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Simple, 4-Ingredient Homemade Pizza Dough
By Alexandra Stafford
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Last Updated: 11/04/2025
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Made with 4 ingredients — flour, water, salt, and yeast — this simple, no-knead pizza dough recipe can be ready start to finish in 3 hours. It produces a pizza with a ballooned edge and crisp but pliable crust. You can use the dough the same day you mix it or store it in the fridge for up to 5 days (or freeze it!). 🍕🍕
Let’s get straight to it. This is a 4-ingredient, high-hydration, no-knead dough. It is the simplest of the simple homemade pizza recipes and, in my opinion, the tastiest, too. If you have time to prep your dough a few days in advance, you’ll be setting yourself up for serious pizza bliss (read on to learn why) but know that you can make excellent pizza, start to finish, in 3 hours.
The first step to making excellent pizza at home is to get comfortable working with high-hydration pizza doughs. Here’s why:
Why High-Hydration Pizza Dough is Best For a Home Oven
High-hydration doughs, such as this overnight focaccia, are doughs made with a high proportion of water relative to the flour. This high proportion of water creates a pizza crust that stays crisp but moist during the cooking process with beautiful air pockets throughout.
How? Understand this relationship, understand everything:
The lower the oven temperature, the higher the dough hydration. And conversely: The higher the oven temperature, the lower the dough hydration.
A great way to understand this concept is to look at the makeup of a classic Neapolitan-style pizza dough. Neapolitan-style pizza is characterized by a blistered and ballooned outer edge with a soft, thin (and sometimes wet) center. Contrary to what you might expect, Neapolitan-style pizza dough is on the lower end of the hydration spectrum: 60 to 65%.
The reason Neapolitan pizzas emerge light and airy with nearly wet centers is because they cook in 60 to 90 seconds in 900ºF ovens. In this short period of time, very little water evaporates from the dough, which allows it to retain its moisture.
When you bake pizza in a home oven, which can only get up to 550ºF, the baking time is longer, during which time a lot of water will evaporate. If you were to bake a 65% hydration Neapolitan pizza dough in your home oven, you will be left with a dry, tough crust due to all of the moisture loss during the long bake.
So, in sum: to prevent your crust from being dry and tough in a home oven, it needs more water from the start.
Working With High Hydration Dough
Working with high-hydration dough can be tricky, and the best way to deal with it is to handle it gently. During the shaping process — the point at which you are stretching your ball of dough into a 10- to 12-inch round — take care to use a light touch. When you handle the dough minimally, you preserve the bubbles created during the rising. See these bubbles? …
Those bubbles become these ballooned textures throughout the dough:
4 Tips for Making Excellent Pizza at Home
1. Use good, unbleached, and unbromated flour. King Arthur bread or all-purpose flour is my favorite.
What is the difference between bread and all-purpose flour? Mostly the protein content. KAF bread flour has a higher protein content (12.7% protein) than the all-purpose flour (11.7% protein). A dough made with bread flour as opposed to all-purpose flour will absorb slightly more liquid and will therefore be slightly stiffer. If you live in a humid environment and often find your dough to be too wet, using bread flour may help.
What about Tipo 00 Flour? Tipo 00 flour is the flour required in the production of D.O.C. Neapolitan pizza. Contrary to popular belief, the “00” is not an indicator of protein content. It refers, rather, to the fineness of the milling, “00” being the finest grade in the Italian classification system. It is known for the extensible gluten structure it creates in pizza dough. When you use Tipo 00 flour, you may find your dough to be much wetter than when you use bread flour, so you may need to adjust the recipe slightly: use less water or more flour.
While I love using tipo 00 flour (Petra 5063 being my favorite) in my outdoor oven, today I find I get better results — better oven spring and browning — in my home oven when I use bread flour or all-purpose flour, namely KAF, whose flour contains a small amount of malt, which helps with browning.
2. Don’t be afraid of salt.
Salt is important in pizza dough not only for flavor but also for strengthening gluten and controlling fermentation. My preference is Diamond Crystal kosher salt or Baleine fine sea salt, both of which dissolve quickly.
How Much Salt to Use: The rule of thumb with pizza dough is that the weight of the salt should be 2 to 3% the weight of the flour. For this recipe that is 10 to 15 grams. I use 15 grams of salt, and I do not find the dough to be too salty.
