No-Knead Pizza Dough

Ingredients

• 200 g flour
• 2 g instant yeast
• 5 g salt
• 5 g olive oil
• 140 g luke warm water

Method

Combine the flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl. Add the olive oil and water and stir until no dry flour remains — you're aiming for a shaggy, wet mass that looks more like porridge than dough. This minimal mixing is the crux of the method: you're relying on bulk-fermentation and time to develop gluten rather than mechanical work. The long rest does what your hands would do, but more slowly and with better flavour development.

Cover the bowl tightly with cling film or a lid and leave it at room temperature — aim for 18–22°C. Over 7 to 24 hours, the dough will expand noticeably, developing a network of bubbles and a slightly sour smell as the yeast consumes sugars and wild bacteria colonise the mass. This extended yeast-fermentation period allows organic acids to build, improving flavour and digestibility. At 7 hours you'll have a usable dough; at 24 hours the character deepens. Warmer rooms accelerate this; cooler ones slow it down.

After the initial rise, the dough is ready to shape and bake, or you can transfer it to the fridge. Cold storage halts fermentation and actually improves the dough by allowing flavours to concentrate further — keep it for up to five days. When you're ready to use it, remove it from the fridge 30 minutes before shaping to let it relax slightly, though it needn't come fully to room temperature.

For efficiency, double or triple the batch. The method scales directly: maintain the same hydration ratio and fermentation period, and you'll have multiple pizzas' worth of dough from a single mixing session. Store excess portions in separate containers in the fridge, pulling one out when needed. This dough ferments preferentially in the cold, so there's no rush — use what you need and leave the rest to develop further.