The Most Important Tip To Remember When Adding Olive Oil To Your Pizza Dough

Olive oil is a crucial ingredient in pizza dough. It adds flavor to the otherwise basic dough, increases the elasticity of the dough so that it's easier to stretch and roll out, and helps the dough crisp on the outside to prevent moisture from the toppings making it soggy. Water is another important component in pizza dough, but it's well known that oil and water don't mix well. So how do you ensure that you mix your dough the right way for the best final outcome? Toni Gemignani, 13-time World Pizza Champion and chef and owner of Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, told us the most important thing to remember. He said, "My biggest tip is to always add your olive oil last when making pizza dough."

Gemignani says it's not common to find oil added in the first step of dough-making, and this is for a good reason. If you were to add it at the same time as the water, you could end up with an overly watery dough, as the oil would prevent the flour from fully absorbing the water. The proper technique is to first mix the flour with any other dry ingredients (like salt or yeast) and water, then allow the dough to sit so the flour can fully hydrate. Finally, add the oil and incorporate it.

The method and proportions of ingredients depend entirely on which recipe you choose. "Depending on how much extra virgin olive oil you use in your batch, you may need to decrease the amount of water you use to not over liquify it, though it all depends on how much hydration is used in any given recipe," Gemignani advises. Hydration is the ratio of flour to liquid (usually water, but you can also try using milk in pizza dough). Typically, only a couple tablespoons of olive oil are called for.

The recipe you use will also determine how you incorporate the oil and the kneading process — mixed by hand or with a stand-mixer — and of course, how you stretch it! Even if you choose to take a pizza-dough shortcut and buy it pre-made from the store, you should still keep olive oil on hand; brushing flavored oil onto store-bought pizza dough before baking gives it a restaurant-quality upgrade.