5 p.m. yesterday found me in the kitchen, chopping carrots into snack-sized sticks and trimming the ends off uncooked green beans so that we could have a snack. And then I laughed because what could be more of a New Years cliché but raw crudités and the promise of a healthier tomorrow. Yawn. Or, at least yawn to the traditional notions of health food; I actually made us pizza and an enormous salad for dinner.
But first, a small detour. Alex and I went to brunch at a friend’s apartment in the Upper East Side yesterday, stopping at Eli’s on the way home for dinner provisions. I used to love this store but yesterday it just left a funny taste in my mouth as I think I’m less their ideal customer than I once was. Day-old chocolate cake? Premade pizza dough? But it’s so so easy to make. Maybe recipes make it too intimidating?
To wit: Three-quarters of a teaspoon of yeast, one teaspoon of salt, one and a half cups of flour, half a cup of lukewarm water and a tablespoon of olive oil. Stir. Knead. Let sit for one to two hours, until it has doubled. Deflate. Wait twenty minutes. Roll. Add toppings and seasonings. Bake at your oven’s top temperature for about 10 minutes. Eat the best pizza for two, ever, brimming with self-satisfaction.
Except now I have a huge hankering for Zabar’s Health Salad — also called Eating My Words as it is the one prepared food I am physically incapable of resisting the purchase of whenever I’m in either neighborhood, and they had none available yesterday. Have I tried my hand at it in my own kitchen with great success? Does the salad cost about $4 for forty-two cents worth of ingredients? Why can’t I see the big picture and stop buying it when I can make it myself? Er, ah… Well, it tastes better after it sits for a couple days, and I’m not that patient. You see? We all have our reasons, and I promise, I’m not judging yours. But, do hope you try my pizza dough, at least once, and see if it makes a convert out of you. And I’ll do my best to come up with a fail-proof formula for that crunchy salad. [Update: I did!]
Really Simple Pizza Dough
- 1 1/2 cups (200 grams) flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon instant or active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) lukewarm water, plus 1 or 2 tablespoons more as needed
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
- Pizza sauce and toppings as you like them
If you are finding this step difficult, one of the best tricks I picked up from my bread-making class is to simply pause. Leave the dough in a lightly-floured spot, put the empty bowl upside-down on top of it and come back in 2 to 5 minutes, at which point you will find the dough a lot more lovable.
Knead it for just a minute or two. Lightly oil the bowl (a spritz of cooking spray perfectly does the trick) where you had mixed it — one-bowl recipe! — dump the dough in, turn it over so all sides are coated, cover it in plastic wrap and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two, until it has doubled in size.
Dump it back on the floured counter (yup, I leave mine messy), and gently press the air out of the dough with the palm of your hands. Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.
Sprinkle a pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat your oven to its top temperature. Roll out the pizza, toss on whatever topping and seasonings you like. (I always err on the side of skimpy with toppings so as to not weigh down the dough too much, or if I have multiple toppings, to keep them very thinly sliced.)
Bake it for about 10 minutes until it’s lightly blistered and impossible to resist.
the “h” could eat pizza every night of the week. your dough recipe will be put to usee tomorrow i am sure. as i am sick right now, a pizza sounds pretty good about now… i always crave bad bad things when i am not feeling well. thanks for another great idea!
Ok, I can accept that the dough is yummy, but how do you do the rising for 2 hours when you are at work all day? My hubby is generally starving by the time he gets home and is not willing/able to wait for 2+ hours for dough to rise.
I am absolutely open to suggestions.
Tammy – Now, it doesn’t have to be a bad thing.:) Then again, I’m not a cheese-aholic nor one who loves my pizza doused in olive oil, so keeping it light isn’t hard. You can even bulk up the veggies so each slice is abundantly more filling, though less pizza-y. Good luck!
Nicole – Excellent point; I almost always make this on the weekends, or we inevitably eat a late dinner. Now, I haven’t done this yet, but one thing that will take the pressure off the evening is just stir it up in the morning, and then let it rise in the fridge. It slows down the process so much, 8 to 10 hours might be just what it needs to double. That would just leave you with the 20 minute rise, during which time you could heat the oven, chop your toppings, etc. The flavor should actually be better because a long rise makes always makes for richer flavor. I promise to very soon give this method a try and get the times down for you guys (though if you try it, let me know).
I have tried the slow rise and it works! We love the flavor and it’s easy if you do need to go to work. I left mine in the fridge and then pulled it out in the afternoon about 8 hours later. I let it get a little warmer before I punched it down and let it sit for 20 minutes. Success!
A suggestion to make time more accomodating to your schedule:
Make the dough in the morning before work or even the night before and shape into a ball as described above. Dust dough thoroughly with flour and place inside a 1 gallon plastic bag. Press the air out of the bag. Don’t worry this step too much–removing most of the air is fine. Store dough in the fridge (where bulk rise will take place) until you return home in the evening. Heat oven. Remove dough from plastic bag. Press and stretch dough gently with your fingers into a round without stretching dough too hard. If it’s resistant, let it rest for 20 mins covered with a towel, then stretch again. Place dough on a flour-dusted surface and complete 2nd rise while you organize the toppings. Process should take about 1 hour in a warm kitchen. Press or roll dough into a 11- or 12-inch round with the method you prefer. Add toppings and bake.
Good luck!
Oh, I am laughing after reading that post. So funny and so true. When it comes to pizza dough, my SO and I have a not-quite-DIY trick: we go to our favorite pizzeria and ask for raw dough. We live in New Haven, CT, a town known for really, really good thin crust pizza…and the pizzeria dough is always fantastic. What I do miss, though, is the change to kneed ingredients into the dough. Mmmm, garlic and basil crust.
To tammy: I crave bad things when I am sick too! No soup for me – I want mac’n’cheese and hash browns! (weirdly enough)
You are making me want a pizza stone. I am still resisting baking or anything similar that involves dough. Please… stop >:T
Happy new year, and thanks for always sharing your wonderful food & recipes with the rest of us. Best to you.
Yvo – I actually wrecked my pizza stone with the caramel overflow from the pecan bars, so I’m between them right now. But really, a thin metal pizza tray we have worked just fine. So, more or less, you’ll need another excuse. :)
No need to convert me! That is the same pizza recipe I use. But beyond the pizza dough, you have succeeded in explaining so perfectly why we should all be making pizza dough at home. Damn your good!
And don’t worry about the salad … we all have our little treats.
Happy 2007!
The dough does work. I’ve successfully made it (after a failed first attempt). I cut back on the salt, but that is personal taste. I loaded mine up with caramelized onions, goat cheese, tomatoes and spinach (before ecoli). Turned out really yummy. Thanks Deb!
Cabots low-fat Vermont Chedder Cheese!! Best on home made pizza’s (or in my case, English Muffin Pizza’s!)
You’re right – home made pizzas are ridiculously easy, and I’ve found that by keeping a few par-baked bases in my freezers, it makes for a delish and very easy meal when I need something in a hurry!
Deb, I don’t do much cooking but this seems simple enough so I may try it. One question though: why can’t you substitute the white flour entirely with whole wheat flour?
Yay! Lots of converts!
Mara – Whole wheat flour has lower gluten contents than all-purpose flour, so when used 100 percent, the bread tends not to be soft or chewy. I can imagine that with the high heats and thin crust of this recipe, you’d end up with something like a cracker if you went all-whole wheat, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment. Try it 50/50 and see if you can work your way up to 2/3-1/3. There are also gluten additives/bread enrichers available at many stores, something you would add a teaspoon or tablespoon of to a dough for each cup of flour and might compensate for some of the lost gluten in whole wheat flour, allowing you to use a higher percentage of it.
Last month I was on a pizza making kick and couldn’t find a recipe I liked. Maybe yours will be the one!
I make pizza crust and double the recipe and split it in half and freeze one crust worth. A quick thaw/rise, and you’re ready to go on a weeknight.
I love to add rosemary to my dough, too, and sometimes a handful of fresh grated parm.
I’m replying in this comment, which is probably rude, but thanks for all the cocoa nibs suggestions. I have plenty of homework now! Also, got a Le Creuset lidded oval thing for Christmas that’s the perfect bread baker for that Bitman/whomever recipe. Will try asap.
A dear friend of mine is a professional pastry chef but she still buys pre-made pizza dough at the local italian deli. So crazy!
The dough recipe I use is basically the double-sized version of of yours (we like a thicker crust at my house), although it generally doesn’t need such a long rise. I give it about 20 to 30 minutes for the first rise, then punch it down and roll it to fit in the pizza pan. And it does a brief second rise while I’m assembling the toppings….maybe 5 or 10 minutes. The whole thing takes a little more than an hour to get on the table, which is just about twice the time it takes to have a pie delivered, but so much tastier that it’s worth the wait.
Deb, I love your pictures! They’re just brilliant. Rising dough in the fridge works fine, I’ve done this often for Sunday morning bread rolls (though never for pizza…)
For whole wheat flour, my experience is that adding some buttermilk helps to keep it soft. As I just mix until it “feels good”, I’m no help at how much is needed… but whole wheat flour usually soaks up more than white one.
Where did you get your little spice containers???
My boyfriend got me a pizza stone for Christmas, and we tried it out last night with a yummy focaccia that stuck to the stone! After I’ve got the stone ready again, I’ll give this pizza a try. You mentioned that a pizza tray works too, but do you prefer the taste of a pizza on the stone? This whole stone thing is new for me…
I came close to making pizza dough the other day, but we bought the dough from Trader joe’s and made calzones. I’ve been apprehensive about doing pizza because I don’t know how to get it from the counter to the hot pizza stone in the oven. Any tricks to suggest, or do I need to just suck it up and get a pizza peel?
Sarah – You know, they actually suggest that you never wash your pizza stone — soap is supposed to get into the pores and not easily come out. They say you can sand it to get baked-on junk off. Or, just use water and make sure it dries out completely between uses (some people will go as far as to dry it out in the oven at a low temperature for an hour or so). The pizza stone bakes more evenly than a tray, as it conducts better and it supposed to make for a more consistent and better-quality crust. It’s also great to bake any bread on, for the same reasons. I do prefer it, but have been making do without it until I get around to buying a new one.
Ann – A peel isn’t really necessary, unless you want to get super-duper into bread-making and want to be all professional. In my bread class, not having enough bread peels to go around, we’d put a piece of parchment paper on the back of a sheet pan, add cornmeal (though less necessary since nothing will stick to parchment paper), put the formed dough on top, and shimmy it onto the oven floor (or in this case, the stone), parchment paper and all. No worries about baking it on top of the parchment paper, it baked like it wasn’t there. Also makes for a cleaner pizza stone, non? (Note to self: start doing it this way.) You can take it out the same exact way.
I’m mostly right there with you on all the pre-made, pre-packaged stuff. I haven’t bought a bottled salad dressing in years, for instance. There was an article in the New Yorker [last fall?] about the dumbing down of the Food Network and how instead of telling you how to MAKE things, the current batch of chefs shows you how to SHOP for pre-made ingredients and combine them into something. Grrrrr!
The pizza looks amazing, by the way.
Looks easy and sounds completely delicious, but what about the sauce? That would be the thing that would keep me from making homemade pizza. And what kind of cheese is best for straight-up traditional flavor: pure mozzarella? Or Should we mix like Mr. Gatti’s does??
I am very interested in making homemade pizza!!
Grayson, I’m sure I’m going to get kicked off this page (and I’m sure you’ve already figured out the sauce thing from 17 years ago, LOL) but I’m writing this for the people who are reading this for the first time and thinking, yeah! What about the sauce? We’ve been making pizza at my house for years, and we’ve finally settled on the big jars of pizza sauce at Walmart! (I know, I know.) It’s their house brand stuff, and it’s the size of a regular spaghetti sauce jar for just under $2! We tried a name-brand sauce that cost about 4x as much per ounce, and we actually liked the house brand better! (What a win!) If you heat the oven to 500 with the pizza stone (or upside-down cast iron griddle) in it for at least 30 minutes, you can load that puppy up and still have the crust plenty done when the toppings are done.
I type this as I finish off my second slice of pizza. Crust was excellent though I might bake it for 5 minutes on the stone before adding toppings just to achieve my desired crispiness. I loved making it myself though – I don’t think I have made homemade pizza since I was a kid!
I’ll do no knead bread in the next couple of days…
Allow me to change the subject ever so slightly.
Apparently, Deb is too modest to let you know she has been nominated (by myself, amongst others) to win in the humor category at the Well-fed network “Best food blog” awards (yes, Deb, you ARE funny). Here is the links for you to vote:
http://wellfed.net/2007/01/03/top-5-best-food-blog-humor/
While you are at it, check out the other categories because there are a lot of big favorites (Orangette, Cream puffs in Venice, to name a few), but you can also find some new favorites, Lucullian delights is a new favorite of mine, for instance.
Good luck, Deb!!!
I have pizza on the menu for Friday night and was looking for a new crust recipe!
Congrats, btw, on the nomination. I just headed over there to place my votes!
Deb- that stone issue. I hope you didn’t toss it. It can be saved! Put it in the sink and cover with hot water — no soap — and let it soak over night. In the morning you should be able to scrub the affending material from the surface. Then put it in you oven on the bottom rack and let it dry out there for a couple of days. Whenever you use the oven, it’ll dry out. (That’s where I store my favorite stone most of the time! You may need to reseason the top – by baking something oily — like canned cresent rolls or the like, but it should be rehabbed!
