Raise your hand if you never get pizza right when you make it at home — that the dough doesn’t rise in the time the recipe says it should or it’s impossible to roll out; or that you get it rolled out but once baked, it tastes less like a good pizza crust and more like a tough cracker. Or maybe th opposite happens, that it’s so thick and bready, it reminds you more of a bagel, and sadly, not in a good way. Raise your hand if it never resembles the stuff from you favorite wood-wired pizzeria, all bubbled and crisp but stretchy within, with charred spots throughout and slices that don’t flop like overcooked spaghetti once lifted, sauce and cheese sliding away from you just when you need them in your mouth the most.
Me, me, me, me, me. I suspect that all home cooks have a few demon dishes, things they make a million times and are never fully satisfied with, but are still so obsessed that they can never resist a new angle or tactic that promises to bring them closer to their ideal. However, they’re usually normal things, common plagues like roast chicken, perfect buttermilk biscuits or brownies. I realize that it’s entirely possible that you can’t believe I’m talking about pizza again. But I can’t help it. I’ve been cheating on every pizza recipe I’ve made before and I think you should do the same.
It started almost predictably in Rome, the kind of food city that makes it hard to ignore the gaping space between what you thought you’d been cooking fairly passably at home and the ideal specimen in front of you that bears no resemblance to what had previously been your victory. I’d wanted to keep cooking thoughts at bay — I was on vacation! — but as we ate pizza after pizza (for the pizza-loving kid, was our transparent excuse) and I stared down the guys throwing them together behind the counter, the follow things plagued me:
- Why was I so obsessed with putting really good fresh mozzarella (the stuff that comes in water) on pizza? Sure, it’s the most delicious to eat plain, or sliced as it is in a caprese salad. But that water makes pizza wet. Wet pizza flops. Aged mozzarella (the stuff that comes wrapped tightly in plastic and feels more dry to the touch) melts well and shouldn’t add an excess of water. It also more closely resembles what I saw them putting on the pizza behind the counter. (A few places looked like they had run the firm mozzarella through a food mill with large holes for pebbly bits that were easily grabbed in handfuls from a bucket and scattered. I couldn’t work there because I’d probably be snacking on them all of the time.)
- I realized a while ago that good pizza places almost never use cooked tomato sauces, but canned tomatoes that had been pureed to various textures (slightly doctored up with salt or pepper flakes or garlic, or sometimes a pinch of sugar to compensate for the extra acidity added for canning safety) and cook instead in the oven’s blistering heat. But, I still had problems with my tomatoes being too wet to hold the cheese in place well. The stuff I saw them swirling on pizza behind the counter looked so much less… sloshy. Were they draining off their tomatoes for a while before processing them to make the sauce.
- Why are most dough recipes in such a rush? I’m guilty as well. Thus far, my goal has been to show how fast and easy it can be to make pizza for dinner. But, I also was only moderately happy with the results — good enough, but far from ideal. It finally occurred to me while eating pizza in one of those ancient tiny restaurants that they’re probably not rushing through their dough-making, that they probably mix giant batches before they leave at night to use the following one, which means that they need to slow the process down significantly. The first way to do this is in the fridge, but I didn’t see any walk-in refrigerators; it would hardly seem the most efficient way to handle the dough. The second way would be to use much, much less yeast. The advantage of growing your dough very slowly isn’t just better flavor, but that you end up with a flexible dough with range of time (say, between 18 and 24 hours) when it could be considered “done,” as it’s not going to change terribly much from hour to hour. Whoa.
And with that, I came home and tried a few new things.
Switching from fresh mozzarella to aged was easy, and in fact saves not only money but time, because it keeps in the fridge for much longer (some brands for weeks) than the stuff in water, which is like a ticking time bomb of foulness if you don’t use it right away. When baked onto pizza, it bubbles and blisters, rather than just spreading thin and almost disappearing. Ding!
Straining the canned tomatoes for the sauce before blending them was a huge eye-opener — a full 1 2/3 cups of tomato juices (hello, Bloody Marys!) came out of a 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes. What was leftover and pureed with garlic, salt and pepper flakes was velvety and perfect — just the right amount of moisture to make it saucy but not so much to make the pizza wet and floppy. Ding!
I spent a lot of time doing math and fiddling with yeast and flour levels, trying to figure out a pizza dough that would could rise for the better part of 24 hours without becoming overproofed. I came up with a formula of roughly 1/2 teaspoon yeast to 3ish cups of flour before crawling out from under whatever rock I’ve been under while the rest of the cooking universe discovered Jim Lahey’s gorgeous pizza dough and realizing that he’d essentially come up with almost the exact same formula a long time ago. Of course, I used his instead. I mean, he’s the no-knead bread guy; we can trust him.
Pizzas made with his dough were trickier than I was used to (it uses more water than most doughs, thus is softer and stickier), but made me an instant convert — they were deeply flavored, complex like a great loaf of artisanal bread, and the texture was out of this world, the crust’s exterior crisp like a thin cracker, giving way to a stretchy interior. I made it once before I divorced every pizza dough I’ve used before; we are through.
But, I had one small quibble with it, which is that it was intended for an 18-hour rise and I wasn’t sure how that would work for most people who go to work each day. Would it be made at midnight for a 6 p.m. dinner the next day? Would it be made before work (7 a.m.) for a 1 a.m. dinner? Neither option sounded ideal. And so I fiddled with the yeast levels until I came up with three versions, one that I hope will meet every schedule, because nobody should ever be denied pizza. The first can be assembled at what I call “dishes time,” the night before, after you’re done with dinner (because who wants to assemble a dough for tomorrow’s dinner while making tonight’s?) and will be ready for dinnertime the next day. The second can be assembled when you wake up in the morning, before you go to work, and will be ready to use when you come home at dinnertime. And the third, well, that was mostly for me because I work at home and tend to realize around noon that I have no groceries for dinner and don’t feel like buying more. It can be started at lunchtime and will be ready at dinner (this is ideal for weekends, too). The longest rising version has the deepest flavor, but the 6-hour rise is nothing to sneer at; even at the shortest span, it’s head-and-shoulders above every pizza dough I’ve made before.
None of the schedules will require multiple bowls, machinery, special tools/stones/boards, expensive ingredients, kneading, yeast pre-proofing, refrigeration, or rigid adherence to the clock. All are forgiving and flexible, and adapt to your schedule, not vice-versa. We all need more recipes like that, yes?
Pizza tips, previously: I cannot believe that it’s been over five years (internet, I am basically your grandmother; does anyone need a tissue from my sweater cuff?) since I wrote 10 Paths to Painless Pizza-Making but I still stand behind all of it. It’s hopefully a great primer on how to remove the anxiety from making pizza. It could be roughly summed up as “Sure, pizza stones/peels/etceteras are great, but you can make great pizza at home with stuff you already have around.”
Pizza dough, previously: I’ve shared two pizza doughs here to date, and there are two more variations in the book. What the two here and the rushed version in the book have in common is an obsession with trying to help you find a way to get pizza made in under an hour, and while this is a lofty goal, in hindsight, I think the crust suffers. They work — they fill the niche — but they have nothing on the flavor from a longer rise such as this. Here, ease of use isn’t about saving time, but effort — these are less work to assemble (no proofing, kneading, or rushing) — and I haven’t used any of my older recipes since landing on this earlier this summer.
Pizza varieties, previously: Breakfast Pizza, Grilled Eggplant and Olive Pizza, Ramp Pizza, Leek, Chard and Corn Flatbread, Pizza with Bacon, Onions and Cream, Shaved Asparagus Pizza, Lemony Zucchini Goat Cheese Pizza, Pizza with Red and Yellow Peppers, Jim Lahey’s Potato Pizza and Pizza Bianca and Roasted Acorn Squash and Gorgonzola Pizza
Lazy Pizza Dough
I used Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Pizza formula* as my jumping off point, but then made a few changes. First, I adjusted the yeast levels to rising times that I thought would work better for most of our schedules (i.e. so you can start after dinner for dinner the next evening, before you go to work or at lunchtime for dinner the same day). Then, I adjusted the volume. His original recipe is supposed to make 4 10 to 12-inch round pizzas but I found if I 3/4-ed it, it actually made two perfect 9×13-ish pizzas (we like the way rectangular pies slice up at home) or two 12-inch rounds, which neatly fed 4 people for dinner. The proportions below are for these sizes. Finally, Lahey finds that his cups of flour weigh in more heavily than I do (133 grams vs. 125 grams), but for simplicity (they also match the King Arthur package weights, and I mostly use KA flours at home), I defaulted to mine instead. I’m sorry if that last sentence made your head hurt, too.
The best things to know about this recipe are that it doesn’t need to be kneaded and the yeast doesn’t need to be proofed. You simply dump and stir the whole mess together in one bowl (this will take less than 5 minutes of your time) and go on with your day; it will be ready when you are. If you get started with it an hour late or early on either end, you should find the pizza dough just fine to use. It rises at room temperature; it doesn’t take up space in your fridge or require time to warm up; it doesn’t need to be babysat. You can choose the schedule that works for you because it fits itself to your day, not the other way around, thank goodness.
The scariest thing about this dough is that it is very, very soft. You won’t roll it out, you’ll stretch and nudge it with floured fingertips into a pizza-like shape. It will stick to things and annoy you; you will be convinced that this messy blob will never become a pizza. Do not panic. When it comes out of the oven, you’ll know why you put up with it — the exterior crackles, the interior stretches, and the flavor has the depth of an artisanal loaf of bread.
Updated with extra water: Early commenter fairly consistently said they found the dough drier than they expected, and this is my fault. My doughs were so soft with 1 1/4 cups water that I dropped it down to 1 cup + 3 tablespoons when writing this, obviously this was incorrect. Do keep in mind that 125 gram cups are light cups of flour — spoon-and-sweep or fluff-and-sweep style, and three cups packed more tightly (say, scoop-and-sweep) will indeed make the dough feel firmer. In the end, the dough should be mostly fine regardless, but I do feel that more damp doughs seem to have more of that crackly exterior/stretchy interior of dreamy pizza doughs. Hope that helps.
Yield: 2 9×13-inch roughly rectangular or 2 12-inch roundish pizzas. We find that they serve 4 for dinner. Dibs on leftovers go to the person washing dishes.
Options:
- Overnight Dough Schedule: Begin between 8 and 9 p.m the evening before for dinner between 6 to 8 p.m. (approx. 22-hour dough)
- All-Day Dough Schedule: Begin between 6 and 8 a.m that day for dinner between 6 to 8 p.m. (approx. 12-hour dough)
- Part-Day Dough Schedule: Begin around noon that day for dinner between 6 to 8 p.m. (approx. 6-hour dough)
3 cups (375 grams) all-purpose flour (bread flour works too)
Slightly heaped 1/8, 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast (for Overnight, All-Day, or Part-Day Schedules respectively, above)
1 1/2 teaspoons sea or kosher salt
1 1/4 cup water, plus an additional tablespoon or two if needed (updated)
In a very large bowl, mix all ingredients with a spoon. The dough will be craggy and rough; this is fine, but if it feels excessively so, add another spoonful or even two of water. (See Note up top about altered water level/flour heaviness.) Cover bowl with plastic and keep at room temperature for approximately 22 (for Overnight schedule), 12 (for All-Day schedule) or 6 (for Part-Day schedule) hours, or until the dough has more than doubled. This takes longer in a chilly room and less in a very warm one, but don’t fret too much over this, as the dough is generally forgiving of a loosened schedule.
About 30 minutes before dough is ready, begin draining tomatoes if you’ll be following the margherita recipe below. Prepare pizza stone and paddle sprinkling it with cornmeal. You can also use any old baking sheet you have around, however, based on early commenters, the pizza tends to stick to these more, so I now recommend that you prepare it by very lightly, thinly coat it with olive oil or a nonstick cooking spray before sprinkling it with cornmeal. Heat oven to its highest temperature, usually between 500 and 550 degrees F. If you’re using a pizza stone, place it in the oven so that it heats too.
Flour your counter very well. Scrape dough out of bowl onto floured counter; in the time it has risen it should change from that craggy rough ball to something very loose, soft, sticky and stretchy. Flour the top of the dough, and divide dough in half (or more pieces, if you’re making smaller pizzas). Form them into ball-like shapes. Grab first round with floured hands and let the loose, soft dough stretch and fall away from your hands a few times before landing the dough on your prepared baking sheet/paddle. Use floured fingers to press and nudge dough into a roughly round or rectangular shape. Add desired fixings (see below for My Favorite Margherita Pizza) and bake pizza for 10 to 15 minutes, rotating if it’s baking unevenly, until the top is blistered and the crust is golden. Repeat with remaining dough.
Do ahead: Once risen and formed into ball-like shapes, the dough can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 3 days, says Lahey. He doesn’t say anything about freezing the dough, but I have done so successfully with others. However, if you don’t mind me being a little pushy here, I honestly feel that by the time the dough is defrosted and ready to use, you could have easily made a fresh one, so I don’t usually bother. When you’re ready to use a refrigerated or defrosted-but-still-cold dough, Lahey says that you should return it to room temperature by leaving it on a counter covered with a damp cloth for 2 to 3 hours before using it.
Whole wheat variation: Feel free to replace up to half the flour with whole wheat without altering any other ingredients.
Gluten-free variation: Sadly, no results to report yet, but if/when you try this with a gluten-free flour mix, I’d love to hear/share your results. Thank you.
My New Favorite Margherita Pizza
2 12-inch round or 9×13 rectangular pizza doughs
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sea or kosher salt
Red pepper flakes, to taste
Pinch of sugar, if desired
8 ounces aged mozzarella (sold in plastic, not water) (use more if you like your pizza with extra cheese)
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese
Two glugs of olive oil
Few leaves of fresh basil, torn or sliced
Place tomatoes in a colander set over a bowl and give the tomatoes a little squeeze so they release any trapped juices. Let them drain for 30 minutes, if you can spare it. (We think you should save the reserved juices for Bloody Marys.)
Meanwhile, heat oven, if you have not already, to its top temperature, usually 500 to 550 degrees F. If you’re using a pizza stone, place this in the oven so that it heats too.
Add salt, garlic, red pepper flakes and sugar (if the tomatoes taste overly acidic to you), to the tomatoes and blend in a blender or with an immersion blender until they reach your desired sauce texture. (I like it smooth, personally.) This will make more sauce than you need; you can save the remainder in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for longer.
Add 1/3 cup of sauce to each stretched-out dough and spread it evenly. Tear or crumble mozzarella into tiny bits and scatter it over the pizzas. Some people like their basil and parmesan or pecorino added only after the pizza comes out of the oven, some like it baked on; I tend to add half the sharp cheese before and half after. I’ll let you decide. Finally, give each assembled pizza a quick drizzle with olive oil and bake it for 10 to 15 minutes, rotating once if needed, until the top is bubbled and lightly charred and the crust is golden. (You’ll get better color than I did on the crust if you use a baking pan without sides, or if you bake it on the back of your baking sheet.) As soon as the pizza comes out of the oven and is still blazing hot, finish with basil and parmesan or pecorino, if this is when you prefer to add it.
Slide pizza onto cutting board or serving plate and cut into squares or wedges.
Toppings: Favorites include spinach or other greens, thinly sliced mushrooms or thin shaves of whatever vegetables are in season (cough, being neglected in the fridge). Here’s my toppings advice: Whenever you can, saute the vegetable gently in olive oil on the stove until it softens or wilts. Just a minute or two will make a huge difference in outcome. Mushrooms will be roasted, not just dried. Spinach will merge into the pizza. Is someone at the table skeptical of vegetables on their pizza? I’ve “heard” that if you lay them on top of the sauce, below the cheese, few are the wiser.
* My other influence in fleshing out some of my pizza theories listed above was a lovely book I was lucky enough to preview over the summer from beloved food blogger Molly Wizenberg called Delancey, about building the pizza restaurant in Seattle. It won’t be out until May but I loved it so much, I think it’s well worth preordering. Aren’t I pushy?
Really? No comments? I must be stalking. This looks tasty, as always.
This was so simple and so delicious! Even my picky husband loved the flavor combination of the ingredients. We can’t stop eating it! Def dry tomatoes out for 30 mins, I skipped in time and wish I would have waited. I added parm and Romano before baking but added basil after. Baked on the back of a baking sheet with farmers market dough. We used cornmeal spread on the back of a baking sheet and then dough on top of this.
Made this with Thomas Keller’s cup for cup All purpose gluten free flour and it turned out great. Did the 22 hour rise. Needed some extra liquid because GF flour tends to be a little more dry. Didn’t rise as much as yours but the dough was crispy yesterday soft. Next time I will roll it out even thinner. Didn’t have cornmeal so we brushed olive oil on the sheet pan to prevent from sticking and cooked a little longer for an extra crisp crust. Super success!
Wow. I will be trying this new dough technique and recipe soon! We usually use two tablespoons of yeast! Thanks as always!
So happy to see this recipe on here! I was hoping we’d get something pizza-related after your trip to Rome. Love all the thought you put into this – I’ll be trying it out for sure.
So true about the wet mozzarella!
Pizza is my all time favorite food, and I have made too many versions to count. While I like toppings, there’s not much better than a good Margarita pizza, emphasis on good. I’ve found the best tomatoes are San Marzano, and as far as cheese, you’re right about aged mozzarella versus fresh. It melts better and browns up nicely.
Good pizza is not that hard to get right, yet it amazes me how many people get it so wrong!
This is almost exactly how I make my pizza crust! I’ve thrown in some garlic, some herbs, and even parm cheese and it’s equally delicious. I love that it’s so forgiving and easy, not to mention it tastes great!
I have a question: If the dough will be resting on the counter regardless, does it matter how long it sits?
SamanthaJess — I’m not sure I followed. Can you explain?
Gluten free — Sadly, I haven’t tried this gluten-free, however, if you’ve succeeded with other pizza dough recipes, I think that the long rest and extra moisture here will make it even better. I’ve heard good things about Cup4Cup’s gluten-free pizza mixture. I couldn’t find anyone (with a quick Googling) that had used it for the Jim Lahey dough (which this is a variant of) but someone must have, right?
Jim Lahey’s recipe has been on my to-try list for weeks. Can’t wait to make this pizza (and thanks for the “do not panic” warning – much needed!).
Pizza is my most favorite comfort food :D Need to try out this recipe.
Looks incredible, and I can’t believe I never thought of draining tinned tomatoes before! Do you think it would work with gluten-free flour? I’m catering for my vegetarian, coeliac friend at the weekend..
I’ve done this sauce technique before and it’s a hit. My crust has always been my bane. I’ve made no knead bread similar to this pizza crust recipe and have wondered about it for pizza. It’s on baby, tomorrow is pizza night at the Witch’s house again! Thanks for the tips on the wet dough, much appreciated!
Deb,
I’ve used your other dough recipes, but I sub in whole wheat flour with a little more liquid.
Have you subbed whole grains in this recipe?
Looks amazing!
Such a great tip to use the aged mozzarella!! I am going to have to try this ASAP!
Can half the recipe be frozen for use later with no ill effects? I’m a single girl and don’t get much call for making two 9×13″ pizzas in one night. Or, can the recipe effectively be halved?
Thanks Deb!! Can’t wait to make this.
I was just thinking of making pizza dough tonight and here you are with a wonderful recipe for a lazy one. I love it! Thanks, Deb. :)
Quick question, do you think this dough can be frozen? After it’s done rising?
Freezing — Yes. I will add the directions.
Pizza stone — Yes, you can/should heat it. I will add the directions.
(Sense a theme? Even 2,200 words is not always enough! Heh.)
00 Flour — AAACK. That’s me kicking myself for not making this with the silky pillow of an 00 flour bag I brought back from Rome. What is wrong with me? Anyway: more pizza is in order. I haven’t verified the weight of it, but usually weight exchanges are fine. I’ll update this post with a note when I try it, which will be soon. So soon.
I don’t own a paddle (yet). Any tips on how to transfer it to the preheated stone?
I’d use the back of a well-floured or cornmeal-ed tray to slide the pizza onto the stone.
Deb: I am very excited to use some 00 flour to make pizza crust (and by excited I mean I bought it and then put it some place and enough time has lapsed that I will have to go on a flour quest to find it).
If I use the weight rather than volume meansurement should I be ok or should I look for a recipe that uses the 00 rather than AP? Many thanks!!
I’ve read through this recipe twice: do you not preheat the stone? You are blowing my mind.
TOTALLY going to try this, even though it is different than what I usually do. Thank you for taking the time to find what works with different schedules!
I can’t thank you enough for posting this! Pizza dough has been my ‘forever on the hunt for the perfect…’ obsession for the longest time, and this sounds bloody fabulous! Will be making it ASAP! Maybe this evening, to eat tomorrow…
I have tried no less than 20 pizza crusts in my homemade pizzas. I cannot wait to try this one!
This looks really good. I’m gonna try this recipe sometime soon. Thanks for sharing:)
This review is for the lazy dough. I used 00 flour with the exact measurements for the 12 hour rise. The dough was sticky and wet and I was mentally ready for a disaster. I just floured my palms and shaped the dough on a cast iron pan lined with baking paper. Didn’t have corn meal so just used olive oil. We like our toppings so I added lots of vegetables, lots of sauce and cheese and the best part was the crust held it all so well. The crust was just fabulous. Not doughy not chewy, not like biscuit. Just right! And soo easy to make! Literally just dump everything in a bowl! We had a pizza slice cold after several hours and still the crust was still good. Will make again and will probably try rolling the dough a little thinner.
@samanthajess….the time and amount of yeast does matter.
While the dough is resting, the yeast is growing and doing yeasty things. If you let the yeast keep growing and eating you may not like the results or you may end up with a sourdough starter….or at leas that is what I think might happen but I know very little.
The less time the dough rests the more yeast you need. That is why the yeast amounts vary based on the resting times.
I don’t know but I suspect if something comes up and you decide not to bake the pizza you could freeze the dough and use at another time.
One day, when I leave NY and move somewhere far, far outside of Motorino’s delivery zone, I promise to make all of your pizza recipes.
THANK YOU. You’ve addressed the issue I’ve had with every other long-rise pizza dough I’ve wanted to love, namely the “I actually work away from home 8-5, timing does not compute.” I cannot wait to make this dough tonight for dinner tomorrow (yay! a use for the whole tomatoes I just canned! boo! now I wish I had canned more whole tomatoes just to have on hand for this)
A question on toppings–for those who believe pizza is not pizza without sausage (not me, but the other who will be eating this), this crust looks sturdy/substantial enough to handle it as long as the sausage is pre-cooked, yes?
Christina — Yes, I’d open one up, brown it in a pan, and then sprinkle it over. It’s actually a delicate crust (well, light and thin, but also a little crisp), but as long as the toppings are thinly scattered, you’ll be fine.
Jessie — Wait, we need to TALK. I live in their zone (hi, neighbor!) and I find that it delivers terribly, all floppy and sad. But I love eating it at the restaurant. Is it just my bad luck? And why did they change their meatball recipe? It was so good, I wanted to marry it, and now it’s also good but no longer marriage material. And they stopped peeling the roasted peppers for the appetizer. You could say I’m, uh, very familiar with their menu, huh?
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
cannot wait to try this. i’ll do a margherita version and a meaty one. yum! thank you, once again!
Snap – I’ve been trying all my pizza recipes to whittle them down to 1 thick crust and 1 thin crust and use them exclusively instead of the hit and miss technique I’ve been using over the years. I have no success refrigerating the dough, it never recovers and just lies there flat and unappealing. So this is just perfect Deb, thank you, thank you, thank you. My tester isn’t complaining though!
I have given up on making my own pizza crust because it’s a monster! I always want it thiner than it comes out. And even when I am able to roll or stretch it out as thin as I want– it springs back. So, I’m excited to try this and see if it works for me. I’m also exited to try not using jarred pizza sauce. Thank you!!
My attempts with pizza dough have been disasters! But I really must try this! Thanks Deb for solving the mystery!!
My keys to great pizza dough are bread flour (seriously, I think it makes all the difference in a crisp crust) and a preheated baking vessel – doesn’t have to be a pizza stone, though I have one, but a hot baking sheet works fine too! I also like to pull out my hot stone and assemble the pizza on it – I think it kind of prebakes the bottom of the crust a little bit before you put it back in the oven.
Great recepie! I use no-knead dough to make my bread – same principle. You bake the bread in a cast iron pan though as it doesn’t hold it’s shape – it is the nicest and easiest bread I’ve ever made! I must try the recepie for the pizza base now!
Thank you for going through all this work! I too have wondered how to duplicate the majestic margarita pizza I ate so often in Rome. This is definitely going to be made soon.
Only one question – think I could sub in whole wheat flour for the crust? Or would that mess with perfection?
Well I will certainly be giving this a try – I’m not at home so I can’t get the pans out and check, but could I use a whole recipe to make a half sheet pan sized pizza? I can’t remember if 9×13 is equivalent to a quarter sheet or not, and I seem to recall you using very small baking sheets… something about a small oven?
Adrienne — A 9×13 is a quarter-sheet. You could probably make the whole thing in a half-sheet. I default to quarter-sheets because that’s the largest (well, 10×15 is, but who has those?) I can fit in my oven.
Hi Deb. Whenever I make this dough it contracts no matter how much I spread it. What am I doing wrong?
this is so similar to my own homemade pizza making journey it’s scary.esp the part about the homemade mozzarella! one time i thought i had finally found the recipe that was going to solve all my problems until i read closely and discovered that the secret was BREAKING THE LOCK ON YOUR SELF-CLEANING oven. that was when i officially gave up… but i will try again!
This one will be on my table very soon. It looks like exactly what I’ve been seeking.
P.S. I love “glugs” as a measurement. =)
This.Is.Brilliant! Thank you!
Ahhh, thanks @Carol! I missed that part completely; different resting times correlate with different yeast amounts. Sorry Deb for my confusing comment!
Thank You! I am trying this ce weekend
I have an issue with not getting good color on the crusts too, and I’m ashamed to say it never occurred to me to just flip the pan over and cook the pizza on the back! Thanks for the idea, Deb! I usually take the cheater’s way out and buy pizza dough from a local bakery or pizzeria, but this looks really simple and adaptable, I think I’ll give it a shot this weekend! Thanks for always being inspiring!
I know you said not to fret about the room temperature, but our house is about 60 degrees during the day, then 68 degrees for about 5 hours in the evening, then 60 or less over night. Will the crust still rise with those low room temps?
Cathie — You can always start the dough an hour early if you’re nervous, but I suspect it will be fine. If you were expecting to be at the longer end of a schedule (making it in the early bracket, using it in the late), you probably don’t need to worry at all. Even when this dough is 85-90% risen, it’s pretty amazing.
Deb, I can always count on you for the very best posts and recipes! Love to read your words and love to cook your food!
I’m sold. And to think we made pizza already this week with a store bought crust. Too bad, I’m making this tonight for Friday night pizza anyway.
Looks good! I have made his overnight artisanal bread before and it’s amazing.
Here’s how I deal with the wet sauce problem: i use tomato paste straight out of the jar. It delivers a strong tomato punch with no moisture or draining.
I agree about the mozz, and I would add never to use pre-shredded bagged mozz from the grocery store. It melts like glue and ruins pizza.
I’d also like to say that I parbake my crusts on the hot stone. It is crucial that the stone and oven together are preheated for at least 45 minutes. Then slap the shaped crust right on the stone with no cornmeal or flour. Three minutes later it’s parbaked enough to take out with a peel or rimless cookie sheet. THEN you top and put back in for 10. It’s perfect.
wendy — Re, tomato paste: Have you ever had pizza at Otto in NYC? I’m totally convinced they use tomato paste for it, or slightly doctored tomato paste.