Flaky sea salt for finishing. I sprinkle every pizza I bake with Maldon Sea Salt just before it sliding it into the oven.
3. Invest in a Baking Steel.
The single best and easiest/most affordable step you can take to make better pizza at home is to invest in a Baking Steel. In short, steel is a more conductive cooking surface than stone. This means heat transfers more quickly from steel to food than it does from stone to food. Why is this important for pizza? Serious Eats’ Kenji J Lopez Alt offers this explanation:
“How does the baking surface affect hole structure? Well those crust holes develop when air and water vapor trapped inside the dough matrix suddenly expand upon heating in a phenomenon known as oven spring. The faster you can transfer energy to the dough, the bigger those glorious bubbles will be, and the airier and more delicate the crust.”
4. If time permits, make your dough several days in advance.
Why? Because: during a long, slow, cold fermentation, enzymes in both the flour and the yeast will break down the starches in the flour into simple sugars, which will contribute both to flavor and to browning. Moreover, during this time in the fridge, the dough will relax, making it easier to stretch into rounds on baking day.
PS: Simple Sourdough Pizza Crust Recipe
How to Make Pizza Dough, Step by Step
Whisk together flour, salt, and instant yeast (SAF is my preference):
Add water, and …
… mix to form a sticky dough ball:
Let rise in a warm spot till nearly doubled, about 1.5 hours.
Turn out onto a floured work surface.
Divide into four portions and …
… ball up, using as much flour as needed.
If you are baking pizza immediately, let the dough rest for another hour before shaping. Otherwise, transfer the balls to storage containers and stick them in the fridge. These Kevjes Dough Storage Vessels have become my favorite:
When it’s time to bake, transfer the dough rounds to a lidded vessel such as a DoughMate or a 9×13-inch baking dish covered with plastic wrap (to prevent the dough from drying out), and let the rounds sit for about an hour at room temperature.
When the dough has proofed, gently stretch it into an 11-inch round, using lightly floured hands:
Transfer the round to a peel lined with parchment paper.
Get your toppings ready. For a classic Margherita pizza, you’ll need tomato sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil.
Spread about 2 ounces of tomato sauce over your dough.
Top with about 3 ounces of mozzarella. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake on a preheated Baking Steel at 550ºF for 5 to 6 minutes. Shower with fresh basil out of the oven.
The beauty of the Baking Steel + high hydration dough: oven spring.
Troubleshooting
Why is my pizza dough too wet?
It is possible that given your environment and the type of flour you are using, you are using too much water relative to the amount of flour. The fix is simple: reduce the amount of water. Ideally, you are measuring with a scale, so you can ensure you are measuring accurately and making meaningful adjustments. Try holding back 50 grams of water and seeing if that helps.
That said, please read above about the importance of using a high-hydration pizza dough in a home oven. If your dough, upon being mixed, is unable to form a sticky dough ball, you likely need to reduce the water. Reference the video for dough texture.
Why is my pizza dough soggy?
There are several culprits here:
- too much sauce, cheese, and/or toppings
- oven not hot enough
- too short of a baking time
Solutions:
- Invest in a Baking Steel. Read why above.
- Try laying the cheese on top of the dough; then the sauce. The cheese might provide some insulation from the sauce, thereby preventing the dough from getting soggy.
- Consider employing a parbake: bake your pizza “naked” for one minute; then continue baking for 4 to 5 minutes more once topped.
- Try using semolina on your peel.
- Before stretching your dough ball into a round, slick it lightly in a bit of olive oil.
- Use a lighter hand when topping.
PS: If you’re looking for more pizza-making guidance, check out my New York Times bestselling cookbook, Pizza Night, which includes 52 pizza and 52 salad recipes, one pair for every week of the year, as well as five simple desserts 🍕🍕🍕
Simple, 4-Ingredient Homemade Pizza Dough
- Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 pizzas 1x
Description
Made with 4 ingredients — flour, water, salt, and yeast — this simple, no-knead pizza dough recipe is a snap to throw together, and you can use the dough the same day you mix it or store it in the fridge for up to 5 days (or freeze it!). If you love pizza with a ballooned edge and crisp but pliable crust, this pizza dough recipe is for you.