As someone who’s generally skeered of making anything with yeast, I think you’ve convinced me to try. Your pizza looks delicious! But I have to say I’m skeptical of anything called “health salad” — think I’ll take your word for it on that one.
Deb, we just made pizza last night too! I’ve been experimenting with different recipes for crust. Yours looks like the one from Marcella Hazan, which we’ve enjoyed. Currently I’m playing with one of Mollie Katzen’s recipes, which has no oil in the dough but oil on the pan. Somehow this dough is too wet after the first rise, but it has a nice mouth feel after its cooked.
I bake at 450 and do the crust w/sauce + oil for 12 minutes before putting on the toppings for the last 5.
Grayson – the easiest sauce ever: mince 1 clove garlic, heat in 1 T olive oil until golden (not brown!), add 15 oz can of diced tomatoes. If you can find the fire-roasted tomatoes that will add a nice flavor. Simmer for ~20 minutes until oil separates from tomatoes. Salt to taste. I sometimes puree this sauce for the pizza. This will make enough sauce for 2 small pizzas.
Question- are you supposed to preheat your pizza stone!?! I’ve been just throwing the pizza and/or stromboli right onto the room-temperature stone and baking…am I missing out on a perfectly-done crust?? I was wondering why your stone caught the overflow of caramel!
I learn something new everyday!
Karen – Thanks so much! I was hoping someone would add a quick recipe. That one is very close to what I use, though I typically use whole tomatoes so I can break them up as I choose, add a little onion or shallot with the garlic. Easy as pie, right? But, if I have an open jar on hand — and this time, it was Rao’s as I’d wanted to check it out after Julia Moskin’s piece on supermarket gems (it’s delicious, btw) — I use that first.
Megan – I usually just leave mine in the oven at all times, hence it catching the mess, because it heats everything more evenly.
Farmerbeth – Yup, I tossed it. Honestly, it was cheap to begin wtih and had suffered years of misuse in my uneducated hands. My next one will be treated like the prized possession it is.
Terry B – I completely agree about the combining of pre-made ingredients known as cooking. But oh, how their advertisers and profit margins must appreciate this approach. Prego/Ragu would not like it if they were showing people how easy homemade sauce is to whip up.
Oh, and Marce – I had no idea. A humor blog? They must be kidding. But, I am flattered nonetheless. Thanks for the shout-out!
I suppose it is the regional cooking thing, but I would have cheese on top of that nice-looking pizza in your pic.
I make pizza every Friday evening. My dough recipe is similar to this one, except mine is scaled up to 3 cups of flour so I can make 2 medium sized pies. To speed the rise time, i use fast rise yeast and proof the dough in the that was preheated to 200 degrees for ten minutes and turned off. The dough doubles in size in about 45-60 minutes. I split it in to two balls, give it another 15 minutes and then roll out my crusts.
Could you tell us more about this health salad which is so marvelous? How do you make your version? I see what looks like radicchio…
We did it! We made pizza! Your dough recipe is just perfect. I used my brand new stone (seasoned a bit earlier than expected thanks to a couple of early mishaps, but seasoned to perfection) and made one delicious pizza. Wine Guy (my boyfriend) and I used your recipe for the dough, then put a layer of tomato paste, some Italian Seasoning, Thyme and Oregano, mozzarella, caribbean jerk chicken, bacon, sundried tomatoes and crumbled feta, then baked for 12 minutes and 30 seconds and had perfect pizza. The crust was light and airy, but the bottom was nice and crisp and firm. Hurrah! Just what we were craving and just the perfect timing for my Christmas gift. Thank you!
Deb, I love your site and I tried the pizza recently. I don’t have a pizza stone, but used a standard metal baking sheet thinking it would be all right. Things were going well until I put it in the oven at top temperature (500 degrees) and the top of the pizza cooked beautifully, but the bottom hardly cooked at all. I checked the oven to make sure everything was working correctly, and it is. What am I doing wrong? I’d love to be able to cook like you, and if I can’t handle the pizza then I dread what could happen if I were to try the english muffins (which look YUM). Thanks for any help you can offer!
I am also a newlywed and totally relate to so many of your posts! This pizza looked awesome, I just had to try it out. I used your pizza dough recipe and it came out perfect! My husband was so impressed and I was so proud of myself. I love your blog and it is inspiring me to try to diy instead of doing my usual semi-homemade. Thanks!
Hi Deb,
I’m looking forward to trying your pizza dough recipe! Sounds like this is the pizza dough i’ve been looking for! i just had one question, my oven is a bit complicated. Should i put the setting so that heat is coming from both bottom and top or only bottom? my oven has those pictures on the sides which suggest and require me to put it on either setting… thanks a lot!
Sam
Hi Deb–
As I’m writing this, my pizza is resting until it’s not too hot to touch. It looks beautiful! I used a variation on your roasted-tomato sauce (just a pint of grape tomatoes, garlic and olive oil roasted for 20 mins) with some basil and mozzarella, and I can’t wait to cut into it.
I wanted to chime in on the pizza stone issue — I took Alton Brown’s advice and went to a building supply store and bought a box of unglazed quarry tile (I got 6″ x 6″ x .5″) and laid out two layers of three by three tiles — so I now have an eighteen by eighteen by one inch makeshift pizza stone on the floor of my oven. All in, it cost me $8.40, and I still have ten tiles left over — enough to replace the top layer if I have a “caramel incident”. I don’t plan to remove them from the bottom of my oven. I also used the sheet-pan-parchment-paper trick, and it worked like a charm.
Oh man, just took a break to get the first slice, and it’s amazing. The crust is nice and crispy. Forget Sur La Table, go to Home Depot!
Thanks a million to you and to Heels for the excellent advice about being able to fridge the dough for the day (while I’m out earning so I can buy more toppings) or freezer it before the 20-min rise; then defrost and use it on a week night. I’ll try that and it will be all pizza all the time in this house, I’m sure.
Deb, this is the first pizza I’ve ever made and I always make it 1/2 wholewheat flour + 1/2 plain flour. Because I am that lazy (and I have an oversized oven), I make two crusts by rolling out very thinly. Then, to make a sauce-like layer I spread a little sun-dried tomato oil on the rolled out rounds, then smear tomato paste on top. Then I add toppings. Despite it being rife with such short cuts, me and my guy LOVE this pizza. We call it smitza as in, “Smitza tonight? Let the salivating commence!”
Oh, and I finally bought a pizza stone after making the pizza four or five times. The damage? It cost 99 euro (it’s oversized to fit my oversized oven). I returned to the store THREE precious Saturday mornings before I convinced myself to buy it and haul it home on my Dutch bicycle. The benefit? I keep the stone in the bottom of the oven. I get gorgeous pizza crust and it heats the oversized oven e v e n l y every time I use it for any reason (which was a problem that I was just living with before). *fab*
Hi Deb
I love making pizza but have yet to make a realy good base so I will give your pizza dough a try this weekend and let you know. Oh am thinking of buying a pizza stone any sugestions.
this is a great recipe! I am going to make this tomorrow! Wish me luck :)
Koopa
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http://blog.sillica.com
So I tried the whole “put it in the fridge” thing to see if the dough would rise while I was at work, since I really wanted pizza tonight, but I also really didn’t want to eat at 8PM. It didn’t rise at ALL. Which meant that I had to take it out when I got home from work, and let it rise … and … well, we ate at 7:45, which is barely under the mark. Not sure the husband will let me back in the kitchen this week. Lesson learned: save this for a weekend meal!
I made the same pizza dough yesterday with double the ingredients to make a round pizza the size of my pizza stone. I stayed away from the cheese and other bad stuff and went ahead and smothered it with romaine lettuce, shreaded carrots, diced tomatoes, diced green peppers and finely cut red onion on top. What I did was to put the pizza dough (shaped of course) on the stone and bake it for 5 minutes on 450 degrees F. Then I took it out and put a thin layer of pizza quick sauce on it and put it back in the oven for another 7-8 minutes untll it was nice and lightly browned. I pulled it out and put all the salad ingredients on top oh yeah and I almost forgot the black olives! I then made a balsamic vinegarette to top it off. I used some white vinegar, balsamic, vinegar, olive oil, garlic powder, sugar and oregano. Oh my god it was to die for! It was my first time trying this and it was scrumdiddlyicious! Its a must try!
i have a deep dish pizza stone i used a few times but it seems to give the crust a dry/stoney taste – is there something i can do about that? i love the way the crust bakes in the stone otherwise. was i supposed to do something to the stone before its first use? i have tried several crust recipes and still get the taste of stone. is it supposed to taste that way?
so timely! I’m taking 10 of my friends out to a beach cabin on the coast this weekend and plan to make individual pizzas for our grand Saturday night dinner! Thanks Deb!
Deb, I love this, I love you (yes, you should have babies so we have a fighting chance of more humans like you), but is it possible to do without plastic wrap?
I’ve baked bread – thanks to Maggie Glezer, I’ve done this and all that – with plastic wrap and hating myself.
I’m not saying that anyone else should, but I do… What I am saying, however, is that Italy is still in Euro 2008 and I’d like to commemorate that occasion with pizza a la Deb, but without pretend jelly fish.
*salivating patiently*
— j
I am new to this blog but the food looks awesome and is inspiring. I would love to try a pizza but would like a whole wheat crust. Do you have a favorite recipe for it? I don’t know if i should mix flours so it does not become too dense or grainy. Any suggestions?
Becky — I note in the recipe that you can swap some of the flour with whole wheat flour. You can start at half or maybe up to two-thirds; see if you like the taste before going all the way up 100%. Whole wheat flour has less gluten in it than white flour, so it can end up less tender/chewy if used exclusively.
I tried this recipe last night in place of the the usual focaccia-style crust I usually make and I have to say I like this one much better. It gets much crispier and wasn’t soggy even though I stuffed my stromboli full. Thanks!
You saved me! :D I have been going crazy trying out about 25 different recipes for pizza dough!!! My family was about to move out if I served them one more pizza – and then I promised this would be my last… and yours was PERFECT. I can’t thank you enough!
i made the pizza for dinner tonight, and my family loved it!
i had to make my pizza slightly rectangular shaped, because i couldn’t find my pizza pan, nevertheless, the square pizza was very well-appreciated by the whole family.
thanks :)
this is the second time i’ve used your pizza dough recipe, and it’s amazing! i’m currently living in boston, where delicious pizza just does not exist. not a problem anymore. thanks so much!
Have made this twice now this week–so easy!–and topped w/ gorgonzola, eggplant and onions. Will have to try one of your variations next. As well as the Pizza Bianca! Thanks for the great recipe(s)!
I have risen my pizza dough. How can I keep it to use tomorrow?
Deb, omg. You have no idea how much bravery it took for me to purchase yeast today and get to work on this pizza crust of yours. But I am SO glad that I did!!! I made something with yeast, and it worked! haha I’m a little proud of myself. I used instant yeast because that was all I could find and I did what another commenter mentioned in sticking the dough in an oven that has been preheated and then shut off to let the dough rise. Every step of the way I was thinking, I must be doing something wrong, this is too easy, it’s not going to turn out… And then it was perfect. I topped mine with buffalo chicken, mozzarella and green onions, and it just blew my mind how good it was. Thank you a million times for such a foolproof and delicious recipe. This is my first time commenting but also wanted to let you know that I adore your site and have also made your pumpkin butter (amazing) and have several other recipes bookmarked to try. Thanks again!!
Hi
This recipe listed in so many places when searching for pizza recipe but have a problem as can’t read the quantities. First time have ever had problems with this site. Any suggestions?
Deb, this dough was amazing! I’ve been trying various recipes for months w/ no luck. One was close, but not like this one. I made a simple pepperoni pizza with all purpose four and no pizza stone, so the bite of the dough was warm and tender =) I’m going to take Alton Brown’s advice and make a pizza stone from quarry tiles. I’m thinking about using this same recipe for focaccia bread. Should I keep it the same or can I add whole milk?
I want to make extra dough and put it in the freezer. How should I go about this and how long does it keep? And why do some people season the pizza stone? Sorry for so many questions. Great Recipe =)
Made this for dinner last night and it was super easy and tasty! The counter cleanup was very quick, too, which is usually why I use a bread machine instead of kneading by hand. Love the suggestion of leaving the counter as is until the rolling out (which was really easy), and the parchment paper tip is genius. When I was eating my first piece of pizza, I was already wondering when to make it again!
I’m somewhat of a new blog-stalker but check your site daily and always look here first for recipe ideas. I love your writing…so witty and clever. We made this pizza tonight and I was shocked that it actually turned out since it was SO easy to make! Thanks!
Just wanted to say–I’ve used this recipe over and over and over since November, and it never fails. SO easy, SO good–we love it every single time!
Thanks, Deb!
