Simple, 4-Ingredient Homemade Pizza Dough
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Up your pizza game with this simple, no-knead homemade pizza dough recipe. Made with 4 ingredients — flour, water, salt, and yeast — this dough is a snap to throw together, and you can use it the same day you mix it or store it in the fridge for up to 5 days (or freeze it!). If you love pizza with ballooned edges and crisp but pliable crusts, this is the pizza dough recipe you’ll come back to again and again. 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t make great pizza from start to finish in three hours.
This is a 4-ingredient, high-hydration, no-knead dough. It is the simplest of the simple homemade pizza recipes and, in my opinion, the tastiest, too. If you do have time to prep your dough a few days in advance, however, you’ll be setting yourself up for serious pizza bliss. Read on to learn why.
Let’s get straight to it: The first step to making excellent pizza at home is to get comfortable working with high-hydration pizza doughs. Here’s why:
Why High-Hydration Pizza Dough is Best For a Home Oven
High-hydration doughs, such as this overnight focaccia, are doughs made with a high proportion of water relative to the flour. The high proportion of water allows these types of doughs to be mixed together quickly and easily — no kneading or stand mixer required — and it also creates a pizza crust that stays crisp but moist during the cooking process with beautiful air pockets throughout.
Why? The easiest way to explain why is to look at the makeup of a classic Neapolitan-style pizza dough.
In your search for the perfect pizza dough recipe, you may have come across very promising-looking recipes for Neapolitan-style pizza with photos depicting crusts with beautifully ballooned outer edges. Contrary to what you might think, Neapolitan-style pizza dough is on the lower end of the hydration spectrum. If you compare those recipes to the one you find below, you’ll notice that Neapolitan-style pizza crust recipes call for significantly less water with hydration percentages ranging from 60 to 65 as opposed to the 88 percent hydration dough recipe below.
But didn’t you just say the secret to making excellent pizza at home is to use a lot of water? I did.
So why do Neapolitan pizza crusts perform so well at such low hydrations? Because Neapolitan pizzas cook in 60 to 90 seconds in 900ºF ovens. Yeah, and so? Stay with me here: When you bake in a super-hot oven, the cooking time will be reduced, which means there will be less time for the water in the dough to evaporate. In other words, when the cooking time is brief, the dough will be able to retain a lot of its moisture.
So, despite the low hydration, a baked Neapolitan crust is light and airy because the dough can retain its moisture during its brief time in the oven.
If you were to bake a 65% hydration Neapolitan pizza dough in your home oven, which can only get up to 550ºF at the most, which will in turn require a longer baking time, you likely will be disappointed with the result because the longer cooking time will allow too much water to evaporate, leaving you with a dry, tough crust.
Make sense? In other words, in order for pizza dough not to dry out in a home oven, it needs more water from the start. Keep in mind: working with high-hydration dough takes practice. Here’s a tip:
Working with High Hydration Dough
#1 Tip: Handle it gently.
As legendary pizza and bread baker, Jim Lahey said:
“As soon as I began really paying attention to how I shaped my pizza rounds by taking care to use a gentle hand, I noticed a difference in the finished product. The air pockets pervading the unbaked round really affect the texture of the baked pizza.”
During the shaping process — the point at which you are stretching your ball of dough into a 10- to 12-inch round — take care to use a light touch (see the video above for reference). When you handle the dough minimally, you preserve the bubbles created during the rising. See these bubbles? …
Those bubbles become these ballooned textures throughout the dough:
Pizza Dough Ingredients: Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast
OK, so now that we’re on the same page — a home oven requires a high-hydration dough for best results — let’s talk about what you need to make this simple dough.
Yeast
Yeast is what will make your pizza rise, and my preference for all pizza and bread recipes is SAF Instant Yeast. The beauty of instant yeast is that you can stir it directly into the flour — no need to “proof” or “bloom” it.
Active Dry Yeast works here, too: Red Star Active Dry is my preference. To use active dry yeast instead, simply sprinkle it over the lukewarm water and let it stand for about 10 minutes or until it gets foamy before adding to the other ingredients.
Store yeast in the fridge or freezer for up to a year. These quart containers are great for storing yeast.
If you would prefer to make pizza with a sourdough starter, see this Sourdough Pizza Crust Recipe
Flour: Tipo 00 vs. Bread vs. All-Purpose
Tipo 00 flour is the flour requisite in the production of D.O.C. Neapolitan pizza. Contrary to popular belief, the “00” is not an indicator of protein content. It refers, rather, to the fineness of the milling, “00” being the finest grade in the Italian classification system.