**Attention Pizza Fans: My new cookbook, Pizza Night, is here.**
NOTES:
- This recipe yields 4 rounds of dough. The recipe can be halved but know that the dough can be refrigerated for up to five days. I refrigerate individual rounds of dough in Kevjes dough storage containers.
- The dough can be frozen, too. After the first rise and after you transfer the portioned rounds to quart containers, this is your opportunity to freeze. Transfer the quart containers to the freezer for as long as 3 months. To thaw, remove a container (or more) and let thaw in the refrigerator for 1 day or thaw at room temperature for 4 to 8 hours. Then, proceed with the recipe.
Ingredients & Tools
- Measure Accurately: As always, for best results use a scale to measure. I love this Ooni scale for its precision, especially when measuring smaller quantities of salt and yeast.
- Peel: This is my favorite.
- Parchment: These rounds are so handy for making the transition from the peel to the Baking steel or pizza stone.
- Yeast: SAF Instant Yeast is my favorite. If you need to use active dry yeast instead of instant, sprinkle it over the lukewarm water and let it stand for about 10 minutes or until it gets foamy before adding to the other ingredients.
- Warm place to rise: Here’s a trick for making the perfect warm spot for the dough to rise. Turn the oven on and let it preheat for 1 minute; then shut it off. The temperature will be between 80° F and 100° F. you should be able to place your hand on the oven grates without burning them.
- Flour: You can use bread flour and all-purpose flour here but if you live in a humid environment, I would consider using bread flour if you can get your hands on it. If you are in Canada or the UK, also consider using bread flour or consider holding back some of the water (see next paragraph). Reference the video for how the texture of the dough should look; then add water back as needed.
- Water: I find the sweet spot for me to be about 418 grams of water, which is roughly an 82% hydration dough. That said: If you live in a humid environment, if you live abroad, if you are using all-purpose flour or Tipo 00 flour, if you dislike handling wet doughs, consider starting with 400 grams of water, which will lower the hydration to 77%. If the dough feels dry, add water as needed to get it to the right consistency (reference the video).
- Salt: The rule of thumb with pizza dough is that the weight of the salt should be 2 to 3% the weight of the flour. For this recipe that is 10 to 15 grams. I tend to use 12 to 15 grams of salt, and I do not find the dough to be too salty, but I have a high salt tolerance. Use an amount appropriate to your tastes and preferences. Finally, I always use Diamond Crystal kosher salt, but you can use fine sea salt or whatever salt you like.
- Toppings: In the notes below the recipe, find the toppings for a classic Margherita pizza and for a kale, parmesan, and crème fraîche pizza. See above for 6 other favorite pizza recipes.
- Timeline: Make it Tonight: Plan on 3 hours start to finish from when you mix your dough to when you turn out a freshly baked pizza. Make it Tomorrow (and beyond): Method 1: Mix your dough today, let it rise for 1.5 hours (roughly). Portion it into 4 balls; then transfer to the fridge for up to 5 days. When using dough you’ve stored in the refrigerator, remove it one hour prior to baking.
Ingredients
Please Read All Notes Above Before Proceeding
- 4 cups (512 g) bread flour or all-purpose flour, plus more for assembly
- 3 to 4 teaspoons (10 to 15 g) kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) instant yeast
- 1.75 to 2 cups (400 to 454 g) lukewarm water
Instructions
- Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and instant yeast. Add the water. Using a rubber spatula, mix until the water is absorbed and the ingredients form a sticky dough ball. Pour a drop or two of oil over the top and rub with your hands to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in bulk. (Note: Optional Step: If time permits, 30 minutes after you cover the bowl, perform one set of stretches and folds: grab an edge of the dough using a wet hand and stretch it up and in. Repeat this 8 to 10 times, grabbing a different edge each time. By the end, the dough should transform from shaggy in texture to smooth and cohesive. I find performing a set of stretches and folds gives my dough more strength and ultimately more lightness.)
- Prepare the oven: If you are baking the pizzas right away (as opposed to refrigerating the dough for another day), place a Baking Steel or pizza stone in top third of oven and preheat oven to its hottest setting, 550°F. Be sure the Baking Steel heats for at least 45 minutes once the oven temperature reaches 550ºF.
