Baker's peel pizza: the recipe

Pizza alla pala is a leavened dough typical of Roman tradition, with high hydration, a pronounced open crumb and a crunchy base.
This is the classic recipe, with soft wheat flour and a biga preferment.
At a glance
- Method: Preferment, with autolyse (1 hour)
- Preferment: Biga — 80% of the flour
- Mixing: Stand mixer
- Number of pieces: 3
- Weight per piece: 600 g
- Preferment weight: 1130 g
- Dough weight: 675 g
- Total dough weight: 1800 g
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Ingredients
Quantities for 3 pieces of 600 g, kitchen at 20 °C
Preferment
- Wheat flour (W350)779 g
- Water343 g
- Yeast7.6 g
Dough
- Wheat flour (W280)195 g
- Water436 g
- Salt20 g
- Mixed seed oil20 g
- Barley malt4.9 g (a teaspoon and a half)
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Method
- Biga: make it and let it ferment (at room temperature) (16 h 24 min)
- Weigh the ingredients
- Make a mix with 2 ice cubes and 303 g of water at room temperature (to get it to 11 °C)
- Dissolve the yeast in the water
- Mix roughly
- Transfer to a container, covered but not airtight
- Weigh the ingredients and knead (1 h 35 min)
- Use water at 21 °C
- Hold back 316 g of water and pour it in gradually while it comes together
- End of mixing, start of bulk rise (at room temperature) (30 min)
- Reinforcement fold 1 of 1
- Divide/shape: weigh and form the pieces (5 min)
- Start of proofing (at room temperature) (2 h 30 min)
- Ready to cook
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Baking
- conventional oven, without steam
- Overall temperature: 280 °C
- Time: 7 minutes
- Plain base, on the baking stone or on a screaming-hot tray
- conventional oven, without steam
- Overall temperature: 280 °C
- Time: 5 minutes
- Add the topping and put it back in to finish
The calculator adapts baking times to the weight of your pieces. Open the calculator
Preparation notes
- Stretching
- Stretch it on plenty of durum wheat semolina, using your fingers but without deflating the dough too much.
- Shake off the excess semolina before moving the dough onto the peel.
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