If you have never used tipo 00 flour, you may have enjoyed how nicely your dough handled, how easily it extended — it is known for the extensible gluten structure it creates in pizza dough.
There was a period during which I used tipo 00 flour exclusively, but today I find I get better results in my home oven when I use bread flour or all-purpose flour, King Arthur Flour being my favorite brand. When I bake in my outdoor oven, I use Petra 5063, and Italian flour designed for baking at high heat.
What is the difference between bread and all-purpose flour? Mostly the protein content. KAF bread flour has a higher protein content (12.7% protein) than the all-purpose flour (11.7% protein). A dough made with bread flour as opposed to all-purpose flour will absorb slightly more liquid and will therefore be slightly stiffer. If you live in a humid environment and often find your dough to be too wet, using bread flour may help.
In sum, the key is to use good flour: unbleached and unbromated flour. And I encourage you to experiment. What works best for me in my environment might not work as well for you in yours.
Salt
For pizza dough, my preference is Diamond Crystal kosher salt or Baleine fine sea salt, both of which dissolve quickly.
For finishing, I love Maldon sea salt. I finish nearly every pizza dough round I top with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.
Water
I have no trouble using cold water from my tap, which I mix with boiling water to create perfectly lukewarm water (see recipe box for details). That said, if you suspect your water is adversely affecting your pizza dough, here are two tips:
- Use water that you’ve left out overnight to ensure any chlorine has evaporated.
- Buy spring water. In some places, letting water sit out overnight will not be effective.
Pizza Making Equipment
The single best and easiest/most affordable step you can take to make better pizza at home is to invest in a Baking Steel. In short, steel is a more conductive cooking surface than stone. This means heat transfers more quickly from steel to food than it does from stone to food. Why is this important for pizza? Serious Eats’ Kenji J Lopez Alt offers this explanation:
“How does the baking surface affect hole structure? Well those crust holes develop when air and water vapor trapped inside the dough matrix suddenly expand upon heating in a phenomenon known as oven spring. The faster you can transfer energy to the dough, the bigger those glorious bubbles will be, and the airier and more delicate the crust.”
I get the best results when I place my Baking Steel in the upper third of my oven, but every oven is different, so play around with placement till you find the sweet spot. The beauty of the Baking Steel + a high-hydration dough:
A Few More Helpful Tools:
As always, for best results with bread or pizza recipes, use a digital scale. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this. Measuring by weight is the only way to truly measure your ingredients accurately. It also, in turn, allows you to make meaningful adjustments to a recipe — i.e. reducing the water quantity — to make it work best given the flour you are using and your environment.
A pizza peel. You need a mechanism to get the dough round from your counter to your Steel. A peel plus a sheet of parchment paper makes this easy.
Parchment paper. For easy transfer of pizza from peel to Steel, my preference is to use parchment paper, which stays with the pizza in the oven. The alternative is to sprinkle your peel with cornmeal or flour or something to prevent it from sticking. These ingredients ultimately end up burning on the Steel or making a mess on your oven floor. No thank you. Recently, I’ve been buying these rounds, but standard rectangular sheets of parchment work just fine, too.
Quart containers: These are the handiest containers for all sorts of things (soups, stocks, stews, storing yeast) but especially rounds of pizza dough. Dough can stay in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
Kevjes Dough Storage Vessels: These have become my favorite for their shape, which allows the dough to expand more horizontally and as a result doesn’t squish the dough as much.
DoughMate: If you have the space to store something like a DoughMate, it’s a really great tool for proofing your dough at room temperature: a lidded vessel protects the dough from drying out.
How to Make Pizza Dough, Step by Step
OK! Are you ready? Let’s make pizza dough:
Whisk together flour, salt, and instant yeast (SAF is my preference):
Add water, and …
… mix to form a sticky dough ball:
Let rise in a warm spot till nearly doubled, about 1.5 hours.
Turn out onto a floured work surface.
Divide into four portions and …
… ball up, using as much flour as needed.
If you are baking pizza immediately, let the dough rest for another hour before shaping. Otherwise, transfer the balls to quart containers and stick them in the fridge.
This is the dough after a night in the fridge.
Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and use your hands to cup the dough into a round.