Pre-heating baking sheets — So, I don’t do this because I find that baking sheets actually brown the undersides of the pizza crusts quickly, and don’t want to further this along. It’s because they’re thin compared to stones, of course. Some people double up on them, but I don’t bother. In general at home, I default to the simplest lo-fi approach, anyway, because I want to know that it will work for everyone else with the lowest common denominator ingredients/materials. Although I did finish it with olive oil that I smuggled back from Italy. ;)
Thank you for this!!! For people like me pizza is something I can never do right. The dough is too tough, toppings slopping; you name it I have done it. Your essay on this pizza will be one of the best this year.
I, too, have spent countless hours trying to come up with the perfect pizza crust. I will try this one this weekend!
I don’t think using 00 flour will work with this. I have used it before in other dough recipes, either as a 100% or some lower percentage. The dough just will not brown up properly. I can only get 00 to work when I’m cooking a very high heat pizza, at temps 750 and above, on my Big Green Egg. I have never been able to get 00 to brown up properly when baking a pizza inside in my home oven, even after pre-heating a pizza stone for over an hour.
Hi —
Can you please specify if the water should be cold, warm, room temp…etc??
Thanks.
Room temperature is fine
This was an excellent read and timely. I’m with you on the discontect between home made and somewhere nice. I’ve been using a sourdough for sometime and leaving it for longer and longer.. Started to add milk instead of water, full was too much, semi-skimed worked well on the chewy stakes. I like the tip about wet Mozza, will look out for dry. For my tom sauce I fry off some onion and garlic, add tins of chopped toms, salt and sugar, reduce under a low heat, then pass through a sieve… in freeze what I don’t use, a weekend job.
@Jessie @Deb re: Motorino (hi neighbors!), I find some of their pizzas deliver better than others. Specifically I know the brussel sprout ‘za delivers very well. I do wish they had better salads available for delivery, though!
The sauce… may I suggest just a wee bit of balsamic vinegar in there also. I found that for me, it amps up the flavor tremenously. I typically “cook” the sauce, then put it in a jar in the frig and use it cool.
I’ve baked bread/rolls, etc. for most of my adult life (I’m 58) – I’ve been using the no-knead method, albeit the other folks – for everything for several years now. I make 1/2 of their recipe…think that is about the same as half of Lahey’s also – let rise from 2-4 hours in the house and then in a crock in the frig. I use the dough through the week for pizza, little boules, english muffins, naan – just change the cooking method. Anyway, long story for another vote for no knead! A note about rising time – if you are storing and using a bit at a time, the flavor develops more each day but truly, I haven’t noticed a difference with a very short rise (2-4 hours) – particulary for pizza.
I am single so for a pizza for one, I grab a handful of dough and let it warm a bit on a pastry cloth and then roll it. The dough is very wet so I can add flour to the cloth and dough and roll it. I typically bake it on a pizza stone on my gas grill. I have an Emile Henry stone (it has a glaze and is thinner ???) – and even though everything says to preheat, I found I get best results by assembling on a cold stone and putting everything cold in a hot (500) grill with cover.
Also another vote for aged mozz also.
Hi Liz can I ask where the dough recipe is you use for your naan, English muffins, boules? Thank you
I have used the Olive Oil Dough from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” for a few years with great success. It’s like a long rise dough that you can store in the refrigerator for up to a week, so it’s very flexible. And well… olive oil… :) Thanks for tips on the canned tomatoes. Looking forward to trying this.
Thank you! We have a family tradition of pizza fridays, so you post is quite timely. I have a great dough recipe that I dare not change, but I have been lazy with the sauce. You have inspired me! I will have to try a nice fresh sauce tomorrow for the family.
Wow! It’s like you’ve been in my house on Friday morning as I’m getting 3 kids off to school and myself ready for work when I remember I was too tired Thursday night to research another new pizza dough recipe and try it. Again. So I throw stuff in a bowl and hope it doesn’t explode everywhere by the time we get home at 6. Because Friday night is Pizza & Movie night and I’m tired of paying someone else exorbitant amounts of money for bread and cheese.
Thanks so much! Looks like you’ve addressed every issue I’ve had with pizza crust here lately (including the lovely “How long do I knead this stuff?”). Can’t wait to try it!
I’ve a devoted SK follower, and weekly Fri. night pizza maker, who is also a full-time working mom obsessed with figuring out how to time making the dough ahead of time, but having it ready when I get home from work! (I’ve commented on your other pizza posts regarding this, so I’m super excited to see this post!). So far my most successful endeavors involve making your “pizza, updated” dough to the kneading stage (i.e. not letting it rise) – with yeast reduced I think to about 2/3 – freezing it, and then pulling out the frozen dough in the morning to rise all day while I’m at work. Its worked OK. But I’m super excited to try this new endeavor (I’m suspicious of the no-knead thing, but am willing to try…).
Question: I can still make the pizza with the sticky dough on a paddle (well floured I presume), and then transfer it to a hot stone when ready to bake, as per “usual” dough?
Kelly — Ooh, that’a great question. Theoretically, yes. In practice? I would probably pull out the stone just long enough to assemble the pizza on top. It’s so soft, I just don’t see any reason to risk the mess, not when there are hungry people waiting for dinner.
Deb, I can’t wait to try this! I made your rushed pizza dough last night (from the book, which I love!) and my husband and I marveled again at how dang tasty it was. We’ve also been loving the leisurely pizza dough, when I actually plan ahead and throw it together in the morning before work or during my lunch break. Anyway, pizza is the perfect food, in my honest opinion, so I can’t wait to give these a try…I’m now slightly bummed that we’ll be out of town and away from the kitchen this weekend! Thanks for being relentless in your quest for perfection.
i’ve made your previous pizza dough recipe (1.5 cups flour, 1/2 cup water, 3/4 tsp yeast, pinch of salt and 1 tbsp olive oil) so many times and it always turns out great! see, i’ve got it memorexed! but i will give this one a try too, love the tomato sauce idea.
http://semiweeklyeats.blogspot.com/2013/10/parenting-ups-downs-and-inbetweens-v.html
Deb, you are a phenom and you have outdone yourself yet again. Three different dough-making times, to suit the busy, the motivated, and the hungover? I’m appalled, humbled, and impressed. Bravi!
I too loved the pizza in Rome, especially the places where they would cut off as much as you wanted and then charged by weight. Of course I still ate my weight in pizza each day.
I’ve been sitting on this Jim Lahey pizza book forever. The only thing I have made are the chocolate chip cookies, which are also excellent!
I made this and it worked! Although the dough was so stringy and squishy I had my doubts. Made it on parchment covered baking sheet. Great crunch and texture. And dough took me 3 minutes to mix before I left for work!
So you would prepare it right *on* the hot stone? (I’m just dubious about working with that wet sticky dough on a super hot stone).
Since tomorrow is pizza night I will experiment and report back…
Kelly — I think I would make it right on the hot stone. (I’m still working this out in my head as I hadn’t considered it. I will audition it, of course, but would be happy to hear your results as well. As I said, it’s less about not thinking the paddle would work, and more about not wanting anyone to risk ruining their pizza after letting it rise so long and doing all of that other prep work.)
Reb — Gaaaah. Too bad I only typed it wrong 32 times. (Thanks, now mostly fixed.)
Just FYI, it’s Margherita not Margarita (Legend says it was created in honor of the queen, Margherita).
Looks great in any case!
ooh, I’m so excited you’ve figured out 6 and 12 hour versions of his dough recipe! I’ve made it once before (and loved it – best homemade dough ever)… but I can never seem to plan pizza cravings 18+ hours in advance.
This look soooooooo good. I am also one that never seems to get pizza right and I’m struggling to find the perfect recipe that doesn’t require too much effort, being the lazy so and so that I am!
As Jeanine said above, I can’t plan my cravings that far in advance… but I pretty much fancy pizza all the time, so this recipe is probably safe for me, and wont get wasted!
I don’t normally comment unless I’ve tried a recipe, but I’m so excited about this that I had to comment first. I bought my husband Jim Leahy’s pizza book for his birthday, and while we loved the flavor of the dough, we were having some problem with the timing and the wetness of his recommended tomato sauce. This recipe looks like it solves both problems. (Though I can’t believe I didn’t think to just, um, drain the excess juice…) Either way, I think we’re definitely going to have to have pizza night this weekend.
Yes, yes and yes. I’ve made pizza dough a handful of times as well and it was always okay; good, but not great. I’d long wondered what it was that went into the really professional places’ dough that mine was lacking, other than a huge dough machine. I’m so looking forward to trying this out; thank goodness for Rome, huh!? :)
What about assembling the pizza on parchment, then sliding the pizza (on the parchment) onto the stone? Wouldn’t that overcome the whole transferring onto a hot stone issue?
Deb – I havent used Lahey’s recipe, but I have made dough the night before with my own Gluten Free whole grain mix. The flour mix is one adapted from Shauna at Gluten Free Girl and the Chef. Usually, the dough rises a bit less – the gluten is what makes it stretchy, and so this one is a bit more dense…but the dough has a similar wet consistency. http://www.kouli-kouli.com/2013/03/la-pizza.html#more
The above recipe I’ve played with since, using instant yeast and only one egg. I also sometimes use water. Hope this helps a bit!
I can’t wait to try this recipe out! I’ve been getting in the habit of putting together pizza dough on Thursday evening during “dishes time” so we can have homemade pizza for dinner on Friday. The recipe I’ve been using a lot lately and is now my new favorite is the “Now or Later” pizza from King Arthur Flour. It uses a far amount of semolina flour which I enjoy since I think it adds to the flour. It also differs from your recipe in that it uses more yeast and rises in the fridge. But I will try yours since I won’t have to cram a bowl into my overstocked fridge. I might try subbing in some semolina flour though, just for fun.
Sorry, I meant to include the link. Here’s the pizza recipe from King Arthur Flour: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/now-or-later-pizza-recipe
The dough is rising on the counter right now. I can’t wait to try it tonight!
Topping suggestion– we used the burst tomato technique from your galette a few weeks ago (http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/08/burst-tomato-galette-with-corn-and-zucchini/) and it was a great way to use fresh tomatoes! [We are still drowning in cherry tomatoes from the garden] This looks like a winner winner pizza dinner for this weekend!
Thank you so much for working on the issue of timing.
Somedays, pizza is just imperative, even if you don’t have the dough already.
I love a recipe that appreciates the fact that I have to prep dinner the night before if there’s any possibility of feeding the family something decent when we all get home at 6 pm. I’ve been wanting to try a pizza dough and this looks perfect. Thanks!
We are neighbors! I ran into you once at the now-defunct fruit stand on 2nd Ave, and also the book signing at Fishs Eddy (uh, along with a few other people). I’m the one always reminding you to stop by the 4th Street Food Co-op for bulk grains and spices and conversations with the finest locals in the East Village? :)
As for the pizza, you’re right, the delivery is a bit sad, especially compared to eating at the restaurant, but I’m pretty forgiving about delivery texture as the flavor is so good, and it can be easier than trying to get a table on a weekend night! Have you tried the fennel salad app, or the (fall/winter) brussels sprouts with pancetta, caramelized red onions, honey and pecorino? Those are still fantastic.
As long as we’re talking neighborhood restaurants, have you tried the fried chicken at Bobwhite Supper Counter? I’m southern (TN native, with stopovers in New Orleans and Chapel Hill), and that is by far the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. And their biscuits are PERFECT.
i really identify with this post. i am never satisfied with my pizza at home, and have tried many different doughs, techniques, heating methods, etc. i will try anything! i am convinced an impressive pie can be done in a home oven [my husband is dubious i will ever be happy, but is content to sample all my attempts.]
i have found this technique [thx travelerslunchbox!] to be very helpful. i stretch my dough on my floured counter [if the dough is super wet, i don’t handle it too much]. i put a piece of parchment paper on my peel, then assemble the pizza on the parchment paper. i slide the parchment papered pizza onto my pizza stone in my preheated oven. after two minutes, i tip up the pie with my peel, and slide the parchment out so that now the pizza is directly on the stone [the dough has set enough that this is easy to do]. the pizza cooks just a few minutes more [and i even reuse the parchment for the next pie]. it has definitely saved many a pizza in my house from ruin.
For all the people out there without a pizza stone, simple reheat a cast iron skillet or grill inside the oven, and spread the dough out on top of a parchment paper and do the toppings blah blah. Then lift the parchment paper over to the cast iron skillet/grill to bake. Browns up the bottom crust like it’s nothing. Also someone once suggested to me to buy a piece of brown ceramic tiles (the cheapest kind) and use it as a pizza stone. Never tried that one yet.
Also, instead of preheating the baking sheet, simply put the baking sheet (with the pizza in it) RIGHT ON THE BOTTOM of the oven. It will direst much more heat to the bottom if that’s what you want.
Where is your Pinterest button??!!
I’m sorry I meant “preheat” a cast iron…
I agree, it is really difficult making good pizza at home. I have concluded that it’s not the dough as much as having a super hot oven. It’s virtually impossible to replicate a 900 degree forno oven at home but what I do is broil the dough first or even char it in a pan on the stove. That’s the closest I have come to Neapolitan pizza at home. As for the dough, I make it really simple. Just flour, water, salt, olive oil and a pinch of yeast. I always make it the day before to let it develop some more flavour.
If I wanted to halve the recipe, would I also halve the yeast amount?
How is this different, taste-wise, from the overnight pizza dough recipe in the book? I have had really wonderful results from that — dough with a nice texture and flavor. In fact, I just made it this week, in a BBQ chicken pizza version, topped with BBQ sauce, a mix of pepper jack and mozzarella cheese, chopped leftover chicken thighs, and chopped artichoke hearts. (Which I had thought might be weird — they had been languishing in the fridge and I wanted to use them. It turned out to be awesome.)
A question about aged mozzarella: I’m familiar with the white-colored fresh mozzarella you can buy packed in water, and the lumps of cream-colored mozzarella (brands like Kraft) that you can buy shrink-wrapped in the grocery store cheese aisle. Is the latter what you mean by “aged mozzarella”? Or is there another product that I should look at a specialty cheese store for?
Also, a suggestion: I have luck forming pizza crust on parchment, and then sliding it with the parchment onto the hot stone in the oven (using the back of a cookie sheet as a peel). After a couple of minutes, you can pull the paper right out from under the partially cooked dough, which gives the best crust, or you can just leave it the whole time it’s cooking. That’s way easier than dealing with a pizza formed just on a peel (ending up with a sticky, mal-formed mess that doesn’t transfer properly) or trying to form on a hot stone.
BHT — Yes, the Kraft-like stuff. If you can find a better brand, go for it, but Kraft will work. I buy one I like from TJs a lot. If you really prefer the quality of the in water stuff, drain it on paper towels for as long as you can before using it. It’s still always a bit too wet for my tastes, but it helps.
Pizza peel — I’m concerned about using parchment because it’s only considered oven-safe up to 450, and you will be cooking your pizza higher. I don’t think anything bad will happen to it (chemically) but the edges might burn a little.
Margaret — Halve everything, keep the times the same. It’s similar philosophically to the overnight pizza dough in the book (I’d meant to address this) but I think even better. It’s less finicky (room temperature, no specific warm-up times) and a bit wetter, which I found led to a nicer crust.
Bh — There’s a “Pin” link at the bottom of each post that will take you to a bookmarklet that will allow you to Pin any photo you wish.
Jessie — Ah! Of course I remember you. (I still don’t get to the Coop enough. I’m a jerk.) I haven’t tried either of those salads but will now probably make it happen in the next week. But with homemade pizza. :) Okay, now I’m going to sound like a curmudgeon but I have a friend from Texas who is very, very serious about fried chicken who lives over by Bob’s and swears by it. We’ve gotten fried chicken from there a few times and I cannot get into it (Alex likes it too; I’m the odd one out). I prefer The Redhead. Is that blasphemy? The biscuits at Bob White’s are, indeed, excellent. And I love picking out a couple new beers from next door when we do take-out.
This looks absolutely delicious- definitely pinning the recipe!
//Birdie Shoots//
Homemade pizza is our favourite dinner, and while I love my go-to crust, it sometimes stays too soft/soggy in the middle…this sounds like perfection – can’t wait to try it!
Pizza is one of my favourite foods and this just looks delicious. I will definitely be trying this receipe out soon.
Ok, so I have to ask … this dough looks slightly thick in the pictures, more “thick crust” than NYC’s famous thin crust? Is that how you prefer it? Obviously I could just role it out thinner, but now I am curious if you prefer it that way!!
Mame — It can be made as thin as you wish.
Cassie — Thanks.
FYI – typo in your “do ahead” section, you’ve got “warpped” instead of “wrapped”. Looking forward to making this!!
the parchment does brown a little in a 500ish degree oven, but in the two minutes that it’s in there, it seems to be ok. for me anyway – it’s way better than a pie that gets destroyed :)
I also make the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day recipe that has you keep the dough in the fridge for up to a week and just use up what you need. no fussy rising times to worry about and it’s delish.
On a side note, I was watching Hallmark channel this morning and the Home Show where Christina made your brisket and showed your cookbook and gushed about how much she liked it, but called it Smitten Kitten. I laughed! the guests quickly corrected her. She said she’s featuring your book next week on her favorites segment.
sara — Thanks.
AngAK — That’s so sweet, thanks for sharing. And hey, I try to warn people… (Not that there’s anything wrong with Smitten Kitten! I just don’t want to get people in trouble at work.)
This sounds wonderful! I use your quick pizza dough recipe all the time, subbing 1/2 the flour with whole wheat flour, but I will definitely give these a go as well. If it wasn’t almost 3:00 here now I’d make one for tonight! Hmm … maybe Sunday night we will have long-rise pizza. Sounds yum.
Amazing! You’ve done the hard work so we don’t have to! Thanks!!
Decent bottle of Chianti and I’m all set… ;)
o m g! It’s rising as we speak. Thanks deb, I share many of your thoughts regarding “quick” and “easy” pizza doughs– but just can’t always bring myself//find the time to make the glorious perfect peter rinehart Neapolitan dough which is OUT OF THIS WORLD DELICIOUS, but very needy…kneady?? Get it? It’s the first time I’ve not oiled the bowl before it rises. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Two quick pitches:
I adore the TJ’s Quattro Fromaggio blend for pizza–it’s wonderfully melty and complex flavor from the asaigo and provolone
Also, I was gifted a Super Peel a few years ago, and have never looked back for pizza. It’s basically a wooden peel combined with baking towel that wraps like a conveyor belt. So you can make your gloopy pizza on the counter, conveyor it up onto the peel, and then conveyor it back down onto your hot stone, still in the oven. Don’t build right on the peel or it’ll stick too much, but if you use it for transfer, it’s awesome.
Can’t wait to try this dough this weekend for our Sunday night pizza night!
I cracked up when I saw the ‘working from home’ rising option, as that’s exactly what happens around here… I put on some outside clothes and think about dinner and realise we’re out of everything. So I did the sensible thing and mixed some up. Though I will actually have to clean the oven if I don’t want to set off the smoke alarm, which I do every time we make pizza, so maybe I won’t bother.
I am all over this! AWESOME recipe Deb!
I’m in love with homemade pizzas! We do four every weekend for pizza night with the kids and they all love getting in on the action of mixing the dough, rolling the dough! This is a great recipe!
Every time I look at your blog, you are exactly on my wavelength. I also find homemade pizza impossible to resist and these exact problems I have too! I love your blog, it fixes all my problems! =)
Such a good article! I live in Italy and have learnt so much about making pizza since I arrived, I totally agree with all the points you made! Good job!
AHHHH!!! A pizza dough with 3 timing options…This is why I freaking LOVE you and your blog :) The pizza looks amazing and I am super pumped to make this dough!!! I have tried at least 10 different recipes and NONE have worked…always the same result: nice edges with a soft/soggy middle.
I had the same realization about mozzarella! I love Lahey’s no-knead bread and really need to hurry up and try his pizza dough. Thanks for all these tips! Can’t wait to try homemade pizza again.
Forgive me if the answer to my question is too obvious for words – but does this make two pizzas which each serve four people? Or two pizzas for four people in total? Thanks x
I am sorry and this is a total noob question, but which kind of yeast do you mean? Is it the stuff that comes in the little 7g sachets?
Hi Deb,
My roommates and I want to make this tomorrow night, is it ok to use store bought pizza dough? Or is homemade crust what makes this pizza amazing?
Thank you! Ciao!
Aylah — Homemade crust is a big part of it, but the topping techniques (using a dry mozzarella, draining your tomatoes) can be applied to other doughs.
Esther — There are no unwelcome questions here. Two varieties of yeast come in 7 gram packets — “Active Dry” is one, and the one called for here, “Rapid Rise” (also sometimes called Instant or Bread Machine) is the other. It should usually be labelled. Some say that Instant works faster but I have rarely found this to be the case; Instant actually refers to the fact that it doesn’t need to be proofed or re-hydrated the way Active Dry does. But as shown here, you don’t always need to rehydrate or proof Active Dry — not when one is using a long and very wet rise.
Briget — It makes two that will serve 4. I’m very bad at guesstimating what volume others will want to eat for dinner, but no matter how many times I make this, we almost always go through 3/4 of it for 3 of us (with some roasted vegetables or a salad or sometimes proscuitto on the side), which is why I estimate 4 for the whole volume.
I am always in a rush to make pizza, so I adore this!
Love this! I can’t wait to try this method — I haven’t been all that successful with homemade pizza either. Hopefully this will change that fact :)
Long time lurker, first time commenter. I love your site, just never got around to saying anything! I’m pregnant and been craving pizza for all meals. So I checked out Jim Lahey’s pizza book from the library yesterday. And this morning I come to your site and find this recipe, isn’t that fortuitous! Minor question, where did you place the oven racks (close to the broiler on top or to the coil on the bottom) when using the sheet pan? Thanks!
Since I love your OLD pizza recipes so much, now I know I need to try your NEW favorite. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this recipe(s)! I, like many others who have posted, have been attempting to refine making great pizza at home for years. Lately I’ve been going back and forth between using the “quick” and “lazy” pizza doughs in your cookbook, but have been eying several others that use a little olive oil in the recipe. Do you think the oil would make the dough easier to role out? I always have trouble with this, even if I let it rest for a few minutes after punching it down.
I definitely agree with using drier mozzarella. That change helped my pizzas to be a lot crispier!
I have been trying to get on board with the “no-cook” sauce, but so far have not been happy with the results. Also, I’ve found that the uncooked sauce does not freeze well (gets very watery). Maybe draining the tomatoes first as you do here would solve this. In any case I will definitely be trying this recipe! I plan on assembling the pizza directly on a hot stone as usual since i do not have a peel.
This is an excellent idea for a post, very detailed and it’s great to see such an in depth post about techniques for pizza!I never thought to drain the tomatoes, thanks!
For everyone who is always disappointed by an insufficiently browned bottom crust: I have tried for perfect crust in our gas oven, but it just does not get hot enough. The solution offered by my brilliant boyfriend is to heat a large, flat cast iron griddle to a very high heat on the stovetop and put the pizza on it for a couple minutes after cooking in the oven. It crisps the crust to perfection every time. Make sure you use parchement under the pizza or it may stick, and expect the parchement to burn when it hits the cast iron — you need it super hot to get the wood-oven effect. I mean really hot, aim for at least 600 F. So be cautious and enjoy :)
I have a great solution for the make pizza in a hurry on a weeknight. I use Rose Levy-Beranbaum’s pizza recipe (and triple or even quadruple it) on the weekend. It’s another no-knead, sit in the fridge overnight type of dough, I’m sure the one you list could be substituted. I roll out and par-bake the rounds (about 5 min in the oven) and then wrap them in plastic and freeze. The frozen rounds can be unwrapped, topped and put into a hot oven for another 5-7 min, without defrosting, which also means I can put it directly on the pizza stone without it wobbling all over the place. I always keep some in the freezer ready for pizza night. It’s also great for a pizza party, and everyone can top their own. I also no longer buy processed frozen pizzas.
Thank you for all the rising times/options!
Question: Is there any good option for allowing the dough to rise, and then refrigerating for an extended amount of time (multiple days), like the “Artisan Bread in 30 minutes a day” technique? I assume leaving it at room-temp would cause serious overproofing, right?
Drooling. Margherita is my favorite FAVORITE pizza. This looks so tasty.
Do you have any general advice on high altitude? Mastered your crusts until I moved above 3000ft and now just want to toy around to get it perfect up here. Less yeast? More water? Less rise time or punch down if doubled too quickly? Any ideas you’ve heard in the field would be helpful!
I had the Bobwhite fried chicken sandwich the other day, and it wasn’t as good as having the fried chicken on top of their salad which is fantastic. They use an interesting mix of greens and a just-light-enough buttermilk dressing. I’ve only been to the Redhead once, and that was a couple of years ago, but I remember being extremely disappointed with the food. I should probably give it another chance though. I hear the drinks are great?
I’m pretty sure we could talk NY restaurants and food for hours! Hope to run into you again!
My favorite gluten free pizza crust was published in one of the last issues of Gourmet, along with a very good chocolate chip cookie gf recipe as well. It used millet flour for a nice heft and crunch. Excellent. I have tried cup for cup but it is very white! Lots of cornstarch I guess.
Awesome recipe, looking forward to trying it vs. my normal dirty-the-Cuisinart version of pizza dough. I’m in love with No Knead Bread, and both versions of the recipe I have for that (overnight and 4 hour) use Instant (RapidRise) yeast, not Active Dry, therefore I have a lot of Instant yeast kicking around. Have you tried this with Instant yeast? I’m guess that for the same amount of yeast, it may slightly lower the rising time?
LOVE homemade pizza, and yours looks amazing!
p.s. I’ve found that the easiest way to avoid soggy-in-the-middle crust is to bake the pizza on the bottom rack of the oven instead of the middle. I generally make pizza on an unpreheated half-sheet pan–no pizza stone–and it always turns out brown and crisp underneath.
Looks amazing, I used to make your pizza from the cookbook allllll the time, but alas, I am low-carbing, and have been since May :(
When you posted that you went to Rome, my first thought was, “I hope she paid attention to pizza making for us.” Gads, I have poured over pizza cookbooks at the library and bookstore, been to every site online, talked to every chef/owner of pizza places we’ve gone about their crust and baked and wasn’t impress by every recipe that sounded like it might work. I’m exhausted by this crust quest. I’m so glad you figured it out and spelled it out so well. I’d come to the conclusion that Lahey’s was probably the answer, but after fighting with that no-knead dough just for bread, I just haven’t been up to the pizza dough stretching battle. You’ve convinced me to go ahead. About browning the crust edges…brush with water just before you put it in the oven, just like you would a baguette.
Wow, I’m convinced! We already use drier mozzarella and less watery sauce on our homemade pizzas, but we’ve never tried a slow-rise/overnight-fermented dough. It makes so much sense, though! After all, that’s what makes sourdough breads taste more complex and delicious. And there’s so much hands-off time, too, for such a good pay-off!
Thank you for being so thorough, exacting, and persistent, and sharing it with us! (Thank you for being you!)
I’ve read your pizza recipes in your cookbook over and over, all the tips and tricks you share in the fast version vs. the slower version for dough – so helpful. And this pizza is gorgeous! Pinned!
Yay! I was looking for this recipe last week, and now here it is! I couldn’t find anything with a long counter rise. Can’t wait to try it out!
I’ve made both of your pizzas in your cookbook, but agree, that the flavor of the crust doesn’t quite compare to the Nepolitan places. I’m so excited that you tested all this stuff out and am going to be making this IMMEDIATELY. Looks so, so good!
What kind of yeast do you use? Brand, etc… I use this: http://www.walmart.com/ip/10306744?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=3&adid=22222222227000000000&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=21486607510&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=19880599990&veh=sem
and I suspect its where I’ve gone wrong with pizza dough.