- Ball up the dough: Cover a work surface or cutting board liberally with flour — the dough is very wet, so don’t hesitate to use flour as needed. Turn the dough out onto your floured surface and use a bench scraper to divide the dough into 4 equal portions. With floured hands, roll each portion into a ball, using the pinkie edges of your hands to pinch the dough underneath each ball. If you are not baking the pizza the same day, transfer each round of dough to a storage container (see notes above), cover, and store in the fridge. (At this point, if you plan on freezing the dough, transfer the vessels to the freezer for up to 3 months. See notes above for thawing.) If you are baking right away, let the balls sit on their tucked-in edges for 30 to 60 minutes without touching in a lidded, lightly floured vessel such as a DoughMate or a 9×13-inch pan covered with plastic wrap.
- Proof the dough: If using refrigerated dough, pull out a pizza round (or as many as you wish) from the fridge 60 to 90 minutes before you plan on baking. Transfer the rounds to a lidded, lightly floured vessel such as a DoughMate or a 9×13-inch pan covered with plastic wrap.
- Make the pizzas: Handling the dough as minimally as possible, shape the dough into a 10″–12″ round. If the dough has proofed sufficiently, you should be able to pick it up and stretch it very easily using the back of your hands. Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a pizza peel, and pour a few drops of oil into the center of it. (Note: the oil is optional. It’s especially helpful if you find shaping dough using the backs of your hands tricky.) Transfer the dough round to the parchment-lined baking peel.
- Top pizza as desired or to make the Margherita pizza: spread 2 ounces of tomato sauce over your pizza dough. Top with 3 ounces of mozzarella. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with a pinch of flaky sea salt. Shimmy the pizza, parchment paper and all into the oven. To make the kale and crème fraîche pizza: Place the kale in a small bowl, drizzle lightly with olive oil, season with sea salt, and toss with your hands till the kale is coated in oil and salt. Spoon crème fraîche over the dough leaving a 1/2-inch border or so—I use 1 to 2 tablespoons per pizza. Sprinkle with the garlic and a handful of the grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Top with the kale.
- Bake the pizza: Shimmy the pizza, parchment paper and all into the oven. Bake the pizza until the top is blistered, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board. Shower basil over the pizza Margherita. Cut and serve. Discard parchment paper.
Notes
Margherita Pizza:
- 2 ounces tomato sauce, such as this one
- 3 ounces fresh mozzarella (if using buffalo mozzarella, drain before using)
- olive oil
- flaky sea salt
- fresh basil
Kale & Creme Fraiche Pizza:
- extra-virgin olive oil
- a couple handfuls of baby kale
- 1 to 2 cloves garlic
- Sea salt, such as Maldon
- 2 tablespoons crème fraîche
- grated Parmigiano Reggiano, about 1/4 to 1/3 cup
- Prep Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Pizza
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American, Italian
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
824 Comments on “Simple, 4-Ingredient Homemade Pizza Dough”
So I see this recipe calls for yeast… have you ever used a sourdough starter to make it? If so what would be different about the recipe?
Hi Sarah! Here’s my sourdough pizza recipe: Simple Sourdough Pizza.
Omg. So so so good!! It was light and airy but chewy and crisp. Perfection. Sprayed with olive oil, sprinkled crust with Sesame seeds. Gotta try it.
Already thinking about my next pizza.
Oh yay! So nice to hear this, Nevena! Thanks so much for writing!
I’ve tried several recipes for pizza dough, and this is the best crust so far. The dough was sticky but manageable. It came together quickly with very little handling. I made a half recipe using 00 flour, and proved the dough overnight in the fridge. The dough was easy to stretch after sitting at room temperature for about 1 1/2 hours. Great oven spring around the outside rim. We felt that the dough needed more salt. I added 1/4 tsp each onion and garlic salt to the kosher salt, but the crust still tasted slightly underseasoned. Thank you for the detailed instructions and tips. They’re very helpful.
So great to hear this, Sadie! I could totally see this on the salt. I just added a weight measurement in the recipe box — 11 g — which is up from the usual 10 grams that I’ve been doing in the past. (I actually recently experimented with 12 grams of salt, and didn’t find it to be too salty, but I’m going to keep it at 11 because I know my salt tolerance is a little higher than most.)
Thanks for writing!
How come this recipe doesn’t call for sugar or honey?