Let the rounds sit for about an hour covered in a towel.
Gently stretch a round into an 11-inch round (roughly).
Transfer the round to a peel lined with parchment paper.
Topping Your Pizza
Get your toppings ready. For a classic Margherita pizza, you’ll need tomato sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil.
Spread about 2 ounces of tomato sauce over your dough.
Top with about 3 ounces of mozzarella. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake on a preheated Baking Steel at 550ºF for 5 to 6 minutes. Shower with fresh basil out of the oven.
The beauty of the Baking Steel + high hydration dough: oven spring.
Final Tip for Making Excellent Pizza at Home
Let’s review again, to make excellent pizza at home, you should:
- Use a high-hydration pizza dough.
- Use good quality ingredients.
- Handle the dough minimally.
Here’s my last tip: If time permits, make your dough a couple days in advance, and store it in the fridge. Why?
Because: During a long, slow, cold fermentation, enzymes in both the flour and the yeast will break down the starches in the flour into simple sugars, which will contribute both to flavor and to browning. Moreover, during this time in the fridge, the dough will relax, making it easier to stretch.
Pizza Dough Making Schedule
- Make it Tonight: Plan on 3 hours start to finish from when you mix your dough to when you turn out a freshly baked pizza.
- Make it Tomorrow (and beyond): Method 1: Mix your dough today, let it rise for 1.5 hours (roughly). Portion it into 4 balls; then transfer to the fridge for up to 3 days (or even longer). When using dough you’ve stored in the refrigerator, remove it one hour prior to baking.
- Make it Tomorrow (and beyond), Method 2: Mix your dough, cover the bowl with an airtight lid or seal it tightly with plastic wrap, and immediately transfer it to the fridge. When you are ready to bake, remove the dough from the fridge 60 to 90 minutes prior to baking, portion it into 4 balls; then transfer as many as you wish to bake to a well-floured board. Transfer the remaining balls to the fridge for up to 3 days (or even longer). When using dough you’ve stored in the refrigerator, remove it 60 to 90 minutes prior to baking.
Can You Freeze Pizza Dough?
Yes! This has been a game-changer. To freeze pizza dough, make it through step 4 in the recipe below or until after you transfer the portioned rounds to quart containers. At this point, transfer the quart containers to the freezer for as long as 3 months. To thaw, remove a container (or more) and let thaw in the refrigerator for 18 to 24 hours or thaw at room temperature for 4 to 8 hours. Then, proceed with the recipe.
FAQs & Troubleshooting
Why is my pizza dough too wet?
It is possible that given your environment and the type of flour you are using, you are using too much water relative to the amount of flour. The fix is simple: reduce the amount of water. Ideally, you are measuring with a scale, so you can ensure you are measuring accurately and making meaningful adjustments. Try holding back 50 grams of water and seeing if that helps.
That said, please read above about the importance of using a high-hydration pizza dough in a home oven. If your dough, upon being mixed, is unable to form a sticky dough ball, you likely need to reduce the water. Reference the video for dough texture.
Why is my pizza dough soggy?
There are several culprits here:
- too much sauce, cheese, and/or toppings
- oven not hot enough
- too short of a baking time
Solutions:
- Invest in a Baking Steel. Read why above.
- Try laying the cheese on top of the dough; then the sauce. The cheese might provide some insulation from the sauce, thereby preventing the dough from getting soggy.
- Consider employing a parbake: bake your pizza “naked” for one minute; then continue baking for 4 to 5 minutes more once topped.
- Try using semolina on your peel.
- Before stretching your dough ball into a round, slick it lightly in a bit of olive oil.
- Use a lighter hand when topping.
Pizza Night
If you’re looking for more pizza-making guidance, check out my cookbook, Pizza Night, which includes 52 pizza and 52 salad recipes, one pair for every week of the year, as well as five simple desserts is now available for preorder 🍕🍕🍕
It’s organized seasonally and includes recipes for the home oven, outdoor oven, the grill, Sicilian-style, Detroit-style, grandma-style, skillet pizzas, gluten-free, and more. There are both yeast and sourdough recipes for every style of pizza in the book.
Simple, 4-Ingredient Homemade Pizza Dough
- Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 pizzas
Description
If you love pizza with ballooned and blistered edges and a crisp but pliable crust, this is the pizza dough recipe you’ll come back to again and again. And it’s easy to make—the pizza dough is no-knead, made with 4 simple ingredients, and doesn’t require special flour. Video guidance below.
