You really can make a good pizza at home on your first try. Like any skill, it improves with practice, but you don’t need special flour, fancy tools, or complicated procedures to get started. If I had to start over tomorrow, I would do it in the simplest possible way.

Dough, like all living things, has trust issues. Push it too far and enzymes start breaking everything down. Gluten weakens, structure collapses, and your beautiful elastic dough slowly turns into a sad sticky blob. So bulk fermentation isn’t “the longer the better”. It’s about balance.

Small-Batch Italian Focaccia (62.5% Hydration)