing steps you gave Michael at the correct point in the recipe.
Also do I need to change any of the early mixing steps if I’m using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment?
Many thanks.
Hi Rob. You have it exactly right. Bring the dough right up to the point where you would use it (being careful not to overproof it in the process) and then transfer it to the freezer. If all goes well, by the time the dough is brought back up to room temperature (completely thawed), it should be ready to use again.
Keep in mind though that a frozen then thawed dough ball will be slightly more delicate than a fresh one. This is totally fine, but if you’d prefer a stronger ball you can alternatively freeze the dough before proofing it, thaw it, reform it into a ball, then let it proof. It takes more steps than the original method but the gluten will be slightly stronger in the end. Ultimately, the choice is yours.
As for the dough mixer question, you can do everything exactly the same. But since you are using a mixer, you can have the mixer do all the kneading for you and skip the “no-knead” part if you prefer. This would be preferable if you plan on using the dough on the same day, but you’d be missing out on all the benefits of fermentation. So, if you’re going to ferment it overnight anyways, using a mixer won’t really affect the outcome since the gluten network will get formed one way or another.
Hope that clears things up. Good luck!