Combine the ingredients: Pour the 320 grams of roughly 38 °C (100 °F) water into a large bowl or dough tub. Add the fine sea salt to the water and stir or swish it around in the bowl until it dissolves. Add the yeast and let it rest for a minute to hydrate, then swish it around until it’s dissolved. Add the flour.

Mix the dough: Stir your hand around inside the bowl or dough tub to integrate the water, salt, yeast and flour until it becomes a single mass of dough. Use the pincer method to cut the dough in sections with your hand, alternating with folding to develop it into a unified mass. 

Tip: For the pincer method, make a claw-like shape with one hand, then pinch and squeeze five or six times across the entire length of the dough mass. 

Continue this process for 30 seconds to 1 minute. The target dough temperature when finished mixing is 28 °C (82 °F); if you have a probe thermometer, feel free to check it now.

Knead and first rise: Let the dough rest for 20 minutes, then knead it on a lightly floured work surface for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. The skin of the dough should be very smooth. Place the dough ball seam side down in a lightly oiled dough tub or box. Cover with a tight-fitting lid. Leave the dough for about 1 ½ hours at room temperature for the first rise. Note: This may take a bit longer if your room is cold.

Shape: After the first rise, moderately flour a work surface about 0.5 m (2 feet) wide. With floured hands, gently ease the dough out of the tub and place it onto the work surface in a somewhat even shape. Dust the entire top of the dough with flour, then divide it into three 277-gram dough balls, using a pizza dough scraper and digital scales for accuracy. Shape each ball into a medium-tight round, working gently and being careful not to tear the dough.

Second fermentation: Place the dough balls onto a lightly floured baking sheet or dough box, leaving space between them to allow for expansion. Lightly flour the tops, cover them with plastic wrap, a dish towel, or box lid and let rest at room temperature for 4 to 6 hours or until doubled in size.

Make pizza: After the second fermentation, it’s time to make pizza. Refrigerate the dough balls if you’re not ready to cook yet (just remember to let them come to room temperature before making pizza). Otherwise, cook, have fun, and if you don’t know where to start, we’ve got tons of recipes for you to try!

Reprinted with permission from The Elements of Pizza by Ken Forkish, copyright © 2016. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.