Love your blog — the writing, the pictures and, of course, the recipes. You’ve got my vote for the Blogger Awards. A couple of questions about this recipe: I used 1/2 whole wheat (King Arthur’s White Wheat) and found my pizza to be too squishy in the middle. It blistered a bit around the edges, though. Do you think that baking the crust for 5 or 10 minutes before putting on toppings would help? If so, what temperature do you think would work? With or without parchment paper on top? I baked my pizza (with toppings) on a stone at 500 degrees for about 15 minutes. Or maybe I used too many toppings — layer of caramelized onions, dollops of ricotta, fresh tomato slices and dusting of romano. I tend to go heavy on toppings (and quesadilla and sandwich fillings for that matter), without trying to. But if that is the reason for the squishyness, then I don’t understand why the crust crisped near the edges, which also had plenty of toppings. Lastly, can the salt be omitted or cut in half? I believe I used the called-for 1 tsp, but the crust tasted salty to me. I used to omit salt regularly from recipes, not knowing that it sometimes serves a purpose other than adding a salty taste. Thanks for any thoughts you can provide on these questions.
By the way, I love your hoisin barbeque sauce (I make it in a double batch and keep it in the fridge for everything from tofu to fried rice) and smashed chick pea recipes (already, my husband and 2 yo son are big fans).
Hi Jennifer — There are a lot of reasons things can go different ways. If your pizza was too “squishy” in the middle, it could have been too thick, underbaked (esp. if you oven temperature is off), too heavy with toppings to have baked through; it may have risen too much … the edges will always bake first because they’re exposed more to the heat. You’re probably baking it at the right temperature but only you can get to know how your oven works at different temperatures and how you get the best pizza. If you don’t like salt, by all means skip it.
Hi!
I just ready your easy pizza dough recipe, and I wondered if it could be made with whole wheat flour for a healthier option?
Thanks so much!
Rebecca
The recipe says (first ingredient) that you can swap up to half the flour with whole wheat if you wish. I don’t recommend going higher, you can, but it makes for a more brittle/coarse pizza crust.
I make this every weekend…we love it!
I was making 2 pizzas tonight and accidentally doubled the water but not the rest of the ingredients!!! I had to keep adding flour when I was mixing it but didn’t realize why until I looked back at the recipe…any luck they will still turn out??? I hate to throw it all out…
I’m wondering if you have any advice on how to handle this dough in a KitchenAid Artisan Stand mixer. I’ve just acquired one (to make the process of mixing doughs easier), and I simply CANNOT get this (or any other pizza dough recipe) to achieve a baker’s windowpane. I’ve decreased speed and time, increased time, added water, added oil…I also checked out your delightfully explicit instructions for kneading pita dough (exact speeds were a tremendous help), but still no luck. Any tips? I’d hate to think this shiny $250 piece of equipment was more trouble than it’s worth.
Hi Shannon — I’m baffled; I’ve never made anything but lovely doughs in mine. It is possible that you’re not letting it knead long enough.
Late to the party and all, but here’s my two cents for those who want to make pizza on weekdays. You can definitely do the rise in the fridge, the trick is to do the first 30 minutes (or up to an hour) at room temp and then put it in the fridge. My husband heads out the door 30-45 minutes after I do, so I mix it up and he pops it in the fridge on his way out the door.
late to this posting, but quick question. i have a pizza pan with air holes in the bottom not a pizza stone, should i still preheat the pan in the oven before baking? will this affect the deliciousness of my pizza pie?
I haven’t worked with such a pizza pan before. You should probably use the directions it came with instead.
hey deb, been a lurker on you site for ages, tried a few (or many)of the wonderful recipes posted up. Just gotta say, the pizza dough worked perfectly, lovely crust with a crisp bottom. I let it rise for 1 1/2 hours and baked it on a pizza tray with some topping, and it was DELISH. Just wondering if you could freeze/refrigerate the dough for later use? thankyou dear
Any bread or pizza dough can be frozen or refrigerated at any point in the process. Simply wrap it well, and when you’re ready to pick up again (no more than a day or so in the fridge, if longer, lower the yeast content) bring it back to room temperature and pick up where you left off in the recipe.
Important detail I learned the hard way: when freezing pizza dough, don’t put it directy on the freezer’s wire shelf. The dough will wrap around the wire & freeze that way.
A bag of frozen dough has become a permanent feature of my freezer, sadly.
A pizza pan for a wonderfully crisp bottom crust….just to experiment I bought a grease splatter cover ..the largest one they had..it is in essence a large frying pan cover made of a screen mesh..(like a colander but flat)…. with a long handle.they come with a metal handle covered in a hard plasted …I just broke the hard plastic off the handle and was left with a sold metal handle that is oven proof…. I spray it with cookng spray (over the sink so as not to make a mess) then place your already shaped dough on top ..you can stretch it out to your size preference..put your favorite toppings on it and “VOILLA” you will make the crispy bottom you have craved for ..use your pot holder to grasp the handle when puling out your deliciously baked pizza ..place on heat resistant surface..slide out for ease of slicing .
Oh my word, Deb — I just made this tonight. I wanted to make pizza tonight with the leftover roast chicken I had, but hadn’t found a good dough recipe yet. So I came to your site and found this one. There are simply no words for how good my pizza turned out tonight. I doubled the recipe since I was feeding a sailor of rather large scale to make a 16″ pizza. I stretched the pizza dough over the back of my old metal pizza pan, using the parchment paper and corn meal trick, slid it off onto my preheated pizza stone, and baked for 15 minutes to allow for the larger crust. It was, in a word, amazing. Plus I love how awesomely my hands smelled after kneading the crust earlier in the afternoon. Thank you so much for posting this. My husband thanks you as well!
i can’t wait to try this one and another that you have published. i have NEVER been able to have a yeast connection, so with a new house and humid summer, i’m hoping for the best . here’s to success
thanks
Wow – I made this for dinner last night and was so surprised at what a snap this was to make! Plus, this was my first successful homemade pizza (all those times of silly pre-made crusts that never baked properly in my oven are now blissfully behind me). Oh, and I made a recipe for blondies (with chocolate chips) also from this site for dessert. My fiance and I ate ourselves silly and loved every minute of it! Thanks!
Have you perfected the El Zabar’s crunchy health salad yet? I’m in CA so I have no access to El Zabar. Please do it, or have you already and it’s one of your slaw recipes where I’m not making the connection? I love what I see on the plate.
Never mind..I found it! It’s your pickled coleslaw!
Quick question, Deb, (and I know I’m late and I hope you remember) – how small is a “small pizza”? We have six people, and I’m trying to figure out if I should make two or three batches.
It’s small, 10 to 12 inches, tops, but thin. If this is your main course, you probably want three to be safe.
thanks~
Hi, I’ve tried this recipe last week and it came out well. I used the rapid rise yeast instead of active dry yeast and the dough did not rise at all. I was still able to roll it out with some difficulty and it turned out pretty good. Thanks for the recipe. I’m not sure if it’s ok to post the recipe in my blog with link and attribution but I just did.
Better late than never – I finally tried this yesterday!
I used Mark Bittman’s pizza dough recipe because it was almost the same as yours, but double quantity, and let it rise in the fridge for 8 hours. Used my stand mixer to knead the dough and it worked out just fine (paddle attachment first, then dough hook).
I took it out of the fridge to come to room temp while pre-heating the oven. made 4 small pizzas by pressing the dough out on a piece of foil (should have read the reviews and used parchment instead), and topped 2 with grilled zucchini, onions, buffalo mozzarella and pine nuts; and the other two with tomato sauce, smoked salmon, shrimp and danish mozzarella.
I slid the pies directly onto the oven racks (still on the foil) and baked for 10 min.
Tasted great, but no crispy bottoms!! Then I came back here to re-read and realised I need a Pizza Stone!!
Moral of the story – always read comments first.
Anyway, it tasted great and I can’t wait for Sunday so I can make more.
Thanks for converting this breadbaking-phobe.
I made this last night (with the lemony zucchini goat cheese topping from your more recent post!) and had a little trouble with the crust. It ended up pretty tough on the edges – do you think I overworked it? I tried to follow the recipe pretty carefully, but I’m not exactly the best baker in the world :)
Everything still tasted great so it was no problem, but I’d love to figure out a way to get the edges to be as airy and thin as the middle.
Thanks for a great dinner, Deb!
do you think i can still get a crispy crust if i cook it on a pizza stone
You can get a crisp crust with or without a stone. Check out my pizza tips here.
What an easy recipe! I never used yeast before, and I think I broke every rule/guideline, and it still turned out amazing. I followed the recipe (tripled it, actually) and then refrigerated the dough, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, overnight. I brought the dough to room temp, formed it into rectangular pizzas, placed them in unheated baking sheets (on greased tin foil and cornmeal), and baked at 450 degrees for 5 minutes before adding toppings and baking another ~8 minutes. It turned out fantastic! And it couldn’t have been easier.
i just made this crust and it’s delicious! i don’t have a pizza stone, but used the back of a baking pan and it came out crisp and lovely! thanks!
Thanks for the great recipe. I added 1 tbsp vital gluten flour (my bread baking secret :), also let it rise for a little more than 3 hours. The crust was great, especially the edges. We baked at 500 for 10 minutes with crust and sauce, then added toppings and baked another 5 to 6 minutes. Perfect pizza for 2 people. I’m going to try a calzone with the extra sauce I had.
Just wanted to say that this is absolutely my go to pizza recipe. I make it all the time and it’s always fantastic. I usually double the recipe and make two dough portions at time. After their done rising, I stick one in the freezer to use later. When I want pizza, I just defrost the dough in the freezer for a day or two, punch it down, roll it out, and it bakes up just fine. I’m afraid to order pizza out now because I know it will just not compare to homemade.
this pizza was amazing! My incredible wife jules made the dough and then my 2 1/2 year old son and i cooked it up … lovely recipe … thanks!
joshua jules and ocean
I just made 8x this recipe for a house full of grown-ups (roasted red peppers, spinach, caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms) and kids (cheese, and pepperoni) and the crust turned out great. I’ve tried a lot of pizza crust recipes and am thrilled to find one that is so easy and delicious. Thanks!
I just had my test-drive with your recipe! It was a little thinner than I normally would do, but I found it to be the best homemade pizza crust I’ve ever done (and we’ve experimented with a LOT). My cheese got a bit on the burned side, so next time I will probably par-bake before adding toppings ;) Thanks for sharing the recipe!
this was my first attempt at a regular pizza crust (the only other one I’ve made was gluten free) and while I didn’t get a good rise out of the dough, it ended up coming out perfectly! so easy and convenient, this was a winner. Thank you soooo much for the recipe! :)
What a deceptively simple recipe for an excellent crust. I made mine with heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, smoked mozzarella and little dollops of fresh local chevre here and there. Heaven!
Simple? yes. Delicious? yes. I think I’m ready to open an Italian pizza parlor! ;)
Dear Smitten,
I have for you what seems like the most un-answerable question in pizza-dom. I’ve scoured websites, called the best pizzaria’s in Vancouver, and ALL small to large food warehouses and grocery stores, and I’m now resorting to actually asking you.
It is about the flour: bread flour, high gluten flour, 00 flour. Which one makes that crust that is crispy on the outside and soft and semi-oily/delicious on the inside? Of does it even have to do with the flour at all? Perhaps I’m way off and it has to do with the olive oil, or the rising time…help!
Stuck,
Keely
Keely — Pizza aficionados have been debating the perfect flour type for eons and I’m afraid I don’t have one answer. I believe the 00 is most commonly used in Italy (and I’m sure someone will correct me if it is not!). I suggest playing around — this basic recipe is pretty standard. Try it with different flours and see which one you like best.
Made this yesterday with half whole wheat flour, and it turned out wonderfully! I didn’t even let it rise the whole time (45 min, then 20 the second rise) and it was tender and had a complex, nutty flavor–perfect for the margherita pizza my husband loves and which uses up tomatoes from my garden! This is my new go-to recipe. Oh, and I doubled it right away and froze one–so I can be a convert now too!
Yum I want to eat my monitor, lol! That pizza just looks so GREAT!!
OLivia
Can you freeze this dough immediately after mixing it (before rising), and simply thaw it, let it rise, and be ready to go with it? Thanks!
Just made this for dinner, with just a sprinkle of parmesan and some roast asparagus. It’s so easy and tastes amazing, thanks!
Made the dough yesterday to have tonight. Followed the directions to a ‘T’. Thing is for the two hours of setting it aside to rise the dough didn’t seem to double in size. Hmmm, I put the yeast in. The yeast expiration wasn’t past. Do I still try to bake it tonight for dinner? What possibly could have gone wrong?
Baked it…WOW, I guess its the pizza that does little rising.
Excellent! Phewwww. I am glad I didn’t have to resort to plan B.
Do i add the yeast to the DRY ingrediants? or mix with warm water first? my dough NEVER risessss ….and what speed shall I use for the dough hook on the KitchenAid? Thanks
Ok I just did a little research – Active Dry Yeast must be mixed with warm water until it foams…and Instant Yeast doesnt. But your recipe calls for active dry yeast…added to the dry ingrediants. Will the dough STILL RISE??? I would looove to perfect homemade pizza pls help
Yes, active dry yeast is usually mixed with warm water to make sure it is still good, and that it proofs. But, it won’t not work if you don’t foam it first. I had skipped that step accidentally when making this pizza dough one time, and realizing it wouldn’t stop the dough from rising, have made it that way since. It’s a great way to save some time.
Hmm, my dough has been sitting for an hour and a half, and it’s barely grown at all, definitely not twice the original size… Is there any way to know if it just didn’t come out, or could I bake it and hope it rises as it bakes? I hope that makes sense… I think I might have ruined it, I can still see little specks of yeast on the outside of the dough ball. I think that’s a bad sign?