We love to do a heavily loaded veggie pizza. Do you think it could hold up if it was somewhat prebaked? Oh, and some well-known recipe testers found that part skim freshly grated mozzarella resulted in the best melting, browning, and moisture. We do our pizza dough with 100% whole white wheat flour. I wonder how well it would do with the long rise (I’m thinking it could be amazing).
you should cook it according to lahey as well, preheating the oven to 500 and then cooking the pizza using the broiler.
Oh my god. This is like taking an on-line course in comfort pizza. Deb, I love this post!
This look DELICIOUS! There is nothing better than pizza with a short list of quality ingredients! And the dough can make or break. I’m excited to try this out!
I am concerned about how to get a sticky pizza dough onto that hot pizza stone….have had a lot of pizzas end up in the garbage disposal that way! Any suggestions? Thank you…looks fab…
I always form my pizzas on parchment paper and then transfer them to the hot stone. (Well, I use a baking steel these days, but same idea.) It works great. I bake my pizzas at 550 degrees, and the parchment does burn on the edges. With the steel, the paper will actually burn under the pizza too, so after about 1 minute, once the bottom of the just set, I’ll use a spatula and tongs to take out the parchment paper. Forming the pizza right on the hot stone just doesn’t sound like it would work all that well. I also hate having to use tons of flour, semolina, or cornmeal to transfer the raw pizza to the stone without parchment – especially because it always still sticks! Using parchment and taking it out partway through cooking works really great for me. I’ll be doing that tomorrow when I make pizza with this new dough recipe!
By aged mozzarella, do you mean something other than the typical shredded mozzarella?
and should have added, do you find that san marzanos make a big difference? do you always opt for them?
I second Bridget on the parchment. We do the same, except that we bake ours on a stone, so the parchment stays in the whole time. Trim it a bit before sliding into the oven so you’ll suffer nothing worse than scorched edges, then slide pizza-on-parchment from counter to the back of a cookie sheet, then cookie sheet to stone inside the oven.
Tip: this dough is most manageable when chilled. I make mine, let it rise for just one hour, pop it in the fridge for 3 (or 3 days, a couple weeks, whatever), and then pull it out and shape it. So much easier to shape than when at room temp.
I really like Marcella Hazan’s (may she rest in peace) tomato butter sauce on pizza. I tend to skimp a little on the butter and I also puree the onion into the tomatoes. I will have to try the drained sauce though.
Aged Mozzarella is a no brainer to me. I recently used your cook book recipe and used some kind of generic mozzarella and it was perfect on the pizza, you get the delicious bubbly goodness that makes pizza so special.
Deb, I absolutely loved this post! The writing (which perfectly expresses your passion, wit, and energetic seeking of what is good to eat), and the wonderful photos which show a beginner pizza maker like me what to do step by step to achieve success. I appreciate the great interest and care you used in creating this recipe. It’s also wonderful that you recognized the time constraints of working people, and provided options for three different schedules! A request for a possible future project: could you consider perfecting a similar process for making bread?
Deb, this! This is why I’ve been following you since the beginning and bought your cookbook instantly and recommend it to everyone (my favourite: the onion cheese swirls. You have made me so many friends in the last year). You don’t just post whatever you happened to make for dinner, you tweak recipes and make them multiple times and take careful notes until they’re just right – I know I can always trust your recipes to turn out beautifully! Also – the weight measurements! So thankful that you also use a scale :) Thanks for all you do!
Deb: I’ve been working for the past 3 years for the perfect pizza at home.
Have you diddled with A16’s recipe? i’ve found it to be close to the perfect at-home pie, though you have to either know 4 hours (or 3 days) in advance you want it, since it slow ferments.
I also have had great luck with the following: crank the oven to 550 for one hour, with pizza stone on highest rack. When ready to cook, turn oven off, turn broiler on high, slide pie in by way of a peel (or cookie sheet upended) and the sucker is done, with perfect leopard spotting, in 3 mins.
Yes! I’ve been complaining to my wife that our pizza is too wet, but she has been convinced that pizza made with anything other than the moistest, freshest mozzarella is an abomination. Now I have ammunition…
Also, I don’t know why it never occurred to me to strain the canned tomatoes. I’ve been cooking them down with a little garlic and olive oil to remove some water, but I haven’t always been happy with the results. The idea of straining them instead seems promising. You mentioned that good pizza places don’t cook the sauce — any theories on why straining is preferred?
I can’t help commenting on this post… Can I add a few tips? First of all, the yeast… In Italy we do not use the dry kind, but we use fresh yeast (lievito di birra) that is sold in cubes in most supermarkets. In the US, some bakeries would sell it to you. I swear it makes all the difference in the world! Then, the 00 flour that you already mentioned and that I really do not know how to replace here in the US (but many Italian stores, at least on the East Coast, sell the imported stuff). As far as the mozzarella is concerned, sorry Deb, but I have to disagree with you… Good fresh mozzarella is so much better than that aged cheese sold as mozzarella! You can simply squeeze out a lot of the water with your hands, right before putting it on pizza. In Italy, we often use a kind of (fresh!) mozzarella that has a lower water content: fiordilatte (I wonder if that is what you saw in Rome). Also, I know… I am a total purist with pizza margherita but… it does not need any garlic and absolutely no parmigiano! Just tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, a pinch of salt and some olive oil when it’s just out of the oven. I think pizza margherita is one of those dishes where less is best!
I forgot to add one more tip about the tomatoes. If you can, use bottled Italian passata di pomodoro rather than canned tomatoes. Or a mix of passata and strained canned tomatoes.
I always get a warm feeling in my heart when I think of no-knead breads. All you need is patience. It’s a lesson for us all. I’m in a two-person household with one 9×13 pan. Any thoughts on saving the other half of the dough? Will it keep in the fridge until needed? Can’t wait to try this!
Margherita pizza is my absolute favorite. Can’t wait to try this!
I’m one of those people you describe who loves pizza but is dough-challenged. I’m going to try this for sure but I still have a problem transferring dough, especially a wet dough, from the paddle to the baking surface without losing a bunch. Any tips? Thanks for this!
Hi Deb, when you say “1 1/2 teaspoons sea or kosher salt”, do you mean large-grain salt or everyday table sea salt?
Also, I typically make a Peter Reinhart whole wheat pizza crust. He recommends handling sticky dough with WET hands. It’s counter-intuitive, but it really works!
Another vote for the bottom-rack-trick. My stone broke a couple of years ago, but since then I have been preheating for at least 30 minutes at 550, then baking on the bottom rack (not on the coils, but the rack). And I’ve never looked back. The bottom almost burns before the cheese starts to brown on top.
I experimented with the no-knead bread recipe many years ago and “discovered” another way to make pizza from it. I felt it was altogether too sticky to roll, so I simply proofed it in my large wok (I think i did 24 hours but our house is not heated so it didn’t matter). When the 24 hours was up, I preheated the pizza stone and then plopped the wok and dough straight onto the hot stone leaving the wok upside down on top of the dough for 1/2 hour. Then I removed the wok and flipped the dough and baked it for another half hour. The result was a slightly pregnant large disk- much too thick to be a pizza base, but about the right size otherwise. When the bread cooled I sawed it through the middle so that I had two thin disks of the most incredible bread. At this point you can make the pizza by putting the topping on the “rough” side of the cut disk and baking it until the topping melts OR you can freeze the disk and top it some other time. You get two quite large disks if you use the whole no-knead bread recipe, so it’s nice to have one to eat and one to freeze. The crust is definitely the best part of this pizza.
Hi Deb! I like to put a little honey in my dough, partly because I’m paranoid the yeast won’t get started without it, and partly because who doesn’t love a little honey? Will it alter the rising time much, or can I just go for it? Thanks!
I like how you always take a massively popular but difficult to personalize recipe and make it totally accessible for dum-dums like me. Husband has been asking asking nagging for homemade pepperoni pizza. Looks like this will be my own starting point!
Is there something missing from this sentence, perhaps after the third comma?…
“Add garlic, red pepper flakes and sugar, if the tomatoes taste overly acidic to you, to the tomatoes and blend in a blender or with an immersion blender until they reach your desired sauce texture. “
Looks fantastic! I have been using a basic pizza dough for years that is super simple and quick but will definitely give this a go.
Can I double the recipe as is? I always get wary of doubling yeasted recipes.
Thanks
I’m not Deb obviously, but I doubled it tonight with the 8 hour recipe! I had the same question about the yeast but decided to just take a guess. I DID double the measured amount but didn’t heap it. So I figured it wasn’t quite doubled yeast but almost doubled, if that makes sense. Worked like a charm. Delicious! Thanks for the great recipe – it was so easy I’ll definitely be adding this to the rotation!
homemade ones are always the best!I like slopping on proscuitto too.
Pizza was on the menu for tonight and now I shall have the perfect pizza! I received your cookbook for my birthday in September and I am happily cooking my way through it- and I think I may just love you. Thank you!
Hey :) Deb :)
NaBlo? :D
Oh yummy! You have just solved my Saturday night dinner dilemma! How delicious! xx
Can’t wait to try this; it looks fantastic! Thanks for all your efforts to figure out the recipe for the perfect pizza dough. I have also been wanting to work on my homemade pizza dough.
This looks amazing! Hoping to give this a go over the weekend. Pizza is my first love.
lazy but still delicious….
thank you for sharing!
This looks great and I’m excited to have a good dough that is easy, but have you really totally given up on your white wine and honey dough? I still think that’s the best pizza crust I’ve ever had. Is this dough tastier, or just more convenient?
its Friday and this is such an easy recipe, and just yesterday I bought AP flour and yeast, so really, there is no excuse anymore for me to not try my first ever pizza dough!
I’m glad you made one of my country’s most famous and loved food: pizza! And I have to say you are a very careful observer, since you noticed every single detail of pizza preparation and, in this post, you made it exactly how we would make it here in Italy! Well done, lady! You now master the true Italian pizza!
xo, Elisa
Deb,
I have been waiting for a post like this since you got back from Italy! Grazie Grazie Grazie bella!!!! I just got back from Italy myself and I’m so excited to try your pizza recipe. I had others to try but you just skipped all those in line!
I just made your revised pizza dough recipe (the one with white wine) using 00 flour (it was on sale at Giant!), and it made a WORLD of difference. I’ve been letting it slow rise in the fridge which can be kind of a pain to bring back to room temp now that its getting colder, but also allows for greater depth of flavor. Compares to using this same method with ap or whole wheat flour, this dough was a bit wetter, softer, easier to roll out, and the texture chewier on the inside and crispy on the outside. I’d be curious to see how this dough compares with 00. I never thought it would make THAT much of a difference.
Hi. Love your recipes and try many many of them. Just a note that I never have problems with putting good fresh Buffalo mozzarella on my pizzas –always turns out fantastic (my favorite combo is shaved asparagus with fresh mozzarella, a little parmesan, and red pepper flakes.!)
My go to pizza recipe for years is cooks illustrated pizza bianca. I use the dough recipe and make it into whatever I want. It is also a wet dough that you can’t roll out. You should try it.
Leigh
I can’t wait to try this!! I love making pizza at home and experimenting with toppings and such, but I can get VERY frustrated at times! Usually because the pizza dough does not want to cooperate while I’m rolling it out! Can’t wait to try this though, the make after dinner sounds perfect!
Perfect timing! I’m hosting a pizza dinner tomorrow and need to make about 6 pizzas, I’m going to do a few with this recipe and a few from the book (which I normally use) to compare. I love that the dough doesn’t need to go into the fridge as I’ve got no room in there right now!
It’s like you read my mind. Just got a pizza stone last week and I have been on a pizza spree since then. I have been using the quick pizza dough recipe from your book, and it makes FANTASTIC crust! (Even when someone may have torn a itty bitty hole in it while transferring to the stone)
I will have to give this dough a try soon!
Deb, I’m SO happy you’re embracing the no-knead pizza dough! It’s the only recipe I use now (so fab w/ your shaved asparagus pizza), but lack of pizza spontaneity has always been the biggest drawback. And now, you’ve invented the cure.
THANK YOU!!!!
I love making my own pizza, but I still buy dough at the store. I can’t wait to try this alternative!!
I was just wondering how the different yeast amounts would translate for fresh yeast? In Germany, dry yeast is kind of like the last resort you use when you have cake cravings on a sunday. Fresh yeast is cheap and you can buy it in every supermarket, so we usually use that. Packages usually recommend one cube (I think it’s 7g) for 500g of flour. Do you know how this amount relates to dry yeast and if I could also just use less fresh yeast for a longer resting time?
Fresh yeast — Is wonderful, but not as readily available here. (Well, in NYC I can find it easily. But I don’t just write recipes for people with NYC-level access to stuff.) One website suggests that 1 g fresh = 0.5 g active dry, i.e. 2:1. Another says that 3 gm fresh = 2 grams active dry, i.e. 3:2. Not sure which is correct, but the weights for the yeast levels I list in the recipe are below. I hadn’t included them because they’re so quibblingly small, but it should be helpful in guiding you on figuring out how much fresh yeast to use instead. Fresh yeast needs to be first dissolved into water, so I’d whisk it into the water before adding it to the bowl with the salt and flour.
Overnight dough = Slightly heaped 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast (less than 1 gram)
All-Day Dough = Slightly heaped 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast (approx. 1 gram)
Part-Day Dough = Slightly heaped 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast (approx. 2 grams)
Allie — No reason not to doctor this up with a splash of wine and honey if that’s your thing. But yes, I’ve mostly returned to the basic salt/water/yeast/flour formula, focusing instead on developing those sweet/nutty/complex flavors through aging it more.
kate — Haaaa. Oh god, remember those days? Pre-kid? Pre-… (I am literally sitting here trying to figure out why my life is so much more impossibly chaotic than it was 5 years ago and all I can come up with is the kid. But it feels like so much more than that.) Of course, I wasn’t writing 2,200 word posts with 23 photos in them that included four sub-recipes, either. It was really fun, though. :)
AussieBeth — Thanks. I think it reads better now.
Rachel — The yeast will rise without it, but you can add a spoonful with everything else without harming the dough.
Joan — Yes, I realized that was going to be an annoying directions. Lahey actually calls for fine sea salt but I used a fine-ish one (no pretzel salt size) in some tests and a kosher salt (again, not terribly coarse) in others, and both worked. You could use fine sea salt without any trouble, too.
Indirect libre — I added Do ahead directions at the bottom of the recipe. Yes, it keeps for a few days.
Karen — No, and I have the cookbook and never use it. (To be honest, someone gave it to me for free, and I have a no-freebies/no-free-books policy on the site, so when something sneaks in, I regard it with undue suspicion.) Do you have other favorites from it that I shouldn’t miss? The preheating step sounds interesting. I agree that the broiler is excellent for finishing pizzas too.
Margit — Thank you. I think a similar bread post would be fun, though I touched on it in this one from years ago, with thanks to Laurie Colwin.
ATG — Aged mozzarella is similar to the stuff that you can buy shredded, but I prefer not to buy pre-shredded because there are often stabilizers and powders to keep them from sticking while keeping the cheese melty. I often buy San Marzanos and like them, but there are also good domestically grown tomato brands, so no need to use them if they don’t taste any different to you.
Sarah — Sadly, my broiler is useless so I haven’t tried it. But I’d done it in my old kitchen and liked it for finishing.
kriswithmany — I don’t think it is necessary to pre-bake it, I just think it’s important that vegetables are either cut thin or small and pre-softened a little, as a few minutes baking time isn’t usually enough to make them gently collapse onto the pizza.
jamie — I use whatever I have around, I think it’s Fleischmann’s right now. However, what you linked to is Rapid Rise or Instant Yeast. You should use Active Dry here.
Sarag — I can’t believe I missed that, because I thought I’d never missed a Gourmet issue. Do you have a link to them somewhere? I’d love to play around with a non-packed GF crust that didn’t use many different types of flours.
Genevieve — I haven’t made pizza at higher altitudes, but you might find these tips helpful.
Nicole — See the Do Ahead note at the end. You can finish it at RT then refrigerate it for up to 3 days.
Emily — I don’t think olive oil affects how well it rolls; a dough that rises sufficiently generally always rolls well. (Though here, you will stretch it because it’s too soft to need to roll it.) Olive oil adds a little richness, which is why I prefer it at the end, so you can really get a taste of it.
calisun — I am weird but I actually put mine near the top. I have a terribly, junky oven and I find that the heat bouncing off the top helps it brown. I’m sure in a normal oven that works well, closer to the bottom makes more sense.
It’s probably just my flour, but weighing carefully, I used Gold Medal Bread Flour and split the difference between your 3 cup weight and Jim Lahey’s. The dough was much too stiff, so I added 5 Tbl. of water to make it a little stickier. Other readers should not be afraid to add more water if needed. (I learned long ago a sticky dough makes a pizza crust.) Thank you for the recipe and the timing options!
Since moving to a very rural place where takeaway pizza is but a distant memory, we’ve been working on our own perfect pizza dough. For us, the tricks have turned out to be mixing the dough in the food processor (as Mark Bittman suggests in How to Cook Everything), at least a few hours of rising and preferably overnight, and adding beer to the dough instead of water. The pizza place we stole the beer idea from (run by a father-son duo named Buzzy and Buzzy Jr!), uses Budweiser, but we use whatever light-ish or wheaty beer we have floating around. That, and cooking on a well-heated pizza stone as hot as our oven will go! I’m so proud of the pizzas that come out of our oven now — just as good as all the fancy expensive stuff we used to get in San Francisco!
And to make it even lazier, if you have the time.
I usually make the dough in the morning and let it rise until about an hour before dinner.
At that time, I pat and poke the dough out onto parchment paper until it starts to get really hard to get it any thinner. By this time, I will have gotten it into the approximate shape I want, but a bit smaller and thicker.
Then I drop a clean cloth over it and prepare the toppings. In about half an hour, the dough will have both slightly risen and slightly shrunk. It will now be very easy to poke it down with my fingertips everywhere except the very edge, stretching it as I go.
And then on with the toppings and into the oven!
I have yet to make a pizza dough that is not tough and chewy. I was reading another blog the other day (can’t remember which otherwise I’d share the link) and they were raving about Red Star Platinum yeast. I was going to give it a try next time I attempted pizza- like you mentioned, pizza dough is my demon dish. I am determined to get it right. Looking forward to trying out this new recipe.
Oh and by the way, last month when I was in England, I was in a teeny, tiny bookstore in Bath and saw your cookbook on the shelves and got way too excited, I almost burst out saying “I know her! I know her!” Even though I don’t other than having read your blog for years :)
Oh My Gosh! Ee made this for dinner last night and it really was the BEST pizza ever – San Marzano’s and everything. Thanks for the multiple dough/rise times – so incredibly helpful!
We’ve had weekly pizza for years. We use similar proportions although more yeast (2 c flour, 3/4 c water, 1 tsp yeast, some salt – yes I have literally committed it to memory), but what I really want to tell you is that we have found that pizza dough is best after sitting in the fridge for a few days, ideally between 4 and 7. We do let it get to room temp before rolling it out. Then we slide it in a 475-degree oven on a preheated stone. Oh. My. Goodness. It makes all the difference. Plus it is very convenient because you can throw the dough together on the weekend and have it ready to go on whichever weeknight ends up working best.
I’m excited to try your pizza dough tonight! I normally make a no-knead dough that sits overnight from “Pizza on the Grill”. When we don’t grill the pizza, we do it directly on the oven rack (no pan) and we cook the dough, flip it over, put the toppings on and then put the pizza back into the oven for the cheese to melt, etc. Do you think this dough could be cooked the same way? Or do you think I’ll need the pan? I love a thin, crispy crust.
The Queen of all Pizzas – thanks for this post. Margherita will always rule my oven and my table!
It won’t be a true Margherita, more like a classic NYC slice, but scamorza makes a great pizza too.
I also keep in the cabinet in case of emergency a canned pizza sauce called Don Pepino. I bought it the first time about 20 years ago just for the awesome packaging: it’s bright yellow with a wacky illustration of a pizza-tossing chef.Very 1960. I opened it long after (probably in an emergency), and now I buy it when I see it, which isn’t often. Made in NJ, I think.
I will sheepishly admit, I either buy boxed (cardboardy) dough or fresh dough from the store for pizza at home. They are not good, but I just can’t face all of the steps of making real dough. I know I can make slow, Jim Lahey style dough though, so that solves it! And, you solved the wet cheese and watery sauce issues too! I always new I needed canned San Marzano, but I never got the texture right. Your approach just saved me not figuring these things out for a decade or possibly never getting it! I have a feeling I’ll be returning to this post every time I make homemade pizza from now on. Thank you. Truly. Thank you.
p.s. I don’t like your title though! This isn’t lazy, its revolutionary!
I don’t make pizza often because then I eat the entire thing (bad bad bad), but I am certainly giving this a try!
OK, I’m going to take the plunge and try homemade pizza again after ages.
Here’s my question: I get my tomatoes fresh, not canned. I usually cook it and let the water reduce that way. Can I try out your uncooked sauce with uncanned tomatoes? Should I just squeeze out some of the juice from the fresh tomatoes, or something?
(Confession: I’ve never used canned tomatoes in my life, so I have little idea what consistency they are, except from pictures on cooking blogs like yours!)
Jim Lahey has seriously improved my at-home eating. I made my first pizza using his dough recipe last week. I’m in love. I found that it made two large pizzas too. I cooked one half of the dough for the husband and myself, and (after letting it sit overnight) put the other in the freezer.We’ll see how well it does as a rainy day recipe.
My goodness! How do you manage to do this over and over again?! Just last night my husband’s wheels were turning. He was sorting out how many meals we’d gotten out of pizza from one of our favorite places. And while I’d love to just say yes to pizza out all the time, it just doesn’t feel quite as healthy to me. (I’m too big of a fan of high quality ingredients that I have control over.) Thanks to Deb I’ve got a worthwhile project ahead of me. Thank heavens I just loaded the fridge with tomatoes from the farmer’s market. Ready…set…GO!
My ‘demon dishes’ have been any recipes requiring yeast. I’m slowly attempting to conquer my fear of ‘recipes requiring another organism to succeed.’ I’ll be trying to expand my efforts to this recipe :)
Last month I was looking at Jim Lahey’s recipe; trouble is I keep forgetting to prep the dough the night before only to wound up not having pizza Friday night which is my take it easy cooking night. I’ve made it once but not on the day I wanted it just to try it and the crust was absolutely fabulous. Thanks for adjusting it so tonight we’re having pizza :p I forgot again last night, doh.
Woohoo! More pizza dough options to try! My kids love it when we have build-your-own-pizza night, and I keep explaining to them that TIME is one of the ingredients in pizza dough. You can’t rush it.
Do you have a favorite brand of yeast?
I am all of those things. Thanks for the tips!
I have to admit I’ve never had a problem with wet fresh mozzarella, but I am intrigued by the aged mozzarella and am always looking for ways to make our homemade pizza more “authentic”. We haven’t made pizza in a long while…we have a 15 month old and I have been hankering to get out our pizza peel…thanks for the new ideas!
Deb and Kelly,
I have been making a sourdough crust that is super sticky and I have resorted to forming it on natural parchment paper and sliding that off the peel (or in my case the back of a half sheet pan) on to my stone. It has been very successful – forming it on the hot stone was a bit too tricky for me.
Deb I too am so thankful for the thought you put into working up this recipe. Like most people here Friday night is pizza night and a love Cook’s Illustrated’s pan pizza but we eat so late waiting for the dough to rise! I mixed up a batch of the 22 hour dough and am so looking forward to eating earlier and less clean up tonight.
I had to laugh when I read your post. I started a sourdough starter last night, made the dough this morning for pizza tomorrow. My gluten free husband will be off so I can have a lovely crusted pizza. I find time makes a huge difference in flavor. I also will only use sourdough or some similar yeastie beasties. The process and time adds so much flavor something store bought, restaurant bought, or made with yeast quickly seem to have no flavor.
This looks so good. I’m always scared of making pizza at home, but I want to try!
I just mixed up the recipe, and I’m a little concerned. 3 cups of flour and 1 cup + 3 tablespoons of water made a very dry dough. I guess I’ll wait patiently….
I mixed my dough about three hours ago, and I was unsure about the texture. It seemed a bit dry, so I added another tablespoon or so of water. What consistency should I have expected? Thanks for the recipes Deb!
Dry dough — Yikes. It should be the opposite. I will find my jotted notes now…
Update — So, this measurement matches my notes. Well, almost. I used 1 1/4 cups of water but the resulting dough was so terrifyingly soft, I dropped it down 1 tablespoon so nobody else found it too impossible. When first mixed, I should have mentioned that the dough is craggy and rough. (You can see this in my photos, I hope.) It may seem firmish. Once it nearly triples in volume during its rise, you should find it ridiculously soft (i.e. to soft to even roll, you just lift edges and let the slack stretch it out, if that makes sense). Please let me know if this isn’t happening and I’ll make us more tonight to retest. I’ve clarified in the recipe that it will go from rough and craggy (see Photo #5 from top) to loose/stretchy/sticky (see Photos #6-7) in the time it rises.
Okay, it’s official, I love you! I love to make homemade pizza, but it has to be a weekend and I have to remember by 2pm! My most available time to cook is after dinner/kid bedtime. Your 22-hour recipe is, therefore, perfection. Thank you for thinking of all of our different lives.
Re the Gluten-Free pizza, I’d suggest looking at the gluten-free chapter of “healthy bread in 5 minutes a day” (they put a lot of the recipes on the website if you don’t have the book). Probably use whatever flour combination they suggest and, if I remember correctly, egg to make up for the lack of gluten. You’ll also probably do better with water or oil on the hands when you stretch instead of flour.
Re Parchment, I’m another regular user. I have a non-celiac wheat allergy and my spelt-crust sticks to pizza screens really badly no matter how much oil I add. The parchment does fine in a 500 degree oven.
Re freezing: When I make pizza dough we tend to each make our own pizzas. When we’re done, I make and bake plain crusts with the rest. Those go in the freezer. They keep just fine, and I can throw together a decent pizza whenever we need it….
Hi!
This is one great recipe you have here! Thanks a lot for sharing it. Recently I found a very interesting and easy pizza recipe by Lorraine Pascale. Now I swear only by that recipe. However, yours seems really good too. Lorraine’s recipe is an easy one designed for people who want to have a delicious pizza prepared and baked in less than 1 hour! The dough is so easy to make and you have to let the dough rise for 30-40 minutes. And the garnish is the simple thing ever! You only need a good tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil leaves. Lorraine Pascale also adds figs and bacon to the pizza though I prefer it with only the figs. I will agree to you saying that using ‘dry’ mozzarella is better for pizza. Fresh mozzarella should be used with olive oil and basil leaves in a nice salad. I have a blog on cooking for a Web module and I am happy to have commented on your blog. Please do reply to this comment. I find your work amazing and I am definitely bookmarking your blog as inspiration. :) Thanks a lot and continue this wonderful work of yours.
-Kritina
http://boucheessalersucrer.wordpress.com/
Made the dough last night (8pm) and at 1:30pm today doesn’t look like it has risen at all (live on west coast). Our house is relatively cool (kitchen probably 70 degrees) – could this be the culprit? Any suggestions for helping dough rise in time for dinner tonight? Will the cup of boiling water in a 200 degree oven trick ruin the dough? Thanks!
Hi KCH — If you did the 22 hour dough, you should still have time, however, I think you’d see some growth by now. Trying to hasten it along in slightly warm oven won’t ruin it. I usually turn the oven to 200 for 5 minutes, then turn it off, then I put the dough in 10 minutes later in a heatproof bowl.
