Easy Overnight Pizza Dough

Step 1

Measure out the warm water in a large mixing bowl. Add in the salt and stir to dissolve. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let sit for a couple of minutes to hydrate and dissolve, then stir to distribute.

Step 2

Add the flour into the mixing bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until you form a shaggy dough. Switch to using your hands. Wet your hands to prevent the dough from sticking to them and pinch the dough into several segments between your first finger and thumb. Then reach under the edges of the dough and gently pull it up to stretch the dough until you hit resistance, then fold the section of dough over to rest of the dough. Turn the bowl 1/4 turn and repeat the pulling and folding until you've gone all around. This action brings the dough back into one piece. Repeat the pinching and folding process for about 1-2 minutes until your dough starts to turn into a cohesive, but sticky ball of dough. Re-wet your hands as necessary to prevent the dough from sticking to them. Cover the bowl and let rest for 20 minutes.

Step 3

After the 20 minutes of rest, turn the dough onto a clean and floured surface. Knead the dough for about 1 minute until you get a smooth ball of dough. Flour your hands and add flour to the counter as necessary to prevent sticking. Lightly coat the mixing bowl with oil and place the ball of dough mixing bowl, turning to coat in oil before leaving seam side down. Cover the mixing bowl and let the dough rise for about 1 hour, until it's doubled in size. You can let it rise for up to 2 hours before shaping.

Step 4

Turn the dough onto a clean, floured counter and stretch to make a large rectangle. You're going to divide the dough into 2 or 3 pieces (depending on the size you want your final pizza to be) by sprinkling flour over where you're going to cut (this prevents it from sticking) and cut into the sections with a bench scraper, or with a butter knife by pressing straight down into the dough.

Step 5

Shape the dough one piece at a time. To shape the dough, you will use the same folding technique as before (this time with dry or lightly floured hands). Take a section of the dough and gently stretch it up until you feel resistance, then fold over the middle. Take the next section and repeat, and move around the dough until you have created a tight ball. Then, turn the ball of dough and place seam side down on a clean, un-floured section of the counter. Cup the dough ball between your hands with your pinky fingers resting on the counter behind it. Pull the dough towards you, allowing the friction between the dough and counter to pull the dough underneath itself, and using your pinky fingers to prevent the dough from simply rolling. Turn the dough about a quarter turn and repeat. Do this until you've gone in a full circle and the skin around the dough ball is taught. Sprinkle flour over the dough and spread it around with your hands until the dough is not sticky to touch. Repeat with the remaining sections of dough, then place on a floured plate. Sprinkle more flour on top of the dough, then cover with plastic wrap and place the plate in the fridge for at least 6 hours, or up to 72 hours, before making pizza.

Step 6

Before shaping the dough and baking, let come to room temperature and relax for about 1 hour. If you try to shape the dough and it's not stretching out easily or quickly, let it rest for 10 minutes then try again.