The Recipe Index A small-batch recipe journal

Recipe · By Dough Guy

Home-Oven Pepperoni Pizza with 3-Day Dough

savourypizzapepperonicold ferment
Ingredients
17
Method
8 steps
Collected
2026-09-28
A large rustic pepperoni pizza with glossy pepperoni slices, toasted mozzarella and a golden blistered crust on a black wire cooling rack.
Original source

01

Ingredients

Dough — one 16-inch pizza

  • 284 g bread flour (12–14% protein), plus all-purpose flour for shaping
  • 176 g cold water, below 60°F / 16°C (any ice used counts toward this weight)
  • 1.1 g active dry yeast
  • 7 g salt
  • 6 g sugar
  • 9 g extra-virgin olive oil
  • A little oil or non-stick spray for the dough container

These one-pizza weights are from Dough Guy’s calculator set to 1 pizza, 16 inches, regular thickness. It gives an approximately 480 g dough ball; the separately rounded ingredient weights sum slightly differently.

Tomato sauce — one batch, more than needed for this pizza

  • 1 × 28 oz / approximately 794 g can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp oregano
  • 3 tsp basil
  • 1 tsp sugar

To finish one pizza

  • About ½ cup / 120 ml of the prepared tomato sauce
  • Low-moisture mozzarella, preferably an equal blend of whole-milk and part-skim, amount not specified
  • Pepperoni, sliced from a stick, amount not specified
  • Semolina flour or regular flour for dusting the wooden peel
  • Optional: a little olive oil on the crust and grated Parmesan after baking

02

Method

  1. About three days before baking: Measure the cold water into a mixing bowl, adding a little ice if desired and including its weight in the total. Add the yeast, then the bread flour and olive oil. Mix with a dough hook or by hand. After about 2 minutes, add the salt and sugar. Continue kneading for 10–11 minutes in total; the creator aims to keep the dough below 70°F / 21°C.
  2. Knead briefly into a ball, cover and leave at room temperature for 1–2 hours. Form a tight ball of approximately 480 g, seal the seam underneath and place it in a lightly oiled, sealable container. Refrigerate for about 3 days.
  3. On pizza day: Take the dough out of the fridge 3–4 hours before baking so that it relaxes enough to stretch. Place a pizza steel near the top of the oven and preheat at the oven’s highest setting — 550°F / approximately 288°C in the video — for about 1 hour. The creator prefers a steel to a stone in a home oven.
  4. Mix the crushed tomatoes, salt, oregano, basil and sugar to make the sauce. This is a batch; use only about ½ cup on this pizza. Shred or prepare the mozzarella and slice the pepperoni.
  5. Lightly flour the worktop with all-purpose flour. Turn out the dough and press with your fingertips from the middle outwards, leaving the outer rim untouched. Turn it over, press again, shake off excess flour, then stretch it over your knuckles, turning it and letting gravity enlarge it to about 16 inches. Do not flatten the raised edge.
  6. Dust a wooden pizza peel with semolina or regular flour and transfer the dough to it. Spread on ½ cup sauce, keeping the rim bare. Add mozzarella without overloading the pizza, then the pepperoni.
  7. Shake the peel gently to ensure the pizza can slide. Launch onto the hot steel at a low angle and bake for approximately 6–8 minutes, until the crust is puffed and browned and the cheese and pepperoni are cooked to your liking. Timing is for the hot-steel setup shown; a cooler oven may differ.
  8. Transfer the baked pizza to a wire rack so its base stays crisp. Optionally finish the crust with a little olive oil and the pizza with grated Parmesan before slicing.

03

Sources & attribution