Hi Viri! I just don’t find the sugar or honey necessary. Sometimes recipes call for small amounts of sugar or honey to activate the yeast. Sometimes recipes call for it to promote browning. You absolutely can add a teaspoon or two of either, but I would try it without first and see how you like it 🙂
Great detail and so helpful at answering many questions I had about this process. Just to clarify, are you saying to wait 30 minutes after forming into four balls to then form the rounds, then wait ANOTHER 30 minutes before working to make the full 10-12 inch pizza shells? Similarly, when pulling from the fridge, let sit an hour to get to room temperature, and then form the rounds, and then wait another 30 minutes before forming the shells? Just want to make sure I’m clear. Thanks!
Hi Rob! Great to hear 🙂
Regarding your question: if you are baking pizzas the same day you mix the dough, letting the dough rest for 30 minutes after you divide the dough and ball each portion into a round should suffice. If it’s very cold, you may need more like 45 minutes before stretching the round into a 10-12 inch shell.
If you are using refrigerated dough, letting the rounds rest for 60 minutes at room temperature is about right before stretching them into 10-12 inch pizza shells.
I hope that clarifies… let me know!
I finally found where to give you stars! lol
Best pizza dough around!
Awwww yay, thank you, Cindy! Thanks so much 🙂 🙂 🙂
I have been trying my hand at homemade pizza for several months now and each time the crust was “good” but I just wasn’t over the moon about it. I finally found my new go to pizza crust recipe! It was light and airy and absolutely delicious! Oh and did I mention it was the easiest recipe of them all! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe and all the tips with us:)
So wonderful to hear this, Marisa! Thanks so much for writing 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
I have made this pizza dough hundreds of times. Great recipe. I freeze it regularly, taking it out in the morning for an evening pizza. Thanks.
So nice to hear this, Abi! Thanks for writing and for sharing your freezing/thawing notes — so helpful for others!
What type of flour are you using? Often when I troubleshoot with people in the UK, they have to cut back the water significantly bc the flours are so different.
Also: did you weigh the water? Not that it would make a difference, but for future reference, it’s good to have the exact weight of water so you know precisely by how much you should cut the water back by in the future.
Hi Alexandra,
Love your sourdough recipe, but ran into some problems with this one.
First off, do you have gram measurements for this recipe?
For example, the yeast amount is in teaspoon (flat, packed, heaping?)
Also for the water, you mention 2 cups (456 g), which according to google is 473 grams.
I tried to approx your measurement and ended up using the following amounts:
Water: 473 grams
Flour: 512 grams
Salt: 7 grams
Yeast: 3 grams
During the bulk ferment, I noticed the dough get to almost 2.5 to 3x bigger, which seemed like a whole lot. After splitting into 3 balls, put them into the fridge overnight and prepped for pizza the next day. The dough needed a fair amount of time to warm up, but still tore a bit. Not a huge deal.
After baking the pizza, the dough didn’t really have that much flavor. Additionally, the base of the crust felt pretty tough and almost rubbery, but not quite.
Do you think it would have been better to add more salt, cut down the yeast by a bit and let sit in the fridge for 2 nights? Any idea why the base of the crust came out so rough?
Visually looked great, but felt like the crust should have been softer and more flavorful.
See here for pics of the ‘za!
https://imgur.com/a/nKb3ewC
Extra info to above post:
Flour Used: Central Milling Tony Gemignani’s “California Artisan” Type 00 Pizza Flour
Yeast Used: Antimo Caputo Lievito Active Dry Yeast 3.5
Altitude: 4200 ft.
—- Previous Post —
Hi Alexandra,
Love your sourdough recipe, but ran into some problems with this one.
First off, do you have gram measurements for this recipe?
For example, the yeast amount is in teaspoon (flat, packed, heaping?)
Also for the water, you mention 2 cups (456 g), which according to google is 473 grams.
I tried to approx your measurement and ended up using the following amounts:
Water: 473 grams
Flour: 512 grams
Salt: 7 grams
Yeast: 3 grams
During the bulk ferment, I noticed the dough get to almost 2.5 to 3x bigger, which seemed like a whole lot. After splitting into 3 balls, put them into the fridge overnight and prepped for pizza the next day. The dough needed a fair amount of time to warm up, but still tore a bit. Not a huge deal.