Oh boy, you will never guess what I just did. I wanted to make calzones with this recipe, so I rolled out the lovely dough and then following so many comments, shaped & par baked it. Duh– I guess it was meant to be a pizza night after all.
I made a pan pizza of this dough and it was fantastic!!! Thanks a ton!!
Hello Deb,
Great blog. Have been watching it for a very long time. I made this dough today and although it was really good and everything looked right, I was wondering if my crust got too crispy. My husband and I like a crust that isn’t crunchy, but the bottom of the dough, and the sides, were a bit crunchy. Is it supposed to be that way? Or did I do something wrong. I’ve made a pizza dough from another recipe before and the bottom was also too crunchy. Does this mean I’m overcooking the pizza? I do bake it at a much lower temperature because when it’s on very high temp the bottom gets cooked but the sides don’t. Any ideas for me? I’ve been struggling with bread-baking for months now!
Thanks for any input and sorry for the many questions :)
Hi Deb. I just stumbled onto your website yesterday and have been drooling on myself ever since! I have been searching for the perfect slightly crusty but soft and chewy on the inside pizza crust for years. Every time I try to make my own it turns out tasting very heavily of raw flour. What am I doing wrong? Thank you and love your site.
Lynn — Welcome. Have you made this one?
I have not, but will very soon. I think I’ll try it with my “baked potato” pizza toppings. I will let you know how it turns out!
I am having the same problem Sarah had. I have never used yeast before (a minor baking fear of mine) but the ‘h’ wanted home made pizza tonight so I gave it a go. I added the active dry yeast to the dry ingredients and then left it to rise (as per the directions). I even placed it in my warm (but turned off) oven and it did not rise. After two hours it wasn’t even noticeably larger. I could also see flecks of yeast in the dough (they looked exactly like the flecks in the yeast jar). I have just started the second 20 minute rise, but I don’t think it’s going to rise or turn out.
Is it okay to eat yeast bits that haven’t dissolved or whatever in the dough once it’s baked? Eep.
I was wondering what size (in inches) does this pizza crust recipe make? I know you say small but what is small to you? Thanks.
Hi Charlie — 12″ across if rolled pretty thin.
Hi Deb,
Made this pizza quite a few times already and each time — huge success!
Doubled it for 2 pizzas for dinner, kids raved it and husband said it is good, like from a bakery.
I want to make individual mini-pizzas for my son’s birthday.
Do you think it is better to divide the dough before the first rise, or divide it after the dough has been risen and roll out each part individually?
Thanks.
Hi Ilana — I’d do it after the first rise, as you would form the dough into a ball anyway. Just form it into the number of pieces you need. Perhaps four mini-pizzas from each yield?
Thanks, Deb, for your quick reply.
Yes, it goes about quarter pizza per child at our dinners. It means about 4 goes of double batches for ~30 kids. I am going to freeze them, one batch each evening before the party, and just reheat it in the oven in real time.
Once again THANK you, I just finished eating my third slice, I doubled the recipe cause I like mine thick, I brushed the borders with homemade garlic oil and next time ill brush the whole thing with it, Simply delicious!!!
Thank you for this recipe. Simple ingredients and doesn’t contain any egg, soy, or nuts that my son is allergic too. So helpful that it has such simple ingredients, makes it less of a challenge. Attending a get-together this weekend and they’re serving pizza, so now I can make one for my son, so he doesn’t feel left out!
Used your dough recipe last night and it could not have been simpler. I was so happy with the results. I doubled your recipe and made two thin crust pizzas, and they reminded me of pies I used to gobble up in NY & Jersey (now I’m a CA transplant). Thank you thank you thank you. You’ve cured me of my pizza-making fears. I never want to go out for pizza again (at least not here)!
I made this pizza dough last night! It was my first ever pizza dough. I subbed 1/2 c whole wheat flour for 1/2 c of the all-purpose flour. I winged the pizza toppings (mushrooms, onions, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato sauce spruced up with herbs, shredded mozzarella) from what I had in the fridge and pantry. I baked the crust alone for 5 minutes on 500 degrees in my cast iron skillet, then added all the toppings in some kind of logical order, then put the skillet back in and lowered the temp to 400, then baked for 10 more minutes, checking every 5 for “done-ness.” It was fantastic!
My crust, however, was super-thick…like more than 1/2 inch thick. I like it that way, but I used the “thin-crust” version of the dough, instead of the doubled. Maybe it was that I was using a 9″ skillet. It was lovely! I love your website! I’ve been working my way through the most delicious-looking recipes–browsing your website really brightens my work day (and makes me hungry!).
Sarah and Stefanie–mine barely rose after 2 hours also, but my dough did rise in the oven while it was baking. I wondered if that was because there was no sugar in the dough for the yeast to snack on (the only other yeast product I have ever made is pita bread, and the recipe called for a bit of sugar).
Any idea how to substitute sourdough starter for the active yeast in this recipe? I have just painstakingly created a starter using Nancy Silverton’s 14 day method and have made great bread and pancakes so far. I really want to try pizza dough next, but am scared of getting the conversions wrong. And this recipe seems perfect. Any thoughts?
Hi, Deb! I’m a newer reader coming out of hiding to say hello. right now i’m looking at Joy the Baker’s recipe of her pizza which is leading me to your recipe of the dough. I’ve never been more excited to make dough in my life. I’ve never made it before! I’m so NERVOUS!
Quick question. If I use Joy’s recipe (which doubles yours) will it be too bready? I just want a bigger pizza but still have a thin, crispy crust. Does that make sense? Any suggestions otherwise?
Thanks! totally love all your recipes! they’re so pretty they’re slightly intimidating haha in a good way.
Abby — I really can’t advise on recipes I haven’t made.
Sorry… i thought maybe you’ve doubled it as well… thank you anyway!
I’m so bummed! My dough was rising and it smelled great! But it wasn’t rising well, I figure because my house is freezing but I’m so smartie that I figure I’ll turn the oven on for just a minute and turn it off again. Well, 3 kids and bedtime craziness and I FORGOT and now I have melted plastic all over my dough. Boohoohoo. I must try again tomorrow!
Hi Deb,
What rack do you bake this pizza on….center, bottom, or top. Thanks!
Bindu — A lot of pizza makers would say the lowest, it is the hottest. Even on the oven floor. In my oven, I like to bake things closer to the top. I find I get a nice brown blistering on top of a dish from the heat bouncing off the top of the oven.
I just finished grad school and am taking some time off while I look for a job, which is giving me a lot more time in the kitchen to try things I never thought I could. This recipe has absolutely made me a convert! I live in New Haven, CT, where pizza is super thin crust and people are VERY particular about it, and this absolutely stands up in comparison. I cook it on the back of a cast iron skillet in the oven – makes the crust just perfectly crispy. My husband loves it so much it’s become a weekly ritual! Thanks!!
We’ve been making Friday night pizza at my house, using your dough recipe, for months now. It’s excellent every time. (Tonight is the first night I’ve had the courage to try 1/3 whole wheat.) I can’t remember the last time we spent money on delivery pizza. Thanks for an wonderfully simple recipe that lets us be creative, frugal and healthier all at the same time!
I am so excited to try this recipe! But do you think it would be possible to transport uncooked pizza dough from one place to another place? Pizza sounds like an awesome thing to eat on girls’ night. Would it be better be freeze/refrigerate before or after letting the dough rise?
Elisabeth — Just refrigerate it. The cold will “retard” the dough or keep it from rising at any more than a snail’s pace.
Thank you for the recipe ! My husband also thanks you with all his heart because he loves thin crusty pizza and I was not able to do it the way he likes it until I found your recipe. I tried it yesterday and, for the first time in my life, I got the right tasty yummy crusty pizza :))) What was left out of the baking tray became a fist class oregano sprinkled focaccia. It was diffcult to figure out everything in kg and ml but I made it and reconversed it so I can use it weekly. Thanks again from Romania !
Thanks for recipe! Went down a treat.
This is going to be my second time make this tonight! The first time was a HUGE HIT! I tripled the recipe with no problems, and boosted the rising by putting it in the oven (OFF) with a tea kettle of boiling water. Perfect!
I did make 3 small pizzas, and baked them individually, so there was always a hot one on the table. I noticed that the second was easier to roll out than the first, and the third easier than the second. I’m guessing this is because the dough had time to relax – if that was the case, it made a huge difference for me. The third pie rolled out to a perfect circle and uniform thinness. Mmmmmm!
I topped my pies with leftover venison spaghetti sauce, olive oil, fresh oregano (year round from my herb garden here in southern NC), fresh spinach, mushrooms, cooked bacon, crumbled feta and a few slices of mozzarella. Not too much of any one ingredient though, as you suggested.
Thanks for the awesome site – I’m going on a year of reading and this is my first comment. I have turned on many friends to your site. <3
Peace and Yummy Goodness,
Carrie
This was my first time making homemade pizza and it was delicious and easy thanks to your recipe. No more take out for me. You have definitely made me a convert!
I use a $1 travertine 16×16 tile for my pizza stone. works excellent. UNGLAZED of course!
As a homesick New Yorker, I’m desperate to get a good dough.I was wondering if you use bread flour or all-purpose flour. I’ve been making pizza for awhile and thought you were supposed to use bread flour, but now I’m wondering if that’s where I’ve been going wrong. THanks!
This recipe works with either. Bread flour has more gluten in it, so if you have it, go for it — it’ll give you more stretch and chew.
Thank you for this recipe, Deb. I’ve made it so many times and its always a crowd pleaser. Even my dad, who is insanely picky, loved it so that says a lot.
I just used your dough recipe to make a smoked gouda-mushroom pizza. Delicious!
Since I discovered this recipe I keep on making pizza, it has become as easy as making a salad and tastes delicious ! For the topping I love caramelized onions and mushrooms. Thanks a lot Deb ! As we say in Turkish ” May God give you whatever you wish!”
Greetings from Istanbul
I’ve been afraid to try making pizza from scratch, but tonight I finally took the plunge and it was fabulous! Thank you for a delicious recipe. Two things I did differently: For time reasons, I made the dough the night before and let it rise in the fridge. Worked fine. Also, I put the pizza on a piece of parchment paper and cooked it directly on the oven rack. (I used a rimless baking sheet kind of like a peel.) No pizza stone, no baking sheet, no problem! Yum!
I’m an inexperienced cook/baker/college-student who has spent the past two weeks discovering how simple it is to make food for oneself. I can’t believe I’ve never cooked before. It’s expensive to order out for pizza (especially for a college student) and I couldn’t believe how easy it was for me to make my own using this recipe. I was ecstatic when my dough actually doubled. My friends and I will definitely be benefiting from this homemade pizza next year! Your blog has been incredibly helpful and encouraging to someone who never thought she could cook before. Thank you! :)
I’ve finally cracked successfully making pizza dough! Thank you! Recently discovered your blog and am now obsessed. Also, the lemony zucchini and goats cheese pizza is a revelation. Thanks again!
Hi Deb! Love this recipe and have made it zillions of times. I’m now back in my parents’ kitchen, which has a fancy oven with options for a convection setting. Any idea on whether this would affect the pizza, either negatively or positively? Thanks!
This dough is goooooood. I am a long time home pizza maker, but have always been less than happy with the thicker crusts I have learned from Bittman and NYTimes Cookbook 1963. The key must be the resting you recommend — I have not seen this in either of my go to recipes.
As for Natalie’s question, I have convection bake and the pizza might have been a touch over done. Ovens tend to be so variable. In mine, anywhere from 8-10 minutes would yield great results.
PS this is the first dough that has lured my 3 y-o daughter to eat pizza. We put ketchup and string cheese on hers and she loves it and loved participating.
I had never made pizza dough before tonight, but found this recipe and made 4-double batches for a big bring your favorite topping dinner party. We cut the batches into 4 pieces for 16 perfect personal size pizzas. YUM. and so easy. Thanks for this…I am also a convert.
My only change was adding fresh garden oregano and basil (chopped) and a bit of squished garlic to the dry ingredients.
Just found your website and plan to return, it looks great. My pizza dough is currently sitting in a warm oven not rising, though. I wonder where the sugar is in your recipe for the yeast? Most use sugar or honey and this has none?
Robin — Sugar can help “feed” the yeast but it is not necessary to get the yeast working. Did it eventually rise?
no, it was a bust. I used “high protein flour” which I think means high gluten (I am living in New Zealand and some things are different here). I think I’ll try it again with regular flour and add some honey-thanks for your quick reply
Oof. Sorry to hear. If you want to try one that takes a little more time but not effort, I recently loved this one over here. Great flavor from the overnight rest. You can halve it for a single pie.
This pizza crust was a hit at my house tonight. I made the dough and then threw together some pesto while it was rising (I stuck mine in the oven on a low-heat setting). After spreading the pesto on the dough I added fresh spinach, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes and then sprinkled the top with just a bit of cheese. Delicious! The next time I make it I will probably pop it in the oven for a few minutes before adding the toppings as someone else recommended because I really like a crispy crust. I didn’t have any cornmeal in my cabinet, but I found a cornbread mix and used that to keep the crust from sticking. It made the crust slightly sweet and was a great alternative!
Thank you, once again, for the fantastic recipe!
