PRE-PREPARATION

For the pre-dough, mix both flours in a bowl. Crumble the yeast over the bowl and pour in the water. Mix all ingredients with your hands until crumbly, it does not have to be a homogeneous mass. Just make sure that all ingredients are well mixed and the pre-dough is free of dry flour.

Place the pre-dough in a sealable plastic container of about 25 x 30 centimetres and seal by closing the lid. Leave the container with the pre-dough for about 3 hours at a temperature of 22-25°C.

Place the container with the pre-dough in the least cold part (at the top) of the fridge and leave for 10-14 hours.

PREPARATION

For the dough, break the pre-dough into pieces and add them evenly to the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook; it is difficult to knead this dough by hand and the water is absorbed better if you use a mixer. Crumble the yeast over the bowl. On a warm day, you need to use less yeast than on a colder day. Pour a dash of the 120g water into the pre-dough, turn the mixer on at low speed and pour some more water into the bowl. If necessary, add a very small amount of flour to the bowl of the mixer to ‘help’ it knead the dough. Let it knead for about 7 minutes, adding some of the remaining water from time to time; keep a dash of water for when you add the salt later.

Pour the last bit of water into the bowl of the mixer and add the salt. Turn the mixer to medium speed and knead for about 3 minutes longer until all the water is absorbed and a smooth and elastic dough ball is formed. The dough will then no longer stick to the sides of the bowl.

Place the dough in a bowl and cover with cling film. Leave it to rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes.

Tip the dough onto your work surface and, using a dough cutter, divide it into four equal portions of about 250g each. Bulk up each dough portion and place them in a sealable plastic container of about 25 x 30 centimetres. Cover with the lid and leave at room temperature for about 2 hours. The dough will rise and is ready to use to make pizzas when the dough balls form a whole but you can still see the lines of the individual balls.