After baking the pizza, the dough didn’t really have that much flavor. Additionally, the base of the crust felt pretty tough and almost rubbery, but not quite.
Do you think it would have been better to add more salt, cut down the yeast by a bit and let sit in the fridge for 2 nights? Any idea why the base of the crust came out so rough?
Visually looked great, but felt like the crust should have been softer and more flavorful.
See here for pics of the ‘za!
https://imgur.com/a/nKb3ewC
Hi Nikhil!
I just added gram measurements for the yeast, but I had already included gram measurements for everything else. I do use 456 g water. Everyone has their own calculation for what a cup of water weighs, and for me, it’s 228 grams. What google says is different from what King Arthur Flour says which is different for what anybody else says, so I always recommend following the gram measurement of whatever recipe you are following.
I think 7 grams of salt is not enough, which is maybe why it doesn’t have much flavor. I would use the recommended 11 grams of salt next time.
I don’t think you need to cut back the yeast, but I am a fan of a cold proof. I think 48 hours in the fridge at least makes a big difference.
It looks beautiful!!
Thanks for the reply!!
I added a bit more salt this go around so we’ll see what happens. And I’m with you on the 48 hour minimum. The 24 hour was due to a rush pizza request.
But, what do you think might have caused the harder bottom crust? Maybe more moisture evaporated, maybe I used too much dusting flour? In other words, do you think the hardness came from a moisture concern or possibly something else?
I ask, since northern nevada is really really dry and at altitude.
Thank you for the reply and thank you for sharing your recipes!! I’ll post née pics of the pizzas when they’re done.
Hi Ali,
Whenever I use the parchment paper in baking process, the final baked dough always sticks to it no matter what. Any idea how I can solve this problem?
Thanks a lot in advance 🙂
So interesting! What brand of parchment are you using? And are you using a Baking Steel or stone or are you using a sheet pan?
Appreciating your quick response Ali!
Well concerning the brand of parchment paper, since I’m living in Iran I’m using the one available here; however it’s been working fine with other baking recipes so I don’t think that could be the problem. I’m using a baking stone. Thanks again 🙂
Ok, one thing you can try is baking it for just 2 minutes on the parchment; then open the oven and try to pull the parchment out. If this doesn’t work, I would stop using parchment. Use cornmeal or flour or something else on the peel to prevent the dough from sticking.
Hi Alexandra,
Thanks for the recipe.
Unfortunately my dough doesn’t come together. With those measurements comes out to liquid. I been reading the comments and nobody mention this. Maybe the water was too hot. Do you have any advise?
Thanks
Hi Miryam! Questions for you: did you use a scale? What type of flour are you using? Where are you located? Humid or dry climate? Thanks!
I don’t think it’s a matter of the water being too hot. But I do think it’s a matter of you simply using too much water given the flour you are using and your environment. If you are using a scale, next time hold back 50 grams. Then add water back in slowly. Reference the video for dough texture.
Hi Alexandra,
Thank you fro your email. Yes I use and scale and measure everything. I use 00 flour. I am locate in London when I did the recipe was April was still cold.
I will try again using your tip.
Thank you 🙂
Sounds good! And now reading this, I would hold back even more water: try holding back 100 grams and add it back in slowly if necessary.
Oh! I will try this week 🙂
Have a lovely week.
This is our go-to kitchen-oven crust recipe. I use Peter Reinhart’s Napoletana recipe for our outdoor pizza oven, but I find yours works so much better in the kitchen. (I use a a pizza steel on top of a baking stone, preheat at the highest setting for an hour. Cook 3-4 minutes, then switch to broil for the last minute.) This recipe is so forgiving. I can decide the night before, morning of, or even a few hours before dinner to get started, always with varying levels of greatness.
Also: I’ve tried *so* many pizza white-sauce recipes, and none of them ever hit the spot. Just using crème fraîche? What an epiphany! SO good and so easy. Our favourites:
– crème fraîche/sour cream, kale, bacon, parmesan, olive oil, fancy salt; and
– simple pizza sauce (San Marzano tomatoes/olive oil/salt), BBQ chicken, roasted red peppers, mozzarella, parmesan, olive oil, fancy salt.
Thank you so much for making our oven pizzas so much easier, tastier and just plain ol’ better!
