FOOD NEWS
Here's How Long To Ferment Pizza Crust For The Crispiest Results
By Alli Neal
Fermenting dough is done by leaving it to sit and rise, allowing it to develop flavor and texture, and for the crispiest results, you’ll need to let it sit for three to five days.
This tip comes from chef J. Kenji López-Alt, who spent five months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza, a style defined by a crust that's as crispy as possible.
In bread baking, everything is done as ratios of each other in weight. Breads with high hydration levels have airy and moist interiors, which is not ideal for crispy pizza crust.
While over-fermenting will help, adding more fat and less water to the dough also assists in crispy dough. López-Alt adds 10% to 15% oil for the fat and no more than 56% water.
To dry the dough out even more, López-Alt “cures” it by rolling it out and leaving it in the fridge to air dry for 12-24 hours, which further drops its hydration level.
Once the dough finishes curing in the fridge, you won’t be able to roll it out any further without it ripping, so be sure it’s the right size before letting it rest.