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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”
Hi Ali I’m from Canada and here a cup of water is 240-250 ml and a cup of All Purpose Flour i 135-140 gr. Using this measurements means 420-480 ml of water and 540-560 grams of flour. would it work the same as your measurements?
Hi! I would stick to the weights in the recipe: 512 grams of flour and 400 grams water (or maybe even a little less if you are using ap flour — when I’ve troubleshooted with people in Canada in the past, Canadian ap flour has made for quite a wet dough and reducing the water from the start has helped).
Yum! Both the pizza dough and the tomato sauce. Both are keepers.
Thanks Ali for sharing your delicious and easy recipies.
Great to hear, Maira 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thanks for writing.
Hi! For this recipe – can I use 00 flour?
Yes, but I would reduce the water by a lot otherwise the dough will be so sticky. Try 360 grams water and maybe adjust with a little more water if the dough feels dry. Keep in mind, too, that 00 flour does not brown as well in a home oven, so you may need to cook your pizza longer.
Hi, my concern is the parchment paper – have you ever had it actually burn or flame? Most parchment is rated for 425F max temperature and although I love and use it 90% of the time in baking, I’m nervous to try it here…especially at 550.
Hi! It will char and get brittle, but it won’t catch on fire at 550. Only once under the broiler did it catch fire.
Love your recipes–game changer for me; however, the videos are difficult to watch
because the camera is not focused.
Hi! The videos should not be blurry… can you point me to one of them that is blurry?
Hi, Alexandra!
Thanks for your prompt response regarding the videos. I have watched all of the pizza dough recipes and they are blurry. Could very well be something on my end–I am pathetically inept when it comes to technology. I have watched many of your videos and have never noticed it before. It has to be me because I have not read any reviews that mention it. Thanks anyway
for getting back to me. I love, love your recipes and I have tried many.
Such a bummer to hear this! I’m not sure what explains it. My only suggestion would be to click on the video title, which will bring you to youtube, where you can watch the video there… maybe it’s a loading issue? In any case, I’m sorry for the blurriness.
Thank you for your kind words 🙂 🙂 🙂
Can this be made at a lower temperature (350 Deg)?
Newer ovens have electrical components that do not hold up to 550 degree temperatures.
Service people do not recommend that the kigh temp self-cleaning be used. I have burned out several costly components at high temp.
Hi Jerry, I think it’s worth a shot. You’ll definitely need to bake it for longer.
I’d love to use this recipe to feed a crowd of about 20 adults – I’m thinking that parbaking the crusts prior to the party would be the best way to turn out pizzas quickly and avoid the lag time of having to shape each individual pizza. I’m hoping to have mostly-baked crusts ready to be topped and thrown back in an oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese. Do you think this would work / do you have any recommendations for parbaking? Other suggestions for feeding a group with this recipe are also welcome! (a note that I won’t have access to a baking stone/steel)
Hi Betty! Sorry for the delay here. Will you have access to Baking steel/stone when you are parbaking them?
I do think parbaking is a great idea. I parbake for roughly 1-2 minutes max. That is with my oven at full blast 550F and having preheated for over an hour. Regardless, I would do much more than a 2-minute parbake.
When you reheat, are you reheating on baking sheets?
I purchased a pizza steel and followed your dough recipe. So easy and delicious. My crust was bubbly and crispy. I’m so glad I found your Instagram channel and this site.
Yay! Great to hear, Irene! Thanks so much for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hi Ali! I’m going to make this this evening, and I had a question about method 2 of making the dough. Do you not wait for the first rise before you refrigerate it?
I wanted to follow method 1 but I don’t have the space in the fridge for four separate containers. Can I do the rise and then refrigerate in a single container?
Many thanks in advance for your reply!
Hi Niyati! Yes, you can do the first rise at room temperature, then deflate it, the refrigerate the single container. Be sure to cover the container tightly so that the dough does not dry out.
Looking to make individual/small 8inch pizzas using a toaster oven. Probably can get toaster oven to 450F. What would you suggest…cutting recipe in half? What flour? Hydration? What gram or amount to portion off? I look forward to your suggestions.
I think you’ll need to do some experimenting, but to offer some thoughts:
• start with a half recipe
• ap flour or bread flour
• same hydration: the lower the oven temperature, the higher you want the hydration to be bc the pizzas will take longer to cook, during which time water will evaporate — so the more water from the start the better
• I might start with 75 gram portions of dough? 125 grams would be half of a normal-sized home-oven pizza, but that might still be too large for your toaster oven
Absolutely delicious
Great to hear, Michelle!