I may be the only person on this comment thread utterly failing at this. I tried last night to make the dough, following instructions exactly and the dough did not rise (though it looked, as you said, craggy and rough initially). I proofed the yeast I used this morning (Fleischmann’s Active Yeast) to check its power levels, and realized the yeast was lackluster. Enter mad dash to Whole Foods this morning to buy a fresh packet of same type of yeast AND flour, and tried again today about an hour ago with the new packet. Since then, the dough has not risen at all…I am sure your instructions are correct, but I am really puzzled as to what I am doing wrong. I checked the measurements of yeast-flour-water, temp in the kitchen is about 70-73 degrees, dough is hanging out in a big old bowl with saran wrap over it. Any thoughts (to anyone out there!) as to what on earth is causing my dough to sit like a sad little lump? So. very. sad.
KCH – Experiencing the same problem! Live on the west coast, started it last night, didn’t rise, so I’ve tried a second time this afternoon. Now BOTH dough bowls are hanging out in over per Deb’s instructions. This kitchen is just one giant pizza kitchen experiment..even the dog has flour on him.
Hi TP — You definitely shouldn’t see any rise whatsoever in the first hour or two with the 22-hour dough (the yeast itself takes a few hours to dissolve), but you should see it happening by the last couple hours (well, gradually along the way, but it should be obvious near the end). Can you let me know how it goes as it gets closer to the final time? With the 6-hour dough, you should see a change within 3 hours.
Deb – Thanks so much for the feedback, and will do. I think I need to stop hovering and just let the darned things rise..will keep you updated as we get closer to dinner time.. Rookie mistake #1: Invited several people over to dinner for this, so what a fun dinner adventure we will be having!
TJ — Crossing my fingers. You can always add an extra pinch of yeast if you’re nervous it won’t be ready in time. Dough is forgiving.
To everyone — Seriously, I obsess a LOT over how recipes are working for people. I take testing and publishing of these recipes very seriously, and when I read a few comments in a row of people having trouble, I go into High Worry mode. So, I’m paying close attention right now and eager to hear your and others results. In the meanwhile, I’m happy to troubleshoot as I bounce back and forth from the computer to the kitchen, onto my next project.
deb,
I just noticed some people having problems and it is curious. I would suspect yeast, even though I see that TP bought new yeast… still. I’ve been doing this for nearly 3 years, in Montana (cool and dry) and at 3300 feet altitude (not high, but not sea level either). My doughs rise in 2-3 hours max!
I use SAF instant yeast (bulk pkg) and my ratio is 3 cups flour, 1 3/4 cups water – warm/hot out of tap (my good well water!), 1 tsp yeast (small amount since instant) and 3/4 T salt. My typical flour mix is 1.5 cups white, .5 white whole wheat and 1 cup semolina/durum. I use Montana Wheat flour for my white and white whole wheat and King Arthur’s semolina. The MT Wheat needs a bit more water.
But, bottom line, I suspect yeast with anyone having an issue and if you go on the bread forums, yeast is nearly always the culprit.
Ciao Deb! My name il Victoria, but call me Vica ;)
You have such a delicious recipes, a very beautiful blog, congratulations! I’m your new biggest fan!Finally someone that makes pizza for good ;-) ‘re really very good!
If you like we can follow each other, what do you think?
Vica – from Sicly ♥
p.s.: sorry for my english (is so bad ..!)
Oh, my house is 62-64F…really…I’m 58 and live in hot flash city.
Deb, my family has just devoured tonight’s pizza dinner courtesy of your great recipe. I should add that, although you mention it feeds four we were able to go through the entire serving with a hungry 3 year old, 11 month old, my husband and myself. Seriously, I’ve been making my own pizza (using a variation on my mum’s naan recipe -how’s that for fusion!) for years and this really outdid all past attempts! Thank you so much for all your recipes and now I’m going to attempt the homemade marshmallows for birthday loot bag treats :)
I made the 6-hour recipe, and at 3 hours, only miniscule changes in the dough. I proofed the remainder of the package of yeast, and it seems fine.
Made this tonight for our weekly pizza night and it tasted wonderful! One of ours stuck like crazy, though – hopefully some extra cornmeal will help guard against that next time. Just a tip for others – make sure to use that cornmeal liberally!
We preheat the fairly heavy aluminum pizza pan as the oven is going up to its first, 400° temp. I prebake the crust, on parchment, for 10 min. Oven temp then goes up to 450° with the pan still in there. Dried, grated mozzarella goes on the dough first, then any toppings we feel like; the tomatoes go on last. It might be drained diced tomatoes from a can or, when we’re lucky, fresh tomato slices. It takes 1-2 tomatoes to make enough slices for a 14″ pizza. Since they go on last, they can dry out in the oven some. Good crust, good pizza!
I use sourdough starter as the “liquid” with 1/4 t. of yeast and let it raise all day at room temperature.
Probably a silly question……I was about to mix up my dough for tomorrow and wondered if the water temp should be lukewarm, warmer, room temp. I know when you proof it, it matters. Does it matter here? Thanks. Excited to get started!
Sandra — It doesn’t matter here. It just works more slowly if you don’t dissolve it first in water. Room temperature or even cold (not icy, but tap-cold) water is fine. It has plenty of time to warm up.
Well, sadly my dough was a failure – even with the help from the heated oven. It very well could have been the yeast. It was close to it’s expiration date (nov 2013). Had to resort to take-n-bake for tonight. :( I will be trying this again though!
Your timing was absolutely perfect as pizza was on the dinner menu for tonight and I read your blog at 6:00 am this morning == truly a match made in heaven. We just finished with dinner and honestly, that was the best pizza I’ve ever made. Like you mentioned, I’ve never been very happy with the pizza I made at home. This is my new go to recipe. Thank you so much!!!! A hit as always…
Glad to hear there have been successes, too!
I’d love to hear in the comments from people who have made it which schedule you chose. This way, I can isolate if maybe the 22-hour people are having more trouble than the 6-hour-ers and help. Thanks so much.
I failed, epically so, at pizza. Until tonight. Holy moly, FINALLY. This was the BEST pizza I have ever made. Like, one bite in and it was already better than most purchasable pizza in a 5 mile radius. It blew my mind. I had suffered from cracker crust for years. No more crackers! Real pizza crust! And I found all of those tips about moisture and stuff to be absolutely spot on.
I also found it quite dry during the initial mixing, so much so that I couldn’t just stir to incorporate, so I kneaded it gently in the bowl with my hands until all the flour was hydrated and things were starting to get crazy stick. It only took a few seconds. I also did an 8 hour rise using 1/2 + 1/8ish teaspoons of active dry (no proofing beforehand) based on the given yeast guidelines, and it turned out great. Rose just fine, awesome flavor. Already planning the next pizza, which I will now make a weekly occurrence, because this was ridiculously easy. Many thanks, Deb!
Woops, typo: 1/4 + 1/8ish teaspoons of yeast. Sorry about that!
I tried the 6-hr recipe and although the pizza turned out just fine. It got rave reviews from my family and was head and shoulders above our usual local-Portuguese-bakery pizza dough.
However, I had to add an extra 3-4 tbsp water to make the dough hang together. And, I used a rolling pin to get the dough to stretch to its 9×13 rectangle. There was no way I was going to nudge it into shape. The dough did rise but not as much as I expected. Our house is around 20c (I think, 68F.)
I used all-purpose flour and I measured and didn’t weigh it. (I probably should’ve stood up on the stepstool and got the scale.) My yeast is Fleischmann’s Quick Rise. I haven’t proofed it (but will) but I just opened it a month ago and it doesn’t expire until August 2014.
That said, my family thought the crust was lovely and loved the tomato sauce.
Thanks for making Fridays just that much better!
Should’ve proofread…although it turned out fine, it didn’t seem to work exactly as the recipe suggested.
Update: I had a 22 hour dough and a 6 hour dough which both rose, though not double in size. In the end, the 22 hour ended up rising about 40%, the 6 hour perhaps 20% (I am just eyeballing). I don’t doubt Deb’s instructions are perfectly correct.. I suspect it is the yeast that is the problem. In the end, both pizzas turned out just fine (I instagrammed them, that’s how pretty they looked) but the 6 hour dough had that tough consistency where the dough just pulls back to its original shape (the 22 hour dough had that too, but less so). All this resulted in was more coaxing to get the dough into the appropriate shape and size. In any case, still a very tasty pizza and I really appreciate everyone’s (and Deb’s!) feedback greatly. While I fretted all day, in actuality everyone at the table ate Every.Single.Slice. like it was their job. :-)
Hi Deb, I made the 22-hour dough last night around 9 with half bread flour (what I had on hand), and my dough was initially pretty dry–i wouldn’t have needed a spoon to mix it together. I added another tablespoon or two of water, then just stuck it in the corner until tonight about 7:30. It was definitely moist by then, though maybe not as much as your pictures. Regardless of all that, it was SPECTACULAR. Crispy exterior, chewy interior with beautiful dough bubbles. This is just a terribly lit phone picture before it was completely devoured by 2 people: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79182107@N08/10355094475
Deb, THANK YOU! I’ve not tried home-made dough because it’s intimidated the bejabbers out of me. We’ll be trying this recipe this weekend, but I have to get my fella to spring for some decent mozz, first. We’ve become less than happy with pizza restaurants locally (mostly the cost). I’ve never cared for the stuff in a can, and the ready-made crust was okay, but not good enough for me to want more than about once a year. This is a perfect size for just the 2 of us! I see happy pizza experimentations in our future!!!!
I am so glad I saw this post….just wish I would have seen it 10 hours ago when I made my first pizza…..ok when I ATTEMPTED to make my first pizza. Everything went great minus the most important part, the crust. But I am happy I found this recipe and I will definitely have to try it out. Thanks for posting!
I had given up. I had made peace with the fact that I could make many things, but pizza wasn’t one of them. My crust was always flavourless and bread-like. Everyone tried to give me their dough recipe to fix my problem. But still no luck. I stopped trying as the results were so disappointing. But today I was just doing my regular check of your site and there it was. You seemed to understand my pain. The photos called to me, and I listened. One more time I will try. I am so happy I did. I did it! I made a pizza that has a flavourful crust that is not bread! I added a splash of balsamic to the pureed tomatoes as they seemed to need…. something. I couldn’t make the pizzas as large as yours, as stretching dough has always been trouble for me. But I am grateful. I can make delicious pizza thanks to you!
Deb, thank you so much for such an informative and delightful post. I do have one little observation about my own experience cooking with canned tomatoes, which is that it’s best if the seeds are strained out because of their bitter taste. There’s no mention of this in your directions. Do you just squish the tomato pulp AND seeds together after you’ve strained the juice? Since I’ve always strained the seeds anyway – I’m a bit old school – I have no idea if any bitterness would just be so dispersed as to be unnoticeable. I appreciate your thoughts.
I’ve been making an adaptation of a refrigerator rise dough from artisan bread in 5 minutes a day for a while and decided to give this a shot.
I was home midday so I made the 6 hour version. I use filtered water from the fridge (cold) so I popped it in our pilot light warmed oven for a bit to give the yeast a head start. It turned out great! The dough rose great and was super easy to work with. I always just coat my dough and back of baking sheet in some olive oil. It works much better than adding flour to the dough. I split it in two, stretched it out, and made two pizzas with your sauce. My boyfriend said it’s the best pizza yet and we’ve made a lot of pizza.
In response to another commenter. I’ve put parchment paper on our screaming hot pizza stone before. The edges do brown but I’ve done it maybe 50 times and haven’t set anything on fire yet.
Would adding a little honey or sugar to the recipe throw it off? I just like there to be a sweetness and a saltiness to the crust.
Thank you for this fab version of home mad pizza. I was one of those home cooks you described; often trying my hand at home pizza and never quite pleased with the results. Crust like crackers and dry toppings. This pizza was fantastic. Sautéing vegetables before was key, and the pizza sauce beats any gourmet bought variety. I added fresh herbs to the tomatoes and it was amazing. This has definitely become a family favorite!
The best tomato topping for pizza is your slow roasted tomato and garlic recipe, put it in a mini prep food processor with a little olive oil until it is a paste consistency (turns sort of salmon color). Add on top of the dough, no extra olive oil needed, add fresh basil chiffonade and aged mozzarella.
Thank you for all you do for us.
Any need to oil pan? I have made no knead dough before but much more yeast so maybe that’s why hubbie isn’t crazy about …getting ready to make dough now -only have the rapid rise one in the hse…should be ok
Update: made the 24 hr version. It definitely didn’t double, but was still delicious – crunchy on the outside, chewy inside. I had asked in earlier comments how to prepare on hot pizza stone. I took others advice here, and prepared it on parchment, and (using pizza peel) slipped that onto the hot stone. I hoped that – as others suggested – the parchment would easily slip out after 3-4 min, but one part of my pizza still stuck to the parchment. Was able to get it out with some pizza rippage :). Alas, mostly a success – will try again, this time w my usual mix of 50/50 whole wheat. (Ps – I used smoked mozz, which was pretty delicious, but actually didn’t melt very well).
pps – like others, I found it pretty dry on the initial mix. Added 2-3T more water. I also think I got maybe 40-50% rise (it’s early fall in Philly – guessing mid 60s)
I started my dough 20 hours ago with just purchased flour and yeast. It has barely risen.i would guess about 25%. FYI. I’m going to wait it out and see what happens.
I took a leap of faith in your direction and used this recipe (x5) for our first ever 25 person pizza-making-cook-off and it was SO successful. My boyfriend thought it was a little risky changing the recipe before hosting the competition, but you posted it on dough making day, so I thought it was foodblogfate and went with it. I made 5 bowls of it and we used about a 1/4-1/3 bowl per pizza, two pizzas per cookie sheet. I was so happy to not have to par-bake anything before hand. thanks for posting!
Been looking at a lot of my recipes I have saved – Most have oil and sugar – just made this the way you wrote it and will give an update tomorrow -I am in Florida and I think I could have used a little more water so I just wet my hands and formed into a ball. I will oil pan a bit and use a caphalon for one and one from sur la tab its a dark small cookie sheet and see what turns out best – I also thought about grilling but think I will do the oven and I am not using my bricks this time – Will let you know
Deb, being a review writer for the best sellers is a tough job.
I am so happy with your cuisine its full of life joy and family, warm and healthy
I juggle between a dozen cooking women blogs and yours is the best …
Dampness of dough — Thanks for all of your feedback so far. As I mentioned in an earlier comment, I had tested this with 1 1/4 cups of water and dropped it down to 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons because I’d found mine SO sticky. I think this was a mistake, based on early reviews finding the initial dough too dry, and have changed this. Apologies to anyone who were worried it was them if their dough was dry!
How wet/sticky your dough feels with 1 1/4 cups water will also relate to how you measure your cups of flour. I’m a spoon (as in, spooning the flour into a cup) or fluff (fluffing the flour well before scooping it) and sweeper, and this results in 125 gram cups. Because this isn’t, say, a cake recipe where exact proportions are essential to get the perfect crumb, little harm will come if your cups weigh in a little heavier, and thus denser, with a denser dough, you may just find that your dough benefits from even another tablespoon or two of water. I hope that helps. And of course, keep sharing your results and the schedule you chose. All of your notes are helpful. Thanks.
Cindy — How is the temperature in your kitchen? Hoping to troubleshoot. I didn’t think it should make a huge difference (my kitchen is warm all winter, but squarely normal in the fall, before the heat comes on — I tested this with a “normal” room temperature), but it’s possible it did.
Gail — No need to if you sprinkle them well with cornmeal, however, if your baking sheets are old and busted, or you’re nervous, there’s no harm in very lightly spraying them with a nonstick cooking spray (olive oil, Pam or the like) before sprinkling on the cornmeal for extra “security.”
Zuri — No, you can sweeten it with a spoonful of either if you wish.
Katya — When making tomato sauce, I’m a nut about removing seeds. For pizza, I barely notice them so don’t bother/didn’t suggest it. I think it’s because it’s just a barely cooked sauce, so they don’t cook to bitter little bites like a long-cooked fresh tomato sauce does. However, if you think it will bother you, definitely squeeze/swipe out the tomato seeds before draining them.
Fresh tomatoes — I hope this went without saying, but as tomatoes are still around, there’s little reason not to peel a few, strain them in chunks, and drain them over a colander for an even more exquisite sauce.
Read the post last night, started the 22 hour dough straight away, just cooked it – brilliant!
There is a great pizza restaurant in Seattle “Serious Pie Pizza”. They even offer a work shop but its toppings only the crust remains their secret. But the crust defines the pizza and theirs is one of the best. I keep working on the crust even built a wood fired oven. I bake a lot of artisan bread using both bigas and a poolish. My wife thought an overnight might be their secret. So your recipe sounds like it might be the answer or a path forward. Thanks…
Great tips and tricks. I have been terrorized by the pizza demon too, so I can’t wait to try it. I was thinking of heading to Delancy for pizza in Seattle tonight, but maybe I will pre-order her book instead.
Update – I made a second batch, and this time I weighed the flour, instead of dry measure. That made a huge difference – dough is much wetter and I’m seeing much more rising activity. I’ve never bothered weighing before, but I think I’m going to start making that my regular method.
I’ve noticed some people are having issues with the 22 hour dough, I haven’t cooked mine yet, but I have 2 batches of this dough and a batch of dough from the cookbook going, and all are rising. I started my dough last night, it’s 2pm now, so I’m near 18 hours and the dough is definitely rising, lots of little bubbles and probably double in size. Can’t wait to cook this tonight! I’m planning on using your 2010 recipe for homemade tomato sauce because the farmers market had ugly but tasty tomatoes for 70cent a pound! Couldn’t resist.
Holy moly. Made the 12 hour crust yesterday with 50% whole wheat pastry flour. It was spectacularly good, really crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. My boyfriend and I ate one pie hot for dinner, and then we tested the second one out cold for breakfast (the ultimate homemade pizza test–if it’s still super tasty cold, you know you have a winner). And now I want more pizza. Most of your recipes become staples for us, this one will probably become a weekly tradition.
Friday night pizza has been a tradition in our house for the last 5 years and I’ve always been proud of my dough. My regular recipe is done in my food processor and is quick, easy and good. But this was definitely better. And how great to get it made the night before with no food processor to wash. I made the 22 hour dough. I did find that I had to add maybe a tablespoon or so more of water as it started quite dry. I think it’s important to weigh the flour here. Thanks Deb
Two versions of the dough on the counter rising beautifully right now. Can’t wait to try them. I of course, started it before you added the update about the water. It looked a little dry to me so I added some more water till it looked right. I have a batch with white whole wheat (which was definitely drier) and an all purpose batch. Can’t wait for the six hours to be up!!! Thank you!
Made the 6-hour dough with a jar of Fleishman’s active dry yeast that I just bought and opened today. Started at 11:30 a.m. and at almost 5:30 it looks like it has barely risen at all. It did seem dry; I think I made it before you updated the water instructions. However, the same thing happened when I made the pizza dough in your book. When that happened I thought it was the yeast but now that the same happened with fresh yeast I am thinking maybe it’s the flour I use? I’ve been using TJs recently. I am a huge fan and have never had an issue with any of your recipes before, so I am thinking it must be the flour.
Again…3 years experience with no knead doughs… I find it is better to go too much water and add flour later than the opposite. If you read Artisan Bread in 5 days trouble shooting for flours, they note that you can add up to 1/4 cup of water for some of the high protein flours. I use a high protein, hard spring wheat flour from Wheat Montana.
I don’t weigh, I don’t even measure flour accurately, i.e. not like I do for making cakes. I do add much more water than this recipe… 1 3/4 cups for 3ish cups flour. And more salt: 3/4 Tablespoons. I use SAF instant yeast. I get a doubled rise in 2-3 hours in a house that is 62-64F and low humidity.
For pizza from this dough, I grab a hunk with wet hands and add enough flour that I can roll it with a cloth covered rolling pin…maybe 2 T flour for a handful of dough that rolls to a 10-12 inch circle.
Flour has different properties depending on what kind, protein content, how long and how it is stored. There is NO WAY any one recipe might work the same for everyone, even with the same brand of flour and same brand of yeast.
i.e. KNOW and experiment with THY OWN ingredients. The flour, the water, the salt, the yeast… it can be very different from one person’s set of ingredients to another’s.
I generally have issues with pizza dough unless I proof the yeast first. My yeast is kept in the freezer and I am still using it well after it’s expiration date. I proof the yeast in lukewarm water with a 1/4 tsp of sugar for about 10 minutes and then add it to the dry ingredients. Works every time. Otherwise my dough does not rise at all. Hope this helps those who are having issues!
I just made this pizza tonight and it turned out very well. I used the 6 hour method, added more water, and let it rise. It doubled in about 4 hours and I stuck it in the fridge until I was ready for dinner.
Sorry I didn’t post sooner. The pizza was fabulous. The crust was crisp and chewy. I will follow your sauce recipe more closely. I feel that both needed more salt. Thank you! Also,I made your son Jacobs birthday cake for my daughter Rebecca’s 40 th birthday celebration last Saturday. Received rave reviews from every guest. He is a joy to cook for.
Sorry! SHE is a joy to cook for. I also put the pizza dough closer to our heat source. Made a nice difference. Posted the pic of the pizza on Instagram. Yummy!
Sundays and Wednesdays are pizza nights in our house (yes, twice a week, every week. Some days I get so bored of pizza.), so it will be the perfect opportunity to try this out.
One of my favorites is a roasted beet with goat cheese and a drizzle of apple cider syrup (I’m in Vermont) — the littlest devours it but the bigger two turn up their noses at beets. Tomorrow’s will involve spinach (the pizza is often based on the CSA).
Thank you for being a great go-to place for those “this is what I have in the fridge, what can I make with that” times.
Ugh, six hour dough ended up in the trash and local pizza joint got $34 bucks outta me! I am a HUGE fan of your really simple pizza dough. I make it all the time with great success. I’m a SAH mom so it works for me to start it when kids go for naps and it’s ready for dinner. I wanted to try out this recipe for days like today when we’d be out. So I mixed it up before 10 and didn’t even bother to look at it until after 5. It hadn’t risen very much but after reading some comments decided to go for it. It was too dry. It wasn’t like yours. I tried to stretch it out with not much success. That’s when my 4 yo and hubby thought they’d help – I literally had to walk away. I think more water in the beginning might help. It was also cold here today. Sticking with really simple for now but plan to follow along for advice if I decide to try again. Thanks Deb : )
I made the whole wheat version 22 hour dough. PERFECT. This is too easy. I am in pizza heaven…and my waist is in trouble. Thank you!!!
My 10 year old daughter and I made this pizza yesterday afternoon!
We made the short rise method & used instant yeast.
We threw everyhing in the
Bowl, mixed it and let it rise in a slightly warm oven to help it rise.
Worked perfect!!
We didn’t have aged mozzarella, so we wrapped the fresh mozzarella
Into a kitchen towel and squeezed all the juices out of it, perfect!
We definetely
Did not have a soggy or wet pizza.
We just found our family pizza recipe!!
http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-1276674/Sur+La+Table+Tri-Glide+Nonstick+Jellyroll+Panhttp://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-1276674/Sur+La+Table+Tri-Glide+Nonstick+Jellyroll+Pan.
This the pan I used and just rubbed a bit of extra virgin olive oil … Delicious
Deb, je vous aime! Superbe recette, explications magnifiques.
I’ve made this more times than I’d like to admit! We started throwing the rolled out dough on the grill (brush olive oil on first), flip, top with sauce and cheese, shut off grill, close the top and melt the cheese. The grilling adds another layer of amazing flavor. YUM!
First – AWESOME! This recipe has cracked the homemade pizza crust code. We used the 22 hour method and the results were phenomenal; crispy, tender crust with such flavor. FTR – I used the original amount of water (1 cup + 3 Tbsp) and had no problems at all, the dough was supple and wet-ish and cooked perfectly in 15 minutes. I won’t ever have to buy premade doughs from the pizza place again.
Also, a big thank you to Bridget (#139) for the parchment on pizza stone tip. It worked like a charm!
Yum! Am now munching on my 24 hrs dough pizza and this is the best dough recipe I’ve tried so far in my perfect home pizza dough quest. Having had a weekend overloaded with work, this Sunday dinner is the weekend’s hightlight. Thank you Deb!!! :-)
The 22hr dough worked perfectly! I weighed my measurements, and the dough rose in a cooler room (I’m in baltimore, md so it’s not chilly here yet, but I do keep the windows open). The dough was tacky, and I stretched it out and used a good amount of cornmeal so nothing stuck. It was delicious!!
This looks great – looking forward to trying this one. Thanks for sharing!
Jumping on the aged mozzarella comment train here, possibly with useful advice! :) I went by Union Market last night to get some, and the white-coated cheese man got quite annoyed with me for using the word “aged” in relation to mozzarella. Apparently, there’s two kinds of fresh mozzarella – the water-packed stuff, and the tightly plastic-wrapped stuff, both are sold in big soft blobs in the fresh cheese section – and then there’s the dried, stabilized, shredded stuff you buy alongside blocks of cheddar. According to Cheese Man, none of them are actually aged. I’ve tried all three, and like the second type best (though it may be the most difficult to find).
Adding to my previous comment (#273) – I used weight (not volume) to measure the flour. Not sure if that’s helpful or not, but seems like it could be one reaon for some doughs coming out drier than others.
Lovely post!! to respond to your doubts…yes, we do (I mean, we=Italian people) have one of those walk-in fridge in every pizzeria and restaurant, in which the dough is let to rise peacefully :) they usually just take out a quantity of it, shape it and then put it near to the counter before the restaurant is open… the fridge is usually in the kitchen or even in the stock room (sometimes underground for those tiny ancient places) :)
YUM. Who doesn’t LOVE margarita pizza! Looks delicious and a recipe we all can enjoy!! Thanks so much for sharing! Great inspiration for the upcoming work week and weeknight meals. :)
atoasttothegoodlife.com
This is a random question, not to do with the pizza that is.
I was wondering if you have ever made a Russian Honey Cake (Medovik) and whether you might have a good recipe. All the ones I have managed to find in the past don’t make a great cake. Since making your Bienenstich Kuchen for my German mother, it has become a family favourite and I’m hoping you might have made/or try to create a recipe that works.
They make a fabulous one at a L’Eto Caffe in London which has a short description on their website – http://letocaffe.co.uk/order/grannys-recipes/honey-cake/
I have been meaning to ask you this for ages! Thank you.
Christina — I don’t think I’ve ever tried one. Does it always look like that picture? If so, it’s stunning and I want it.
Pizza dough sticking — Ughhh, I’m sorry, I hadn’t expected this to be a problem at all. Here’s my suggestion (I said this earlier in the comments but now want to add it to the recipe, too), rather than using parchment (which I know will work fine, but really isn’t intended for temps this high), just very, very lightly coat your baking sheet with olive oil or a cooking spray, just enough that it barely glistens, then sprinkle the cornmeal on top. It will absolutely not stick, and you won’t have to worry about singed parchment.
So, still my white whale. I’m an experienced bread maker but even with your wonderful tutorial… I made one really poor pizza and a doughy calzone sorta thing!!! Dough wouldn’t stretch without big holes. Color me disappointed. We ordered in pizzas instead.
I had my doubts, especially when I couldn’t shape it in something like a circle. But the end result was the best crust – I mean the.best.- that we’ve ever made. Thank you, Smitten Kitchen, I’m now your biggest fan!
Okay, I did the 22 hr version, dough came out just like it should. Prepared the pans with cornmeal, stretched it into shape and it looked just like yours. Baked it, smelled great, looked even better, took it out of the oven and could not get the pizza out of the pan – totally stuck to the pan but did not burn.
We finally scraped the top layer off and it was delicious. But what went wrong?
