Poolish Pizza Dough

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The only pizza dough recipe that you require is a poolish pizza dough. The pizza crust made with it has the best flavor and the most desirable crust texture. It is flavorful, crispy on the outside with bubbles and airy pockets on the inside. Not to forget that it is easier to digest than a standard homemade pizza dough.

Enjoy more buns and rolls recipes on the blog. Also, don't forget to check out my latest coffee buns recipe.

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What is poolish?
🍶 What ingredients do you need for the poolish pizza dough?
🍕 How to make poolish and poolish pizza?
🫙How to store poolish pizza dough
💭 Pro Tips
❓Frequently Asked Questions
🍞More bread recipes
📝 Recipe card for the Poolish Pizza dough and pizza
Poolish Pizza Dough
📋 Nutrition Facts

What is poolish?

Poolish is a pre-ferment made using a mixture of flour, water, and a pinch of yeast. It has 100 percent hydration (1:1), i.e., 1 part water to 1 part flour. One-fourth to half a teaspoon of commercial yeast is added to form this preferment. Such 100 percent hydration preferment is called poolish.

It is a wet and batter-like preferment and resembles a 100 percent hydration sourdough starter. But they are not the same.

Poolish is then allowed to ferment overnight which helps in building a complex flavor into them. When ready the poolish looks wobbly bubbly mass. It is commonly used for making baguettes and pizza dough.

🍶 What ingredients do you need for the poolish pizza dough?

ingredients for making poolish recipe — Ingredients for the Poolish

Flour

The best flour for making pizza dough is the 00 Flour, which is finely ground Italian flour. It is made from durum wheat which has stronger gluten strands resulting in a crispier crust whereas the regular bread flour will yield a slightly chewier crust.

On the other side, regular bread flour will work equally well. I have used bread flour, as it is usually easily available. I wanted to make the recipe more approachable, as we always have bread flour.

Active Dry Yeast

It is ideal to use active dry yeast than instant yeast as we are looking for a long fermentation. You can also use cake yeast or fresh yeast for this purpose. But just remember that we need very little.

Honey

Honey act as an instant food for the yeast before the sugars in the flour starts to break down. Using honey helps to get the fermentation kick-started.

ingredients required for making poolish pizza dough — Ingredients for making poolish pizza dough

Olive oil

Olive helps to tenderize the dough a bit and cut some of the chewiness. The best way is to rub the oil into the flour to kind of laminate the flour with it.

Salt

Use whichever kind of salt you have or use.

For making pizza from this dough you are going to require the following things

Pizza sauce
Cheese
Toppings of your choice
Seasoning: Basil leaves, Oregano, Italian herb seasoning, etc.

🍕 How to make poolish and poolish pizza?

Step 1 Making poolish

To make the poolish, start by measuring flour, water, honey, and active dry yeast. Then, in a large mixing bowl, combine flour and yeast. Mix well and set aside.

Mix honey in the water and then pour into the dry ingredients. Combine everything well and make sure there is no dry flour left. Hydrate every bit of the flour. Clean the sides using a wet spatula.

Cover the bowl with the cling wrap and let it ferment for 12-16 hours at room temperature. The ideal ambient room temperature poolish fermentation should be around 65-75 ⁰F.

image of a bubbly jiggly poolish — Poolish

Step 2 Kneading poolish pizza dough

At ambient room temperature, the preferment or the poolish undergoes fermentation and builds complex flavor. After 12-16 hours, pizza dough can be made using a poolish.

To make the main dough, first, measure the ingredients and start by combining salt and flour. Now add the olive oil and rub the oil into the flour, until the flour becomes crumbly and forms a soft ball when pressed in a fist.

Now add the poolish followed by the water. Combine everything using your hands or the back of the spatula until no dry patch of flour is left behind. Cover and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

Then empty the dough mass onto a flour-dusted work surface. Knead using the palm of your hands. Stretch the dough away from you and then collect it back and press down in the center. Then again use the heels of your hands to push the dough outwards (away from you) to stretch it and extend the gluten stands. Then collect it back and repeat. Keep repeating until a smooth ball of dough is formed.

