Pizza, continued: making the dough
This is more of a method than a recipe; I encourage you to experiment with the ingredients and quantities, and develop your own way of working. I have made pizza dough with strong bread flour, plain/all purpose flour, and Italian type 00 flour (which is the authentic flour used in pizzerias in Naples). My preference at the moment is for a mixture of about three parts strong bread flour to one part plain/all purpose flour. There is a compromise between ease of handling and texture: the higher the gluten content of your flour, the easier your dough will be to stretch without tearing, but the tougher the crust will be.
You might also want to start with a slightly drier dough - the quantities here are for 66% hydration, but you could reduce that to 60% for your first attempt and gradually increase the proportion of water as you become more confident with the shaping and handling.
Dough Ingredients
These quantities will make two pizzas, about 30cm/12" diameter. You can increase the quantities if you want to make more pizzas, or freeze some dough for later use, but the dough will probably not form properly in your mixer if you try to make less.
Preferment:
185g strong bread flour
165g water
¼ tsp instant/easy blend yeast
Final dough:
65g plain/all purpose flour
5g/¾ tsp salt
½ tsp instant/easy blend yeast
Method:
To make the preferment, mix the bread flour, water and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer until all the flour is wet - you can just stir it by hand, there's no need to develop the gluten at this point - cover with plastic wrap/cling film, and refrigerate for 12-48 hours.
For the final dough, put the bowl into the mixer stand and start to mix with the bread hook on the slowest setting. After five minutes, add the salt and extra yeast, and gradually add the plain/AP flour. Once all the ingredients have been added, increase the speed to about 1/3 of the maximum for a minute or two. The dough should be completely smooth and just about dry enough to come away from the bottom of the bowl cleanly - if it is still sticking, you can sprinkle in a little extra flour, but be careful - the dough should still be wet enough to be sticky to the touch if you are going to get the traditional bubbly crust.
Dough ball for one pizza
Now the dough should be returned to the fridge for the rest of its fermentation, 8 - 24 hours. At some point, either now or shortly before making the pizza, you need to divide the dough into individual portions by tipping it out onto a clean worktop and cutting it with a dough scraper. Each portion should weigh around 210g/7½ ounces. Shape each portion of dough into a ball then put it in a bowl that has been very lightly oiled with a drop of olive oil, cover again with cling film/wrap and return to the fridge until you are ready to shape the bases.