My first margherita pizza – meaning of course the One True version I’ve been looking for ever since – was of the bianca type, just shredded cheese and olive oil with slices of fresh Roma tomato, taken briefly from the oven for fresh basil leaves to be applied and then re-inserted to finish. This was at a brew-pub in Nashville, and I was hooked. Couldn’t order anything else there … well, we moved away, I’ve found no duplicate (except one here in Pasadena, CA, and the idiots used salad tomatoes!), and so I’ve been edging nearer to actually making my own. Especially since I learned that a Nashville trip won’t help, since it’s now off the menu …
So a good friend sent me here, and I owe him one. That was the best, clearest and wittiest treatise on Pizza Manufacture I’ve ever encountered, it answered every question I thought I still had and a few I wouldn’t have thought to ask, and if it weren’t 4:00 PM on a movie night I’d go shopping right now. Since all my baking sheets are the kind that spring into twisted shapes when they get hot, I’m going to bake mine on the round iron griddle I use for Trader Joe’s frozen pizzas and flatbreads. I’ll have to do the two sequentially, so I’m wondering if I should preheat it for the first one to even out the times, or if that really matters much?
Just made this dough and it was great! Much easier than I thought it would be! Thanks for all your work on this.
It did not come out as crispy as I would have liked. We don’t have a pizza stone. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks!
I’m torn about this recipe. I wanted to be able say that it is homemade pizza Nirvana. But right now I can’t.
I weighed my flour and had to add significantly more water…could have been just a really dry day…but 1 cup + 3 T wasn’t enough to hydrate all the flour. Once I had a rough dough I popped it in my microwave set to Proof Dough and let it do it’s thing for the afternoon. I prepped my sheet pan liberally with cornmeal and assembled my pizza. Unfortunately, a good bit of the dough stuck to my pan. I’m inclined to give this another try and see if lining my sheet pan with parchment helps.
Janet #284, you are not alone! My pizza is soaking at the bottom of a soapy sink because after a 22 hr rise and trip through the oven on a bed of cornmeal it is TOTALLY, COMPLETELY, UNSAVAGEABLY STUCK TO THE BAKING SHEET. It looked great until we tried to eat it and ended up scraping the sauce and cheese off with a spoon. Definitely DO NOT try to bake it without parchment under it (but trim the it to fit because 550 degrees is hot enough to burn parchment).
Hi Deb,
I mixed the dough about 9pm last night and made pizza around 4pm today. I used about 1/8th tsp of instant yeast and a couple cups of AP flour and one cup of bread flour. I read years ago that if you want better tasting bread (any recipe) cut the yeast in half and double the rise time. I have made bread for decades and I just don’t worry about the type of yeast (instant or active dry) or how fast it’s rising. If it has yeast in it (which I buy in bulk and keep in the freezer) it will rise. I added more water because of the bread flour and because I live in the desert. If your flour is dry it will require more water. If you live in a humid area it will probably require less. It is just something you have to go a bit by feel. The pizza crust was good. I think I still prefer my usual recipe but we loved the tomato sauce. Thank you for your experiments and for caring about your readers.
I made the 22 hour pizza for dinner vs our regular make-it-in-45-minutes dough. My husband’s comment was that it tastes super fresh. I think we’re both converts! Thanks for creating and sharing, Deb :)
Well, I mixed up the 22 hour dough last night and we just finished eating it. Delicious! I made the crust and the sauce. Loved them both. I didn’t have any problem with rising. The dough was sticky and I needed to use a lot of flour on the counter, but it stretched nicely. I used one cup of whole wheat flour and had no problem with that. The only thing I would do differently would be to double the recipe and make two bigger, thicker pizzas. We are a family of five and my boys would have liked a few more pieces. Maybe I’ll try again in a couple of days! Thanks, Deb.
Wanted to report back on my results with the 6 hour dough. I used the original amount of water (1 cup + 3 Tbs), King Arthur AP flour and Fleishmann’s rapid rise yeast (was out of active dry). I found the dough to be very sticky as described, and not dry at all. The dough more than doubled in 6 hours, but my apartment is very warm (~75F). Although it was on the sticky side, I did not have too much trouble stretching it out, but got nervous about it sticking to my pizza stone, so I assembled it on parchment paper and then baked it the full amount of time on the paper on the stone. The paper darkened on the edges but did not burn. This was hands down the best dough in taste and texture that I’ve ever made! Thank you so much, I will be using this recipe from now on! I also think the sauce came out much better with draining the tomatoes.
This is one of those rare times I wish you would do a video. Going to try your 6 hr dough for breakfast pizza tomorrow.. Fingers crossed!
I make pizza every week for my family, and I tried this recipe tonight and I am now a convert! Cooked it on a pizza stone on our gas grill and it worked wonderfully. Thank you!
I am a huge Jim Lahey fan but I’ve never tried his pizza dough. You’ve got me sold on it, so that will be coming out of my oven soon. Your six-hour dough sounds like a great option too. (I also wonder around 12:00 a.m. what I’ll be making for dinner.) But, I really love your pizza sauce! Not for the Bloody Mary either. It just sounds so fresh, tasty and quick to make.
YOU HAVE PERFECT TIMING! I recently ran across a different pizza recipe which got me thinking that it might be time to overcome my fear of working with yeast and give it a go. The next day you posted this recipe. How could I ignore this sign from the universe?? It had to happen. And it did. And it was delicious!
A few notes:
– I live in Portland OR, and made the 22 hour rise version using all purpose flour which I measured by weight. The average temp in my house was about 65-70 degrees and it rose perfectly.
– I totally panicked. If you hadn’t put the warning in there I might’ve given up. Instead I stuck with it and coaxed the dough into shape.
– I used two 10×15 baking sheets to form 9x13ish rectangles
– I discovered that you can prep the dough in the pan, cover it, and then come back in a couple of hours to add the topping. HOWEVER, if you do this you must grease the sheet first before sprinkling the cornmeal. On sheet I greased, the other I didn’t and the pizza stuck to the ungreased sheet. A quick spritz was all it took.
– I used different toppings and while it’s a thin crust it held up well. I made a butternut squash, sage pesto, caramelized onion, goat cheese, and prosciutto pizza and you could eat it by hand with no floppy crust! (I used this as my inspiration for the toppings http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/09/harvest-pizza/ ) I know, it’s a ridiculous place to start but I think you may understand how sometimes you can’t help but gild the lily. :)
– I ended up adjusting the bake temp. because my inspiration recipes called for such different bake times 500 vs. 375. I settled on 425 for 22 minutes and it was perfect.
Thank you so much for your awesome pizza post! I’m totally a convert and can’t wait to making your complete recipe soon!
p.s. I’m so excited it’s apple cider caramel season! So full of cider caramel win!
I tried this yesterday, and it was the best homemade pizza we ever had. Even better than what most restaurants are able to produce. Had no stone at hand, used a pre-heated (!) baking sheet instead. 6 minutes at 540 degrees … perfection. Thank you so much. The dough is super easy and tastes fantastic, but the best tip was to drain the tomatoes!
I should not be looking here at 12:23am but here I am and I am dying, oh my god.
We make pizza every friday night. My husband tried this dough on Friday and it WINS, for sure. Delicious. It officially replaces our usual dough, which is the Cook’s Illus. pissaladiere dough recipe we’ve used and loved for years. Your recipe yielded fewer pizzas for us, but they were somehow more filling so we didn’t miss the extra (except at breakfast Saturday when I like to have a cold slice!).
Thanks for this – another winner!
We live at high altitude and made the 6 hour version last night. It was a spectacular hit and I can’t wait to try the other rises too. The dough was bursting with flavor and had a perfect chewy/crispy texture. Thank you so much!
I tied to make this twice over the weekend and neither worked. I tried the 22 hour – dough way too dry and never rose. So I tried the 22 hour again this time I added more water – then noticed then that recipe was revised re. water. I used the amount of yeast for the 6 hour and waited 22 hours and again this still never rose. I live in SF so no altitude issues and the weather was lovely and warm. I don’t undstand what I did wrong – this post made it out like it was supposed to be so easy and I found this incredibly frustrating! Can anyone who was successful tell me the name and brand of flour they used? I used an unbleached all-purpose flour, but that clearly wasn’t the right choice or there must be more errors in this recipe beyond just the amount of water.
Thank you so much! You are much loved and admired, I can’t wait to try this.
I followed the recipe as posted, except for the basil leaves, which I forgot to get. The pizza and crust were absolutely amazing. This is now my go-to crust recipe, replacing the America’s Test Kitchen one. I can’t even describe the texture, it was just perfection. It’s amazing reading the comments how varied the baking times are! I did the 9×13 route at 500 for 18 minutes and that was just about right.
Made this last night using the 22 hour method (halved recipe to make one pizza). Husband said it was the best crust I’ve ever made. He previously said that about the recipe in your book which was our go-to until now! For me, having a hot stone makes a big difference in getting the dough cooked enough towards center. It wasn’t my prettiest effort, but definitely most authentic taste. Thanks as always for doing the hard work for us minions!
Oh Deb…you read my mind! I made a recipe for “week night” pizza dough not too long ago, and was sorely disappointed with the crust b/c of all the reasons you mentioned.
I am definitely trying this!
long time reader, first time commenter…
after many failed attempts at pizza dough, i made the 6 hour version yesterday, and it turned out great! i followed the instructions to the letter, including the dough, your sauce, the mozzarella, and the toppings. i didn’t want to get cute and think i knew better and over-complicate things!
i started with newly purchased flour (white AP) and yeast (active dry yeast), both from Trader Joe’s. i also used the revised version with 1 + 1/4 cup water (i used hot tap water), and then added another TB of water because some of the flour in the bottom of the bowl didn’t stir into the mix. i didn’t mix it much, hoping it would do it its thing over the course of 6 hours. i covered it with plastic wrap and then a towel over that and set the glass bowl in the warmest spot in my kitchen. that area of the kitchen is probably 70+ degrees. after 6 hours it had doubled and had small air bubbles on the top, which meant my yeast worked! i had moments of freakout re: stickiness, but i just used a LOT of flour on the counter and it was fine. for my pan, i used the cornmeal on the back side of a sheet pan and baked it for about 16 minutes. my oven never got over 500 degrees, even though i set it for 525, which was my only real issue. i also made the pizza sauce just as instructed, and next time i will probably add some balsamic vinegar to punch it up a little.
next time i make the dough, i will probably add a little bit of sugar or honey, as i like a sweeter crust, but overall, this is the most successful/easy pizza experience ever. i love that it did its thing all day while i sat on the couch and watched football!
I really wish someone would mention which flour they used? I could not get the dough to rise.
FrancesM — I used/use King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose (sometimes Organic) Flour in almost all of my baking, including this. As for the rising…
Those whose dough didn’t rise — Please don’t think that I’m ignoring your comments. I’m … marinating on it. Here’s what I’m thinking about:
1. If dough doesn’t rise, 99.9% of the time, it’s the yeast. It’s no good. Yeast makes dough rise, of course. Many recipes that use Active Dry Yeast have you proof it first. This both gets it started so it works faster (time is not of the essence here, so one good thing about this recipe was supposed to be that you could skip this step) and lets you know whether your yeast is working before you get started. I hate to build in an extra step that most people won’t need (i.e. proofing your yeast first), but I am wondering if it might be beneficial to proof, say, 1/8 teaspoon of yeast from your package separately before starting. You wouldn’t use this, there’s no need to, but it’s not terribly wasteful either, being all of 1/18 of an entire 1/4-ounce/7-gram packet of yeast. But, if that tiny amount didn’t look a little foamy and dissolved after sitting in a few tablespoons of lukewarm water (110-116 degrees F is the range you’re looking for; what you want it to be is warm but not hot) after 10 minutes, there’s a good chance a pizza dough made with that yeast packet won’t rise. As for adding this step to the recipe, I’m torn as most people won’t need it, but nobody deserves to have to wait 22 hours to find out that dinner is not, in fact, ready when they get home from work with no back-up plan. So, like I said, I’m still kicking this around in my head. Feel free to weigh in.
2. The other factor in rising times is, as mentioned in the recipe, a cool or warm kitchen; a cool kitchen can make things take longer, a warm kitchen will make things take less time. [I considered my kitchen normal temperature-d this time of year (when it’s a blissful 68 degrees outside and the windows are open, say aaah with me?), so I figured it was a good baseline for testing times.] Unless your kitchen is QUITE cool or QUITE warm, I wouldn’t sweat this with the 12- and 22-hour doughs. Of the three schedules, I’d argue that the 6-hour dough is the most sensitive to temperature swings, as there’s less time for it to adjust to a cool kitchen and with more yeast than the others, it could, but is not likely to, overproof in 6 hours. Few of you have complained of overproofing, however.
3. Finally, altitude can affect bread doughs, but only in that at high altitudes, you’ll need less yeast. Again, this isn’t something anyone has mentioned (yet) as a concern.
Again, this leads us back to #1 — bad yeast — being the culprit in almost all no-rise cases.
Used the dough recipe (22 hour version) this weekend and it was exactly what we were looking for! Like you, pizza crust is the one thing that we could never seem to get just right. This one had all the flavor and that perfect crunch we had been longing for. We will definitely be using this as a base for further experimentation.
Ok, you’ve officially ended my 2 year moratorium on home pizza making. It was AMAZING. The dough is tough, and thank you for warning us. I also got holes like another commenter and ended up patching them up with bits from fatter sections like when you make pastry and have issues. It worked but mine was a little free form. I did the overnight version, halving the recipe and just adding three healthy pinches of yeast in the mixture. Was almost too great as I had to stop myself from eating the whole thing and now all I can think of is when can I make it again. Thanks for perservering and solving the puzzle.
I’ve got to say, I am so impressed and thankful for all the detective/discovery work you have done! Your concerns about dough schedules are EXACTLY why I’ve never gotten around to trying the Lahey dough (and why, generally, I skip making pizza at home ….).
So – I’m going to try this pbly Tuesday night (for Wed dinner) and will report back. Cannot WAIT! ;-)
Deb – Thanks! I had planned a ‘make-your-own-pizza’ party for my 41st birthday (Oct 19) so your timing was impeccable. I used your 22-hour rise and made 6 times the dough (three double batches) and divided it into 24 single portions. I followed your directions for sauce and had an amazing amount of toppings. We baked on parchment at 425 for 12-15 min. Worked beautifully. I loved that your recipe didn’t involve buying anything new (such as rye flour or a special corn meal) and tasted incredible. Many compliments from my friends and family! To those who had overly dry dough, maybe your flour is very dry. Just keep adding water until you get the wet consistency in the pictures.
Every time that I make a recipe from your site, my husband says that it’s the best thing that I’ve ever made, and this pizza was no exception. Even my picky 19-month old son loved the soft parts of the crust. Thank you for creating and rigorously testing such amazing recipes!
Thank you for the “dry dough” clarification. I used half of Friday’s dough on Sat. and half of what was left today and both pizzas were dynamite. Chewy–perfect. Light–absolutely, crispy-on-the-bottom couldn’t have been better. I had a sticking problem, too but more cornmeal solved that problem today (as it turned out, all the cornmeal took up the moisture and was incorporated into the crust). After all the pizza dough recipes I’ve tried (I’m not alone, I know), this is my favorite recipe, thank you!
I noticed the discussion on 00 flour — I find it makes a big difference in taste and works as a substitute by weight (next time I really should check the volume). I won’t go all snobby and say it’s a requirement, but it does make a welcome difference, in my book.
This looks so great and simple! Any recipe described as “lazy” is my kind of recipe.
I made this recipe before you reverted to the original.. I ended up with the 1 cup+3 tablespoons+3 teaspoons of water. It was a little dry but whatever, I did not worry about it. Mine only doubled (maybe) after 22 hrs and I did throw out my very old yeast afterwards. BUT the crust was very delicious. I stretched the entire dough in my larger cookie sheet with sides and baked at 550 for 12 min. Crisp bottom, nice chew, great flavor. I can only imagine what I end up with the moister dough and the better rise. Repeating again this weekend. The best part about this recipe is that the kids did all the mixing and then we left it alone till the next day. So so much easier. Also if the mozzarella sits at room temp for a while, it is so easy to crumble it with your fingers. I had to double the amount of reggiano because…well you never can have too much reggi but I did add half at the beginning and half at end.
I am excited to try this!
Magda – I assemble my pizza on parchment too and then slide it onto the hot cast iron. Less cornmeal all over the kitchen floor!
A bit off topic but did you know the links are off on the recipes section? Often linking to the next recipe down. Sorry if this has already been said a million times! P.s I reeallllyyy love your blog
Hi Becca — No, I didn’t realize anything had changed. Let me look into it. And thank you.
The first try , I did everything wrong, it was tasty and there were moments of goodness. Definitely room for improvement!
Take two with the leftover dough was great! I did a couple of things that were recommend here….and then some….
I like a tomatoy NY style. The cheese was cut up Sargento deli style low moisture mozzarella, parmesan and gorgonzola. The sauce was Furmano’s Pizza sauce ( which I “fried” to reduce the moisture).
I “prebaked” the crust on a perforated pizza pan, sprayed with olive oil and dusted with corn meal. YUMMM!!!!
Sounds tasty, but do not look as it sound. Dough should be thinly.
I made this dough before the correction…it was a little dry so I added a little more water … AMAZING!!! So easy to make … I did the 22 hour dough … can’t wait to make again with your pizza sauce as well!
Thank you so much!!!
Okay. It took gratitude to make me finally comment. I used to make pizza a lot before my baby (now 16 months) was born. It was a big sweaty ordeal. Tasty though. This recipe? It will get me back to making pizza, even – no, especially – on a busy working-mom weeknight. Made the dough last night, the pizza tonight. Cheated because I’m REALLY pressed for time and used jarred sauce. I think what really sealed the deal is the pan though. Way easier (less sweaty) than using a pizza board to slide (heave, in an ugly ungraceful manner) pizzas onto a pizza stone. Maybe the crust wasn’t quite as crispy for that, but I’ll play with cooking times and more importantly, I’ll take slightly less crispy dough any night if it means I can have homemade pizza in minutes. So thank you!
oh my GOSH – I think you have saved me from buying pizza stones! I have not been pleased with my dough and was just reading a recipe and thinking OKAY I WILL GET A DUMB STONE AND DUMBER PEEL and what other jobs will they do in my small kitchen!? None.
So. Thank you. I have made Lahey’s no-knead bread before, but my Dutch oven smoked so much at the high temp that I quit.
I read that occasionally folding the dough over on itself while rising helps release some carbon dioxide, moves some of the feeding yeast around and strengthens the gluten development just very slightly. It is a good technique for this particular dough because it’s so loose. I do this with the no knead dough for bread that Jim Lahey developed. Remember at the end of his long rising process, just before he tipped the dough onto the floured towel, he folded it a couple of times in the bowl with his board scraper. I use that technique a few times with that particular dough as it is rising. Maybe that would help with the rising or over proofing of this pizza dough. …can’t hurt!
Huge fan of the no knead bread so I kind of had a feeling this was going to work out well. As someone who at the age 47 SUDDENLY has issues with wheat (what the hell?) I thought I would experiment: one wheat dough for the family; one wheat free dough for me. I used regular King Arthur flour for one and Trader Joe’s Gluten Free flour for the other. Active dry yeast for both from TJ. I opted for the 6 hour rise and I have a very cold kitchen (wrapped the bowls saran and then in a towel). Full flour came out PERFECTLY! Oh man, that crust was outstanding! Seriously amazing! Still waiting for the gluten free to rise or do anything besides look like playdough. Will post again if it even makes it to the oven. Followed the Margherita recipe with no substitutions. Heaven. 8 and 11 year old boys asking if there are leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch. The answer is no. Bravo Deb! And thank you.
Hey Deb,
Just wanted to throw in my two cents about the rising. I made the 6-hour dough on Saturday. I’m quite confident in my yeast – I bought the jar only a month or so ago and have used it probably half a dozen times without problem. I got some rise, but it was fairly lackluster, and the dough tended to tear more than stretch. I ended up extending the rise by an hour or so after I found that it was tearing way too much to work with after 6+ hours. It was also not slack at all. It rose a little more, but not much, and the resulting pizza was a bit on the tough side. I only baked half of the dough, and wrapped the other half and refrigerated it per your instructions. Since then, there are lots of tiny bubbles and the dough is straining the plastic wrap, so it appears the rise has continued veeerrrry slowly in the fridge and the second batch will be much improved.
My guess is that at least some of your readers are struggling because of the room temperature. In a cool, dry climate, it is likely that such a small amount of yeast is simply taking a long time to rise. I would guess that upping the water and doing the rise in an oven heated to 200 and then turned off would help a lot – this is what I usually do since my house is always cool, like 60-ish. (If not, then yeah, it’s probably the yeast.)
My life is forever changed by this recipe. I obsessively read, and reread it over the weekend, as I too, have been (for years) in pursuit of the perfect homemade pizza. The crust was divine and I nearly wept when my husband casually mentioned that the pizza took him back to Rome. Here’s to you and your relentless pizza endeavours! May I suggest marinating halved cherry or grape tomatoes (splash red wine vinegar, sprinkle of salt and sugar, let sit for an hour or so) for the margherita pizza, Little pops of tomato-y goodness!
Looks gorgeous, your photos are so gorgeous, yet genuine, there is no fluff. I have never made pizza dough at home, so intimidated. Really ought to do that soon. :)
I’m a long time fan, first time commenter, but wanted to add my experience making this AWESOME pizza. I was also a bit worried when the dough didn’t rise as much as expected on this schedule (I planned on the 22 hour) but my boyfriend, who is much less of a worrier than I am, just suggested we give it a little more time. So we did and it turned out great, just as I’d hoped, crispy on the outside and chewy inside. I’m in the SF Bay Area in CA, so putting it down to cooler nights and, ahem, yeast that maybe wasn’t in its first flush of youth? I’ll try it with fresher yeast next time, but very, very pleased (and replete!) with this first attempt. Thanks Deb!
Yummy! We had this for dins last night. Made the dough 24hrs previous. Did first sitting with my son and myself… cooked on middle shelf on baking tray. Was delish but a bit doughy in middle. Then hubbys when he was in after work and bottom shelf on a proper metal pizza plate (with all the little holes). Made a huge difference… his crust was much nicer!! So lesson learned bottom shelf for me in the future on pizza tray! Reckon its a great dough to make focaccia so doing to make double next time and do some garlic and rosemary focaccia for sides!!!
Love the fact that you don’t even have to knead – thanks Deb its my new go to ;o)
My husband loved this pizza! I also have a love/hate relationship with homemade pizza dough. I think you figured it out for me. Thank you!
I tried this pizza crust last night, and YUMMMMMM!!! It was super easy and tasted GREAT. The recipe is going in my keep file.
Whoa, that looks delicious! Quick question: how long can you keep the dough in the freezer?
I think that doughs keep in the freezer for easily a month, probably longer.
this looks great and I will try it for sure but I have to tell you that your “basic pizza crust for one” is my go-to crust esp for those last minute/we have nothing to eat moments, and we make it alllllll the time and it’s lovely too =)
Wanted to chime in with my thanks. This worked perfectly — hands down the best pizza I’ve ever made at home. I didn’t have a pizza stone so, as per your suggestion, brushed a pan with olive oil — no sticking whatsoever. Thanks again!
Thanks for responding, I used the same flour as you so it must have been the yeast so will test it next time. I will try this again at some point.
Two nights ago I made the plum torte and prepared the pizza dough. So last night’s dinner comprised 2 consecutive SK posts in one meal (along with a salad). Kids loved it, we loved it, grandma loved it. Just not enough. Next time will double both recipes. Thanks!!!
Tried this yesterday… So bummed, made it in the morning at 8am, went to check in at 4pm and it had barely risen! It was a bit “craggy” dough when I made it, I did add a little extra water… What could I have done wrong??
Deb, let me first say that I have had a 100% success rate with your recipes. I can always open your book or search your blog for the best recipe ever. This summer I made your strawberry rhubarb pie. It came out perfectly just as you described. Most recently I made your pear bread and blueberry muffins. Everyone was so impressed with them – my kids teachers, the school bus driver, the neighbor, my friends, and even my mom! You sure have a talent and I greatly appreciate all you do for us home cooks.
I attempted the overnight pizza recipe last Thursday night after dinner, just as you recommended. It barely rose over the approximate 22 hours & made only one 12″ crust. My kitchen was about 67 degrees overnight with it warmer towards 70 during the day on Friday. I weighed everything exactly & followed your detailed directions. I thought it was the yeast, so I made some 5 minute artisan bread to test it out. The dough rose beautifully and came out just as it always does.
Thanks again for your amazing recipes. I’m not discouraged and will keep on trying the pizza dough recipes.
Deb, thanks for your detailed work and proofes for THIS ideal lazy dough. It really worked great! I have chosen the 22-hours-variety and everything was so easy and fast to make, the result was a great tasting pizza, crunchy but soft to bite for the kids, the taste of yeast in the baked dough is not dominant. Just a fine and buttery flavour, so yummi!
Your recipes all are creative and work everytime! Thanks for that.
I made the all day dough. I was a bit dubious when I made the dough before work, as it seemed a bit dry and messy. It rose but not in the way I expected it seemed to spread… BUT it made two beautiful round pizza’s, just as you promised! I was worried as it was really sticky, even with you’re warning. I used parchment paper with cornmeal just for ease and quickness.
It was delicious when eating it the same night it was made… it didn’t seem to reheat well though…… just means I’ll have to eat it all at once I guess!
Hi Deb.
Ever since I got your book I have been making the Leisurely Pizza Dough from the book once a week for supper. Due to our large family I always quadruple the amounts stated in the recipe and that’s enough for two suppers of ours. I freeze half, unbaked, and use it the following week – freezes wonderfully.
Today I’ve had time to read your new Pizza post and tried the revised version (the six hours one). Used 1125 kilo of flower, half of it whole wheat. It baked beautifully and one of my kids gave it the following complement: “It’s better than Pizza Hut (we hardly buy Pizza so that’s a huge complement..).
Half of the dough is in the freezer for next week.
Now I need to make the one from the book again – not sure which one is better!
Thanks for a great recipe.
I was so excited by this post/recipe and I ran home to make it this past weekend…and then yesterday as well. I may even eat some tonight as I’m obsessed with getting it right. My only Q is about the yeast… do you put it directly into the dough? My mother always told me to dilute the yeast with warm water first. Am I forgetting a step here? Nonetheless, my pizza tasted great but seemed very moist and it didn’t rise nearly as much as I would’ve anticipated. Thanks for any tips!
Much of this territory has been covered by Kenji Alt in the pizza lab series on Serious Eats’ Slice site. For instance, here is his mozzarella evaluation:
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/02/the-pizza-lab-the-best-low-moisture-mozzarella-for-pizzas.html
Kristen — The yeast here does not need to be diluted.
Amanda — Which dough schedule were you using? I discuss in Comment #316 the factors in why dough sometimes doesn’t rise.
I am a pizza addict! And umm I can’t wait to try this… so perfect for lazy Sundays! :P
Deb, I’m a longtime reader but a first time commenter, and tonight I felt I had to break my silence. Husband and I are celebrating 12 years tonight, and I made this pizza (overnight recipe plus the sauce) and your brownie mosaic cheesecake for dinner. This is what hubby had to say:
“It’s like the $40 cheese pizza you order at high end pizza joints.” Also, “best I’ve ever had.” And that’s saying something, given that I make pizza on a regular basis and it’s been great in the past.
Haven’t tried the cheesecake yet, but I’m sure it’s going to be a hit. Thanks for making our little celebration a HUGE hit! :)
Hi Deb, thanks for the recipe! We had it for dinner tonight and it was great! Lovely dough. I will say that I measured (not weighed) King Arthur’s bread flour and I had to use about 1/4 c + 2 tbsp extra of water. I still love a great pizza from a restaurant (love the blistered charred crust of high heat) but this is the best homemade one! And a bonus that it is pretty hands off.
Thank you for the AWESOME pizza recipe. The best crust ever, and even better the 6- page long pizza dough recipe my pizza-aficionado husband has sworn by for years.