Tonight I tried this… My first pizza-making attempt – and my first experience with yeast. It was fantastic!!!! I’m pretty sure I’ll never buy pizza again. Thanks for the recipe!
I make this all the time and love it. It never lets me down (even if maybe my choice of toppings sometimes do). I’ve given a couple of other pizza dough recipes a try but keep coming back to this one. I’m yet to try your other recipe. I just love this one too much!
is one cup of flour 200 or 240 grams?
thank’s.
It’s actually usually between 115 and 130 grams, depending on how the flour is loaded into the cup.
I tried this recipe the other night and it was my first time ever making dough and it came out great, really delicious!
Thanks for all the recipes and super-easy and entertaining instructions!
Deb,
I have been making your recipe for a while now and as usual, it’s fabulous. However, in terms of toppings I have simplified it to it’s most basic. Crushed Tomato, fresh slivers of thinly sliced garlic, basil, and tons of parm cheese. I have also tried adding to the dough, once it is ready to be rolled out, some dried herbs and a bit of additional sea salt. Doing this makes the dough have a bit more texture and bite.
Whenever I make a yeast pizza crust, I use quick rise yeast. Once the dough is kneaded, it only sits for 10 minutes and it’s ready to be baked. It saves a lot of time and my pizzas always turn out great!
Hi Deb
I love making pizza but have real problems getting the dough to roll out / stretch out and stay there – I roll a pizza size round, and by the time I’ve turned back with the toppings, it’s shrunk to half the size and I have to roll it out again! Is there a knack to this? I’ve tried leaving the dough to prove longer and it doesn’t seem to help. Thanks!
Pip — It usually comes down to more proofing, so I’m not sure why it didn’t work for you. If it’s not keeping its shape after you firmly roll it out, the dough is just too tight and dense, need a little more time to “poof”.
Thanks Deb! I will keep trying. I’m not having much luck with dough at the moment – yesterday, my loaf went crazy in the bread machine and baked itself onto the lid. leaving me lots of lovely chunks of crust to clean off the mechanism!
I think I may be overworking it once it’s proved, too and making it too springy. Will just have to eat a lot more pizza so that I can perfect it…!
like many, I too have tried several dough recipes and always am left with a flavorless canvas for my pizza. Loved this one though! Put it on the grill and it was fantastic! Thanks for sharing yourself with all of us. Also had the blueberry crumble one of my favorites! It must be a smitten kitchen dinner night!
I LOVE this pizza dough… make it all summer and par cook the dough on the grill, naan style…. then eat with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. Nom!
BUT, I need some help! I’m going to my boyfriends parents cabin in IDAHO of all places and they’ve decided that “my” pizza is SO awesome that they want me to make it for EVERYONE. Thats 13 adults and 7 children. So, I need dough in BULK!!
I thought I remember hearing that you don’t need to add the same amount of yeast. Is that right? Should I make it in several small (double) batches, or can it be made in a quadruple batch? Advice would be very much appreciated.
Hi Deb,
We have made this dough a few times and really love it. It does seem to be easier to work with if it is proofed a little longer. We topped it the last time with dark meat chicken, caramelized onions, grated zucchini, curry powder and sharp cheddar cheese. We then sprinkled it with cilantro when it came out of the oven…delicious Thanks Again!
First off, thank-you for your site! It is now my go-to site for basic recipes. Your sandwich bread recipe is now a staple in our house, we haven’t had store-bought bread in ages.
I finally made pizza tonight, it was a multi stage process. I had made the dough ages ago (maybe 2 weeks even? A week and a half?) and, like some other commenters have said, it just didn’t seem to work. It didn’t seem to rise at all, and I could see bits of yeast still in the dough. My husband convinced me not to throw it out, so we wrapped it up and stuck it in the fridge. Tonight I had a last minute potluck to cook for, and I was strapped for time, so I decided to give this a go.
I hauled the dough out of the fridge, stuck it in a bowl with some extra oil, turned the oven on full blast, and stuck the bowl on top of the stove to warm up. I also, in a fit of madness, decided I’d try using the Serious Eats broiler method – yeah, great, try cooking something a way I’ve never done it before, for a party, with time constraints. Brilliant move! Anyway, the dough survived its sojourn in fridge-land well, and stretched and shaped beautifully, so to anyone who has experienced the same problem, I’d suggest just leaving it in the fridge for a few days, and see what happens.
I couldn’t find cornmeal, and I didn’t have parchment paper, so I decided cardboard and a whole bunch of flour would have to do. Of course, attempting to slide the pizzas (I ended up doing four rather amorphously-shaped small pizzas) onto the pans was no easy task, I ended up turning the air blue with creative uses of the F word and needing to call my husband over to help me, so cornmeal and parchment paper are definitely on the shopping list now!
The broiler method was a dismal failure, sadly, as the pan was a bit too large for my broiler and my broiler is apparently unlike any other broiler I’ve owned and turns off when the door is open. Darn. On to plan B – stuck them in the oven at the highest setting for a few minutes.
The eventual pizzas were a tiny bit undercooked, but delicious nonetheless. My dinner companions were very complimentary. I made super basic ‘margherita’ pizzas – sauce from the tomatoes I jarred a couple of weeks ago (I just warmed it up with a bit of fresh basil, salt, and pepper), rounds of mozzarella, a bit of oil drizzled on top and fresh basil torn on top when they came out of the oven.
Sorry for leaving an essay in place of a comment, and thanks again!
Hello!
I just tried your pizza recipe tonight and wanted to say WOWW… we loved it. It work perfectly and I was very happy about it. Thank you Deb.
Deb, on my own for a weekend supper, I needed an idea that would inspire me to cook a real meal for myself. I remembered seeing “really simple” used for a pizza recipe here, and that was the inspiration I needed. So I made pizza dough by hand for the first time ever (not quite believing how truly easy it was) and adapted the filling from your butternut squash and caramelized onion galette for my topping. It was delicious! Thanks for another winner!
First pizza dough, first pizza sauce: both a success! Thanks for the great recipe (and the helpful tips for novice pizza-makers). Pizza was a delicious combo of Italian sausage, fennel, manchego cheese and sage. Thanks for the inspiration.
This is supper tonight, with your sauce recipe. Toppings might be a freezer special.
I used an adaption of your recipe (part whole wheat flour, part bread flour – love the bread flour in it!) with a little more oil on my blog yesterday. We love your pizza recipe!
Loved this pizza dough.
You’d think pizza dough would be a no-brainer, but I’ve tried at least a half dozen recipes, none of which convinced me I’d found what I’d been looking for. I doubled the recipe, used only white flour, and spread it on a cookie sheet. I topped it with homemade sauce, a mix of shredded muenster and manchego cheeses, and a 1/2 pound of browned sausage. Happy me + happy family = keeper recipe.
My sauce, for anyone who is interested:
Drain most of the drippings from the pan after browning the sausage. Add a little olive oil and two minced cloves of garlic. Sautee for 1-2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of dry wine and let it reduce by 1/2. Add canned crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper, basil and oregano. Let simmer for 10 minutes.
I’ve made this dough several times, and it’s always a winner! But yesterday I decided to make the dough in the morning and let it rise all day in the fridge. When I checked on it 6 hours later, it was still the same little ball of dough — no rise at all. So I decided to put off dinner a couple of hours and quickly made another batch of dough. No rise on the second batch either. I’m trying to figure out what went wrong. Maybe my yeast is dead?
This recipe is perfect–so simple and delicious, way better than chain-store delivery. My dough didn’t quite double in size on the first rise. I let it sit for two hours while I ran some errands, and it expanded about half a size larger than when I first set it out to rise. On the second rise, it expanded a bit more. I mixed up some garlic butter to spread onto the edges before adding my toppings. The resulting pizza was AMAZING! Perfectly crispy on the outside, and chewy and springy in the middle, but still sturdy enough to hold the toppings. This dough recipe is definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing!
You can actually make homemade pizza (including the crust) into a quick dinner. I’ve recently discovered the book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” written by Zoe Francois. You can use the “master recipe” bread dough (it’s a really moist dough that you can make ahead when you have a day off and keeps in the fridge for 2 weeks) for pizza as well. Pull it out of the fridge, shape it like you would pizza dough, dust with flour, add toppings, and pop it into the oven.
Made it. Loved it. Actually cooked it in a cast iron skillet on the grill and it was bliss. Also made a double recipe bc my husband and I are fat kids who like our pizza. (We did share some with our child.)
I’ve made this before and it worked, but this time it did not rise at all. (Same problem Lindsay had). And my yeast is new.
Made this today for lunch! It came out really well. Hoping the other ball of dough will be good in a couple days…it is in the fridge. Anyway, I had been making pizza dough from Cooks’ Illustrated and liked it, but somehow using the food processor seemed like a pain…your recipe WAS really simple, and no machines dirtied in the process! Thanks from a mom of a 2and 5month-old and a 6 month-old.
I made this a few months ago and froze it. On Sunday morning I took it out of the freezer and put it in an oiled bowl. It didn’t seem to be rising very much. I left it out in hopes the yeast just needed some time. It appeared to be waking up this morning (Tuesday). My husband is afraid of it. I can’t seem to convince him that dough isn’t exactly perishable. It isn’t like I wiped it on the driveway! It has even been covered in oiled plastic wrap the entire time! (Or is he right and I’m poisoning us to serve this for dinner?)
I just posted an adaptation of this dough on my blog… I have tried so many pizza dough recipes, but none compare to this one! It’s the best!
I am in heaven! I added a bit of sugar to it (maybe 3 table spoons and it is soo good. No more take out for me! I love this. I added onions, turkey bacon and peppers, a bit of parsley and some garlic on the crust
I just tried this dough last night – making 6 lots for a communal pizza night (where everyone brings their favourite pizza topping) it was a success. I was worried about putting it in the fridge to slow rise so I just kept it on the counter and punched it every few hours when it got big. For those of you who don’t have a pizza stone I used flat baking trays and put them on the bottom of the oven floor and it turned out perfectly. I’m in love with this so simple! Thanks so much.
I’ve been making this a lot lately, probably too much but my boyfriend rather likes it. Maybe my oven just isn’t hot enough, but I find that every time I make it, 10 minutes isn’t enough- 15-20 is better. I can never, ever roll it into a circle, it’s always a freaking trapezoid.
Best topping: fresh slices of serrano peppers.
We just got a new pizza stone, we are wondering if you preaheat it before putting the pizza on there or if you can roll out the dough directly on the pizza stone and then pop it in the oven? The stone gets really hot and moving the finished doughy pizza even with a paddle can be challenging..please help!
Thanks!
I know you posted this several years ago, but I just tried it tonight and it worked beautifully. I have been trying to make my own pizza dough for a while, and I think yours was the easiest dough to work with of all of them (Including the artisan bread in 5 min a day version i tried)! I doubled the recipe and saved half for tomorrow/ the next day post-rise (artisan bread style), and hopefully the flavor will still be as good as with this first try. In addition, although I was afraid to crank my oven, so to speak, I eventually got the courage when my pizza wasn’t done in 10 minutes and I was hungry. It worked way better than my usual 425! I think the relatively high salt content is what made it taste extra good. Thanks a bunch!
I made it it was DELICIOUS!!!!
I doubled it and i made it 2/3 white flour and 1/3 whole wheat.
I also sauteed onions and eggplant to put it on top it was fabulous!
thanks deb
Hi Deb! I made this last night on the grill and while it turned out suberbly crisp and delicious, the dough was a bit too wet for me, it was really hard to handle. Next time I’ll decrease the water by 2 tablespoons and I have a hunch it will be perfect. Thanks for the pizza tips post as well, I might not have fired up the grill if I hadn’t read that (I have a stone and peel), but I’m so glad I did! That smoky flavor and char make it seem even more authentic and worth the effort of making pizza at home. Thank you!
Hi,
We’ve had this twice now in one week and the recipe is incredibly easy and delicious. I doubled the batch the second time and we tried bread sticks out of them and they turned out great, just remember to turn down your oven or they will burn. Thanks!
This dough was so easy and it came out perfect! I added roasted garlic to the dough and it was amazing! Came out thin and crispy @ 500 for 8 min
I make a similar pizza myself, its very easy and much tastier than frozen.. you might want to look at making Lachmacun (spicy minced flat breads) very simple to make as well and tasty.. here is the http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lahmacunspicymincedl_86799 ..
Hope you will like it.. note that its very tasty even cold!
I made this over the weekend with the tomato, butter, and onion sauce – amazing! One question – the bites of pizza crust that weren’t covered by sauce and cheese had a very “yeast-y” flavor – slightly sour. Is there anything I can do to fix this for next time?
Thanks for the recipe! I made it last night in my cast iron skillet (following some of Slauditory’s suggestions up thread). My skillet’s not very big, so the dough ended up being a little thicker than I hoped for, but it had a lot of flavor and was soft. Since my skillet isn’t yet well seasoned, I spread about 1 TBSP of olive oil on the bottom after it was heated in the warming oven. The crust came out nicely crisped after 25 minutes at 500-400, though I should have left it in for another 5 minutes to get some char. My oven probably wasn’t hot enough. I used high protein white flour.
The pizza was small, but just right for two of us with some roasted vegetables and wine.
For the topping I followed Lebowitz’s Tomato Basil recipe: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2011/08/tomato-basil-pizza-recipe/. This was also really easy and about half of it was enough for this dough. I used romas and next time I’ll probably cut them into smaller pieces and roast them down a bit more (again, I don’t think my oven gets hot enough so an hour was not enough).