Attention Pizza Fans: My new cookbook, Pizza Night, is here.
NOTES:
This recipe yields 4 rounds of dough. Recipe can be halved; dough can be refrigerated for up to five days. I refrigerate individual rounds of dough in quart containers or Kevjes dough storage containers.
Dough can be frozen, too. After the first rise and after you transfer the portioned rounds to quart containers, this is your opportunity to freeze. Transfer the quart containers to the freezer for as long as 3 months. To thaw, remove a container (or more) and let thaw in the refrigerator for 1 day or thaw at room temperature for 4 to 8 hours. Then, proceed with the recipe.
Yeast: If you need to use active dry yeast instead of instant, sprinkle it over the lukewarm water and let it stand for about 10 minutes or until it gets foamy before adding to the other ingredients.
Warm place to rise: Here’s a trick for making the perfect warm spot for the dough to rise. Turn the oven on and let it preheat for 1 minute; then shut it off. The temperature will be between 80° F and 100° F. you should be able to place your hand on the oven grates without burning them.
Flour: You can use bread flour and all-purpose flour here but if you live in a humid environment, I would consider using bread flour if you can get your hands on it. If you are in Canada or the UK, also consider using bread flour or consider holding back some of the water (see next paragraph). Reference the video for how the texture of the bread should look; then add water back as needed.
Water:
I find the sweet spot for me to be about 418 grams of water, which is roughly an 82% hydration dough. If this is too high, try using 400 grams of water or even 395 grams of water, which will lower the hydration to 77%.
As noted above, this is a variation of the peasant pizza dough recipe in my cookbook. If you are unfamiliar, the peasant bread dough is a very wet, no-knead dough. The key when handling it, is to use as much flour as necessary to keep it from sticking to the board and your hands. That said, you absolutely can start with less water to make the dough more manageable. If you live in a humid environment, if you live abroad, if you are using all-purpose flour or Tipo 00 flour, if you dislike handling wet doughs, consider starting with 400 to 425 grams of water. Add water as needed to get it to the right consistency (reference the video).
To make lukewarm water, use 1 part boiling liquid to 3 parts cold liquid. For 2 cups of lukewarm water, use 1/2 cup boiling, 1 1/2 cups cold water. You don’t have to be so precise, but using this rough ratio will give you perfectly lukewarm water.
Parchment: These rounds are so handy.
Toppings: In the notes below the recipe, find the toppings for a classic Margherita pizza and for a kale, parmesan, and crème fraîche pizza. See above for 6 other favorite pizza recipes.
Ingredients
- 4 cups (512 g) bread flour or all-purpose flour, plus more for assembly
- 2 to 3 teaspoons (12 g) kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) instant yeast
- 1.75 to 2 cups (400 to 454 g) lukewarm water, see notes above
Instructions
- To make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and instant yeast. Add the water. Using a rubber spatula, mix until the water is absorbed and the ingredients form a sticky dough ball. Pour a drop or two of oil over top and rub with your hands to coat.
- Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in bulk.
- If you are baking the pizzas right away (as opposed to refrigerating the dough for another day), place a Baking Steel or pizza stone in top third of oven and preheat oven to its hottest setting, 550°F. Be sure the Baking Steel heats for at least 45 minutes once the oven temperature reaches 550ºF.
- Cover a work surface or cutting board liberally with flour — use at least 1/4 cup and more as needed. The dough is very wet, so don’t hesitate to use flour as needed. Turn the dough out onto your floured surface and use a bench scraper to divide the dough into 4 equal portions. With floured hands, roll each portion into a ball, using the pinkie-edges of your hands to pinch the dough underneath each ball. If you are not baking the pizza the same day, transfer each round of dough to a plastic quart container (or something similar), cover, and store in the fridge. (At this point, transfer the vessels to the freezer for up to 3 months. See notes above for thawing.) If you are baking right away, let the balls sit on their tucked-in edges for at least 30 minutes without touching.
- To Make the Pizzas: If using refrigerated dough, pull out a pizza round from the fridge one hour (or even 90 minutes if time permits) before you plan on baking. Dust dough with flour and place on a floured work surface. Cover the dough with a towel or plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out. (Update: I now let my dough balls rest in a lidded vessel, like a DoughMate, or a pan covered with plastic wrap to ensure the dough balls do not dry out during the 60-90 minutes at room temperature.) Let rest untouched for 60 to 90 minutes.
