Not all dough is made the same. Here is the start of a series called “Know The Dough” where we dive into what makes up the different types of doughs we make and how we make them.
To start let’s look at our two different pizza doughs.
There is an uptick in new pizza joints in Yellowknife, so this is a good time to know the dough.
At Bush Order, we have two different types of pizza dough we use. First is our Neo-Neapolitan dough. It is not strictly Neapolitan as you would find in Napoli, Italy, but rather a common riff on that style.
A true Neapolitan dough is made with Type “00” flour, which we’ll get into in a minute, salt and yeast. There is no sugar or additional additives. Furthermore, a true Neapolitan dough is fermented at room temperature and baked around 900ºF in a woodfired oven.
Before we outline our dough ingredients, it is worth knowing that Type “00” flour is an Italian flour that is ground extremely fine. On the other end of the Italian flour scale, Type “2” flour is quite course, more like a wholegrain flour. When you see a Canadian flour that claims to be Type “00” it is simply jumping on the Italian Pizza bandwagon. We believe is using good Canadian grown flours that are either organic or grown through regenerative practices.
Our standard pizza dough we consider Neo-Neapolitan because while we try to follow certain Neapolitan traditions and styles we simply cannot, and nor do we truly want to.
Our pizza dough starts with 90% organic unbleached sifted high-protein flour and 10% organic wholegrain Red Fife flour. The high-protein flour allows for more water absorption, greater gluten development and more elasticity. The Red Fire flour adds a touch of nuttiness and texture to the dough.
Along with the flour we also add in Extra-Virgin Olive Oil. The EVOO helps to create a crispy crust with a softer interior. As for the leavening agent, we use our trusted sourdough starter, but at a much lower percentage than most other breads.

We use this lower percentage of starter to allow us to ferment this pizza dough for 48 hours in the refrigerator. Giving this dough such a long fermentation period helps create a wonderful flavour. It also helps breaks down the starches within the flour, making this dough, like all our doughs, much easier to digest.
A pizza dough with manufactured yeast made the same day it is baked wouldn’t have time to break down these starches, thus your digestive system would have to do all the work. This in turn is what causes bloating and fatigue after consuming it.
The other pizza dough we make is our Focaccia dough, which we use for our Saturday Deep-Dish pizzas.
This dough is made from 100% organic high-protein flour, EVOO, sourdough starter and salt but unlike our standard pizza dough, this dough is made with a higher hydration percentage – more water. It is soupy when shaping, which is why it is always proofed and baked within a vessel. The higher hydration creates a more open and airier crumb, while the EVOO creates that crispy thin crust.
Our Focaccia Dough is also fermented in the refrigerator for 24 hours to create that depth of flavour and to break down those starches.
Note that we do not add any sugar to either of these doughs. Typically, sugar is added to a dough to speed up fermentation or to create a softer, sweater crust but it is completely unnecessary.
So, the next time you are purchasing a hot and fresh pizza, ask how the dough is made. Or the next time you’re getting a frozen pizza or frozen pizza dough ball look at the ingredient list. Remember, less is better.
Watch for our next Know The Dough series installment.