I have been using this recipe for years for pizza in my oven, however, I received an Ooni this summer and am worried about the wet dough sliding off the pizza peel. Did you make any modifications when working with an outdoor pizza oven?
Hi Rebecca! Yes, I find lowering the hydration to 70% to be ideal. Are you using a scale to measure? And if so, how many grams water have you been using? Apologies for the delay here!
Could ap einkorn flour be used?
Einkorn flour behaves a little differently. How comfortable are you working with it and making substitutions with it?
Hello, can this be grilled on high in a smoker with wood pellets? Max temp it reaches is probably around 450-475. Thanks
Hi! Are you grilling directly on the grates?
Ali, I discovered your wonderful blog during the pandemic when I was so hungry for 2 Amy’s Pizzas in Washington. My husband and I are living in an over 55 community about 50 miles away and not making that trip anymore. I googled Make Pizza like 2 Amy’s and your blog came up. My grown kids made sourdough even before the pandemic so while everyone else was doing that I made pizza. Thank you! I love all your pizza recipes but am still making the peasant
Pizza dough. I love it and bought a steel pizza stone. Is it worth it to change to Jim Lahey’s? My favorites are the Arugula and prosciutto and nectarine and basil and the kale with cream fraiche. Sorry it’s taken so long to write you. Can’t wait for the Pizza book. Now will I be able to look up recipes? I can’t find the chicken thighs with the green sauce that begins wit an S. Gratefully, Priscilla Chamlee
Hi Priscilla! If you like the peasant pizza, there’s no reason to change. I prefer the peasant pizza, too, which is this recipe essentially. I find for a home oven, a higher hydration dough works best. Thank you for your kind words. Is this the chicken thigh recipe? I think it’s skhug you’re thinking of: https://vector-hatch.live/2019/05/24/smoky-grilled-chicken-with-cucumber-yogurt-sauce/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
If you make your pizza dough in the morning for that night should you let is rise before putting in refrigerator or can it go directly into refrigerator and take out for 60-90 minutes before you want to use?
Hi! Having experimented a lot this year for the pizza book I am writing, this is what I would suggest: use cold water and 1/2 teaspoon yeast. Let the dough rise at room temperature all day in a tightly-covered vessel (either lidded or plastic wrap to prevent drying out). 60-90 minutes before you want to serve dinner, delate the dough, ball it up, use it 1 hour later. Hope that helps!
I have cooked for close to 20 years. I am new to baking, because they are not the same. I have tried flatbread, pita and pizza dough recipes over the last couple months knowing that trial and error is the best teacher. Range cooking is more of an art. However, I am loving the science and math of baking. This recipe so far is the easiest and yields the tastiest results. I have a basic oven that does not go over 500 and I have several stones that I use for roasting and baking. Since I have started making my own flatbreads, my digestive issues have greatly reduced and I am not afraid to eat bread with cheese or fats. I find that the preservatives and artificial sweeteners in commercially prepared foods do not agree with me, or the rest of my family apparently. I also find that I can use less toppings because the dough is so delicious. Thank you so much for this recipe as well as the instructions on the handling of the dough. Artwork!! *Additionally, regarding hydration. I live in Florida with a great air conditioner. I keep a temp and a rh meter in my kitchen. It is usually around 75F and around 50RH give or take. I used 420g of water, I was slightly dry so I added another teaspoon of water and it became a perfect sticky dough.
So nice to read all of this, Leah! You are so smart to have an rh meter in your kitchen. I have been meaning to get one. I feel the same way about homemade breads in relation to digestion. Thanks so much for writing and sharing all of this!
Wonderful recipe! Produced a crispy, yet chewy crust with wonderful flavor. I did not do the refrigerator rise, which I would imagine would only improve this delicious crust. Most success I’ve ever had making my own crust.
Great to hear, Susan! Will love to hear how the fridge rise works out for you when you get to it. Thanks so much for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
The dough was super easy to make but after I made it and went to preheat the oven, mine only goes up to 500 degrees not 550 as the recipe states. I have the dough so I’m going to try it later. Any advice? Thanks
Hi! Apologies for the delay here! You’ll likely simply need to cook the pizzas for a few more minutes than suggested. Do you have a baking steel or stone? How did the pizzas turn out?