- Handling the dough as minimally as possible, shape the dough into a 10″–12″ round. If the dough has proofed sufficiently, you should be able to pick it up and stretch it very easily using the back of your hands. Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a pizza peel, and pour a few drops of oil into the center of it. (Note: the oil is optional. It’s especially helpful if you find shaping dough using the backs of your hands tricky.) Transfer the dough round to the parchment-lined baking peel.
- Top pizza as desired or to make the Margherita pizza: spread 2 ounces of tomato sauce over your pizza dough. Top with 3 ounces of mozzarella. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with a pinch of flaky sea salt. Shimmy the pizza, parchment paper and all into the oven. To make the kale and crème fraîche pizza: Place the kale in a small bowl, drizzle lightly with olive oil, season with sea salt, and toss with your hands till the kale is coated in oil and salt. Spoon crème fraîche over the dough leaving a 1/2-inch border or so—I use 1 to 2 tablespoons per pizza. Sprinkle with the garlic and a handful of the grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Top with the kale. Shimmy the pizza, parchment paper and all into the oven.
- Bake pizza until top is blistered, about 5 minutes. Transfer to cutting board. Shower basil over the pizza Margherita. Cut and serve. Discard parchment paper.
Notes
Margherita Pizza:
- 2 ounces tomato sauce, such as this one
- 3 ounces fresh mozzarella (if using buffalo mozzarella, drain before using)
- olive oil
- flaky sea salt
- fresh basil
Kale & Creme Fraiche Pizza:
- extra-virgin olive oil
- a couple handfuls of baby kale
- 1 to 2 cloves garlic
- Sea salt, such as Maldon
- 2 tablespoons crème fraîche
- grated Parmigiano Reggiano, about 1/4 to 1/3 cup
- Prep Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Pizza
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: American, Italian
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
688 Comments on “Simple, 4-Ingredient Homemade Pizza Dough”
I made your pizza just now. It was my first hand tossed pizza ever. I let the dough have several days in the fridge. Outstanding. Thank you so much. All your recipes and background discussion are FIRST RATE.
Great to hear, Tim! Thanks so much for writing and sharing this 🙂
Hey, what if my oven doesn’t go that high? Is it possible to bake longer at a lower temp.?
It is! How high does it go? Just preheat it at its hottest setting for at least an hour ideally with a Baking Steel (or pizza stone) on one of the racks.
Thank you for your reply. It goes to 230 Celsius (440 f)
OK, yeah, it may take more like 8-10 minutes.
I make this recipe almost every week and it’s so simple and delicious! Forgot it in the fridge for 48 hours and it was even better
I think 48 hours is the sweet spot! Great to hear. Thanks for writing 🙂
I love your pizza dough recipes and use them exclusively. Thank you!
I was shopping in Birmingham, MI yesterday and found the Pizza Night cookbook on display in a shop that sells less than a dozen titles. Your book was next to Giselle’s – not bad placement!
Sadly, I was unable to buy it as I already have the Kindle and print versions.
Just thought you’d like to know!
P.S. I looked for a place to make entries on the cookbook pages, but there were not any – I am not a social media person, so can’t post there.
Congrats on the amazing book!
Thanks for letting me know, Marie! It’s so nice to hear this. I’ll take a spot next to Giselle any day 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thank you for your kind words 💕💕💕
Hello:
Do you have a recipe for gluten free pizza dough? Could just substitute CUP4CUP for the regular flour in this recipe, and change nothing else? Thanks!
I do! Thin and Crispy Gluten-Free Pizza Crust
I’d follow that recipe and get the specific flour… gf baking is tricky bc it’s not always just a matter of using a 1:1 swap of gluten-free flour (despite how the flours are marketed). All gf flours absorb water a little differently, which is what makes it tricky.
I weighed this out and had soup. It was so wet .
I only put 400 gr of water in it. I had to add 130g more flour to make it workable.
Hi! What kind of flour are you using? Where are you located? Humid environment? The States or abroad?
The best pizza crust I’ve ever made. Your recipes are always winners! I used Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose and dialed the water back to 425g (per your suggestion). My rise was a bit off track but the final crust was light, so many bubbles, and just the right chew without being tough. My new favorite. Started at 10am, split in two and put in fridge for 2, shaped and sat out for 2, and shaped to final pizza while trying to preserve as many of bubbles around the edge as possible. It was a warm summer day and the house was about 75 so no doubt the dough was poofier than it might be in the winter. Anyways, thank you for a professional tasting fancy pizza at home without an overnight rise. I put half in the freezer for next week.