I used the 22-hour variation. The dough was indeed wet, but it wasn’t really that much of an effort to stretch it into a 12-in circle, on parchment paper. The pizza stone was pre heated in the oven at 550 degrees, and the crust and paper slid onto the stone to begin baking. After a couple minutes, I slid the pizza peel under the crust and lifted it to remove the paper. With the very hot oven and hot stone, the pizza took just 8 minutes to cook.
Did I say it was AWESOME? Yes, indeed, it was.
I asked earlier re halving the dough and it worked beautifully. (As I do not have a 1/16 tsp, I just filled the 1/8 tsp slightly more than half full.) The dough rose well in my room temperature kitchen and all was well.
Unfortunately it stuck to my baking sheet! Totally cemented. I did pry the edges off and eat them (tasty!) and now I know how to clean a baking sheet with an entire pizza stuck to it. And no garbage disposal.
The dough was a cinch to make and I’ll definitely do it again — I’ll spray the pan first!
That looks absolutely delish!! Going to try this very soon…your food photography is superb :)
It’s Heather again (#266). I made your Really Simple dough tonight. Excellent as always. Husband said “this is a recipe you don’t want to break.” Still trying to figure out what happened Saturday. Now I know for sure it wasn’t the yeast. I’d also like to echo #342 – ever since I started making your recipes I’ve had 100% success and have become a better and more confident cook. I’ve also made the leisurely dough with success. Thanks!
Looks like it has been cooked to perfection. I would love to try this very soon.
I can’t wait to try this – LOVE the idea of alternative timings.
Now if you could do the same alternative timings idea for a no-knead loaf, I would be eternally grateful – I’ve made it once or twice, but the timings which I have don’t really work with my schedule…
I have been making pizza for 4 years from a simple recipe from the local newspaper: It is 3 1/2 cups of bread flour, 1 tbl salt, 1/2 tbl. sugar, 1/8 cup of olive oil, 1/2 tbl yeast, 1 5/8 cup of warm water. It can keep in the refrigerator for up to 12 days. It must have at least a 24 hour rise with about 6 hours at room temperature the rest of the time in the fridge. I use a French yeast that is quick rise that I ordered from King Arthur Flour company. It is the best and most reliable yeast and keeps in the freezer. I mix the ingredients in a food processor so that the gluten is sufficiently processed. If this is not done, the dough will not have the correct elasticity.
I cook the pizza on the gas grill or in the oven on a pizza stone at a very high temperature (450 degrees at least). The key is to cook the dough first with olive oil sprinkled on top before any sauce, toppings or cheese are added. It is always unbelievable in taste and texture with just the right amount of char and crispness. I can vary the thickness of the crust by how I roll it out. I have never had a problem with the dough.
I have used Paul Newman’s bottled basil tomato sauce and various toppings. I have even done it with proscuito and dried figs or just a white pizza with ricotta, blue cheese and carmelized onions. It is consistently good. My neighbors who have enjoyed the pizza grilling parties I have thrown want want me to sell it commercially. After making this pizza I can not eat pizza from a restaurant because it does not have the flavor or texture of my home made pizza.
THANK YOU! My husband and I work from home too, and if I’m on the ball will start something when I put lunch together for us. Every recipe that has yeast seems to want to start the night before, and I am just not that put together. So lunch time recipes are great! Can’t wait to try it.
Just wanted to chime in to say I had great success with the 22-hour dough! I had never made pizza at home before so I didn’t really know what I was doing and it still turned out great! My kitchen is fairly cool and the dough still had good rise. I will have to take another look at the store for aged mozzarella, when I went I didn’t see anything labeled “aged.”
Deb, first – I love your writing, you are funny and sweet and bring so much personality to your words! So: we are big-time pizza lovers in my house but the whole gluten-free thing has confounded me. I use Cup4Cup but am going to try this with a GF AP blend and see what happens. I broke down and bought the Breville pizza gadget and it’s greatly improved the cripsness of the Cup4Cup crust; let’s see how it handles a homemade version. xo
Deb, I have a pizza quandary that maybe you could help me solve. While I love a margherita pizza, I am trying to make a great veggie pizza. My problem is this: I load the veggies on the pizza and when I pull it out of the oven there are literally giant puddles of water on the surface of my pizza from all those vegetables. Any ideas? Should I par cook the veggies? Ever run into this?
We (the husband & I) love this pizza dough. It is the best pizza we tried so far and we may never go back to anything else. Instead of stretching the dough into a pan, I stretched and nudged it onto parchment page. Yes, raw dough sticks to the parchment like glue, but when we baked it (dough + parchment) on the pizza stone, the cooked crust released from the parchment quite easily and the crust was nice and crispy with a little bit of chewiness. The parchment did not burst into flames or disintegrate since it was in the oven for such a short amount of time, even at 500F. The flavor and the texture are everything that I want for a pizza crust. Makes me want to kick myself for not trying no knead pizza dough sooner.
Deb, I think the time innovations are a public service. Who does that 18-hr prep schedule work for, anyway? Right?! I made this dough this morning/tonight on the 12-hr schedule. Everything worked as described. I will be making it for guests on Friday. I’m thinking about adding a T of olive oil to the dough then, as was called for in your other recipe, to add a bit of richness. Hope that doesn’t through off the formula.
OK-help. I suck at yeasted dough (except for my cinamon rolls which somehow always turn out). I made it this morning, per the directions, it did not rise AT ALL. What did I do wrong??
Sorry, just saw you answered this!
This dough was a pain in the a*s! Seriously! Mine looked nothing like the picture, and trying to pat the squishy mess into cookies sheets was incredibly frustrating and took ages longer than normal. I think this was the first SK recipe that just didn’t work for me.
However, the taste was good! It was a little chewy for my liking but definitely an improvement on my standard pizza dough that can come out too thin and cracker-ish.
I think next time, less water. Way more flour when shaping. And maybe less yeast? I’m at a really high altitude.
I just noticed something I missed in the instructions the first time around: this is meant to make 2 9×13 pizzas? My dough must not have risen nearly as much as I thought, or I made mine much thicker than yours (though it looked similar to the picture you have of it in the pan). My dough only made 1 9×13 pizza, but it did turn out great and I made it again last night (*cough* actually made 3 batches to test which type of flour I preferred–white, 50/50 bread, or 50/50 wheat).
@ Marissa #363
We’re a strictly vegetarian house, and all our pizzas are loaded with veggies! After years of trial and error here are the veggies I always cook:
*Mushrooms, this is probably the worst offender. I usually cook them till 99% done and then carefully scoop them out of the pan and into a colander to drain off any last bit of water.
*Greens, especially spinach. Cook and squeeze! Or, make spinach pesto instead if you don’t feel like cooking it.
*Zucchini/summer squash saute till browning.
I don’t pre cook: thinly sliced bell pepper or roasted pepper, broccoli or cauliflower, asparagus, olives, fennel, brussel sprouts (if shredded) or leeks. I’m on the fence about artichoke hearts. Generally I just try to spread them out…
Living in the tropics of Australia, I made the 22 hour dough and it was ready to cook (doubled in bulk/massive) after around 17 hours for lunch instead of dinner. Thanks hot weather! I was too lazy to make 2 pizzas so I just made 1 thicker rectangular one on a large baking tray. Mushroom, mozzarella, tomato and thyme.
This is seriously the best base recipe Deb, even as a thicker pizza it is light, bubbly and chewy with a crisp crust and no gross ‘yeasty’ taste that haunts most pizza recipes. Like a gourmet pizza, it has the large air bubbles. I never would have thought such a wet dough would work so well. Thanks for sharing, I’m not making pizza dough any other way now :)
@Zoe #370
Zoe, thanks for the great advice!!
Deb it all worked, and we had great pizza for supper tonight. Thank you for cracking the code on making great pizza at home!
–I started my pizza dough this morning with 200g AP flour and 175g WW. Dough was very sticky tonight, but I trusted your recipe, and pulled it very thin on the parchment paper. It baked up crispy, not like cardboard!
–drained my tomatoes, and made sauce with the immersion blender. How easy is that?! And the drained juice is tasty!
–sauteed the mushrooms and spinach briefly. It seems to make the toppings and cheese and crust all one thing that go together.
The upshot is that the pets did not receive any bites. No one was willing to share, a sad day for them.
Thanks! This was the best pizza dough, ever. I’m forever converted. Veery sticky but worth it. The interior! I can write poems about it…
OK So I just moved to a small town in the middle of the desert in India, so pizza not something we get done well here, and I do sooo crave me some pizza. I really wanna try this recipe but I have a question. Like I said I now live in a desert. Where it gets close to 90F during the day and the evening is starting to drop around 60F, how would this affect the yeast, would you suggest I do the middle one, (mix at Bfast and have at dinner time?) and should I still cut the amount of yeast for that?
hshah — Mostly, it’s likely to be done much sooner. You could use the 12-hour dough, but give it 6 to 8 hours as an early estimate, and try it out. It might take a couple tries to get the schedule right, but there is one that will ultimately work for you.
Christina — It is intended for two thin pizzas. If you felt like you didn’t have enough, it’s probably because it didn’t rise enough.
I did this last night, it kept all its promises. You are amazing Deb.
I made the 22 hour dough. 2 cups bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat. I stored the covered bowl in the cold oven and it rose beautifully. Baked two pizzas on parchment covered baking sheets since the dough was very sticky – you did warn us Deb! Pizza was insanely good. I love this dough but I also love your “Leisurely Pizza Dough” from your book. Both are excellent options for weeknight pizza for those who work long hours.
I made both the 6 hour dough and the 22 hour dough (using half whole wheat flour) and both were excellent! On my second attempt, I lightly sprayed my baking sheets and it solved all sticking problems. The sauce was also fantastic. Thank you so much for this recipe! Amazing!
@ Kritina # 210
Hey there, I have been trying to make a perfect pizza for over years now until I discovered something. The dough left to rise for a period of 30 mins or so does not always turn out to be a soft evenly cooked texture and the layers might not be flat because of not enough air incorporation. That is why Now i left it for like 3 hours in a dry place covered with a damp cloth. The dough gets always trice its size will air evenly incorporated. Actually very important is the yeast quantity which i forgot to mention above, I use only half a spoon and left to rise. Following which the dough gets very elastic and you can start kneading it directly into the tray and garnish as per taste. I still prefer moist mozzarella than dry for the taste :$ Plus try roasting the tomato sauce for few mins before applying on the dough, gives u another taste.
-karishma
I follow your blog but never comment, but with all the disparate results in the comments I had to chime in. I made the 22 hour version, it worked perfectly, we had it for dinner last night, and it was the BEST pizza dough I have ever made. I’m a working mom with a 20 month old and I’m 7 months pregnant with the next – this recipe is literally going to change my life. I have missed pizza but just didn’t have time to make it, not to mention that it was really hard to stir up a fresh pizza dough with a toddler screaming at me to pick her up. This way I could do the flour measuring after she’d gone to bed, and it literally took me about five minutes to spread the dough in the pan, drop on some sauce, toppings and cheese, and stick it in the oven. And it tasted heavenly. Thank you so much!
Hey there,
Two questions. 1) does the water need to be heated to 100-110 degrees in order to activate the yeast?
2) The dough basically ripped apart on me. i couldnt stretch it out to fit a relatively small pan without having paper thin areas that ripped and then chunky portions as well. What did I do wrong?
Danielle — Warm water will not be needed to activate the yeast here, the very long rise dissolves it. If it tears or gets too thin, pinch or overlap it back together from the open sides and you’ll never be the wiser when it comes out of the oven.
A classic! I make homemade pizza at LEAST once a week. It’s scrumptious and my comfort food:) Just be careful using canned tomatoes…..the acidity draws out the BPA’s in the lining of food cans :/ not good. Canned tomatoes in glass jars are so easy to find at farmers markets and health food stores though!
Just made the 22-hr. crust at mile-high elevation, so I decreased yeast a smidgen to an even 1/8 tsp and added 2 extra T of water. Topped with fontina, gruyere, sautéed mushrooms, onions and diced ham. Finished with parmesan and basil. Yum! Superb crust! Thanks for the recipe.
This was a SK fail for me :(. — my first, after cooking dozens and dozens of recipes from here. The dough had none of the ‘artisanal bread’ quality that you speak of, and tasted gummy. I think I made a rookie mistake though, and want to give this another go. I made it on a pre-heated pizza stone, but the minute I put the dough on the stone it started baking so that it was hard to evenly spread it out. When I’ve made pizzas before I’ve prepared them on the counter and then moved them to the stone, but there was no way to do that with this sticky dough. Should I forego the stone next time and just use a baking sheet (not preheated)?
Jan — You said something about it tasting gummy — did you feel that it rose enough? Many people have mentioned in the comments using parchment on top of their stones, which might be easier. A baking sheet works just fine. People may have noticed that I always use baking sheets. After I broke my second pizza stone a couple years ago, I decided to take a break from them until I had a less annoying oven (the racks are wobbly).
Hi Deb – just made this tonight and it was amazing! Went with the 22 hour version, made the dough last night around 10pm (and it really did only take a few mins – awesome!) Also drained the tomatoes last night. Interestingly, if anyone cares, I found they shed more liquid overnight in a tupperware pot, so drained that off too this evening. Might just leave them out of the tin over night next time…
Anyway, it probably took all of ten mins to put together (again – just amazing!) I baked it on top of the back of a baking sheet. We put one in the oven and we ate it in about 5 mins, burning our mouths. I’d originally put the other half of dough in the fridge to keep, but just got it out to make another….
Also, I live at altitude in Mexico City, around 7000 feet and the recipe was great, in case anyone cares. Thank you!
ps – I have your book and I love it.
I use Jim’s recipe regularly. We are addicted. I usually sub out some of the flour for whole wheat and even a bit of rice flour, too. It is crispy yummy chewy deliciousness. Every time my family says, mom this is your best pizza yet!
Well this looks like a weekend recipe if I’ve ever seen one, looks absolutely delicious :)
Thanks so much for this recipe! I made it tonight for two of my best friends and they absolutely loved it. Sent my dad a picture and he asked me for the recipe. This was so incredibly easy and I know I’ll be making it again!
I made this for dinner tonight and really screwed it up. I threw the dough together before charging out the door and measured by volume instead of weight. I didn’t fully incorporate the flour and left it all day in a cold kitchen. When I pulled it out of the bowl, it was hard, lumpy and only half-risen. I had no dinner back-up plan so I persevered.
When I pulled it out of the oven it was fabulous- crisp outside and chewy inside. It supported the toppings. My family of four devoured it!
I can’t wait to make it properly! Thanks for the recipe!
Epic success! I’ve always failed at pizza at home, but this recipe was perfect. I made the 22 hour dough, I measured the flour via volume, and spooned the flour into the measuring cup to err of the wet side rather than the dry. I also switched out 1/2 c for whole wheat fl. I ended up adding the extra 2 tbs of water, which made it pretty wet initially, but it cooked up beautifully! I made one margherita & one white with caramelized fennel! Will be making these frequently. Thank you SO much for demystifying at-home pizza making.
I commented back in #283 that my pizzas totally stuck to the pan (22 hr version). Well, I couldn’t get the big white whale out of my head so yesterday tried the 6 hr version with more water and a bit of oil in the pan. I put about 1 TBS of olive oil in first then wiped it away with a paper towel leaving a film THEN put the cornmeal on. Success! It turned out great and this really is a perfect recipe if you don’t have a lot of time but want homemade pizza.
Wow!!!!! I made the 24 hour one for a morning brunch philosophy group that meets about 10 because hungry guys! They loved it!! I made your Margharita version. They thought it was professional. I talked how easy and they talked philosophy.
I got lucky and saw Jim Lahey on Martha Stewart several years ago. I thought no knead dough, lets do this! We have stuck with his recipe since. I also saw a Mario Batali recipe for a fresh sauce, similar to yours in Saveur and that has been our winning combo. I am so picky about eating pizza out now because we can make it at home for pennies on the dollar and often better than what we would get out.
Made this for dinner yesterday (22 hr rise) with King Arthur unbleached AP flour. It seemed a tad dry at first mix, so I added the extra water per the recipe, but I think I ought to have left it alone. High heat and humidity (yay Florida!) left my dough too sticky and wet to use when it was ready. It rose as expected. I kneaded in extra flour to get it manageable, but there is no way it would have slid off a peel, even with oil or cornmeal. I ended up baking it on the back of an oiled baking sheet atop a preheated stone at 500 degrees. The flavor was good, but the baking method left me with a crust not as crisp or browned as I’d like. I ended up giving the cute pieces another 2 minutes or so on the stone once I removed them from the baking sheet. Will use parchment next time.
As for toppings: I used your Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette filling from the SK Cookbook on one of the pizzas, with a substitute of sweet potato for the squash (my wife is anti-squash, but sweets are ok, go figure!). It was AMAZING as a pizza, and far less guilt inducing on a weeknight than the galette dough.
Just wanted to say this was hands down the best homemade pizza I’ve ever made – and Sunday is pizza night around here so I’ve made an awful lot of them. I was so tickled when it came out of the oven looking just like the brick oven pizzas I’ve had in Italy and elsewhere. Thanks for working all this out – and for sharing.
For the record I used the 22-hour dough and parchment on a preheated cast iron griddle that I use in lieu of a pizza stone.
For those with extra dough who wondered how to store it – I ended up putting mine back in the fridge and a few days later I made a very nice loaf of artisanal country bread out of it using the usual no knead bread method of cooking it in a dutch oven. It came out just as well as the standard Jim Lahey no knead bread, which isn’t surprising, since the recipes are very close. So that’s another option.
Thanks again.
You’re old dough recipe was my hands-down favorite, so I of course had to try this new favorite! I noticed some comments saying the dough didn’t rise enough, so I used a pretty heaping 1/8 tsp (probably closer to 1/4 tsp) of yeast and let the dough sit about 20 hours. It rose beautifully! Dough cooked-up amazingly delicious with a nice texture. I let one half of the dough sit in the fridge for use the next day, and that pie came out good too.
I didn’t have parchment, but my normal method is to construct the pizza on parchment, then put that on top of the hot pizza stone. Without parchment, I heated the stone, rolled the dough on the counter, then took the stone out of the oven and assembled as quickly as possible. That worked, but it’s a race against the clock because the dough starts cooking as soon as it hits the hot stone.
One question: Whenever I store dough in the fridge for later use, I wrap it in plastic, then put that in a ziploc or a bowl. The dough always manages to tear through the plastic wrap and seep out (it’s still expanding/rising I guess). Does that happen to you? Is there a way around that?
Shannon — You know, it might be better to just put it in a much larger ziploc. Glad you enjoyed the pizza.
I just have to say THANK YOU. I recently moved from NY to DC and have not been able to find ANY good pizza. Like many of you, it is my go to comfort food. Knowing that I can make my own is really a game changer. I was so skeptical just by looking at the dough but I made it for friends and my boyfriend and it was gone before I sat down at the table. I cannot thank you enough! Also, I used regular boring shredded mozzarella in the bag and it was STILL good. I can only imagine if I found the good stuff (our grocery store leaves a lot to be desired. Anyway, THANKS again.
Add me to the list of first-time commenters: this. dough. changed. my. life. I have no idea why I’ve been content to make sub-par pizza dough at home for the last decade. I guess I assumed I didn’t have enough time, or the right oven, or the right tools. Anyway, today I mixed up the 6-hour recipe, with half all-purpose flour and half white whole wheat, and a Tbsp of extra water. It sat for 6.5 hours and rose just fine at 67 degrees F. I smeared some drops of olive oil on a baking sheet, sprinkled it with cornmeal, tore the dough in half (confession – I let it droop in my hands instead of on a floured counter!), easily shaped it on the pan and baked it for 14 minutes at 550, until I could see the toppings starting to char. The bottom of the crust was nicely browned, and it didn’t stick to the pan, not even a little bit. Both pizzas turned out AMAZINGLY! Thank you, Deb, for the profound effect you’ve just had on my family’s life! I may never comment again (until the next life-changer, anyway) so let me also say – thanks for making your recipes entertaining-yet-kind, personal-yet-universal, easy to find, easy to follow, mouthwateringly beautiful, and best of all, unbelievably delicious.
Hi Deb, I followed your 24 hour instructions, and yet again you are a GENIUS, I used the all purpose Bob’s Red Mill flour that is gluten free, did a test run in the oven and it was brilliant. I don’t think it rose much in 24 hours, but the simplicity of it is wonderful – YEAH – thank you muchly. Emma
Wow. This was the best pizza I have ever made. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about when I can make it again. Thank you for your amazing recipes!
After making this recipe, I am happily enlisting myself in the rows of praising first-time commenters. I made the 12 hour dough last week – and it is OUTSTANDING. Before this, I had very disheartening experience with home-made pizza: with all the trouble making the dough, it always turned out like a cardboard. This dough is chewy and crisp and full of flavor. And it is so easy to make. The tomato sauce turned out great too. As a microbiologist, I applaud your experiments with different time points and amounts of yeast! Thank you for sharing.
Great pizza dough recipe! It’s rare that I make something when it’s current on a blog, but I had some of the slow-roasted tomatoes I needed to do something with, and this pizza dough recipe seemed to be it. I was able to get the dough super thin (my imperfections always lean toward it being too bready and soft). We loved it!
This time I weighed the flour and the water was spot on. Turns out my scoops were quite heavy handed. Also a fresh batch of yeast really helped, the dough is tripled and very soft. This is our second time making it and I doubled the recipe…we are going for a margherita and a prosciutto with maitake mushroom.
I’ve made this twice already :) The first time, I subbed in half whole wheat flour and the only yeast I had on hand was expired by a few months. Following the 22-hour recipe, it was a little dry and didn’t rise much. BUT, it was still yummy. The second time, I subbed in just a quarter whole wheat flour and used new yeast – and the extra water from the updated notes! I was going for the 22-hour version, but given the poor rise the first time (was it the yeast? my cold house in SF?), I opted for a level 1/4 t of yeast. By morning, it had already doubled, so I split the dough, wrapped the two balls in plastic, and stuck them in the fridge. I removed them about an hour before dinner and the rest is history! Thank you for yet another awesome recipe, Deb!
What can I say? Best. Pizza. Ever. I salute you! (and I only tried the 6 hour rise)
Wowowowowow!
My husband just came into the bedroom and said, “Why is it that, even with what you say are lousy ingredients (for the teenager’s Hallowe’en party I simply used a Paul Newman bottled spaghetti sauce and run-of-the-mill olives, along with the mozzarella and parmesan and finely cut asparagus), this was nearly the best pizza I’ve ever had? I even ate the last little pieces I could find of the crust.”
“Because,” I replied, “we made the dough ourselves, and the crust is the heart of the pizza.”
“Well,” he persisted, “why isn’t the Cheese Board pizza (an iconic source of pizza here in Berkeley) as good? They make it just a few hours before we eat it, right?”
“Because,” I replied again, “this pizza dough takes so long to spread out that you could never use it to produce hundreds of pizzas.
“Okay,” he responded, “let’s make it every Saturday night from now on!”
Help, I tried this yesterday and could not get the dough to do anything. It would not spread out – was just springy and unworkable. We eventually gave up and ordered pizza. What did I do wrong?
Should the water be tepid or ……any specific temp? Making it now for my son’s 8th birthday dinner and crossing my fingers!
Michelle — No need to use tepid or warm or any special temperature. It will all adjust over the lengthy resting time.
RuthDC — Thank you for the tips.
Katherine — It may have been a yeast issue if it felt too tight and springy — did it rise?
CC — What kind of baking sheets do you have? If teflon- or non-stick coated, just look for ones without a coating. Or, just bake it at 450. Pizza is flexible, but the best charred spots do come from the highest temperatures.
KVK — My mother is a retired microbiologist. Your comment would make her smile (too!).
I have read through all 410 comments on this recipe, that’s how much I love it. Deb, here are some data points on my two attempts.
1st try: 6-hour recipe with AP flour and Fleischman’s rapid rise yeast (didn’t know there was a difference), plus the yeast was old-ish. It was a good six months or so from expiration, but I’d kept it in the freezer, so I thought it would work ok. When I do a no-knead bread, I put the bowl in the sun to help the yeast along, so I did that here too. I also used hot water out of the tap when mixing the dough. The underside of the bowl still felt warm when I picked it up to bake 6 hours later, but it didn’t rise enough to make two 9×13 pizzas. I stretched the dough as much as I could, but it kept getting holes. The pizzas were nowhere close to round or rectangular — more like maps! But I think that was due to my inexperience with pizza dough. This was my first attempt ever. I baked it on a baking sheet with cornmeal and it came off the pan mostly easily. When baked, the texture was crispy/chewy, but the flavor of the crust was missing. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Still, we ate it all.
2nd try: 22-hour version with bread flour this time and new active dry yeast. Bowl in the sun as before. Dough rose and definitely doubled in size, but I don’t think it tripled. Per above comments, I put cooking spray on the baking sheet this time before the cornmeal, and had absolutely ZERO problems with sticking. I still had problems stretching out the dough. It didn’t look like it would have made two 9×13’s, so I put both crusts on the same pan to bake. Also brushed water on the edges of the crust after putting on toppings as a previous commenter suggested. Lo and behold, the dough puffed up much more this second time, and the texture was perfect chewy crunchy bubbly wonderfulness, but too thick, because I didn’t stretch out the dough enough. So I’m learning. But WOW, so good. The water on the crust also was a big improvement over my first attempt. Used your sauce recipe for the second attempt as well — delicious. The bread flour and proper yeast made the flavor of the dough much better than the first attempt, but I still feel like it’s missing a little richness somehow… For my next attempt, I’m going to put a smidge of olive oil into the dough and see how that comes out. I also plan to try stretching out the dough, letting it sit on the pan for a few minutes, and then trying to nudge it a bit more into the corners of the pan. Will see how that goes.
This recipe is such a gift to all of us. I feel IMPRESSIVE now, because I know the secret to fantastic pizza dough. I’m becoming a fabulous cook, thanks to your fabulous recipes. I read that on the jacket flap of your cookbook which I got for Christmas last year. Your apple cider caramels even got my candy-avoiding grandmother to gobble them one after another. Time to make those again too, come to think of it…
Tried this last night with the part-day dough schedule. Came out great! Did not need the extra water for the dough (though it was craggy, as you say). Dough rise was fine at a chilly-ish room temperature. Baked the pizza at 500 degrees on the back of a cookie sheet covered in foil and lightly oiled. Dough was easily hand-stretched and then coaxed into place on the sheet. Will definitely make this again. Thanks for the tasty recipe!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who had a bit of a fail with this recipe. I tried the six hour dough (not having gitten up early enough on Sunday to do the 12 hour dough!), it rose but I’m not sure that it doubled – the house was on the cool side. But I couldn’t get it to stretch like the picture – had to grab both ends and pull. It was so wet and hard to handle, certainly couldn’t stretch it like the picture, I had to smear it inot shape – I ended up with thicker bases than I wanted because if I tried to get it any thinner it sprouted holes! And it came out tasting really floury – Mum was very nice about it, but really it was pretty awful! I don’t think it was a yeast problem – mine was brand new from the store for this recipe. And I did the flour by weight not volume. I think the oven was hot enough – 240C. The only thing I did differntly was make smaller pizzas as we are currently working with a tiny bench-top oven since ours died – but that woulnd’t have resulted in weird dough pre-oven. Any ideas what might have gone wrong would be appreciated – I would love to get this dough to work but I’m not game to try it again at the moment.
Hi Deb! Thank you for sharing this pizza recipe and modification. I also tried the leisurely pizza dough in your book, and it was lovely. One question: This recipe (and the one in your book) mentioned to set the oven 500F or the max allowed by the oven. But my baking sheet only takes maximum temperature 450F, and I can’t find one that goes higher than 450F. Can you point me to where I can find baking sheet that can stand higher temperature? Thanks!