There you have a poolish pizza dough! Now you can work with it just like any pizza dough.

Step 3 Bulk Fermenting the poolish pizza dough

For making the poolish pizza, let the dough bulk-proof at room temperature until it doubles up in volume. They remove it into a flour-dusted workstation. Then divide the dough into four dough balls if making 4 small pizzas or one large round if making one large pizza. I am making a 16-inch large pizza, so I am keeping it as one dough round.

Now cover and let this dough ball rest for about half an hour on the workstation while keeping it covered.

Step 4 Shaping and proofing

Stretch out the dough from a pizza. You can also use a rolling pin to roll out the dough. Now cover the rolled-out dough and let it proof for about 45 minutes to an hour. The dough will look fuller and have air pockets here and there. Press the center of the pizza using your finger to pop any air bubbles. You can also use a fork to run around the shaped pizza, leaving the edges.

Step 5 Topping and baking

Now spread your favorite pizza sauce, add fresh basil leaves, add cheese, and top with your favorite toppings. I am using my favorite vegetable toppings.

If you have outdoor pizza ovens like the wood fired pizza oven, nothing could be better for baking this pizza dough made with poolish. Something like ooni pizza oven would be great too.

Preheat your pizza oven or the conventional oven to 470 ⁰F and bake the poolish pizza dough.

Slice and serve warm.

In this recipe, the dough is very close to the Neapolitan pizza dough, which is basically the poolish pizza dough but topped with loads of veggies.

🫙How to store poolish pizza dough

You can use half of the poolish pizza dough and keep the remaining refrigerated for 3-4 days.

If you want to keep it for longer, consider freezing it. It will keep well for 2-3 months if stored rightly. After the dough has had the bulk fermentation and it is divided into dough balls for making individual pizzas.

Let them further proof for an hour and then wrap them in a cling wrap and store them in a freezer-safe bag. Cover it in foil and mark the date and contents. The poolish pizza dough should be good for about 3 months.

💭 Pro Tips

For pizza dough, recipes use bread flour or 00 Flour. Regular bread flour will not give the best results.
Make sure you use very little yeast to use this fermented pizza dough poolish.
If the temperature is very high in your kitchen, let poolish ferment for 4-5 hours at room temperature and then move it to the refrigerator. And let it cold ferment for 8-10 hours.
Kneading the key to a perfect dough. If kneading with a hand, knead for a good 8-10 minutes. Make sure that the dough is smooth and elastic.
If kneading in a stand mixer, start at low speed, and work your way up until the dough separates itself from the sides of the mixer bowl.

spreading pizza sauce on a poolish pizza dough.

❓Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of polish in the pizza? Is worthwhile the time?

Poolish makes for excellent pizza dough. It imparts great flavor to the dough and also helps in crust texture. The bubble-filled and airy crust that is crispy on the outside is a direct consequence of using the poolish for making the pizza dough. Poolish pizza is much easier to digest, and yes, it is worthwhile.

Is poolish the same as a sourdough starter?

No poolish and sourdough starters are not the same, though they aim to achieve the same thing. Better flavor and texture in the resultant bread.

But the sourdough starter is an ever-living culture of wild yeast as long as you keep feeding and maintaining it. On the other hand, poolish is created with commercial yeast for making just a single bake.

Difference between polish and biga?

Poolish and biga are two ways for achieving more or less similar results. The only difference is that the poolish recipe is a 100 percent hydration preferment ( equal parts water) whereas the biga has hydration as low as 45 percent. It means in biga for every 100 g of flour, we add 45 g of water. Biga is more of a drier and stiff poolish.

🍞More bread recipes

light and airy pizza crust obtained by using poolish pizza dough

Sourdough bread recipes

A few Bread recipes with sourdough starter and other ways to use sourdough starter are linked below:

I hope you will love this poolish pizza recipe. Share your results and opinions in the comment section below. Also, subscribe to never miss a recipe.

Till then

Bake it Delicious!

📝 Recipe card for the Poolish Pizza dough and pizza