So nice to read all of this Kat!! Thanks so much for writing and sharing all of these notes… so helpful for others (and me!).
I made a double batch of this thinking we might have hungrier tummies than the recipe allowed for. We didn’t need the extra so I followed the instructions for freezing 3 balls of dough and then followed the thawing guide tonight and all I can say is you knocked this whole recipe/guide out of the park! I had a little more time to let the dough relax after I rolled them out and I swear I could have rolled it paper thin if I had wanted – it was sooooo relaxed!!
Thanks again and I can’t wait for your book to arrive now! 🙂
So great to read this Natasha! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your experience. I hope you love Pizza Night!!
Hello there! Can I use a stand mixer to mix the dough instead of doing it with a spoon? How should I go about it? Thanks a lot!
Hi! You can, of course, but it’s not necessary because it’s such a high hydration dough — the dough will come together so easily with a spatula. With the stand mixer, just mix on low speed until the dough comes together and you don’t see any dry spots… shouldn’t take more than 2-3 minutes.
Thanks for these instructions. I have a question about Grandma Pizzas. In your book the recipe says to use one, 525 gram ball and a 12×16 sheet pan. I thought in your Pizza Univ class last night, you used 1 ball in a quarter sheet pan. With the quarter sheet pan there was no need to stretch the dough as it naturally rose and filled the pan. Did I mistake the size of the sheet pan that you used? Thanks for your help!
Hi Betsy! In my class on Thursday I used 525 grams dough for the 12×16 inch pan. I didn’t use any quarter sheet pans. Someone asked a question about using the 525 grams of dough in a quarter sheet pan, and I said that would make it more like the ratio of dough for the Sicilian pizza, which is 1050 grams of dough for the 12×16 inch pan. Hope that helps!
Hi Ali, Thank you for your great recipes and explanations, a lot of your recipes are favourites at our home. I made the dough with Tippo 00 flour and didn`t read the comments, so my dough got very wet. Next time I will change this, Some comments mentioned problems with baking the dough without a pizza stone or baking steel. I don`t have either one, but I preheat my baking tray on the lowest rack at 250°Celsius. I prepare the pizza on parchment paper on my second baking tray and transfer the pizza directly on the hot baking tray. Baking time is 8 to 10 minutes and then I change the tray for one minute to the highest rack. This works great for us.
Greetings Andrea
So nice to read all of this, Andrea — thank you for writing and sharing your process… so helpful for anyone who doesn’t have a stone or a steel.
And yes: 00 flour makes for an especially wet dough. I actually prefer using bread flour in my home oven for the strength it provides — I get better air bubbles and better browning, too. But 00 flour is a beautiful flour and makes a very tender crust. Hope you are able to troubleshoot the water amount to make it work 🙂
I recently bought an OONI indoor/outdoor oven and I am trying out different pizza doughs for it. Have you had tried the Ooni with any of your pizza doughs? The temp can get up higher than a home oven. Any tips or comments would be helpful! Thank you!
Hi! You’ll want to lower the hydration. I like a 70% hydration dough for my outdoor oven, so for this recipe thats roughly 360 grams water. I also like to cook in the 650-750F temperature range, and I cook for 2.5-3 minutes (as opposed to 60 seconds at 900F).
Thank you so much for responding! I will give it a try soon and report back.
I prepared the dough and just put it in the fridge where it’s staying overnight. I plan on making these for dinner tomorrow.
You mention taking it out 60-90 minutes before cooking – but I’ll get home and need to turn dinner around for hungry kids. Can I take them out of the fridge in the morning and leave them at room temp for 9 hours? Or should I just take them out for 20 minutes then prep? Not sure what the “sweet spot” is!
Hieeeee… so sorry just seeing this!! 9 hours will be too long… the dough will overproof and will not have any spring when it bakes. Unfortunately there’s no way to really rush the process though… 20 minutes would be my preference of the two suggested methods. What did you end up doing?
No worries!
My wife ended up working at home so she took it out 2h before bake. It was super fluffy!
My last question – semolina or flour to open it?
Thank you for this. Can’t wait to try the sourdough crust next.
