Simple, 4-Ingredient Homemade Pizza Dough
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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. 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
Listen up: Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t make great pizza from start to finish in three hours. This is a simple 4-ingredient pizza dough recipe. The proportions are based on my mother’s peasant bread recipe, a high-hydration, no-knead, quick-to-stir together dough. It is the simplest of the simple homemade pizza recipes and, in my opinion, the tastiest, too.
Grab a bowl, a whisk, and a spatula — let’s get slinging 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
This post is organized as follows:
- Why High Hydration Pizza Dough is Best For a Home Oven
- Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe vs. Home-Oven Pizza Dough Recipe
- Pizza Dough Ingredients: Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast
- No-Knead Pizza Dough
- How to Handle High-Hydration Pizza Dough
- Two More Tips for Making the Best Pizza at Home
- Other Pizza-Making Equipment
- How to Make Pizza Dough, Step by Step
- Timing
- How to Freeze Pizza Dough
- 4 More Pizza Styles to Try
- FAQs + Troubleshooting
- My pizza cookbook: Pizza Night
Why High-Hydration Pizza Dough is Best For a Home Oven
The first step to making excellent pizza at home is to get comfortable working with high-hydration pizza doughs. High-hydration doughs, such as Jim Lahey’s popular no-knead dough, this simple sourdough pizza crust, or the one from my cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs (which is the recipe below), 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? Let’s back up.
Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe vs. Home-Oven Pizza Dough Recipe
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 actually on the lower end of the hydration spectrum. If you compare those recipes to the one you find below, you’ll notice that those Neapolitan-style pizza crust recipes call for significantly less water relative to the amount of flour 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 is able to 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.
(Incidentally, a high hydration dough is also the key to making excellent focaccia, like this simple sourdough focaccia or this overnight, refrigerator focaccia.)
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 how to make this simple dough.
The recipe below calls for flour, salt, water, and yeast, all of which we will discuss in more detail below. What you will not find in this recipe is olive oil, sugar or honey, or diastatic malt. Why? For one, simplicity. But more importantly, for this style of pizza, these ingredients do not help. Here’s why:
Olive Oil: Olive oil is added to dough recipes that call for long bakes because olive oil helps keep dough tender by “shortening” the gluten network. But for a short bake, such as the 5- to 6-minute bake called for here, olive oil mostly helps transfer heat from the cooking surface to the dough, which can result in too much browning.
Sweetener: Simply stated, a sweetener is not needed — the yeast, contrary to popular belief, does not need sugar to activate or thrive. Sweeteners, moreover, can cause the dough to ferment too quickly and they can also cause the dough to burn when baked at hot temperatures.
Diastatic Malt: Diastatic malt, an enzyme that converts the starches in flour to sugar, is added to pizza dough to promote good browning in the crust. Truthfully, I’ve never used it because I don’t like running around for odd ingredients that I don’t believe to be necessary. Ideally, with this recipe, the dough will spend some time in the fridge (see below: How to Make the Best Pizza Dough at Home: Two Tips), during which time 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.
No-Knead Pizza Dough
To make this dough, you’ll whisk together flour, salt, and instant yeast. Then you’ll add water and stir with a spatula until the water is absorbed and you have a wet, sticky dough ball. That’s it. That is the beauty of a no-knead dough. Let’s take a look at the ingredients in more depth:
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.
There was a period during which I used tipo 00 flour exclusively, but today I find I get just as good results when I use bread flour or all-purpose flour, King Arthur Flour being my favorite brand.
What is the difference between the two? 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.
I must confess I am constantly changing my opinion about what type of flour makes the best pizza and this, I’ve learned, is because the flour itself is constantly changing from season to season and from year to year.
Moreover, every brand of flour absorbs water differently. For instance, King Arthur Flour’s 00 flour will absorb water differently than Giusto’s 00 Flour and Caputo’s 00 flour. Each of these varieties of 00 flour will taste differently, too. Same goes for different brands of all-purpose and bread flours.
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.
Working with High Hydration Dough
OK, let’s review: to make great pizza at home, a high-hydration dough made with four good ingredients is best. Now let’s talk about how to deal with this super wet dough.
#1 Tip: Handle it gently.
“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:
Two More Tips 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 are two more tips:
1. Invest in a Baking Steel
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.
2. If Time Permits, Refrigerate The Dough
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.
Other Pizza Making Equipment
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.
