Making pizza dough is a challenge if you see it that way, and for most they wouldn’t even know where to start, just like the way I started.

I started asking people who are reliable sources, and then tested it myself. It’s really easy but you have to decide what type of dough you wanna make. That’s part of the challenge but of course it depends on your environment., i.e. mountains, sea or city and even in the forest at a log cabin. At good wood oven is better than having a Ferrari …….okay both😲 ….and if you decide to build a wood burning oven don’t monkey around or you’ll discover it doesn’t do what you need. You cannot cut corners when it comes to your Woodhaven trust me it will be the biggest mistake you ever make.

But as I said it’s definitely important to decide if you want something which you can work with easily or something which is going to be more gogey. When I first asked a friend who lives in Japan who does really good pizza he was hinting towards 80% water and 18g of salt, and 35 grams of olive oil and 1g of yeast * a good recipe.

I can tell you, I tried this recipe and it is very good but insanely gooey, but that’s kind of interesting if you’re patient and you can handle the fact that you’re going to be dealing with something that’s like sticky chewing gum. I remember first trying it and it was this sticking to everything I was going crazy and then I said okay I need to add a little bit of flour to grab it and it worked but – not perfectly.

After a while I tried to reduce the water in stages but realise that about 66% humidity is the maximum for my comfort level otherwise I can’t control the dough.

The end result is good but pizza making is not an easy to do as an amateur, it really does require lots of practice and interpreting what you think is good pizza and t may be the opposite for another person. I like Marinara but make more cheesy styled pizzas and avoid garlic on my Margheritas. I believe pizza is classic, so follow the idea of keeping it simple, or go nuts!

And a few things I forgot to say you do need to take the dough after resting it for 24-48 hours and you cut it into balls of between 220 to 250g, I think it depends on what you consider to be the perfect size but there are obvious standards for professionals. I use 220 and sometimes more and it depends on the size and dough characteristics.

And don’t forget it’s important to use some flour to get your dough out of the box where you’ve kept it until potentially doubles in size. It’s then ready to be used *good luck Hugo 🕺🕺🕺 PS: and if you need help to make the balls check out on youtube: Staglio e Formatura di panielli per pizza Napoletana.