We love love love this recipe! The crust is quite wonderful. I have a question about the sauce. I drained, then puréed the tomatoes, and *wait a sec!* it was speckled with tomato seeds! I sent the tomato/garlic/crushed pepper mixture back through the strainer to remove the seeds, but probably lost the garlic and crushed peppers, too. The pizza was still quite wonderful. But I am still trying to sort out the seed conundrum, seeds or no seeds?
Hi Gayle — See comment #258; I respond to Katya’s question about the same. (In short: they don’t bother me here, but I give more information.)
Deb,
I used fresh yeast and it did rise some, but maybe not enough. I am going to try again with a longer rise time and a warmer house. Maybe that will be the trick. We were in the mountains and the house was colder than normal. Thanks!
This recipe could not have been more timely. I have a bit of a thing for homemade pizza and have been making it nearly weekly for a while. My prior go-to dough was the one from your book, which I loved. Then my stand mixer broke (it is ten years old and gets a lot of use – broken gear, I think) and I haven’t had time to figure out where to get it fixed. It actually broke as I was kneading pizza dough. I had a several week lapse in dough making since I couldn’t be bothered to knead by hand. Then, lo and behold, you post this recipe! I’ve made it twice now and it’s awesome – absolutely no fuss, no mixer required, and the resulting dough is the best I’ve made at home. The sauce was fantastic and easy, too. So thanks! I added some sauteed mushrooms, onions and goat cheese for me and did the second one with pepperoni for my husband, whose love of processed meats runs deep.
I have to say that this is the best pizza dough I have EVER EVER made!! I have always been intimidated by making pizza cause I could NEVER get it right – my dough always seemed too “bready” – but this recipe if marvelous!!
The best!!
I made this dough in a hurry yesterday morning, and in the afternoon got a text from my husband: “the dough looks REALLY sticky. how are you going to work with it?”. He’s usually the one to make pizza and has a favourite recipe, so he was quite suspicious. I managed to smear, nudge, and stick the dough to roughly the shape I wanted – it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be – and the result was delicious! A bit soggy, but that’s probably because our sauce (not drained but cooked) still had too much liquid in it.
And now,a question: if I want to increase the amount by 25%, how would that work? 25% of 1/4 teaspoon, that’s a bit tricky :-) Is it possible to give the amounts in grams?
Noa — You can definitely increase everything by 25%, however, it’s hard for me to give gram weights of things like 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, which technically weighs .77 grams. (I list these rounded to the nearest whole gram in comment #183.) The reason I suggest each measurement should be heaped is because each measurement, when I did my math, worked out to exactly that (be it 1/8, 1/4, or 1/2 teaspoon) PLUS 1/16 teaspoon. Obviously measuring 1/16 of a teaspoon is more of a headache than it’s worth, so I said “heaped” instead, which gives you about the same and fewer gray hairs. But you can keep that 1/16 in mind when increasing the recipe.
I think pizza is my nemesis. Deb, you are a goddess and this is the first time one of your recipes has failed to turn out anything other than splendidly. I’m certain it was user error and will absolutely try again. I made the 22 hour dough and barely got one 12 inch dough out of – 9 x 13 was completely out of the question. I scooped the floor via your spoon method, used a brand new bottle of yeast, and put the bowl on the stove so it would be a bit warmer. Alas, no luck. I ended up baking the dough by itself (it would not form a pizza shape no matter what I did – more like a puffy approximation of Central America) and treating it like a bread stick. BUT I will give this another go – and another, and another …
I made the 22 hour dough last week and it was WAY too wet. I noticed that another FL commentersaid the same thing. I had to smear the dough into shape- there was no way I could have rolled it out or used the peel and stone. It did not have near the flavor I get from the leisurely dough in your cookbook and it was quite tough. Maybe we will try this recipe again and not add the extra water just to see what happens.
I made the 22-hour version, and it was perfection! It rose as expected, and while the dough was very thinly-stretched so that there were a few holes, I was able to patch them up easily with excess dough from the edges. I used two baking sheets, lightly oiled and corn meal-ed, and there was no sticking whatsoever. Loved the crispy texture of the crust! Thanks for the great recipe!
Deb – one more thing. I have made your dough twice now, but instead of making pizza with it I have made flatbread/naan/pita bread (whatever you want to call it). I roll it out fairly thin into small circles (pita bread size) and place it right on the oven rack of a pre-heated 500 degree oven. It takes about 3-4 minutes to bake, depending on how thin you roll it. No need to flip it over. Just take it out and butter one side and stack in a pile covered with a clean dish towel. Just try it! So fun! Depending on how you roll it, it actually puffs up like a pita and works better than my pita bread recipe. (Use plenty of flour while rolling out.) I served it hot and buttered with some Lentil and Chard Stew, which is delicious. Here is the website I got the lentil stew from: http://catesworldkitchen.com/2010/09/arab-table-lentil-and-chard-stew/
(I used kale instead of chard.)
I have also used the cooked pitas to make quick little pizzas later for my kids lunches. And our favorite way to use them was with seasoned and grilled lamb burgers with tzatziki, purple onion, and tomato. http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/03/gyro-burger-pitas/ Sorry to leave you so much information. I’ve never commented before. Just thought you would love these recipes. I’ve followed your blog for years now.
Deb, have you been to Pizzarium when in Rome? The owner is Mr Bonci and I use his pizza dough recipe (1 kg flour, 700 ml water, 10 g dried yeast, 10g salt and let it rise for 20 hours in the fridge and 4 out).
The mozzarella used is usually “treccia” which is a kind of mozzarella that does not come into water; it is frayed and let dry so that it looses all of the water it contains.
And last, mozzarella is added before the last 10 minutes of the cooking time so it does not burn and this way the pizza doesn’t become soggy.
Try to cook the base of the pizza (= without the mozzarella) at the lowest part of the oven and then continue with cooking it in the middle of the oven.
I’ve never been let down from Bonci’s recipes!
Ciao from Milan, Claudia
Claudia — Yes, and it was amazing. They just do pizza al taglio, yes? I’d love to a separate post on that one day. Treccia mozzarella looks just right; I’d always wondered what that braided kind was called. Thank you.
I like this recipe so much. Just wanted to share that you can drain your tomatoes at any point. I had already pureed a can of diced tomatoes, juice and all, for a soup recipe. I had enough left for pizza, but it was too watery. I drained the puree just like draining yogurt: line a sieve with paper towels (or cheesecloth or a tea towel) and set over a bowl for a while. Worked like a charm, and I suspect you could do the same with a cooked sauce that is too thin, as well.
Melissa — Great tip, thank you.
What a great crust recipe! Perfect taste and texture, but also the simplest version I know. That’s pretty awesome :) Also, I love the detail in this post.
I’ve made the 12 hour version of this dough twice now and it’s great. It looks so unprepossessing to start with but ends up squeaky, bubbly and silky to roll out. It’ll will be my pizza dough of choice from now on.
I am ALWAYS ready to try out a new pizza dough, for basically the same reasons you mentioned (not “perfect,” too dense, want more air bubbles, etc., etc.), but I think this one might be IT :)
I adapted it so that I could use my sourdough starter, and wanted to share, in case anyone else was thinking of doing the same. It was an easy swap–just leave out the yeast, sub in 2 tablespoons of starter, then take out one tablespoon each flour and water from those measures (since my starter is equal parts flour/water, or 100% hydration starter). I used a mix of all-purpose, einkorn, and whole wheat for my flours, and left the dough for almost 24 hours. By that time, it had risen nicely and was rather easy to work with, with floured hands of course.
I topped mine with heavier toppings (butternut squash, ricotta, caramelized onions, fontina, etc.) and that weighed down the dough a bit, so I may use a lighter hand next time, or let the topped pizza puff up a little more before sticking it in the oven. Regardless, it was amazing! This is going to be my new standard dough. I swear.
I might have to print this out and tape it into your cookbook! This looks a lot like the overnight bread recipe that I’ve been using for awhile. Love the fact I don’t have to baby-sit it! About time I applied this to pizza dough.
Well, that was good! Just stretched out a bit of 4 (!) day old dough, topped it with fresh ricotta and drained fresh mozz., fresh sauce and onions (raw, no less), baked at 550 and called it supper. The dough smelled divine; the crust was equally good baked! It rose like a dream, though it looked a little flat in the bowl. Perfect. My new “best ever pizza crust” recipe. Thank you for all the helpful hints…and who knew pizza crust could elicit so many comments!
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who couldn’t handle the dough… It looked a lot more like a batter. It tasted more like a pancake than a pizza too. Trying it again tomorrow, I added more flour and a little yeast to compensate for it, hopefully it will help. Any ideas on what might have gone wrong are appreciated!
If I can’t figure out this dough, at least I’ll have your previous doughs. They work out great.
I made this dough using the spoon and scoop method for measuring flour. I use active dry yeast and do the warm water trick (yeast + 2 c. warm water, let it sit for 5-10 minutes, add in remaining water at room temp.) before mixing it with the flour and salt. Both the 1 1/4 C water and 1 C + 3T water worked, but I found that with the 1C + 3T, some dry spots occurred in the dough during the rise. No taste differences though! The first time I made this, I just added the yeast into the flour and it didn’t rise as well.
I would recommend covering the dough with flour before attempting to wrap it up for the fridge/freezer. It made removing the dough SO much easier!
Hi Deb – I had the same problem as Katherine (410 and 418). My dough would not relax and stretch out. It was a fresh bottle of yeast which I proofed a bit of beforehand just to avoid disappointment. I used the 24 hour version and the dough definitely rose, but I just couldn’t stretch it out at all. I tried the trick I remember you suggesting of letting it rest, but it still didn’t stretch out properly (i.e. I could never get it to fill even my tiny baking sheets). Are there other tricks I should be trying? Still tasted good but just much smaller pizzas with lumpy crusts!
I’ve been making a lot of pizza at home since I moved to the Pacific Northwest from NJ. (Better mountains, worse pizza). A technique I’ve developed to get a nice well done crust without fussing with a pizza stone and trying to maneuver a fully loaded pizza is to utilize my seasoned 12 inch cast iron skillet (I also use a cast iron flat griddle pan if I’m making two which I usually do). I have the skillet heating up on the stovetop while I’m shaping the dough, plop it in the pan and then put the sauce and toppings on while the crust is already starting to brown. Then I finish it off in an oven cranked to the max until it looks good, usually about 10 minutes. I never oil the pans and the pies come out without any sticking whatsoever. This technique has been tested and proven successful for making plain pizza for cranky toddler twins as well as all kinds of fanciness for the grownups in less than 30 minutes!
Made the six hour version today with 00 flour. It is my new go to dough recipe. Topped it with caramelized onions, Gruyere and pancetta AMAZING! I also printed it and tucked it into your cookbook. Thank you!
Longtime Smitten Kitchen follower (you could even call me a SK Evangelist). Never commented before, but O-M-G,simply had to had to after making this pizza. Made the overnight dough – was ridiculously easy. I did add two additional tablespoons of water. The dough rose through the day and you teed up the annoying / sticky directions perfectly – it wasn’t even that annoying. Made it on the back of a sheet pan at 550 convection bake – was done after 10 minutes, and might be the best pizza we’ve ever had. Not even joking. All we want to do is make more tomorrow and the day after. Thank, you, thank you. Pizza is easy! Who knew!?
First time poster, had to comment. Did the overnight crust. PERFECT as written. My new favorite pizza crust. Super easy! And I LOVE the sauce. Finally, I will ditch the jarred stuff. THANK YOU!
This is, quite literally, all I’ve ever wanted in life.
This very well may be a really stupid question, but is it okay to use instant yeast in this recipe? I am new to using yeast. Also, I live in the tropics so I imagine I’ll have to adjust the resting times due to the high temps and humidity, amirite?
CRAP. Crap crap crap. Made the 6 hour dough yesterday – added the extra couple spoons of water and gave it a quick jolt in a oven preheated to 200, then turned off, let it rise there for 6 hours. It didn’t quite double, and it was HELL to pat out, like cranky Elmers glue. I’m thinking “there’s no way this will work, and even if it does, this is a pain, so there’s no way it will be worth it.” And goddammit, IT IS. This is hands down the best homemade pizza crust I’ve ever had, by an order of magnitude. More than worth the extra effort. (I made it on parchment paper and just slid the whole thing right onto the pizza stone, which I preheated in the oven at 475 for 30 minutes.) Next time, I’ll try the longer rises, and will hold off on the extra water in hopes that it will help, but it’s sticky pizza for me now. Gah.
Jessica — Instant yeast is different, it needs to be used in slightly different quantities and has different rising times. However, this recipe is pretty flexible and it sounds like some people already swapped it 1:1 successfully. Theoretically, it won’t work exactly the same. But if you can eyeball it (i.e. does it look doubled or more than doubled at the suggested time or two hours before? did it need more time?) and adjust it accordingly (i.e. then more or less time), you should be fine.
Made the 22-hour dough last night and had great results. I used 3 cups of bread flour and added more water than called for–the dough looked dry w/ 1 and 1/4 cups so I kept going until all the flour was wet, i.e. there were no streaks of dry flour left. I think it ended up being closer to 1 1/2 cups of water. I also used instant yeast, not realizing until it was too late that the recipe called for active dry. But a heaping 1/8 teaspoon of instant yeast worked out just fine. The dough more than doubled overnight and was quite soft, but I was able to handle it using a well floured surface and hands. I shaped the dough on top of parchment on a cookie sheet and slid it onto my cast iron pizza pan that had been preheated in the oven (this is my standard procedure for making pizza; the parchment turns brown around the edges but there is no adverse effect, and it makes it so much easier to transfer the pizza to the oven). The dough had great texture and flavor–definitely the best I’ve ever made! And the timing worked out perfectly–the dough was ready when I got home from work and I was able to get dinner on the table pretty quickly. Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Deb-
First time commenter here! I made the 12 hour dough on Sunday and it was PHENOMENAL!!! After reading your instructions about a million times I was pretty nervous about the stickiness I was going to encounter, but it wasn’t awful and I was able to get my dough into round, ok more like oval, shapes! I followed the favorite margarita recipe and it was just delicious! Interestingly enough, I made one za on my pizza stone (pre-heated in the 500 degree oven) and the other on a regular old baking sheet. The baking sheet pie got the delicious crispy crust, while the pizza stone pie didn’t develop that crunch. Either way it’s a fantastic recipe that I can’t wait to make again. Thanks!!
Tried making the dough again and adjusted the water amounts way down. It worked out this time, technically. It just didn’t actually taste as good as your previous doughs. The texture was noticably different though. Maybe it’s because I halved the yeast amount, since I only have instant yeast… The experiment continues, just not this week.
Making this tonight. I have a question about green and mushrooms on pizza- do you recommend sauteeing first? I want to avoid soggy pizza too!
Two things.
First, A trick from Cook’s illustrated 2001 recipe for thin pizza. Putting the dough on parchment paper and topping it with plastic wrap allows it to be either rolled or stretched extremely easily. The plastic peels off easily. And the pizza can easily be transported on a wooden peel to the oven and maneuvered with the paper. Likewise it is easily removed in a similar manner.
Second, I added 1/4 cup of olive oil to the dough which in my opinion makes it the absolute best though I have ever had.
oops, just noticed your tip about veggie prep. Thanks, and sorry for not being more attentive- you are so thorough!
Ok, sorry, I’m back for a third time! But I’m eating this now (I made the 12 hour) and it’s PERFECT!!! I’ve never made such amazing pizza, thank you sooo much. I used the upside down baking sheet trick you suggested and it worked amazingly well. Thank you!
I made the 12-hour dough last night, two pizzas: your favorite margherita (well, now my favorite too) and a margherita with sautéed spinach, onions, and mushrooms. Both were huge winners, and now I’m sad there’s no leftovers to speak of. Good thing I’m trying the 6-hour dough and spinach pizza tonight. The crust is AMAZING. Chewy and crunchy. Had a little trouble getting the dough to stretch out enough (tips on that would be much appreciated!!) but letting it rest and coming back to it helped.
Making this for the 3rd time now for Friday night pizza dinner..such a great method! I just push and pull, stretch and tug and eventually the dough covers the sheet. last time I did put a thin film of EVoo on the sheet, then sprinkled cornmeal, then stretched the dough. if it tears I just cover it up with some
dough
Tried out the overnight method for the first time and the dough didn’t rise nearly as much as I thought it would/should. I ended up using all of the dough for the pizza as opposed to dividing it into two, and while it was delicious, it was a bit much on the dough front. Any advice for getting it to rise properly? Should I add more yeast? It rested on the counter top for about 23 hours in total. Thanks!
Lisa — Would you say that your kitchen runs cool or warm?
Bianca — You halved both the yeast and the flour, right? So you should be on schedule; this is the right way to do it.
It has taken me a while to get the pizza dough I have so desired, but using your recipes as I template I have eventually got there. Really appreciate your different looks at it; more ideas means more options to get it right. Key for me more than anything is just jumping in and doing it, altering a few aspects of the recipe and considering variables in the house (temperature, all ovens being different, etc)
Question. How much yeast should I use if I am making half the amount of dough on the 6 hour schedule? I just mixed 1 1/2 cups of flour with 1/4 tsp yeast, but the full version calls for 3 cups of flour with 1/2 tsp yeast. Do I need to extend my rising time? Thank you!
I may have added too much water, and also I only let the dough rise for (gasp) 18 hours, but I did have a hard time stretching it into place. It was a tasty crust, though, and for the effort I put into it, I’ll certainly use it again. I found at my 500 degree oven that 15 minutes is much better or the crust is a little floppy.
I’ve made this recipe at least 5 times since it was first posted. It’s so good and so easy!! The first time, I made the crust as-is. I’ve also tried adding in some other things, like: fresh crushed garlic & shredded parmesan cheese, dried herbs, and ground flax seeds. Everything I’ve tried so far has been really good!
I always add some chia seeds to the sauce and let it sit in the fridge for an hour. It doesn’t affect the taste at all, and it makes it gel up a little, so it’s easier to spread and doesn’t get the crust soggy at all.
A+ recipe 10/10 would recommend
I made this pizza and it was delicious. I’ve always felt like I made good pizza before this recipe, but I am thinking this might have been my best ever. Yum!
Hi Deb,
Have you ever tried cooking your pizza in a cast iron skillet? I just moved into a new apartment and the oven is (just barely—grrr) too small for my wonderful cookie sheets! I do, however, have a 12-inch cast iron skillet that fits, and I have a feeling that this crust recipe would be great cooked in it. I’ll report back after I’ve given it a try, and would be happy for any tips from you or other commenters in the meantime…
Rebecca
Rebecca — I actually have this pan from Lodge and use it sometimes; I agree, the cast-iron effect is wonderful. Not sure why I haven’t used it with this dough yet but would love to hear how yours comes out.
Hi! I’ve never commented before but this recipe compelled me to do so for the first time. This recipe is superb and superbly easy! I made it using all whole wheat, added a teaspoon or two of sugar and waited for ten hours. The dough was very soft and sticky but I just rubbed oil all over my hands and I was able to stretch out the dough just enough. I think it is the best homemade pizza I have ever had. Thank you for this wonderful recipe and this wonderful blog.
Born and raised in NYC, raised on slice pizza from the corner pizza place, and missed it ever since I left the city. Have been working on mine for years.
The best recipe I’ve found is this one on “Serious Eats” http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/new-york-style-pizza.html
It takes 5 minutes to make the dough in a food processor, though you do need to let it rise for at least 24 hours.
You don’t need “aged”mozzarella–that’s just foodie pretention. Buy a nice basic hunk of mozzarella, shred it and FREEZE it for 10-15 minutes before it goes on your pizza and it will melt and string out when you bite it the way real NYC pizza does.And this works with part-skim mozzarella as well.
I’ve made my own sauce via the recipe there. But we’ve also found that our good, all purpose bottled spaghetti sauce is nearly as good.
Use a pizza stone or tiles. Put cornmeal on your peel. Make sure your oven has preheated at 500 for an hour.
And if you are a New Yorker in exile,or one living in one of those “upscale” neighborhoods where the real pizza has been driven out by the “artisan” phonies, you will taste real pizza again!
Thanks for the recipe. Pizza looks yummy… Toppings don’t have to be an after-thought. They play a huge part in how great your pizza tastes. Use toppings and seasonings that complement each other and the pizza to make an excellent pizza.
Have made this 3 times now and they were all amazing…1st batch a hit, second was a double batch and we made the second half several days later after refrigerating! Thanks for something sooo simple- Batch one was made early morning and the second early afternoon as directed and both were equal in quality!
Well, I just ate my first slice out of the cast iron skillet (mine is the regular high-sided kind, not the flat pizza pan you have). Delicious, with a few cooking method adjustments: I lightly oiled the (cold) pan before shaping the pizza base inside and adding sauce/cheese. Then, instead of putting it straight in the oven, I put the skillet on my stove-top on high heat. This gives the crust a head start and results in a wonderful crispy finish. After a few minutes, once the crust is bubbling a little around the edges, I transferred it to the hot oven. At first I thought I just wanted a crisper crust, but I think the stove-top step is actually necessary for my 12-inch pan since the crust is slightly thicker and might not cook all the way through otherwise (at least not before the cheese is perfectly golden and bubbly). In sum, I highly recommend the cast-iron method, and now I’m thankful for the tiny oven that made me improvise!
Also—I forgot to mention that I swapped out a quarter of the flour for whole wheat, and never would have guessed it from the end result.
The kitchen runs cool in the winter which I imagine means I should leave it out longer? For the last hour or so, I ended up moving it closer to the radiator in the hopes of it rising more, but alas, nothin’.
Lisa — It means it can take longer. I didn’t expect to the time to be so significant that the range noted wouldn’t be sufficient to adjust for a cooler kitchen, but I suppose it’s possible. Which schedule are you using and how long has it been? No rise whatsoever or just not enough of one?
Hi! Just made the 6 hour version for the first time. It tastes amazing and was a huge hit with our family. However, I found the dough very difficult to stretch. I kept getting holes in the center and a thick edge. I was using my peel with cornstarch. Kept having to start over. Finally got odd shapes (another cook called them “map shaped”) but was able to slide the crust off of the peel onto the stone. They cooked up beautifully. Any tips to prevent the holes from forming? It was very frustrating! If I missed it in an earlier post, I humbly apologize. Just direct me to it and I will eagerly read it!
Having owned my own pizzerias for years I never, even when baking at my own home, use cups or teaspoons. I have a good scale or two. I find it easier to use grams as that is less confusing to employees in a restaurant than to use fractions. I also find that once my recipe was perfected I never had to alter it – 1065.4 grams of dry ingredients to 635 grams of liquid was always the same (water/buttermilk/oil). The .4grams was the yeast.
I let my dough rise in the fridge for 3-4 days eat one or two and freeze the rest for another day.
With the onset of arthritis I found that a breadmaking machine could make 1 pizza doughball as well or better than my kitchenaid mixer or a food processor and my wrists don’t hurt from manually kneading the dough. I found a great breadmaking machine at the local Salvation army for $8.
To make really great pizza I always use my pizza stone…the rectangular one that costs $50. It costs a bit more but I’ve only had two of ’em in 20 years versus 3 in 2 months when I used the cheap round ones. I also pre heat my oven for 45-60 minutes with the baking stone on the bottom shelf of the oven.
I made this last night. Several things:
– I have the most unusual size for a baking pan (fit for the smallest oven in the world): 22cm x 25cm (that’s 8.6″ x 9.8″) so the crust was on the thick side. I was worried that my cheese was already browning too much before the crust was baked properly due to its thickness. So during the last few minutes I transferred my pizza from the top shelf to the very bottom shelf. It sort of did the trick but I think I’ll pre bake the dough a few minutes before putting the toppings on top next time (which is tonight! since I still have half the dough). Or maybe scale back the dough to ¾? What do you think? Oh, and my oven only goes up to 250C (480F), so it’s on the cool side.
– I actually only used 1 cup + 3tbsp water like you had first suggested for 375 gr flour. My dough was a bit rough and jaggy but I found it to be quite soft as well in the end. No problem there. The texture post baking was also fine: crunchy exterior, stretchy interior. But I’d like a crunchier exterior so I’ll try the updated version with more water next time, just to see the difference.
– While I love the convenience of the margarita sauce, it felt like something was missing. Tomato paste? Onions? Or maybe it was just me being so used to “pre-cooked” sauce. In all cases, the pizza was very tasty, and it remains the best pizza I’ve ever made (and it beats Jim Lahey’s original version by a mile to my opinion). Thanks Deb.
I’ve made this every week since it was posted. It is hands down the easiest and best tasting dough I’ve ever made. And the sauce is brilliant. Basically, it is all around perfect and so easy.
I discovered your blog for the first time while searching for a good pizza base and I will definitely return for other staples because it is an EXCELLENT recipe. Honestly, everyone would make their pizza bases if they tried this recipe! I followed it exactly but would add that if anyone has a microwave oven rather than an oven the cooking time is much longer (it still wasn’t quite done after 20 mins at 230 degrees). However, that is no flaw to this recipe – I just love it; it took me all of 1 minute to make the base. So thank you; I plan on making pizza once a week with this wonderful recipe. No need to try another! :)
Also I would add that between 2 young, normal size adults we ate the whole base mixture, so to other readers if you are feeding 4 with very decent appetites it might be good to double the recipe :)
I LOVE this recipe! I have your cookbook and have made the ‘quick’ pizza dough from there a few times, but this is hands down way better! To give you an indication of how much I like the recipe, I have made it 3x in the past 2 weeks! I made the 22 hour one because it works best with my work schedule. This recipe made 2 pizzas and was enough for 2 adults to have dinner and lunch the next day. Thanks for your genius recipes – love the blog!
This was amazing. I made the 6-hour dough, but free beer and sushi intervened, so it ended up in the fridge for 24 hours after the initial rise. It still turned out perfectly. Amazingly crisp, but tender, and we loved the the sauce (although we almost tripled the amount). Our fresh mozzarella (no ages to be found) still blistered beautifully in a 550 degree oven. I keep telling him that I’ve never made a recipe of yours that I didn’t love, and this continues the trend. I may even share the second half of the dough with my mother tomorrow night (if I ever forgive her for stealing your cookbook)…
Hi Deb!! since the moment i saw this, i’ve been wanting to try it and yesterday we had this pizza!! Thanks for sharing the recipe!!
http://aneres-tentarnonnuoce.blogspot.it/2013/11/la-pizza-della-pigrizia.html
Can I use this crust with the potato pizza recipe?
Mollie — Absolutely. They’re actually both derived from Jim Lahey.
I’m sure this might have already been answered somewhere in the previous 484 comments but…I made this a few minutes ago and got a little freaked by how shaggy it was so added more water. It’s quite sticky now and not so shaggy…Will it still work??
Hi all,
I’m going to try doing a sourdough version – I’ll try 1/8 Cup of my own starter and do the full day version. We’ll see what happens..
I followed this recipe for a 6 hour rise to the T. I made two pizza’s, one with regular flour and one with gluten free flour from TJ mostly b/c I’m trying out a g-free diet and didn’t want my boyfriend to suffer if it tasted horribly. The pizza made from regular flour was delicious! Yes, I cheated on my diet. I’m also happy to report that the g-free pizza was delicious too! The only changes I made other than swapping out the regular flour, was adding 1 Tbsp chia seeds (a frantic google search for gluten free crusts made me think to do it, not sure it added anything but chia power). After 6 hours, the g-free dough did not act very dough like and it separated very easily so I grabbed clumps, plopped them on the baking sheet and pressed it down into the desired shape. Then I spread my toppings on and baked it for 10 min at 525. Disclaimer: I havent had gluten free pizza before but I was completely satisfied with this end product and my boyfriend even liked it too.