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.
Get your toppings ready. For a classic Margherita pizza, youll 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.
Timing
As noted above, you can mix and use this dough today — it does not require a long, slow rise. If you want to make it ahead of time, however, and stick it in the fridge until pizza night, that works, too:
- 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.
The refrigerator is your friend: The two quart containers on the left are holding freshly portioned dough; the two quart containers on the right are holding dough after 2 days in the refrigerator. Look at those bubbles!:
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.
PS: Easy, Homemade Pita Bread Recipe
Four More Pizza Styles to Try
Find ALL the pizza recipes here. Below are links to four different styles of pizza to try.
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
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.
Get your copy here: Pizza Night.
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 available for preorder.
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.
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 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.
605 Comments on “Simple, 4-Ingredient Homemade Pizza Dough”
Alexandra, This pizza dough recipe, like ALL of your no-knead dough recipes, was phenomenal! I made one pizza right away, another one the next day, and froze two containers of dough for a future time! In that super hot conventional oven, and a pizza stone – you get pizza as good as a brick oven pizza – well at least almost! I made a traditional pepperoni, but can’t wait to try your delectable ideas here, as soon as I can restock my refrigerator!
So great to hear this, Nancy! And can I tell you: I don’t think anything is better than a traditional pepperoni … I make it for the kids, but my husband and I love it all the more. There’s a reason that combination exists. So glad this worked out. And yay for freezing pizza dough!
I have tried many pizza dough recipes in search for the perfect one…this is it!! This is a fantastic dough, I have never gotten so many compliments on my pizza! Thank you so much for sharing
Wonderful to hear this, Zoe!! 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕 Thanks for writing,
made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious! i don’t have a baking steel so had to use a pizza sheet at 450 – didn’t get the blistered crust but so good still!
all your bread recipes are fantastic!!
Wonderful to hear this Christine! Thanks so much, too 😍😍😍
This recipe and Alexandra’s tips and comments are spot on. So easy, and consistently delicious. I’ve been making pizza at home a long time and this recipe rocked my world.
So happy to hear this, Joslyn! 🍕🍕🍕🍕
Looks amazing!
I cook at max temp (about 480°F) 10-12 minutes on the top shelf of the oven with a pre-heated pizza stone but i cant seem to get the top to brown (the crust is always pale)
Should i be using the grill option at the end to get the charred effect and the nice crust colouring ? Do you have any tips? 🙂
It’s worth a shot, Cristina! Truly, there is only so much you can do, especially when you are limited to the power of your oven. I think your grilling option is a great idea. Sometimes people add a teensy bit of sugar or honey to the dough purely because it can help with the browning. For this recipe, I would use no more than a teaspoon or two … and keep an eye on the dough if you do, because it may rise faster.
Does your oven go higher than 480F?
AMAZING!! I’ve been looking for years and years for the perfect dough recipe. And THIS.IS.IT! Best crust ever! And every time it gets better (practice… wet dough, you have to get to know it and get comfortable with it)
And kale on pizza; a winner!
Love!
Wonderful to hear this, Eveline! And you are absolutely right: working with a wet dough takes practice, but it makes all the difference. And yay for KALE 🎉🎉🎉🎉
I weighed my ingredients according to the recipe but my dough was really wet. It did not form a ball and hold together at all it was more of a blob that didn’t hold together. I am at 6,000 feet above sea level so I added about 1/4 cup of flour but it sill didn’t come together as a ball. Am I supposed to knead it or something?
Hi Staci! Sorry to hear this. You do not need to knead it. If you are willing to give the recipe another go, I would reduce the water. Start with 420 grams or so; then add it slowly if the mixture seems dry. The dough definitely is wet, but it shouldn’t be a blob.
What kind of flour are you using?
I’m struggling with the dough when going by weight. 512 grams of flour and 456 grams of water means an 89% hydration dough? Like another user, my dough was far too wet using these weights. I added flour until it became a sticky dough.
Hi Anna! If you find the dough to be too wet, you absolutely can cut back the water a bit. Also know that you should use as much flour as necessary during the shaping process to make the dough easier to handle.
Did you end up baking the pizza? If so how did it turn out?
I am partial to very high hydration doughs for pizza … it’s what makes those beautiful air pockets throughout the dough.
This is such an awesome recipe for the dough , I used 00 flour and baking steel it made all the difference
Wonderful to hear this, Manju! I love 00 flour … such amazing texture.
