What Is the Best Flour for Pizza Dough?
The best flour for pizza dough, especially if you're fermenting for 2–3 days, is organic bread flour with 12–14% protein. I've tested a lot of flours with the Baking Steel. A lot. And there are plenty of good ones out there. But for a home oven, using a Baking Steel or even a pizza stone, we think bread flour is the best choice.
Some people lean toward 00 flour. Others prefer all-purpose. Both can make good pizza. But here's the thing most people don't realize, if you're cold fermenting your dough for 48 to 72 hours, you need a flour with serious protein content. Because those proteins break down during fermentation. After two or three days in the fridge, if the proteins have weakened too much, the dough isn't going to stretch. It'll tear. It'll fight you. And that's the opposite of what you want.
Bread flour gives you the protein to survive that long ferment and still stretch beautifully when it's time to make pizza.
72-hour dough made with bread flour, stretches like yoga, no fighting, no tearing.
Why Does Protein Content Matter in Pizza Flour?
Protein is everything when it comes to pizza dough. More protein means more gluten. More gluten means more structure, more chew, and better oven spring when your pizza hits a hot Baking Steel.
But here's what most people miss: protein content matters even more when you're fermenting for days. During a long cold ferment, enzymes in the dough slowly break down the gluten network. That's what creates incredible flavor and digestibility, but it also weakens the dough over time. If you start with a low-protein flour, you don't have enough gluten to survive the process. The dough goes slack. It sticks. It tears.
Start with a high-protein bread flour (12–14%), and after 72 hours you've still got a dough that's strong, extensible, and a joy to work with. That's the whole game.
Here's the quick breakdown:
- Bread flour (12–14% protein): Ideal for long-fermented dough. Strong gluten, great chew, handles 48–72 hour cold ferments beautifully. Our top pick.
- All-purpose flour (10–12% protein): Works for same-day or overnight dough. Softer, more tender crust. A solid choice for quick pizza nights. Check out our 24-hour pizza dough recipe if you're going this route.
- 00 flour (11–13% protein): Finely milled Italian flour, great for Neapolitan-style pizza in super hot ovens (800°F+). In a home oven at 500–550°F, bread flour outperforms it.
Why We Only Use Organic Flour
At the Baking Steel Test Kitchen, every bag of flour we open is organic. No exceptions. I don't even think about using anything else.
No bleach, no bromate. A lot of conventional flours are bleached artificially aged using chemicals that can leave a bitter aftertaste. Potassium bromate, a common flour additive in the U.S., is actually banned in the European Union, Canada, and Brazil because it's been linked to cancer in animal studies. If your flour label doesn't specifically say "unbleached," it's bleached. Check the bag.
Cleaner fermentation. A 72-hour cold ferment magnifies everything in your dough, including whatever's in the flour. Organic flour starts from a cleaner base: no synthetic pesticides, no herbicides, no chemical ripening agents. The result is a cleaner, more nuanced flavor that you can actually taste.
It just tastes better. After 13 years of making pizza and testing dozens of flours, organic bread flour consistently produces the best-tasting crust. These pizzas and breads are going directly into your body. Make good choices.
Best Flour Brands for Pizza Dough
With all the testing I've done, I keep coming back to Central Milling. Their organic bread flour is consistent, performs beautifully in long ferments, and produces the best flavor of anything I've tried. That's exactly why we chose it for our dough mix.
That said, there are other brands worth exploring:
- Central Milling (Organic Bread Flour) Our #1 pick. It's what we use for everything at the Baking Steel Test Kitchen and what's inside our 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix.
- King Arthur (Organic Bread Flour) Widely available, reliable, great for beginners. You can find it at most grocery stores.
- Cairnspring Mills Beautiful stone-milled flours with incredible character. A step up if you want to explore regional grain.
- Bob's Red Mill (Organic) Solid all-around option, great for specialty blends and alternative grains.
There's no single "best" flour for everyone. It depends on your fermentation schedule, your oven, and your taste. Test a few brands, take notes, and let your palate decide.
Can I Use All-Purpose Flour for Pizza Dough?
Absolutely, for same-day or overnight dough. All-purpose flour has less protein than bread flour, which means less gluten development. The result is a softer, more tender crust. If you're short on time and it's pizza tonight, all-purpose is a great match.
For long ferments (48–72 hours), stick with bread flour. The extra protein keeps the dough strong over multiple days in the fridge. Without it, you'll end up with a slack, sticky mess that doesn't want to cooperate.
What About 00 Flour?
00 flour is finely milled Italian flour, the standard for Neapolitan pizza baked in wood-fired ovens at 800°F+. It produces a soft, pliable dough that cooks fast at extreme heat.
But in a home oven at 500–550°F on a Baking Steel, bread flour actually outperforms 00. The longer bake time in a home oven benefits from a stronger gluten network, you get better structure, more chew, and a crispier bottom. Save the 00 for when you get an outdoor pizza oven.
Skip the Measuring, Try Our Dough Mix
If you haven't tried our 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix, we make it real easy for you. It's the same Central Milling organic flour we use for everything, with all the ingredients measured precisely. Just add water, knead for two minutes, and let it ferment. We love it, and we think you will too.
One pack makes 4 pizzas. And it's not just for pizza, English muffins, focaccia, bread, calzones. One dough, endless possibilities.
Our 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix — Central Milling organic flour, pre-measured. Just add water.
The Bottom Line
Great pizza starts with great flour. Use a high-protein organic bread flour, give it time to ferment, and bake it on something that holds serious heat. That's the formula. Whether you measure it yourself or grab one of our dough packs, the result is the same, a crust that stretches easy, bakes crispy, and tastes like you know what you're doing. Because you do.
About Andris
I'm Andris Lagsdin, and I invented the Baking Steel in 2012 after reading one line in Modernist Cuisine: "Steel conducts heat better than stone." My family had run Stoughton Steel for over 50 years, so I grabbed a slab from my dad's shop and tested it. That first pizza told me everything. In 2026, I launched the 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix, pre-measured Central Milling organic flour, salt, and yeast. Just add water. Today, tens of thousands of home cooks use Baking Steel to make legendary pizza and bread from regular home ovens. Read more about my story.
Ready to make dough? Start with our 72-Hour Pizza Dough Recipe it's the recipe that started it all.