Deb you always provide great content! Like Grace said above I am also gonna try something different and go for a sourdough version – hopefully i can report back with good feedback :)
You take the guessing work out of cooking I love it!
I have been dissatisfied with all my previous homemade pizza crust attempts. This was amazing! I used the 6 hour method and was thrilled with the results. My only shortcoming was that I used some jar sauce because that’s what I had. I look forward to trying it using the puréed canned tomatoes for a fresher more tomatoey flavor. Thanks so much for the timing variations, a crust for all schedules is appreciated.
I once worked at a pizza shop in the mid-1970s. Regarding mozzarella in your point #1, you said “…had run the firm mozzarella through a food mill with large holes for pebbly bits that were easily grabbed in handfuls…”. That’s essentially what was done. Are you familiar with the old-fashioned meat grinders that you clamp onto a table or the edge of a counter? We used a very similar item to “grind” the mozzarella which came in 5-lb chubs. We let it drop into large flat tubs like used in restaurants to bus tables. When we assembled the pizza, it was very easy to just scoop up a bunch with both hands coming together and then drop it onto the sauced crusts where it was then easily spread evenly. Toppings were then added and into the pizza oven it went, we would get raves over our pizzas and crust, and surprisingly the crust were pre-made & semi-cooked elsewhere, still makes me chuckle. We had a home-made sauce, recipe was never divulged by the owner :( and we had a great lasagna from scratch. The place is long gone, sadly.
I made the 6 hour dough last night and it turned out brilliantly. I did need the extra water Deb added to the updated recipe and I think I might have still needed a little more in hindsight. I used half all purpose flour, half strong white bread flour. My dough more than doubled on the rise time. I only had a problem once it was out of the bowl, I was a little unsure about how many times to drop it/ let it fall onto the floury counter top before stretching it out to make the pizza base shape. This is the step I found hardest because my dough felt a bit stiff and kept shrinking back to a smaller size. However, in the end it came out great and the sauce was delicious too. I baked mine on the back of 2 baking sheets which I sprayed with cooking spray (just canola oil, not a floury bakers joy type spray). I cooked mine at 200 degrees (I live in the UK) because my fan oven smokes if it goes higher than that and I found that after 20 mins they were perfect and came off the sheets very easily. Thanks for taking the time to give the different timings Deb, it was really helpful, and the pizzas were delicious.
Have you tried Peter Reinhart’s recipe? I’ve had pretty good results with it.
Just made the 6 hr. version and it’s hands down the best pizza we’ve ever made. Cannot wait to try the 22 hr one….soon.
Deb, if we were the exchanging a presents kind of friends and not just the electronic world ‘friends’ (term used loosely – just because I adore all of your recipes, love your writing and humor, and could eat up your little Jacob with a spoon – doesn’t mean you stalk me back. Its okay, my life is rather boring) I would TOTALLY buy you a baking steel. So much better than the stone and make a brick oven style pizzas. Amazing and Modernist Cuisine inspired! Thanks for another go-to recipe. I sometimes use this to make chicago-style double crusted pizza. So good!
amanda — Aw, thanks! I’ll check it out. Or drop some hints. Btw, I do have the Lodge brand cast-iron pizza pan. I just forgot about it here. Because it’s so heavy I hide it in a closet most of the time, making it easy to forget. Ugh.
Also, when i make the chicago-style pizza, I do use a cast iron pan and it works amazingly well!
I did not have good luck with this dough. It did not rise well and was very very very sticky and hard to work with. It shrank substantially in the oven and I didn’t find a huge flavour difference from your other dough.
Yeast and flour were ok (they have been used in other things before and since).
I will give it another go but in the meantime your other dough recipe will remain my absolute go to.
Happy new year Deb and family!!
I love the pizza topping you have used – just perfect!
I have to say, I’m pretty sure the only pizza dough recipe I’ve used was from your blog and thus have never experienced any of the problems you describe! I can’t wait to try this one too!
Amazing pizza. I’ve never actually used yeast before ever, so I used a pack of the instant stuff I had and it worked just fine. Also, I was totally expecting the dough to be more difficult to use after the warning about stickiness (love the “don’t panic”) but it was fine! I kept the other half in the fridge for 2 days and it was just as good the second time. Thanks for the recipe!
I’ll admit that I am a total lurker. I’ve made countless unfailingly delicious recipes from your site, and I’ve already made this pizza several times. I felt compelled to finally write because this recipe always elicits two completely opposite but equally strong emotions in me. Honestly, I have cursed your name every time I try to shape this most uncooperative dough into anything resembling a pizza shape — so much so that it’s become a family joke. A half hour later, however, I cannot sing your praises strongly enough for sharing what has to be the most divine pizza recipe ever. The texture of the crust is perfectly crispy and chewy and utterly delicious and has turned me into an absolute snob with regard to all other pizzas. Thank you!
Thanks so much for this recipe. I have made it twice now, and my husband and I agree that I always double the recipe from here on out :)
Deb – first of all, I did not know I could make my own pizza until I found you. Thank you for countless nights of deliciousness. Second – I have found that the crust tastes and cooks best when I preheat the pizza stone, which leads to a logistical problem – how in the world do you transfer a rolled out, sauced and topped pizza to a blazing hot pizza stone? It sounds like maybe you skip this step altogether, but if you have any thoughts, I’m all ears – I am tired of rolling up a premade pizza into a ball and trying in vain to rearrange it into pizza form on a 500 degree stone.
I just have to say that I love this pizza dough. It is my new go-to recipe when we want pizza. I haven’t tried it with the toppings as suggested, but all the topping combinations I’ve tried are brilliant. I didn’t realize until this dough that the pizzas I was making were only hiding the dough flavor, but with this, I want something that enhances the flavor. It is perfect. It has put us off store bought pizzas or restaurant pizzas because it is so superior.
This is by far the best homemade I pizza I’ve ever had, and quite honestly, one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. In the past, I’ve had trouble getting pizza dough to stretch out. All it seems to do is boing back into thick round. This one stretched easily, baked up with a perfect combination of crispy/chewy, and even tasted fantastic cold the next day. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe!
Hi, new to the site, and this pizza dough is the first recipe that I’ve tried–I just made it for dinner tonight, and before I tackle the dinner dishes I had to stop to thank you! This is by far the best pizza I’ve ever made at home, and SO EASY! I proofed the yeast after my first attempt failed, and that was all it took! Easy, delicious, and devoured! The sauce was fantastic!
So good, I’m wondering if the dough recipe can be doubled?
I broke all the rules and didn’t read the other comments about hot stones and parchment paper and all the other creative tricks people have for pizza assembly and transfer – sorry!! Will try the parchment paper next time!
I must have made this pizza dough twenty times, now. It’s so simple and foolproof, and adaptable! Thank you for sharing it!
Hi Deb and fans,
I am obsessed with this pizza dough. Have made it so many times. I’ve made it as a green pizza, with diced zucchini, spinach, onion sauteed first and with a pesto sauce and aged mozzarella. Its wonderful and great way to get my kid to eat more veggies!
Deb, you are the best!
Would it be possible to make this pizza dough in large batches and freeze it ahead of time? or would there be another pizza recipe of yours that would be better suited for that?
High altitude comments! What a wonderful pizza recipe. I made the dough last night using King Arthur European flour, 1/8 tsp of instant yeast and water. I used more water than what the recipe called for since I find at high altitude and low humidity (20%), the dough needs the extra moisture. I was planning on having the pizza for dinner tonight after a 22 hour rise, but it rose much faster–most likely due to the altitude so made it for lunch instead. After 17 hours the dough was more than ready to be used. Next time I will use even less yeast. I make pizza frequently using Italian 00 flour that I get in Italy, or King Arthur Italian flour and grill it outside. I think this recipe is better and is now my all time favorite. The sauce is outstanding and taste just like what you would get in Italy. I used aged mozzarella. I can’t wait to make this again. My husband, daughter and grandchildren said it was the best homemade pizza. Thanks Deb for another wonderful recipe!
I just made this dough and Oh.My.God! I didn’t know what you meant by saying it “crackles” until I took my first bite. It’s crispy on a whole new level and delightfully soft and spongy inside!! The extra rise time really does amazing things to the flavors. Thanks for another awesome recipe :)
Wonderful! Made it for my family last night and it came out great.
You forgot to include salt in the the written instructions for sauce though it is in the ingredients. Thanks! Any one want to share some favorite simple toppings?
tooearly — Thanks for the heads up. Now fixed.
Hi Deb! Love your blog and have been recently digging into your cookbook too. I had a question about the difference in quality between the rushed and leisurely dough. What, if any, differences do you find in the final dough between the two products? I’ve historically used a quick-make version I got from Jamie Oliver with good success, and tried your leisurely dough recipe last weekend. I was pretty happy with the dough, though found it didn’t rise as much as I expected, and the consistency was a bit stiffer. It was harder to roll out, but I was happy with the final product (though I over baked it a tad, and thus it didn’t have quite as much flexibility as I generally like). Thanks for your help!
Jennifer — Longer rises lead to stretchier doughs, less yeasty in flavor, more fermented and rich. But the quick one works. I was hoping to give a plan that could fit any schedule, as I tried to again here. (Frankly, these, of course published later, are easier and more flavorful. A trip to Rome will do that!)
Reporting a 22 hour dough that didn’t rise. I used brand new yeast, though I didn’t proof it. Also, my apartment runs a little cool, but the dough showed very little signs of rising. I used half whole wheat flour, maybe that makes a difference? Bummer!
Mine (22 hour) rose perfectly with closer to 1/6 tsp yeast. However, it’s so wet that when I try to hold half, it actually oozes between my fingers. When I made it last night, I adjusted with tiny bits of extra water/extra flour and I’m thinking I needed a little less water. It oozes more than what the photos look like. Once I rubbed a little flour in and sprinkled a lot on top, I was mostly able to stretch it out.
My house is 67 overnight and while we’re at work, 70 otherwise.
Not that I need more pizza in my life, but this recipe is great for someone who likes to prep in advance. I have always struggled with the texture of previous doughs but I prefer a chewy, with crisp dough and this one nailed it. Thanks for your thorough research, as always!
I was so excited to make this and mixed it up before leaving for work this morning, only to find upon coming home that the moderately craggy mix now has big lumps of hardened-ish flour and didn’t rise at all. :o( I mixed it for quite a while – should I add more water next time?
Hi Mary — Just try to break them up with your fingertips so you can mix them back in. Next time, maybe add the water a touch more slowly so lumps don’t form.
I just wanted to report back that I made the overnight recipe using a gluten free flour blend, and it was DE-licious. My husband and kids all loved it, too. I’m new to gluten free, so any of you experienced gluten free bakers out there should definitely be able to do this! Go for it! :)
Deb, you just changed my life with this dough recipe. I always crave pizza but don’t care for the delivery costs, but I’m simply too lazy most of the days to get my hands dirty, knead and babysit a ball of dough. This is the best dough recipe I have ever seen in my life and the crust that I got yesterday night was the stuff of DREAMS. DREAMS, I TELL YOU. So, thanks for writing this blog that kicks major ass. You are my carbohydrate fairy godmother.
Hi Deb–so if someone who hates valentine’s day (i.e. me) wanted to make this pizza for their boyfriend as something-special-but-not-romantic next friday, what would you recommend serving with it? I feel like just pizza won’t be enough of a celebratory meal! Thanks!!
Ana — Did you see today’s salad? It feels really festive. Another one of my favorite salads is this escarole one. We make it all of the time to go with Italian-ish dinner parties (usually serving lasagna or the like).
Deb–I’ve been getting beautiful Lahey-recipe pies on my pizza stone, following the technique of an hour preheating the stone, then turning on broiler for ten minutes. Sliding pizza onto stone at 8 inches from flame, I get a beautiful slightly charred pie in 4-5 minutes. Only problem is that the bottom of the crust isn’t browning nicely. I’d read somewhere thatin this case, he suggested moving the stone higher-all the way up–but that didn’t work–The top got too dark too fast and the bottom still was pale. Any thoughts what I might change? Thanks
Bill — I might do the opposite. I do the to-the-top trick to improve top-browning in my oven (it’s illogical as the heat source is at the bottom, but it works, I suspect because the heat bounces off the top) so perhaps the opposite is in order. It sounds like you’re doing everything “correct.” However, I wonder — and this is probably blasphemous — if you’ve compared the bottom crust when just using a regular old roasting pan as the pizza pan. Bread stones are about evenly distributing heat and making a nice crust on big loaves, maybe they’re not essential for thin ones? Would love to hear if you try it out.
I’ve wanted to try this since it was initially published but couldn’t convince the husband to abandon his Mom’s Pillsbury Hot Roll mix pizza dough recipe. It’s a warm memory for him. Sadly, it’s getting harder to find at the store, (shhh, he rarely goes to the grocery, he’ll never know) so I decided to whip this up this morning as an alternative. I can not believe how fast this was, literally five minutes of my time this morning. I admit to reading some of the comments at work as I was nervous what my craggy mound was doing while I was not here to monitor its progress. I used the 12-hour version and came home to burpy yeasty delightfulness. Dinner came together quickly and was DELICIOUS! This will be in the weekday rotation for sure. The crispness, the chew, YUM!
Thanks Deb–I’ll give that a try and let you know
I made this tonight and it was awesome! Thank you!
Deb, thank you for going on a pizza dough journey. I had a yen yesterday morning to make pizza, threw together the Part-day dough, and I’m so happy with the results! Great texture, not too bready, crispy edges – a delight. My pizza-snob husband agreed. The texture even survived beautifully with microwave reheating (not crispy, no, but not tough either). We’ll be using this one again for sure. You rock!
I am a devoted follower of Smitten but this post is actually to say thanks to Margo (#73-74) for recommending the King Arthur Now-or-Later dough. It’s not quite as effortless to whip together as Deb’s blissfully lazy pizza dough, but I found it much easier to manipulate after the rise. The KAF recipe is the first pizza dough I’ve succeeded in stretching into shape using simple gravity, by holding the dough at one end and slowly rotating my grip. This turned out to be much easier (and less cleanup!) than rolling out on parchment (which wrinkles but is necessary to avoid sticking to my baking stone). And the KAF dough came out supremely crunchy and thin in the middle and springy/airy at the edges – really a lovely texture. All of this just a half day after mixing it together. It beats my previous favorite from SeriousEats.
I liked Deb’s lazy dough too, mostly because it was so easy to whip up and was very forgiving (I got holes when I stretched it into shape and was able to patch them with no one noticing in the final pizza). Unfortunately, it seemed a little too simple, lacking depth of flavor (a rare miss for Smitten!!). I also found the stickiness was a little hard to work with. For what it’s worth, I think the lazy dough could benefit from a longer rise. I used half of the 12-hour version on time, and saved the other half for a few days wrapped tightly in the fridge. I used the aged dough to make little savory popovers and the dough puffed up really nicely with a little more flavor than in the original rise.
Hi Deb! First time commenter here. I have my third batch of this pizza dough (in less than a week) proofing as we speak. I have had this recipe pinned for awhile but was intimidated because I am much more of a cook than a baker. I love that cooking is an art and baking feels more like a science to me. That said, this recipe is fabulous. The first time I made the dough it was a little dry and didn’t rise all the way. The second time, I added the water incrementally until I got to the desired consistency and made sure that all the flour was stirred into the dough. I also used one of those mesh strainer things to sift the flour, salt and yeast together and it made for a smoother, more incorporated dough (at least in my mind?). My baking method has been pre-heating my trusty cast iron pan in the oven at 500 degrees, assembling the pizza on the hot pan, and sticking it in the oven. Works great for me! Hope this helps anyone intimidated by baking!
Hi Deb! Last time I tried one of your pizza doughs (the one from the cookbook), I had issue with the center crust not cooking very well through. I made this updated dough recipe tonight, after a 24 hour rise. I made sure the oven preheated at 500 (max temp for my oven) for a whole hour before putting the pie in, on a baker’s half sheet. After 12 minutes, the top was bubbly and brown, just perfect, with golden baked edges. But sadly, same issue with the center crust of the pizza (underneath the toppings) only being baked half through. I would burn the toppings if I left it in longer.
I think next time I will try to place the pan directly on the bottom of the oven, and might bake the crust for a few minutes by itself before adding toppings. Hopefully that will fix my underbaking issue. Will let you know when I do try it.
Aside from that, I do love the texture of the (fully cooked) dough edges. Light, chewy, but with a crisp edge. Yum! Definitely worth the 24 hour rise.
Blargh. I tried the recipe again tonight (had refrigerated the other half of the dough). Parbaked the crust first for 4 minutes at 500F, on the bottom of the oven, then added toppings. Still had uncooked dough in the center. The edges were fine, but the top half of the crust underneath the toppings was gummy and undercooked, even after 15 minutes and brown bubbly cheese. What am I doing wrong?????
Undercooked pizza dough — I see a couple comments about this and I’m just so baffled because I cannot imagine how a stretched-out pizza dough cannot cook in 10 or 15 minutes at such a staggering high temperature. Nevertheless, I don’t doubt that what you’re saying happened. So, tell me more if you can. Was the pizza dough on the thick side? (I make mine quite thin, but not like cracker-thin or anything.) And it had risen, yes? I’ll be happy to help more if I can.
Fantastic – as always. I made this dough and went with the asparagus topping from your book (with the addition of some seasoned ricotta) – this is the first time that homemade pizza has tasted close to, well, proper pizza. Like, the stuff you get at restaurants. The dough has great depth of flavour. And to top it all off, it was an absolute doddle to make! Extra brownie points for no kneading!
Hello, thanks for the wonderful recipe and instructions. My question is similar to Bill B’s in comment 526. I baked the pizza on a regular sheet pan and put it on the middle rack, but after 10 minutes the toppings were cooked and the crust was still totally pale and raw. I tried moving it to the bottom rack and after 10 extra minutes it was still the same, the crust was completely raw on the bottom. The oven temperature was 550, and the oven (gas) works fine for baking cakes, muffins and the like and also for roasting vegetables. What am I doing wrong? Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for your answer. The pizza was thin, just like you describe yours. But it’s interesting that you asked if it had risen, because I thought it didn’t as much as it was supposed to. I used the overnight recipe (but with 00 flour) and the dough formed a sort of crust on the surface. I thought it prevented the dough from rising much. When I stretched it I inverted the ball of dough so that the “crusty” part was on the bottom. But other than this crusty surface, the dough was very soft and sort of sticky just like you describe it. So maybe my yeast wasn’t good? (I didn’t proof it) I will try again with new yeast and let you know, but then you wouldn’t change the oven rack, right? should I still use the middle one? Thank you!!
Very good tips and explanation! :)
I love making (and eating of coure) pizza almost once a week (I’m Italian, I can’t live without it!). I always but Mozzarella di Bufala on that, it’s really AMAZING.
For the gluten-free version I can say that my best friend since a couple years needs to eat that and we make a really great one with kamut ;)
My dough has been undercooked several times as well, and I had also been questioning whether it rose properly. It didn’t really look doubled. I just read through all the comments and now I’m wondering whether it’s because I’m using rapid rise (aka instant?) yeast. Deb addresses that in #446. After some quick internet research, though, I’m confused, because it sounds like to use instant instead of active dry, I should reduce the amount of yeast. And yet my problem is that several batches of the 22 hour recipe didn’t rise properly.
I bake it at 500, and make 2 14″ crusts with the dough, so I think it ought to be thin enough –
I have a question — how do you get the dough into an even layer? I’ve made this many times and it’s always delicious, but too thin in some spots and too thick in others. (Delicious everywhere, though.) Is there a trick?
Hi Margaret — Just use floured fingertips and press press press. Dimply is fine. But you can redistribute it a bit with your fingers.
30 minutes until the dough is ready and I realized I bought crushed tomatoes. Well, 1 can whole and peeled with plenty of juice for my (first!) bloody mary, and 1 that’s, well, crushed. Not much drains when I dump them into a colander. Will it be too watery? — do you recommend I saute them a bit before I dump them in the blender to thicken the sauce? I love to cook and I have loved every single one of your recipes, but I’m afraid I need to follow the recipe in exact; am not much of an improviser. Thanks for your help!
jill — I wouldn’t worry about it. Not draining a lot won’t ruin the pizza; it just helps keep moisture off the crust if you can drain some off. Hope you enjoyed it.
dumb question. I’m embarrassed having asked. just a longer drainage period and less bloody mary juice! still great sauce.
Like hundreds before me, I too am a fan of your lazy pizza dough! No one believes me when I swear the world’s best dough comes from four ingredients and less than a minute of stirring. I’m also amazed at how forgiving the dough is—the overnight dough rose in just over 24 hours in my chilly 55-degree apartment. (Don’t ask.)
I’ve frozen the dough in a ball, bound in layers of plastic wrap, and defrosted it in the fridge before making pizza a few days later, no harm done.
Your “kleenex under the sweater cuff” made me laugh! Your pizza recipe made me hungry. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes you’ve shared over the years. I think at least half my pinterest pins are from your site.
Hi Deb!
Happy Friday! I’ve made the 6 hour dough lots of times now and really like it. however, I’m getting my act together a whole day in advance and am planning on making the 22 hour dough for tomorrow. I want to double it, though. So, here’s my question. Can I double the whole dough recipe in a big bowl or would that not work for some reason? I’m thinking that even though I’m doubling the flour, you might not want me to double the yeast? Hope my question makes sense!
Thanks so much!!
I have been making this dough every week or so and I love it. For the first time, I subbed whole wheat flour for 1/3 of the regular flour and it was great! Substantial but not heavy with lots of bubbles. Yum! Next time, I’ll try making smaller pizzas out of it, so they’ll be thinner. This one’s a keeper!
Made the overnight version, exactly per measurements, and it turned out perfect. Chewy and toothsome, yet slightly crackly. I did one crust on a parchment paper on top of my pizza stone, and the other on a perforated metal pizza pan. The parchment paper/pizza stone version was preferable, as it got a little crisper. Cannot wait to try this again. Thanks for a great, simple recipe!
I made this pizza dough and the “rushed one” from the cook book. I have to say I strongly prefer the “rushed one” over the lazy one. The rushed one was crispier and a lot closer to the crispy dough that I’ve made from another book, which requires several stops over a couple of hours. The one in this posting was okay, but it didn’t make me go “wow” like some of your other recipes do (and it could just be me not doing a great job with it in terms of the amount of water and baking temp). My advice is that anyone who has about 45 minutes to make pizza would be better off making the dough from the book for a better crust.
As a side note: I used plain flour for this recipe, and did sub 1/2 cup bread flour for the rushed one. That could also be the reason for the difference in the 2 results.
This dough makes fantastic garlic knots – as a former NYer living in CT, good knots are really hard to find outside of NYC/Long Island. I took the dough, rolled it in flour so I wouldn’t stick to it. I then rolled it into logs, tied it into knots, and brushed it with a mixture of butter, olive oil, salt, and minced garlic that I cooked over low heat until the garlic was soft. Baked them at 500 for about 15 minutes, then brushed them with more of the garlic butter. They came out perfectly! Thanks, Deb, for a great pizza dough recipe (and I highly recommend making garlic knots with it).
Just tried this dough recipe and I am in love! I love pizza, but was always too intimidated by dough making to try making it myself. But this recipe worked out perfectly with almost no effort. I see a lot of home-made pizzas in my future.
Thank you so much for the recipe!
I just love this and have made it over and over since you first posted it. I’ve tried several types of pizza on this dough and they’ve all been nice, but your margherita tops all. Simple and delicious. The 22hr dough is my absolute favorite, and makes for a shockingly quick and easy weeknight dinner. I usually do one full-size cookie sheet pizza. THANK YOU!
Great recipes! I’m feeling the need to make a pizza today or tomorrow. I like these sneaky vegetarian dinners. My husband is a total meat maniac, and pizza keeps the beast at bay. I’m liking the thinking behind this recipe so I’m going to give it a go today. The extended rises are such a hassle but it is where the flavor comes from. I’ve got my fingers crossed this will make a really good quick pie.
PLus I just found out (banging head into wall) that the wetter the dough the better the end product (when it comes to bread type stuff). I made biscuits this weekend and I went a little haywire with the buttermilk and boy did I ever get the biggest lightest biscuits – holy cow what a rise.
I think we like to handle bread stuff too much.
I also had a problem with the middle being gummy/doughy (so we cut off the end pieces and ate those while the middle continued to bake). The only deviation from the recipe was that I rolled the dough out on the counter *then* put it on lightly greased foil on a cookie sheet (baked for 14 minutes at 500). I think I’ll try par-baking it next time to see if that helps…
But man, those end pieces were good! Thanks, Deb! This is a great new recipe for me to play with!!! :)
Hi Deb–Reporting back from from comment 526 (better late than never :-) ) What I had been doing since my comment about not getting the bottoms to brown properly, is immediately whisking the “finished” pizza into a very hot cast iron skillet to brown (and sometimes burn! ) the bottom side. Until my stone cracked right in half. Whoops. Done with that. But this wasn’t all bad news. It gave me the motivation to replace it with the Baking Steel I’d been reading about. More expensive and heavier than a stone, but since it’s a small slab o’ steel, not about to crack under heat. Well, I’ve gotta say, I’ve only had it about a week or two, but browning and baking problems are solved. My pizzas are still a work in progress, but a lot farther along now. Really good, actually. Only problem is that I might be eating a little too much of my own pizza.
Made this tonight and the whole pie is gone! I used the instructions for the 6 hour one and it turned out great! Thank you so much for posting this.
Made this last night and was sadly disappointed. I did the 22 hour schedule. When I tried to use the dough to make the pizza, it was the consistency of a thick cake batter. No stretch, and so damp that it was truly impossible to work with. I have worked with soft doughs before, but this was different. I used 3 cups of flour (spooned the flour into the cup, then leveled) and 1 1/4 cups water. All I can figure is that there was too much water, but it seems like even if that was the problem, I still should have been able to work with it. Like I said, it had NO stretch, and I ended up just having to spread it will a spatula on the sheet pan until it resembled an uneven, misshapen blob. Any ideas on what went wrong?
How can I modify this for 100% whole wheat? I’ve tried the all-day schedule now twice – first as-written and then again with more yeast and water but both times I end up with something that tears more than stretches and even after 36 hours it had only risen by about 30%. Help!
Try cooking your pizza on the barbque. It takes a bit of juggling but the results are worth it.
Dear Deb
No hard feelings-and this goes along with what you mentioned about watching the liquid content of the toppings and the crust-but I can see one thing you are doing wrong just from the photos in the recipe. You show the pizza ready to be placed in the oven and it is sitting in of all things A PAN-ohhh nooo-A PAN!
You want to place the pizza in the oven on the rack ALONE at least ten minutes in order to start the crust to brown. You can use an oven stone also but make sure it is as hot as the oven is. Then after the ten minutes-maybe fifteen (unless you have one of those 675 degree pizzaria blast furnaces)-you place it in a pan to finish the bake. This allows the toppings to cook and prevents the crust from being overcooked.
This is a tried and true method. Try it and you will be surprised.
Molto gracie
A flop, both figuratively and literally. At the end of 6 hours, I pulled the dough from the bowl only to have an impossible mound of unworkable ooze that stuck to everything.
Because there was no Plan B for dinner, my son and I nudged the “dough” enough to get some toppings onto it and bake what we dubbed “pizza amoeba”. At 500 degrees, the toppings were well on their way to overdone, with the crust spongy in the middle and tough around the edges.
Though I love Lahey’s breads and greatly admire the time and trouble Deb went to to arrive at what would seem to be a fantastic way to fit pizza into our family schedule, the dough recipe search continues.
I was using Todd English’s pizza dough recipe for a very long time. Hand kneading for 10 min followed by a 2 hour rise. Lots of work for good but not great crust. I finally tried the no-knead Lahey pizza dough recipe about two months ago and it was life-changing! Wow, I could not believe I could produce a crust like that in my