Thank you for the recipes. What is the best way to bake your pie in the oven if you do not have a stone but just a pizza pan?
Hi Christine! I would follow the instructions on this post: How to Make Skillet Pizza — use the method as a guide and adjust it to work with the size pan you are using.
This has consistently been my go to pizza dough recipe. It is easy and yields an amazing flavourful dough. It tends to be on the wetter side but as the helpful tips mentioned, flouring enough to prevent sticking helps a lot. Plus “don’t be scared to work with high hydration doughs”.
My oven goes up to a max of 240˚C only. So I adjust the recipe a bit, for a longer cooking time, by adding 10-15g of olive oil and 1tsp sugar to get a browner crust because a charred effect is out of question.
Turns up amazing like a lot of your recipes. Thank you for this recipe.
Wonderful to hear all of this! And great tips regarding olive oil + sugar to promote browning … so smart. Thank you!
I made these on my Big Green Egg (platesetter legs up, pizza stone on top of that, ran about 600 degrees). This dough is the one I have been looking for! After many that weren’t what I was looking for, this one is!
Wonderful to hear this, Jackie! I am dying for a big green egg … I hear they are amazing!
This dough is great however, the conversion of flour from cups to grams is wrong. I tried 512g and this was way too wet not just a tiny bit too wet which I know is common depending on flour brand. I looked up a conversion online and 4 cups should be 880g just in case this wasn’t right I then gradually added more flour until it was the dough looked right I did end up adding around 300-350g more flour until the dough looked and felt right. The pizzas turned out great but the conversion in your recipe needs amending
Hi Natasha! Thanks so much for writing. Sorry the dough gave you some trouble. It is definitely a wet, sticky dough. The standard I use is 1 cup all-purpose flour = 128 g.
HI! I want to make this recipe but was wondering if it would be okay to use half bread/half AP flour? Or should I just stick with either all bread or AP? I can’t find any 00 so have to sub something. Thanks!
Hi Chelsea! Yes, absolutely: you can use a mix of those flours or either one or the other.
If you make the dough with bread flour, the dough will be a little stiffer; if you use ap flour, it will be a little wetter — bread flour absorbs more water. If you are worried at all about handling a wet dough, I would recommend the bread flour.
Hi, Alexandra! My friends recommended your recipe as one of their favorites, and I am excited to try it out! I planning to make a bunch of pizzas to freeze as a tasty way to have quick food on lazy evenings and to preserve my awesome tomato harvest. In the past, I have par-baked crusts and then put on toppings and stuck the whole thing in the freezer- is that also what you would recommend with this recipe, or would you assemble the whole thing raw before freezing, or maybe some other solution? Also, I’m wondering what you think about using a flat cast iron griddle in place of a baking steel- I’d love to make due with what I have rather than go buy more stuff! Thanks so much for your help!
Hi Diana!
In the past, I have assembled the whole pizza and frozen it that way, but my suggestion would be to try both! I know people who generally like to par bake their dough, then top, then bake. I have to confess: I have never par baked a crust. I always stretch the dough, top, and bake.
So, I don’t feel strongly recommending one way or the other in regard to freezing. Just experiment, and note which is par baked and which is not (though it likely will be obvious visually), and see which you like better … then report back 🙂 I’d love to hear which method you prefer.
And re cast iron griddle — absolutely! I think the key with any baking surface for pizza is to get it screaming hot. So, if you can let it preheat for at least 45 minutes at your oven’s hottest setting, it should work beautifully.
Ali, I took your advice and ordered a Pizza Steel-that, along with your fabulous dough are game changers ! I tried this recipe with substitutions and it has become everyone’s favorite. I used the creme fraiche, Parmesan, thinly sliced pear and red onion -so good! Thanks for the inspiration!
Oh yay! Diane, it is so wonderful to hear all of this. I don’t know what I would do without my Baking Steel at this point. So glad you approve 🍕🍕🍕🍕
Sorry, I forgot to rate the recipe in my previous comment.