I made this a couple of weeks ago. It tasted delicious but I sucked at shaping the dough. I found it really hard working with such a wet dough. I cooked it in a Gozney Roccbox, so found it hard getting it off the peel into the oven because of the hydration level. I definitely needed to use more flour. I’m trying again this week, fingers crossed!
Angela, hi! Definitely cut back on the water. It is such a high hydration dough, and reducing the water won’t harm it, and it will make the dough easier to manage. What type of flour are you using? And do you live in a humid environment? I think you could get away with using anywhere between 375 grams and 400 grams of water.
Hi — the recommended pizza steel is currently unavailable on amazon. Is there another one that you could recommend? Thanks.
Hi! I recommend the Original Baking Steel: https://bakingsteel.com/collections/steels You can order directly through them 🙂
Hi Ali! I just got an Ooni Koda pizza oven and am now obsessively searching for “the one” dough LOL. Your recipe looks so good and I am definitely going to give it a try! Just a couple of questions for you. If you shape the dough into balls and then put them into the plastic quart containers to go into the fridge, will it come out as a sticky mass of dough that needs to be reshaped? Just curious why we need to shape it into a ball in the first place and why we wouldn’t just throw it into the quarts to proof and rise. Always looking for shortcuts here 😉 Thank you!
Hi Dawn! Yay! I have an Ooni Koda as well, and I haven’t tried it yet! Mine is the one that hooks up to a gas tank … waiting for warmer weather (it snowed here last night!)
OK, a few things: be sure to read the notes about water/flour, etc., and adjust the recipe as needed. It’s a wet dough, but the wet dough does make for some glorious air bubbles.
Shaping is important because that initial shape — getting it into a tight ball — is the first step to making sure your final dough will be round. If you get it into a tight ball before you transfer it to your quart containers, you won’t have to do much when you remove the dough balls to ensure they stay round.
Good luck!!
Hi!! I have no idea what I did wrong! I live in Chicago. I used a mixer to make this and the dough was practically soup there was so much water. I ended up having to pour an extra 1-2 cups of flour into it and crossing my fingers it works. It’s currently rising for 1.5 hours.
Hi Claudia! It definitely is a wet, sticky dough … there are notes above the recipe regarding flour and water bc it is such high hydration.
Questions: what type of flour are you using? And are you using a scale?
Bread flour and yes to the scale for the flour but not the water! I ended up adding a lot more flour and checked it this morning and it has risen!
Sounds wonderful… will try but what is the baking steel you mention? A cookie sheet?
Hi Vicki! This is the Baking Steel I love: https://bakingsteel.com/
Thanks, perfect dough after 2 days ref fermentation. Crunchy, chewy and soft which I prefer most. I substituted kale with 2 layers spinach, watery but next time should try kale instead.
I have used 2 cups bread flour and 2 cups wheat flour… turned really perfect.
Wonderful to hear this, Marietta! Thanks so much for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
I was excited to find this recipe. Been trying various recipes for the past few years, but I’m excited about this one because I make bread this way. I found that with the bread, you can just kind of tell when you have enough water in the mix. And it makes the best bread! (Though I proof it overnight). I’m really excited to see how this turns out. I like to make several at at time, put them in the fridge for 2-3 days, then put them in the freezer. So…I won’t bake one of these for a few days, but am looking forward to it. If I can find Kale (I live in MX), I’ll try that as well. Any substitutions for Creme Fresh?
Hi Becki! So nice to hear this. I hope you enjoy the pizza. I love doing a cold fridge ferment as well.
Sour cream is probably the best substitute for creme fraiche, though I’ve never actually tried baking it … I imagine it will be just fine.
Can’t stop making this! Although I own BTC, it was your blog posts that inspired me to try this pizza dough recipe. Your instructions and visuals are so clear and helpful. The only downside is now my husband will only eat fresh baked bread!
Oh yay! Anna, so nice to hear this. Thanks so much for writing. And I know: once you start baking homemade bread regularly, it’s impossible to go back. Happy Friday!
This has been my go to pizza dough recipe for the past year and it never disappoints. It is so easy and so delicious! I can’t believe I was buying premade pizza dough from the supermarket for so many years. I want to try the sourdough recipe next!