Great to hear! I usually use flour to open, but I do sprinkle my parchment paper with semolina.
I’ve tried several pizza dough recipes and this one is my favorite! Was really busy and skipped the 1.5hr rise before refrigeration and it still turned out great- big bubbles and all. Bob’s Red Mill bread flour and Fleishman’s yeast.
Great to hear! Thanks for writing and sharing your notes 🙂
Thank you so much for such an amazing recipe. I do have one question around oven settings. I have an electric oven and it has a fan setting but also a pizza setting which looks to heat from the top. Is there a particular setting you would recommend or is this down to trial and error?
Hi! Probably it will take some trial and error, but I’d recommend using whatever gets your oven the hottest. Are you using a Baking steel or pizza stone? The pizza setting sounds promising if you are using a steel or stone. I always use convection roast, which I think is more similar to your fan setting, so that could work out well, too 🙂
Thank you so much for your response. I live in Argentina and finding a pizza stone or baking steel is very challenging. I’m planning to buy one when I go to the UK, for now I’m at the mercy of baking tins. Not ideal but all I have!
Amazing recipe! I was skeptical because I didn’t think such an easy recipe could give me restaurant-level results, but it was very very close. The parchment paper idea was a stroke of genius! Did make some adjustments though:
1) added some diastatic malt because I had it on hand
2) my dough seemed to be rising much slower than yours so I proofed it on the countertop 2h before refrigeration, and proofed the dough balls outside for 4h to get results like yours (wonder what could have caused this? I live in a warm humid environment & used bread flour)
Dough was wonderfully crispy and fluffy with excellent oven spring, really good recipe 🙂 Only thing was that there was nearly no browning on the bottom which was quite disappointing, would you recommend finishing it on the stove?
Interesting, I wonder if the diastatic malt slowed down the rise… I’ve never used it so I can’t comment on it. Is your yeast new? Did you use a scale to measure?
Regarding the bottom, are you using a Baking Steel or baking stone?
Thank you for all of your amazing recipes. What are the adjustments if use my BBQ to make the pizza?
Hi! I have a grilled pizza tutorial over here that might be helpful: https://pizzaeveryfriday.substack.com/p/grilled-pizza-a-tutorial?utm_source=publication-search
Are you using a gas or charcoal grill?
Great pizza dough. Couple questions. I am able to spread the dough out by pushing with my fingers, I put the dough on the parchment paper and do that, I cannot lift it up to stretch on my hands, too soft and sticks to paper, any suggestions? I also make 2 pizzas instead of 4, I don’t think I can stretch it that thin. However, wonderful recipe. I sprinkled the Maldon Salt on it, perfect
Hi Debbie! It’s possible you may need to reduce the amount of water… are you using a scale to measure? Do you live in a humid environment? What type of flour are you using?
I love your recipes. My wife & family are shocked I have leaned into baking so much but there’s nothing like fresh bread. I am going to make this pizza dough next. I will try it as is in my oven, but I was curious on your opinion about what kind of dough I should use for an Ooni pizza oven that cooks at 900 F. Based on your notes, I assume I will need something low hydration. I wasn’t sure if I can only adjust the ratio of water to flour in order to get a 60-65% dough, or if I will have to adjust the salt & yeast too. If you could let me know your thoughts it would be grealty appreciated!
Disregard, I just read through other comments and found my answer. I will report back!
Glad you found your answer! And just to recap my thoughts: a 68-70% hydration dough, cooked in the 670-750ºF range, for 2.5-3 minutes is my go-to method. Good luck!
Hands down the best pizza we’ve ever had. I was very skeptical about this recipe because of the two day waiting time in the fridge and it was pretty wet dough, I was scared at first. However, we followed the steps and made 6 pizzas tonight and the results were incredible, we bought pizza metal thing for the oven, so worth it. We bought a pizza paddle, so worth it. We made it two days in advance, put it in the fridge, so worth it. The 550 degree oven warmed up for an hour ahead of time, so worth it. Holy cow this was the best pizza we’ve ever had, no contest. This pizza has ruined every other pizza on Earth, no pizza will ever compare!
Awwww Marissa! This is music to my ears. Thanks so much for writing and taking the time to share all of this. All of the little details matter, and you paid attention to all of them 💕💕💕💕
Amazing! I made this pizza dough and grilled it on my gas grill. A chicken pizza with olives, pesto and bocconcini and another pizza with pesto, shredded mozzarella and roasted veggies. The dough was perfectly blistered and both pizzas tasted better than any restaurant. Another hit!! Thank you.