Looking forward to trying this again and enfolding some herbs in the dough.
Hi Deb! Is 2 hours the max at which I can let this rise at room temp (assuming that it has already doubled in 2 hours)? Would roughly 3 1/2 hours at room temp ruin it?
You can always slow it down in the fridge if you need to be out for longer than it needs. However, it does rise very slowly in the fridge and will probably have to be finished at room temperature when you return.
Hi, Deb! I know this is an old recipe, but I wanted to share something for the folks who’ve asked about changing this recipe entirely to whole wheat. We’ve been using this recipe with entirely whole wheat flour for a while and it’s been working great.
We’ve found that using 100% whole wheat BREAD flour, not all-purpose, really helps make for a more tender, chewy crust. (We buy ours in bulk from a natural foods store, but Bob’s Red Mill, Arrowhead Mills, and King Arthur all produce something similar.) Whole wheat seems thirstier than white, so I typically add 1-2 tablespoons more water than the recipe calls for. Lastly, I give it a good long knead in the mixing bowl until it has a bit of spring to it. (I tried just kneading it a few times to bring it together, before, and indeed, it ended up as just a sad flat cracker, not at all a pizza.)
It seems to take a bit longer to rise than white flour would, but it’s wonderful when it’s done.
I hope that this helps someone else who’s been contemplating swapping in more whole wheat flour. Thank you so much for writing this recipe and maintaining this site, Deb– we cook so many things from it, and our lives would be much less fun without your recipes!
New here.Have to visit more often. Just what I was looking for .It was delightful ! Thanks
Hi Deb!I just want to say that, thanks to your recepie: Really Simple Pizza Dough and the tip about using the top temperature on the Owen(have never thought about it before) my pizzas now taste much better!
I’m very excited to try this tonight. The recipe says it makes one small crust. About how many inches is “small”? Enough for two people? Also, how thin do you roll it out? Thank you very much!
Hi Lee — Two people, rolled out thin, about 12-inches. So, a light pizza. Some restaurants would serve a 12-inch pizza to one person but I think they’re a little crazy. We usually have it with a salad to make it a meal.
I make this as the base for my apple-bacon-onion pizza, only I put grated Cheddar in it. It’s never disappointed, with or without the cheese (I make it plain when I make your shaved asparagus pizza).
I regret the decision to use 1/2 whole wheat flour. Next time all white flour. I’ll sacrifice a little bit of health for flavor and texture. I love a good whole wheat pizza dough but this wasnt it. After tonight, I’m pretty sure that the whole wheat pizzas that I’ve loved before didnt use a 50% ratio of whole wheat to white. Lesson learned!
Thanks so much for this recipe! Delicious! I made it with whole wheat flour and posted it on my blog here:
http://kabcphotography.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/whole-wheat-pizza/
Have just got into pizza dough making and am a convert! Totally agree with your post Deb. A tip I have discovered for those worried about the time thing – blind bake the dough for 2 to 3 minutes until it just starts to colour. Then remove and cool ( or add topping to one if you are making a few bases and one to eat now). Keep the blind baked bases in the fridge for up to a week or freeze for up to a month (separate multiple ones with a little baking parchment). When you are ready for pizza, turn the oven up to full whack and heat up the tray / stone, put the topping on your base and bake for about 5 minutes, depending on size. It is now fast food but totally home-made.
Hi Deb- I have just started reading your blog (why did I not know about this sooner?!) I found this and at once had to try it- I love to cook and at certain things think I do a fairly good job, but I have NEVER been able to make a good pizza crust! (2009 was dedicated to the perfect pancake and I was thinking that 2012 might be the year to try and get the pizza crust right!) I have tried many other recipes and they always turn out dull, bready and all together not great pizza. Well, you had me at “lightly blistered” :) I tried your recipe tonight for dinner and it was PERFECTION! Yeah! It even passed the approval of all 4 (!) of my kids! Thanks so much and how great to have this one nailed by February!
p.s. is it sad that a fun night after putting all the kids to bed is clicking “surprise me” on all your recipes! :)
I have to add a little aside- I’ve made this recipe so many times now that even my boyfriend has the recipe memorized! It’s a gem. Thanks Deb.
” lightly blistered and impossible to resist” – yay for homemade pizza!! Thanks for your comment on my blog – so glad to meet another food-loving-mama. Happy Monday!
Hi – quick query, whenever I make pizza the weight of the toppings are too heavy for the base and when it goes in the oven the dough doesn’t get cooked properly – I like a very thin base. I was thinking of lightly grilling the base before, would that work? Any suggestions?
Thank you and love your blog
A teenage foodie from london
Hi Lara — I find if I just go very easy on the toppings and sauce, it keeps the pizza from getting soggy. Really, often just a 1/4 to 1/3 cup of tomato puree or sauce and the same volume of chopped toppings is plenty. Another thing I’ve learned in the years since I posted this is that the mozzarella that you purchase in water definitely leads to soggier pizza. If you can find mozz dry-wrapped, use it. If you can, let your mozzarella drain on paper towels or coffee filters for a while before using it on the pizza, so that water content doesn’t leave a puddle once it is cooked. Good luck!
Hi Deb,
I’m having the same problem Stephanie (115) and Sarah (108) had–my dough has been sitting in my warm kitchen for two hours and hasn’t risen at all. I can see white flecks around the edges, which I assume is the yeast (this is my first time baking with yeast). The yeast isn’t expired (I checked), so I don’t know what I did wrong. Any advice? Can I still bake it even if it hasn’t risen? Help!
By the way, love your carrot soup recipe… should have made that tonight instead…
WOW that looks super easy and was just what i was looking for when i found and read through your 10 pathways to easy pizza post – this recipe looks great and i will be trying this at the weekend (possibly leaving it in the fridge too) this literally made my mouth water reading it! thanks for the great recipe and hopefully (even though i am terrified of yeast) this will be great when i make it :P fingers crossed
thanks again
Kate x
Hi there!
(Just so you know this is my favorite recipe website. I appreciate that you break it down by seasons so that I can glance through and find recipes using ingredients that the local farmers have in season.)
So. My question. Is it possible to store this dough for any length of time? I’m going to freeze it tonight, but I want to know what your thoughts are.
Thanks so much!
j
Pizza dough freezes just fine. You just need to defrost it and let it rise a little again and you’re good to go.
I like to make up big batches of pizza dough on the weekend and freeze in base sized portions. Makes for some easy mid-week meal options. It’s also a good option for using anything left over in the fridge. Can anyone say broccoli, garlic and mozzarella calzone?
Love your site – just wanted to add that I made this pizza dough for the first time last weekend and I have been thinking about it ever since!! I baked it a bit before putting the toppings on and then finished it until blistered. I am making again today – SO EXCITED!
You are such a go-to for so many basic recipe seekers. For me too, so thanks. I just wanted to say that I love how long your posts live for … that is a bit weirdly thilling, especially when you consider that you are still replying to people writing comments … (yes, I tend to read the comments … )
<3 this site.
Hi Deb, Since some people have had trouble with the dough not rising in the fridge, I have to ask if I can just leave it out during the day while I’m at work and let it rise at room temperature all day? It won’t go “bad”, right?
Hi, I don’t know if anyone will read this (since I”m so late to the party) but my boyfriend makes pizza all the time. His trick is to make a double batch of the dough ( say, on the weekend) then wrap it in saran wrap in a bowl in the fridge. The only problem we’re come across is that sometimes it rises out of the bowl, blob style. Of course we could always use a bigger bowl, but our forethought is never that good. I think the longest we’ve kept it in the fridge was a couple of days.
Additionally, we once made a pizza and then stuck it in the freezer over night before cooking it. It didn’t turn out at crisp as it would have had we baked it right away, but it still did the trick.
hope this helps!
Absolutely flawless dough! And so easy! Pizza is definitely a weekly staple with us, so I’m going to try to make up some balls and freeze them. Thanks for being so awesome!
This recipe looks wonderful! And easy! I will definitely give this dough a try. Thanks for the recipe. In the past couple of years I have searched through various cookbooks and online recipes and never seemed to find the right one that wasn’t fully loaded with “extras”. This is really simple.
Soffi
i am going to start making your pizza’s i used your hints on other breads and they worked out fine, i know how to make pizza but you have been right on the money so i will try these pizza,s out. thanks big al…/tbone
This is a great recipe! I modify by using garlic infused olive oil and adding italian seasoning and parmesan to the dough.
ok – i must be crazy…i tried the fail safe pizza dough using active dry yeast (as recipe says) and it did not rise at all!!!! I mixed it straight in with dry ingredients as reciped said (rather than in lukewarm water first as i recall my mom doing) and NOTHING!! Sure it wasn’t supposed to be rapid-rise/instant yeast?? I’m so desperate, my family was waiting for my big promise of pizza tonight and i’ve failed – this does not bode well for my renewed efforts to bake with yeast…Sandy.
I have now made this 2 weeks running. It’s awesome and so EASY. I doubled the dough and made 3 ‘small’ thin crust pizzas – about 12” each. Thanks so much! ?
This worked perfectly for me, even if I was a bit of a numpty and forgot that I wanted a double batch until I’d poured the water into the first already. Just went ahead and threw in more ingredients and worked from there.
Froze half for your zucchini/squash goat cheese pizza later this week and made a spicy BBQ chicken tonight. It was great! I rolled it fairly thin and pre-heated my stone so the bottom of the crust got nice and crispy.
Next time I might add garlic powder or herbs to the dough to give it a little more umph. I brushed it with garlic butter tonight but it wasn’t quite enough. Decent taste – very similar to the local pizza place here that uses a yeast dough.
Oh, and Sandy, I used active rise and it worked as described. I wonder if your yeast is expired?
thanks for the recipe…YEAH everyone loved my pizza
Deb to the rescue yet again! I followed another recipe for the dough and it was super hard to work with. I thought to myself, “I bet Deb has a better, foolproof recipe”, and sure enough here it is. Worked out perfectly!
Thank youuuu so much!!! I’ve tried other recepies and my last one I thought I had it and my poor bf was so excited and when it came out of the oven it was awful.
Today I made yours, and it’s so perfect, crispy, yummy! We used to buy already made one but this one tastes so much better.
I love your blog!
-Nat
I just wanted to thank you for this recipe. Like so many other cooking fears, you helped me conquer this one. I had tried pizza dough before and failed miserably, so since then I always just bought prepared dough. Still it bugged me, the ease of making dough from simple ingredients I can keep in my cabinet all the time instead of picking up dough on the way home the same day. And now I have conquered it– and it really was as easy (and delicious!) as you promised. Thank you, Deb!
First timer and it was indeed as easy and as yummy as everyone said it would be. Thank you Deb and all users who were kind enough to comment on their experiences. Looking forward to SK’s book for Christmas! (the hubby has received enough hints, plus he adores the recipes from your blog so I’m sure he’ll see it as a win-win)
Deb, I love stews but am still afraid of doughs. I have tried many of your recipes and have loved them all.
I do want to try this recipe. One doubt though: do the dry ingredients need to be sifted or is that irrelevant??
Sofia — Irrelevant here. It can matter more with baking, because you want to keep the ingredients light and airy…
I knew that this recipe would take me a couple times to get right – the first time just didn’t work. After two hours, the dough was the same as before I left it to rise. I am trying a second time, but I’m activating the yeast in warm water and sugar for 10 mins, then adding the flour (not using half whole-wheat this time) and olive oil. Here’s to hoping; I really want pizza tonight!
Totally agree with you that pizza dough is super easy to make! I use to make pzza dough once I get home at 5 in afternoon, knead the dough, prepare the topping etc. Since it’s hot and humid here, 1 hour is enough to rise the dough and will be ready for dinner. Candace, the key is the kneading. Mixing yeast, warm water and sugar is correct.
One more thing, if I may suggest you to try the bread flour 125gram, all purpose flour 50gram, 4gram of dry instant yeast, 100ml warm water, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tbs olive oil.
I use to be terrified making any kind of dough with yeast but not anymore! Even my friends order pizza from me like 3-4 times a week!
Another result I’m getting is that the pizza will still soft even when you keep it overnight at room temperatur so it will be perfect for breakfast and my kids use to wrap it for school snack.
Love this dough!! I don’t usually follow a recipe for any type of bread, and was leery of no sugar to feed the yeast…. but it was perfect. Didn’t rise much, but sure relaxed into a beautiful dough. I did reduce the salt by half (personal preference).
Think this would make a beautiful foccacia :)
I made a thin crust pizza on Friday night using this recipe, and it worked wonderfully! I added a bit of lukewarm milk instead of water, and added a teaspoon of sugar. I really loved the end result. Thanks a lot Deb! LOVE your blog!
This is a very good basic dough recipe for pizza. I have been making pretty much the same one for years except I use 3 cups total of King Arthur unbleached and bread flour, because I always make 2 pizzas. (My salt content is a bit higher at 1 Tbls. total.) There is a huge difference in flavor and texture if you use generic unbleached or even Gold Medal or Pillsbury flour. Target sells KA currently for about $3 and change, which is very cheap for that premium brand. As Deb says, you can do a quick rise, but the longer the rise, the better the flavor. I prep mine doughs on Wednesday nights and Friday is pizza night.