Thank you Diane 💕💕💕💕
I have made this pizza dough SO many times and it just didn’t feel right to continue without a raving review. My sister recommended this to me several months ago and there has been no looking back. I love how easy this process is, and how you don’t have to wait long for the dough to rise. So far I have only used sea salt and it turns out great each time. I preheat my pizza stone in 500-550 degree oven while I prep toppings (I don’t have a peel), and then I roll the dough out on parchment paper, sometimes dusting it with flour before rolling out (and using a generous amount of flour to roll out so that it doesn’t stick too much to the rolling pin). I carefully slide the pizza/parchment paper onto the hot pizza stone then place in the oven. It typically takes about 8 minutes to bake, and then I let it sit on the stone to crisp up a little more once removed from oven. Seriously, MAKE THIS. Sooooo good. Thank you!
Oh yay! Adrienne, it’s so nice to hear all of this. Thanks so much for taking the time to write and to share your method with others…. so helpful and encouraging 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
This is the best pizza dough! Will not need to use another pizza recipe anymore!!!! I used all purpose flour, halved the recipe, used oiled hands and bench scraper when diving the dough into dough balls, put in oiled ziplock bags in the fridge for 3 days, used baking steel, and baked a little longer. The result is amazing big pores in the dough, chewy exterior but airy but soft inside! Thank you so much, Alexandra!
Wonderful to hear this, Constance! Thanks so much for writing.
This dough was absolutely phenomenal. Just like the light, chewy dough at my favorite gourmet pizza spot. Thank you!
Yay! So happy to hear this 🙂 🙂 🙂
I love all of your recipes, Alexandra and this recipe was no exception! This is hands down the BEST pizza dough I’ve ever made. I’ve made a ton of pizza dough over the years – usually a sourdough if I have time to feed my starter but my family and I agree that this is better than the sourdough dough + miles better than any yeasted pizza dough I’ve tried. 10000/10!!!
Oh yay! Kendall! It is so wonderful to hear all of this 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thanks so much for writing 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
I’ve tried a few different pizza dough recipes and this one is the best I’ve had so far. The crust was light and crispy. I’ll definitely be using this one again.
Wonderful to hear this, Nick! Thanks so much for writing.
Hi, I’m trying your recipe right now. I want to make calzones instead of pizza today. I’ll use 1 ball and divide the dough in 2. What do you think? Will the dough hold up as calzones?
Thanks
Hi Marlene! Sorry for the delay here … how did it go? I worry the dough might be a little too wet for calzones. I might try cutting the water back a bit to make the dough more manageable if you want to use the dough for calzones.
Hello again….I made the calzones with this dough and my conclusion is this is a Pizza Dough.
They turned out great, but too tough. My husband said the dough tastes like a pretzel. I pressed out the dough with my finger and finished it with a rolling pin, as didn’t want air bubbles. I followed the recipe from the photos and realized after the dough was resting for 1 1/2 hours that I missed coating the dough with olive oil, so added the oil and let it rest a lille more. I’ll be making calzones with my other recipe from now on. Just can’t wait to make a pizza. Thanks for a great recipe.
Thanks for the update Marlene! If you are looking for more recipes to compare, I have had success making calzones using this recipe.
Thank you for the fabulous recipe. Can i make with the fresh yeast and how much ? Thank you
Hi Chanikan! Yes, the general rule is to multiply by 3. So this recipe calls for 1 teaspoon instant yeast, which is about 4 grams. So use 12 g of fresh yeast.
My new to go to pizza dough recipe! We all loved it. I didn’t have any parchment paper and just made them on reg pizza pans . Came out greater! The only problem I had was getting the dough to stay in place after I put the olive oil on the pans . Kept shrinking in which I used crisp in the past instead and that does help. Any suggestions? Baking at the 500 degrees is the ticket!
Wonderful to hear this, Mary! Regarding the shrinking, I find if I stretch it out, and it starts resisting, if I wait five minutes, the dough will relax, and I am able to stretch it out again. Also, a little oil goes a long way — sometimes 1/2 a teaspoon is enough, so you could try using less oil. Let me know if that helps!
Hey this pizza dough recipe is a game changer! Another great recipe! I am having a problem with my pizza undercarriage not browning enough. I took the dough out of the fridge, made a rough circle on top of the parchment, then let it rise for 60 minutes, stretched it a little further, and then topped with a modest amount of sauce and cheese for a new york style pizza. My oven was preheated at 550 for 1 hour. My stone is thick and in the middle rack. I am considering trying the stone on the bottom rack (my heating element and broiler are on the bottom) to crisp the bottom more and get a more golden brown color. I also added some sugar and oil into my dough and let it stay in the fridge for about 5 days. Is this long duration a problem? As well, I used bleached pillsbury bread flour. Might the bleached flour be the culprit? Thanks so much!
hi! I think the bleached flour definitely is the culprit!