Great to hear, Laura! Thanks so much for writing and sharing this 🙂
What to do if you don’t have a pizza stone or pizza steel?
Do you have an old sheet pan you don’t care much about?
Hi there,
I just put 7 dough containers in the fridge, it won’t cooked until another 48 hours.
Unfortunately I just read the comments and your response here on lowering the hydration if to be cooked in the outdoor pizza oven. I have the Gozney. I followed your recipe and did 454g water. Will it be ok still? Also it’s going to be a humid day on the day I’m cooking.
Hi! I think you should bake it at a lower temperature: try to get the Gozney to stay between 550ºF-600ºF or so. At the higher temperature it will burn before it is cooked through.
Hello! I really want to use this recipe but as you described there’s a difference in hydration level. I just bought a pizza oven so it does cook at 900. Do you have a recipe for that, or would this recipe still be good to use?
You can use this recipe, but you’ll want to reduce the water considerably. Also, I’d recommend cooking in the 650-750F if you are just getting started with your oven… that temp range is way more forgiving and you’ll still get great results. You’ll want to use a 68-70% hydration dough at that temperature range, so for this recipe, I’d suggest using 350 grams of water. You’ll also want to cook the pizzas for 2.5-3 minutes.
Hi Ally –
I received your Pizza book from a friend for Christmas. I like the look of the pizza on the cover but cannot find the recipe in the book under pepperoni. Would you provide the page number for me?
Thanks!
Hi Sandra! Apologies for the delay here. I was out of town and didn’t have my copy of Pizza Night on me 🙂 The recipe is on page 226: Salami and Red Onion Pizza with Calabrian Chiles and Hot Honey.
I just made this and its amazing!
I made some last night without refrigerating and ones after refrigerating today, and both was great. Thank you for simple and step-by-step recipe it’s so easy to follow.
I hope you will have time to answer as I have one question, I was not able to move dough without parchment paper ( which it was fine with paper) do you think my dough was too watery and needed more flour? Or any other suggestions?
PS I made so many of your recipes and all turned out amazing!
Great to hear, Mina! And thank you for your kind words 🙂
First of all: it is a very high-hydration dough, so having difficulty moving it without parchment paper makes sense. And this is actually what you want for a home-oven pizza dough: because home ovens don’t get much higher than 550ºF, to get good results with this style of pizza, the dough needs to be high hydration. (Conversely, when using an outdoor pizza oven at 800ºF or higher, you need the dough to be much lower hydration… those doughs are way easier to handle.)
Second: are you using a scale to measure? And what type of flour are you using?
I just made this and its amazing!
I made some last night without refrigerating and ones after refrigerating today, and both was great. Thank you for simple and step-by-step recipe it’s so easy to follow.
I hope you will have time to answer as I have one question, I was not able to move dough without parchment paper ( which it was fine with paper) do you think my dough was too watery and needed more flour? Or any other suggestions?
PS I made so many of your recipes and all turned out amazing! Thank you
Hi Mina! I hope you saw my reply to your other comment 🙂
I have to tell you my pizza was perfect. I used bread flour and instant yeast with 2 cups of water and it came out perfect. Thank you so much.
Great to hear, Marlaine! Thanks so much for writing 🙂
What kind of camera lens and lighting do you use for your food photography? Your shots and lighting are so beautiful!
Oh, thank you! I use a Canon 5D Mark III. I share some tips here: https://alexandracooks.com/photography-2/
Hi!
About to make pizza and am wondering if I can make a larger one, with half the dough.
Any tips/thoughts? Size so I can make a parchment round?
Love peasant bread and focaccia recipes – rave reviews from family and friends!!
Hi! Great to hear, Kathy 🙂
Are you planning on baking it on a pizza stone or Baking Steel? You can use large sheets of parchment — Reynolds brands sells larger-size rolls that will cover an entire Baking Steel.
I’ll be using a pizza steel.
OK, great! Yeah, I might use a turned over sheet pan as the “peel” and lay a sheet of large parchment over the top (again, that Reynold brand comes in larger rolls); then assemble your pizza on the sheet pan, and use that to shimmy the pizza onto the Steel. Good luck!
Thanks, Ali!
Excited to try my first pizza in a very long time.
Fun! Good luck 🙂