Also, as Deb says, you don’t need to wash oven stones. I rarely even rinse mine. There is no bacteria worry because of the high heats that the stone is exposed to. Spills and baked on foods can be scraped off with your metal spatula. After going through several pizza stones at Target, I splurged at a specialty store for a $55 square pizza stone two years ago. Got a peel, too.
I’ve made this recipe several times, but the dough never rises. It tastes fine, but it’s really starting to bother me that it doesn’t rise. I make the recipe as is, and I even know the yeast isn’t dead because I’ve successfully made another bread with yeast from the same little packet grouping. Thanks for the help.
It didn’t rise, at all, after two hours. All fresh ingredients, including fresh active yeast, purchased today. Followed this recipe to a “T.” What am I doing wrong?
Hi Dan the Unsuccessful — What a name! The recipe is for active dry yeast, not fresh. Did you use fresh yeast?
Hi Deb, I love your recipes, and your site. Thanks for the food beauty you are giving us! My question is this: I have made the pizza dough a few times, and I really like it. I can never seem to get it to stay rolled out enough, no matter how thin I roll it out, it bounces back and I spend a lot more time at the pan squishing it and squeezing to stretch it again. I have a good-eating family of five, so I make your recipe x 3 or 4. Am I not rolling enough or hard enough or what? Help! Thanks!
Christine — It probably needs to rise more or be punched down less before rolling out.
Hi Deb, thanks for this. I’m on the lookout for pizza recipes now as I’m looking to have a home- made pizza party for xmas this year …As a novice cook, pullin this off for 12 ppl will be a huge challenge, but im lookin fwd to this :)
Could you please advice on the timelines if im looking to make this for 12 ppl please ? Do I make the dough one day in advance and after the initial rise, store it in the fridge till 25th morn and then start rolling it out by 25th aft ? After i roll out the pizza’s , am i supposed to put it back in the fridge, layering with a clingfilm between each pie, till the guests arrive ? Appreciate your help very much , thanks ever so much.
Hi Sarah — I would make all of your dough the day before. Get it to the point where the second rise begins and put it in the fridge overnight (floured tray, covered with plastic wrap or the tray slid into a freezer bag, can do this in several balls, one for each pizza). An hour or so before needed (maybe 1.5, to be safest) take it out of the fridge and let it return to room temperature and finish proofing before rolling out. It will be a cinch.
Hi Deb, thanks so much for getting back to me, it’s really helpful. Will try like you suggested and will let u know how it goes..fingers crossed:)
Meery xmas to u and ur family
I see from your suggestion re: thicker crust that the recipe can be doubled. Do you think one could triple it? Or would it be safer to stick to multiple double batches? Thanks!
I’ve been playing with this recipe for the past couple years, easy and delicious.
I’ve found that if the dough doesn’t rise then it needs more liquid. Here in dry wintery colorado, I use at least 3/4 cup water. When mixing by hand I find it easier to incorporate flour into a wet dough then it is to incorporate water into a dry dough. It should be slightly tacky to clean dry hands.
I also add 1 tsp of vital wheat gluten to the mix. With that I can stretch and toss this dough to a thin 20″ (and sometimes more) with still a nice crust “handle” around the outside. I tend to cut the dough ball in half then stretch and toss the half to a super thin 12″-14″ crust. Crunchy like a cracker in the middle with a slightly chewy “handle”. MMMMM….oh so tasty
doesn’t yeast need sugar to activate it?
Laurie — No, but it can help. There’s no harm in adding a pinch here, but it will work even if you don’t.
Very impressive. This is far better than the Betty Crocker recipe I had been using. I think the main difference is the cooking technique. I use 100% White Whole Wheat flour and the pizza dough was still soft/moist and easy to chew with just a bit of crispness and reminded me of the pizza we used to get in Germany. I cooked it at 500 degrees F and I brushed it with olive oil then a light coating of pasta sauce before putting it in the oven for 5 min. Then I took it out and added precooked diced beef, precooked mushrooms and onions and monterrey jack cheese. Then I put it in for an additional 5 min to make the total cooking time 10 min. Perfect, thank you!
i know we’re behind with the times, but i just made this tonight and it was delish!! hubby and i both loved it. so much better than the premade crust from Trader Joes!
Hi Deb, congratulation about your book! I just bought the UK version of it and tried the pizza dough recipe. It calls for 100ml of water, which I find too little, so I looked here (your blog) and it calls for 1/2 cup which is 125ml. Could you please advise what is the correct amount? With 100ml of water the mixture is definitely very dry, so I have to add more water a number of times. Thank you.
Hi Anastasia — This is not the same recipe that’s in the book. That said, the book’s rushed recipe calls for 1/2 cup in the US version, which would be closer to 120 ml. I am sorry for the typo and will alert the publishers that it needs to be changed.
Thanks Deb for the answer. In the book, there are 2 recipies for the pizza dough: rushed and leisurely, and both call for 100 ml of water with 200g of flour. Definitely not enough to mix a rough dough, it come out just flaky. I will make a note in my book then. :)
Anastasia — Yikes! The flour weight in the US edition is 190 grams. I am… incredibly frustrated to learn of these errors and am sorry for the trouble they caused.
I think they should have just left everything in cups :)
Hi Deb! I have made this recipe once a week now for about two months. It has replaced our weekly take out pizza. It is fantastic. The only thing I cannot seem to figure out is why it doesn’t brown on the bottom as much as I would like. I use the williams-sonoma gold touch nonstick pizza crisper. Do you think it’s something with the pan I use or something with the way I am making the dough?
Patricia — You’ll get better browning from a pizza stone, cast-iron pan or any baking sheet that is not non-stick. Non-stick isn’t the best for browning, I’ve found.
beans and carrots!! awwwwesome.
Deb, instead of replacing your pizza stone, you might try a baking steel (http://bakingsteel.com/). It got rave reviews from the folks at Serious Eats (http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/09/the-pizza-lab-the-baking-steel-delivers.html).
Oh, and I belatedly see that this post is from 2007. So no doubt you’ve replaced you stone by now :)
Deb,
Any luck figuring out that Eli’s salad? I am obsessed with their salad also and laughed when i read this! I have tried to reproduce it with little success. Please share if you can!
Lori — Oh my goodness, yes! I shared it as “Pickled Cole Slaw” in this article — just a couple months later. :)
Hello Deb,
Can you please tell me the difference in the rise time if I use quick rise yeast? I would so appreciate it.
cynthia — What is quick rise yeast? Do you mean rapid rise? It’s actually not much quicker (in my experience).
Thank you deb so much for answering. Here’s a big question I’d like you to help me with. First off let me say your recipe is wonderful!! I have honestly been trying to perfect pizza now for over a year and with the mix of a couple of things I finally nailed it. For me it had to do with not being afraid to turn my oven up all the way- 550 degrees and getting away from the pizza tray and using the stone. It is perfect!! Thanks to your idea of what to do without having a pizza peel. Slipping the parchment onto the stone is ideal! All three things were due to your suggestions.
Question: If I want to make the pizza for say 8-10 people……….how would you do it other than doubling the recipe(which I always do) several times? Could I triple or quadruple the ingredient amts?? It would save some work if I could. What do you think? Thank you ahead of time!! I read about doing it the day before.
cynthia — Glad you’re enjoying the pizza. You can scale (double, quadruple) without any trouble.
i just made this, and i am literally eating it as we speak- turned out perfect. especially considering this is my first attempt at baking any type of bread and/or bread related item. i am shocked. thanks so much for this super easy awesome recipe :) if i can do it.. believe me, anyone can.
Hi Deb, I looked for conversions to weights (grams) in the comments but couldn’t see any.
Can you please include them?
Hi irma — Just added!
Thank you deb! I just checked it. I was using 210 grams, will rewrite this now in my recipe notebook.
Deb, my dough tasted a bit yeasty. Would letting it rise longer keep this from happening? My dough seemed to have doubled in a little less than 2 hours, but honestly, maybe it wasn’t fully doubled, it was difficult to tell, I know it was bigger and inflated, but maybe it should have gone longer? Would this help the flavor? Also, does water matter in dough quality/flavor? Tap water vs. bottled spring water? I tend to use our bottled spring water when cooking. I remember hearing someone say they don’t have good pizza out west because the water is different, so that got me thinking….
Hi Julie — Can you explain the yeasty taste to me more? I always thought that the fermented fresh taste of dough was a good thing. If you’re unsure if the dough has doubled, here are two tricks: 1. rather straightforward: Put the dough in a large glass measuring cup and mark on the side where it would be when it is doubled before you start so that you’ll know (hat tip to Rose Levy Beranbaum for this one). 2. more of an approximation: lightly flour two fingers and press them into the dough’s center. If the impression stays, it’s probably doubled. If it bounces back even a bit, it probably needs more time. Hope that helps. (P.S. I wouldn’t fret the water thing too much unless it was really hard and not something you like to drink.)
Awesome tip! and I have a really large glass measuring cup that will work perfectly! Not sure about the taste…I did make it again and let it go longer and noticed it less. Thanks so much! :)
FYI, a pizza dough-fail can turn into a really nice focaccia! I tried the above recipe with a refrigerator rise while we were at work. i think i must have added a little too much water, because when i got home, the dough was way too sticky to roll out into a pizza. i almost threw out the dough in frustration, but i’m glad i didn’t. My husband noted the wetness of the dough was more like focaccia dough – so, we spread it in an 8×8 pan, drizzled with olive oil, salt and herbs, and it baked up in 20 minutes to a perfect YUM.
I’ve been searching for a simple white-dough pizza dough recipe for a long time and this looks great. One question though: what flour did you use? All purpose flour or bread flour?
Kirin — I usually use all-purpose. You can use bread flour if you have it.
Is it possible to quadruple/quintuple a batch then freeze? I have three young children and a very large husband. I find that my cooking days are compressed. It works better if I spend a Sunday making batches of things that I can heat up and serve later in the week. I’m afraid of dough, so detailed instructions if this is possible would be much appreciated.
I talk about freezing doughs in comments #72, 217 and others. You can freeze it. I would do so after the first rise, ideally. As it defrosts, it should proof some more and then you can roll it out.
I made these yesterday into 6 mini pizza crusts, baked them for 3 mins, then cooled them and put them into the fridge in an airtight container. This morning, I topped them and baked for 7 mins. My kids couldn’t get enough of them. A wonderful crispy yet chewy texture in the crust and I love the one-bowl easiness! Loved the tip about letting it pause. I made my second batch with head flour, it’s rising as I type this! Thank you, thank you!
Sorry, I meant ‘bread’ flour!
Just made this and it works well for grilling. I did do the split between whole wheat flour and white flour which helped the dough keep its shape on the grill.
Two victories in a row! I used this recipe on the grill and it turned out beautifully.
http://macgooter.blogspot.com/2014/07/how-many-favorites-do-i-get.html
That tip on using parchment paper is life changing! I have a peel but have never been able to slide it on and off easily. This makes it a breeze, and I can stop trying to figure out how to get the peel to fit in the cabinet.
Hi Deb,
I just finished the kneading part but I am not very sure about the consistency of my dough. Measuring everything carefully and putting together, I had a very no-knead-bread like texture. I knead it for a while this way with my fingertips actually, then onto a floury surface and add more flour to shape it at least a ball. I wonder did I do something wrong? Should I supposed to leave the dough that wet?
İdil — A damp dough is just fine. You can use floured fingers to stretch it out. If it’s too difficult to work with, more flour can be added a spoonful at a time, but with more flour, you’ll get a stiffer and more dry dough so it’s best to only add it sparingly. Good luck~
Do you have a recipe for no-knead 100% whole wheat pizza?
Deb,
On the really old question of where in the oven to bake the pizza- America’s test kitchen recommends putting it in the top part of the oven. I don’t remember why. It seems counter-intuitive but I have had better results since using this advice. Thought your readers may want to know!
I made this yesterday. It seemed like the dough wasn’t rising much at all, but it rolled out fine (into a childishly not-round shape, oops) but cooked up great at 500 degrees and was really yummy. The sad part is I bought a Pillsbury pizza crust just in case the homemade version didn’t work out, so now I have to someday cook that gross thing knowing how easy it is to make actual delicious pizza crust.
Also, it would be really helpful to note in the recipe the approximate size you should roll the crust out to. I know it’s in the comments, but it’s not that easy to find.
Thanks for the great easy recipe.
What quantity of rapid rise yeast(instant yeast) should I use since I don’t have active yeast??
queeni — It can often be used 1:1 and the liquid doesn’t need to be warmed for instant, but I do find that instant can take up to an extra hour to rise.
I’ve been making this almost once a week for the past year (I love routine and Sunday night pizza/TV with a friend is one of my regular events). I’ve been using 2/3 whole wheat flour (1 cup) and 1/3 all purpose (1/2 cup) most of the time. Last week, I decided on a whim to attempt this will all whole wheat flour and it worked well. A bit more gluten might be worth trying, but I had no complaints.
I have a suggestion about homemade pizza sauce. I don’t have any store bought right now, so I decided to try to make some. I got a quart of homemade whole tomatoes out and ran them through the food mill to remove the seeds. I put the sauce that remained in a quart sauce pan and added one can of tomato paste, regular size. I then added a few herbs and spices. A bit of oregano, rosemary, etc. I cooked it down unti thick. It tastes fantastic and looks better than store bought. i haven’t made the pizza yet, but will write later to let you know how good it was. It’s so rich and thick and homemade. Thought I’d share that. Joan
I cook pizza on overturned oiled cookie sheets in the bottom level of a hot oven (hot as she goes).