So nice to hear this, Hadley! Thanks so much for writing 🙂 The sourdough one is great, too. And if you can handle this dough (very high hydration), you can definitely handle the sourdough one, which is lower hydration. Good luck!
I’ve been on the hunt to find a perfect pizza dough recipe and this is it! I made the full recipe keeping 2 dough balls in the fridge for a couple days and froze 2 balls of dough and they have thawed perfectly.
Wonderful to hear this, Alexis!! Thanks so much for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
Made the dough before my kids came home from school and left to rest. We then divided, and added toppings one person at a time while the last pizza was cooking, as each pizza took just ten minutes. The whole recipe worked perfectly, no tweaking necessary. Tasted like the pizzas we had in Naples, absolutely delicious! Will definitely use again and have shared already.
So nice to hear all of this, Amie!! Thanks so much for writing. Happy Friday! Pizza night here tonight. Can’t wait 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
I have just begun to make pizzas and I was lucky to find your site. The recipe, the tips and suggestions resulted in a fabulous pizza. the crust was just like the photos in your description of the recipe. I used active dried yeast so I used a bit of the water to bloom it and I added 1 tsp of olive oil to the yeast solution before adding it to the flour. I put the dough in the fridge over night. I baked it in a small portable wood fired pizza oven at 940F for 60 seconds, turning once.
Thank you for sharing this recipe and your expertise Alexandra.
Oh yay! Wonderful to hear this, Mike. I bought an Ooni last November but I have yet to break it out. Your comment is encouraging me to give it a go. Thanks so much for writing!
Can this dough be used in a ooni pizza oven? It has a stone can the parchment paper go in it as well.
Hi Tiffany! I have yet to practice with my Ooni pizza oven, but the answer is yes, definitely. However: no to the parchment paper with that high heat. It will catch on fire. I would use cornmeal or semolina flour or something to make a nonstick barrier between the dough and the peel. You may also want to consider reducing the water slightly, to make the dough more manageable.
Would this dough work for the chez panisse calzone recipe you also have posted?
This is currently in our meal rotations since it’s such a snap to whip up!
Hi Anna! Great to hear. And yes, it would. I might consider holding back some of the water — even just 50 grams or — to help make the dough a little more manageable to work with. It’s such a high hydration dough, and I would hate for the folding process to be a struggle. I think cutting back the water will do the trick!
Great recipe, best homemade pizza I have tried!
Could you use wholemeal bread flour?
So nice to hear this, Sarah! Yes, you can use wholemeal bread flour, but the texture will come out a little denser. I think you could use 25% wholemeal flour without the texture being affected adversely, but much more than that, and I think you’ll notice a difference in the airiness.
Hi Alex , just got my pizza stone. do you know what would be the best substitute for kale. in the north of France kale is just not a thing you can find easily :/ thank you
Hi Amy! Exciting! Hope you love your stone.
Apologies for the delay here. What sort of dark leafy greens are you able to get? I feel like mustard greens or escarole or spinach might work — with each of these, you might want to very briefly sauté them first due to their water content.
Omg best pizza dough recipe ever! Thank you. I’m currently feeling extremely full and in pain as I ate a whole pizza it was that good. 😂
Oh yay! So nice to hear this, Vanessa 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve had a few uncomfortably full pizza nights myself recently… worth it!!
Hello from france what is the correct equivelent to bread flour i used type 55 here in france and it very white and thick – help
Hi Amy! I’m not familiar with type 55 flour. When you say white and thick, are you referring to the dough? Also: are you using a scale to measure the flour and water? If so, I think it might just take a bit of trial and error to get right. I would look at the video to give you reference for how the dough should look.
Hello, Yes we followed the video and recipe. the dough was very watery and needed a lot more extra flour. when the baking was done the pizza was not golden just plain white and it took 2 to 3 times longer than 6 minutes to cook. the dough after being cooked was very dense and heavy like not pizza but more like serious heavy bread. lol. im not exactly sure what flour to be using …… in France the numbers range from T45 to T110 ….. i use t55 usually to make cake….
Hi Amy! Apologies for the delay here. I wonder if t55 is bleached? That would explain the pizza being white as opposed to golden. I would ask someone what the equivalent of bread flour is in France. I’m guessing it’s probably closer to the T110 end of the spectrum.