5 days is quite long, but I have definitely used dough over 5-days old, so I don’t think that is the issue.
Do play around with the spot in your oven that works best. Lowering to the bottom might work well. If you are really interested in upping your pizza game, you may want to invest in a Baking Steel. But do try unbleached flour first as well as a different spot in your oven.
Wow I can’t believe I never knew this about the bleached flour. I never knew it had a problem with browning. What other kind of problems can bleached flour cause? Are there any “Pros and Cons?” For example something that the bleached flour excels with, vs problems that it can present when using it? I have a few more bags of this left that I want to use up, but I am going to switch to unbleached! Lol.. thank you so much for the expert advice!
Hi! Yes, bleached flour definitely will not brown as well unfortunately. It also may have a slightly off/chemical flavor. I honestly never use bleached flour, so I can’t say with complete confidence, but I think it’s great for things like cakes and other light-textured pastries. I would google: “best recipes to use with bleached flour” and see what turns up. Good luck using it up!
Alexandra,
Can you tell me where you purchased your dough board, it’s dimensions and type of wood?
I’ve been searching for one but most seem rather small for making different types of pasta.
Thank you
Hi Beverly! The board is a hand-me down from my aunt, who probably got it from an antique store in VT. It’s 23-inches by 16 inches. Wish I had a source for you!
I made this pizza dough today and made two good size pizzas. I have been searching for years for the perfect crust and this one is a keeper! The crust was very good. Slightly chewy and flavorful. I may add a bit if sugar next time to get the crust to beautifully brown. My family loved it!
Wonderful to hear this, Cindy! Thanks so much for writing. Let me know if sugar helps with the browning. A recipe I used years ago called for honey … that might work, too 🙂
Hey Ali!
Do you think I could sub one cup of the flour for semolina without any peril?
I love that this dough is a higher hydration than the one I usually use but I do love the texture that semolina gives to the crust.
Definitely worth a shot, Prudence! I love semolina flour as well 🙂
I’m not sure what I did wrong, but this dough did not turn out well at all for me. It was rising nicely in the fridge (about 24 hours) and I did bring it to room temp before stretching, but it was so sticky that it did not stretch well and ended up with holes in it. I could not even use it, so can’t comment on the flavor. Total fail for me.
Debra, so sorry to hear this! Let’s figure out what happened. Questions:
1. Are you using a scale to measure?
2. What type of flour are you using?
3. Did you let the dough rise at room temperature first; then transfer to the fridge?
4. Did the texture of the dough look at all like the texture of the dough in the video?
Alexandra, I did not use a scale, just went with the cup measurements in the recipe. I used AP flour, unbleached Bob’s Red Mill. Yes, I did the room temperature rise (about 2 hr) before putting it in the fridge for 24 (it was probably a couple hours longer in the fridge). The dough looked good, but was just too sticky for me to work with. It seems after doing further research that maybe the amount of water was too high. I am seeing more like 60-65% hydration, but the ratio in this recipe was over 80% if my math is correct.
This is definitely a wet, sticky dough.
If you are willing to give it another go, I do think measuring with a scale — everything: the flour, water, salt, and yeast — makes a difference. I also think you could hold back 50 grams of the water or so to make the dough more manageable to work with.
Bob’s Red Mill is definitely a high-quality product. I always use King Arthur Flour, and I mention this only because the more I troubleshoot with people, the more I realize that flour from different brands yield different results.
One final question: did you divide it into 4 portions and ball up each portion before transferring it to the fridge?
I actually cut the recipe in half, made 2 balls and put one in the fridge and the other in the freezer. I’m thinking when I pull the frozen one out I will flour the outside generously and see if I can work with it. Thanks for the input!
Great! Yes, be generous with the flour. Would love to know how it turns out.
At what temperature do you preheat the oven for 1 minute to create a warm spot for the dough to rise?
Hi! I don’t set a temperature … if you have to, just set it to 350ºF. But remember: you’re just turning your oven on; then turning it off a minute later. You don’t want it to heat for a minute at 350ºF — that would be way too hot. After the minute of preheating, your oven likely will be around 100ºF or less… you’ll be able to put your hands on the grates without them burning.