Cook about 5 – 7 minutes and test if the crust is firm. As soon as it is slide off onto the rack alone. Cook another 3 – 5 minutes.
Make sure the middle is firm – as I once made a pizza with a nice hole in the middle where the under ready crust fell onto the bottom of the oven. Smoked the pizza good though.
Cook on the bottom rack until done – then turn on the broiler to finish if you like.
I tried this dough today – tripled the recipe, and used fresh yeast (I always do, I find it easier) – 20 g (half a packet yeast) for the triple recipe.
I kneaded everything together (no “starter” for the yeast), and put it directly in the fridge. We went out for about 2 hrs, and I took the dough out of the fridge, divided in 2 parts, and rolled it out. It was enough to fill two baking sheets (ca. 35×40 cm).
I let it rise for about 15 min (in the rolled out state), put on toppings, and baked it in a very hot oven “until blistered”. Perfect!!
From now on, I’ll use the fridge method a lot. Now I can do pizza for sunday lunch :)
Not rising. What am I doing wrong? Bought brand new yeast and it was not expired. Tried putting the dough in the oven with some warm water, still nothing. What can I do differently? How to troubleshoot?
kris — Did it eventually start working? While these are the times that usually work for me with most brands, I do occasionally get yeast that seems more sluggish — or maybe the kitchen is colder — and it takes longer to take off. But good yeast always should.
I use this pizza dough recipe for every pizza. It is always perfect, even adapted for mixing in my food processor. Yesterday it was 95F outside so I let the dough rise 1 hour outside! Also divided dough in half and cooked two smaller pizzas in my toaster oven — again, outside. I was skeptical, but the pizza and crust were amazing.
Love all your recipes. Thanks …
we made the really simple homemade pizza crust yesterday – I tripled it to get 2 pizzas and they were awesome!!! thank you!
Hello, Thanks so much for sharing this perfect recipe!
I warmed up the water a bit in the microwave and tossed in the yeast, salt, oil, and a bit of sugar and mixed well. Then finally, tossed in the flour to form a sticky ball. I used a plastic fork coated with oil to mix the ball and didn’t knead the dough at all. I let the dough rise for only an hour since I was in a time pinch then plopped it onto a baking pan and only used flour on the tips of my fingers to spread it out. This truly is the best Christmas gift I can get- perfect dough. It tasted so light and yet crispy with lots of flavor. Kind of reminds me of an upscale pizza hut dough.
I love love love this dough. Hubby has severe triglyceride so we are always on low fat diet, that means no cheese over our pizza. This dough is so flavorful that we finally stopped missing cheese. I made this numerous time and over the course I added some tweaks like- I replace 1/2 cup flour with whole wheat flour, add teaspoons of garlic powder, sugar and oregano. I also add 1/4 cup of powdered milk as in another recipe of yours you mentioned adding powdered milk creates soft bread. I have been following this rule since in all my breads. These days I divide the dough in halves, roll each dough in about 10 inch rectangle and make burrito style rolls. This recipe is so adaptable. One funny thing, when you mentioned small 12 inch pizza I was a bit surprised. Here in our country (Bangladesh) the largest pizza is 12 inch. Our pizza starts at 6inch diameter.
So, I’ve been looking for a good pizza crust recipe. We’re looking to make our own homemade frozen pizza. We haven’t tried freezing a pizza yet, but our very first try on this recipe, my husband went totally overboard on the toppings. He added over a half an onion, a container of sliced mushrooms, a normal amount of pepperoni, and a whole pepper. We expected the pizza crust to be mushy and awful.
We instead had a hugely topped pizza with an AMAZING crust that stayed stiff and held together despite our blatant abuse of it! It was amazing. I’ve now copied to recipe into our often used ones, and though we always double (thick crust is our preferred), we plan on seeing how it works as a frozen pizza. Thank you for sharing. We love your simple methods and great recipes that really work!
Hi Deb! I’m wondering what I could cover my dough with instead of plastic wrap? Would a damp tea towel work for this recipe? Thank you!!
Even a dry tea towel is fine, just make sure the bowl is big enough that it won’t run into it.
I have to say that of all your pizza dough recipes, this one is by far the winner! It’s relatively fast: 2 hours total, including sauce and cheese prep, which is easy to do while the dough rises — it leaves time for cocktails too!
The game changer for me was swapping half the flour for freshly ground wheat flour (I have an old-fashioned grinder in the basement.) The first time it was by accident because I was low on white flour, but the dough was so easy to handle — supple and stretchy, easy to roll out, forgiving enough to be coaxed into shape — and the taste is amazingly complex, nutty and chewy, providing a perfect backdrop for the sauce and cheese. My dad was wide-eyed: “I didn’t know pizza *crust* could be this good!”
Last night we put it on the grill, still using this recipe, and it was even better than the countertop pizza oven we had used before. My husband has a box with wood chips in there, so the pizza had a faint smoky flavor in addition to the amazing texture of the crust.
For reference, I quadruple this recipe and make 6 pizzas, each 12 inches in diameter. 3/4 of one of those will completely satisfy your average hungry adult. The first time we had a crowd for dinner, the second time just 4, so I’m going to try freezing the leftover dough and see if there’s any change in flavor or texture. Either way, this recipe is my holy grail, and my whole family thanks you!
I know this is an old post, but wanted to share that I made this last night for my family but made it gluten free and it turned out so well! The crust was still delicious, thin, and crispy. It even passed the test with my dad who isn’t always into the gluten free thing. thank you for this! I will definitely be making again :)
Long-time lurker here, wanting to add a few tips for this recipe that I use ALL the time. I can attest that the slow rise in the fridge is miraculous – my standard mode of operation has me mix this up in the morning, stash it in the fridge before I leave for work, and pull it out to warm up on the counter as soon as I get home. Once it’s close-ish to room temperature, punch it down for the 20-minute rise and it’s good to go. I also pre-heat my pizza stone for probably 30 minutes under the broiler, pre-cook my toppings, and then bake the whole thing under the broiler for 4-6 minutes, depending on the oven. Freakin’ amazing. Even the highest oven heat doesn’t quite get that blister-y, gorgeous texture like the broiler does, although it pretty much only works with a very thin crust.
I have a pizza peel now, but before I had one I used a flattened box from a 24-pack of Dr. Pepper and it worked just fine. I imagine you could do the same thing with a flattened boot box or anything else thin-ish and reasonably sturdy.
One additional tip, I usually measure out the half cup of water quite hot, and then add herbs and spices to it to steep while I’m prepping the other ingredients. By the time I’m ready to add the water, the herbs (basil, red pepper flakes, oregano, garlic, rosemary, whatever) have infused the water nicely and it gives the dough a really nice depth. I also like to add about a half teaspoon of sugar, which tastes great and seems to help a bit with reviving the dough for the second rise when it comes out of the fridge.
I make your lazy pizza dough all the time and I love it, but I tried this recipe tonight when my three year old begged for pizza at 4 o’clock. It’s good! A little too good, actually, I ate more pizza than my usual too much pizza. I doubled it and made two pizzas, since we’re used to two little ones from the lazy dough recipe. Yum! Different textures, for sure, but I enjoy both. Love it. Thank you, Deb. (And also, I think next time I might divide the dough before shaping and resting. It didn’t seem to be a problem, it would just be a tiny bit prettier I think.)
I am going to try this – but i always make your Lazy Pizza Dough – I just love it – its so light and so easy to make – and everyone who has had my pizza says i make the best crust (I always refer them to your blog) Do you prefer this one over the Lazy – Thanks
The crust seemed very salty to me and I wonder if that is why it did not rise much–since salt inhibits yeast growth.
We have a pretty sizable family, and I would need to probably quadruple this recipe at a minimum. I’m used to making multiples of recipes, and I know that sometimes things can double (or more) just fine, but sometimes multiplying ingredients just doesn’t quite translate. Do you have (without, I’m guessing, having quadrupled it), any recommendations on how to do so? Should I stick to doubling and just do it twice, or a rec as to at what point during the rise/rest/roll out to divide into portions for each pizza?
I make sheet pan sized pizzas often; I find that the ingredients and dough scale equally, so if you’re doubling one, double the other. Hope that helps.
I’m loving the ease of this recipe however I’m wondering if my technique is off. I’ve made this dough two weekends in a row and I’m always fighting to get it rolled and stretched out. It’s like elastic. Is that normal? Also it doesn’t get as crispy which isn’t a necessarily a bad thing but wondering if that’s what I should expect.
If it’s elastic enough that it’s popping back a lot, it needs more time. Heat your oven to 200 and turn it off. Put the dough in (wrapped in bowl) for 5, 10, or 15 minutes and see if it helps move it along faster.
Does it matter on what flour you use..?
No
This made a supple, easy-to-work-with dough that rolled/stretched easily and made a thin but stll yeasty crust. (I am *not* a flatbread fan.) Doubled the recipe and made one red pizza, oregan and garlic in the sauce, mozzarella, black olives, and a tiny bit of anchovy, and one white, with garlic, smoked mozzarella, and arugula. Thanks so much for this recipe!
Wow! Such an easy recipe. Would surely try it!😊
Looking at your pizza, I really want to make it at home. Let me use your recipe. thanks for sharing this recipe
I have to say this has been my go to recipe since 2007! *chefs kiss*
Hi, Just a quick question. I’ve been making this pizza dough for years now! It has become our go to weekly pizza and we absolutely love it. I was wondering if anyone has tried of making this with just sourdough. Last week I made it but reduced the ammount of yeast and added a 2 tbsp of ripe sourdough. The result was amazing! I totally recommend it. However, I was curios on how it’d turn out just with sourdough
Have a great Friday everyone!
This recipe was part of the Painless Pizza email I got earlier this month. Since then I’ve made pizza not once… not twice… but three times in three weeks. This crust is easy as pie (pun intended). I make a double batch, press it into my large cast iron skillet, and bake it in my oven when it’s as hot as I can get it.
My family LOVES it, and I swear we’d eat it every day if we could. We’ve been switching up the toppings, but the dough remains the same.
So good. So easy. So good.
Your Lazy Pizza dough is my standard but I was pressed for time tonight and thought I’d try this recipe. The texture was fantastic—so airy and crispy! The flavor is better on the long fermented dough but this was a great swap! It’s my new No. 2 recipe for when I’m short on time.
Hi!
I’m hoping to make this pizza dough the night before I need to use it. Can I leave it in the fridge to rise for a whole day or would that be too long? Is there a way to make the dough this far ahead of time?
So… this recipe lists 1 teaspoon of kosher salt in the narrative description, but 2 teaspoons in the ‘recipe card’ portion of the post. And because I just looked at the recipe card, 2 tsp of kosher salt is what I used the first time I made this – it was almost inedibly salty and the yeast was badly inhibited.
I can’t figure out how to say “you might want to fix the post” without sounding like a bitch, but I don’t mean it like that, I swear.
Question: I have 16 year old twins. One loves to cook (and eats the most). I am a single mom, so there are three of us. I am thinking three pizzas would be required. Any tips for the sequence to keep the pizzas coming and how to split up the recipe to accommodate several pizzas. I would likely make it in the morning and let it rise during the day. I would also like to freeze the dough for a quick dinner. We are from Europe, and usually eat at 9pm.
I’m an inexperienced cook who has spent the past two weeks discovering how simple it is to make food for oneself. It’s expensive to order out for pizza and I couldn’t believe how easy it was for me to make my own using this recipe. I was ecstatic when my dough actually doubled. Your blog has been incredibly helpful and encouraging to someone who never thought she could cook before.
I found another good recipe for a simple homemade pizza, if anyone is interested, advise https://topfood.club/en/reczeptyi/main-dishes/pizza/meat-pizza/pizza-lomo.html
Thank you! :)
Just a heads up – in your notes you mention 1 tsp salt. However on the recipe card you require 2 tsp salt. WAY TOO Much!
Please correct!
Hello! I’m sure I’m staring straight at this info. What is the oven temp when baking? Thank you!
My 11 year old son and I made this together. Turned out great!
Do you have a gluten free pizza dough recipe? I love pizza. I could literally eat it everyday, but the gluten is not my friend. I need a good pizza dough recipe (no almond flour as I am allergic to almonds as well).
If using a stand mixer like a Kitchenaid, how long and on what speed would you knead the dough?
Thanks!
I rarely go over 2 for kneading
This is my go to pizza dough and has been for years now even though I still have to look it up every time I make….sad I know. But I just realized there is no oven temp for the recipe. I have, in the past been setting the oven at 425 but it seems that lately I am getting it a bit too brown and less than chewy. Anyway I am going to try the basic 350 and see how it goes. Any suggestions? Thanks so much!
I have made this and it was so easy and turned out well – except that 2 tsp of kosher salt, which is listed in the ingredients list, is WAY too much. It was so salty it was almost inedible. I think this was a mistake in the ingredients list as you only mentioned 1 tsp of salt in your written discussion?
Way too salty with the 2 tsp. I imagine that the 1 tsp would be more reasonable. If you’re reading this before making, scale back the salt.