Great post, a wealth of information. My one question is you recommend using and provide a link to parchment paper rounds. You run your oven at 550 degrees (I have a baking steel in my oven as well) but the parchment paper is rated to use up to 450 degrees. Does it burn and/or will it leave a burnt taste on the pizza? Thanks.
Hi Mike!
The parchment paper will darken and char but it will not catch fire. Do not, however, use it under the broiler, where it will catch fire.
It does not leave a burnt taste on the pizza at all.
If you’re prefer to simply use the parchment for the transfer, you can open the oven quickly and pull the paper out after about 2 minutes of cooking.
Hope that helps!
Hi… can you use this method for an outdoor pizza oven ?? Do I need to make adjustments?
Thanks!!!
Yes! But I would suggest reducing the water to 335 grams. This lowers the hydration to roughly 70%, which is still relatively high for an outdoor oven. I like to cook my pizzas at a slightly lower temperature for a slightly longer period of time in the outdoor oven: 2.5-3.5 minutes @ 650ºF-750ºF.
Alex, anxious for your pizza book as I make several of your pizzas with success now. Maybe you will address this question in your book but I could use advice now. I would like to have a pizza made prior to a gathering and then heat up to serve. What is the best approach for this. The pizza would be fresh, not from the refrig, but out of the oven several hours. I would take it out of pan and on to a rack and have a pizza steel in oven, hot and ready to go. Couple of questions, are any of your pizza types more conducive to reheating whether this crusty round one, Sicilian, Detroit and is the steel a good way to reheat or is back in pan better? .Any suggestions you have would surely be welcome. Thank you.
Alex, Den M again, continued re my long pizza question! I am just thinking would under baking a pizza make sense if reheating to serve for a gathering. Of course, the goal is to to serve the pizza as close to “just freshly make” as possible.
Hi Denise! I don’t directly address this question in my book, but I do think the best kind of pizza for making ahead of time is Sicilian for a few reasons: one it feeds a lot of people. How many people are you hoping to serve? I made pan pizzas on Halloween for a large crowd, and it was so nice because everything was done ahead of time. I had the Sicilian pizza parbaked earlier in the day, then I topped it and had it sitting at room temp ready to go in the oven for probably 3 hours. When it was time for dinner, I just popped it in the oven and 12 minutes later it was done. Sicilian-Style Pizza
Now, if you do want to make this more Neapolitan-style pizza ahead of time, I think slightly underbaking is a good idea. And if you are able to slide it back directly on the peel to crisp up before serving, that is ideal. I would do the same thing if possible: get your steel pretty hot, shimmy the pizza on top, and bake for 2-3 minutes or until the visual cues tell you it’s done.
Alex, thanks so much for your advice, we love your Sicilian pizza and it has the perfect pause step to hold and then serve anew! We will be only be 8 but hearty eaters, pizza lovers! Your other suggestion for the Neapolitan I will do just for us. It will be helpful not having to time things as I do and will be a great test for future guests. I do have a baking steel to help bottoms! Thank you for your time and great suggestions. Enjoy your Thanksgiving, I’m bringing your make ahead turkey gravy. Was planning on making the stock today but the market was out of fresh turkey wings and necks!!
Great to read all of this, Denise! Enjoy your guests 🙂 🙂 🙂 (and Thanksgiving planning!)
Excellent! I only used the dough recipe, used King Arthur all purpose flour and made 1 pizza by using only 1/4 of all the ingredients. Even though I am not skilled in stretching pizzas and could only stretch the dough to 9 to9.5 inches, still came out perfect — soft crust but with open crumb (big holes) inside. Instead of baking the pizza, for my oven i had to turn off the preheated oven and immediately slide the pizza on parchment paper onto a preheated stone on the oven floor to set the crust, then immediately turn on broil and move the pizza without the parchment to a preheated steel on the top rack in order to get the blistered look without making the pizza crispy.
Love this, Constance! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes — your method is so clever!
So easy and delicious! My mother said it was the best pizza she ever had.
Great to hear, Tomi! Thanks so much for writing 🙂
Awesome pizza dough method!
I feel like I am doing something wrong, not sure if it is measurments? My dough is too dry and the amounts of water does not absorb all the flour… Any suggestions? I was using 4 cups of flour and 2 cups of water.
Thanks so much
Hi! Are you using a scale to measure? What type of flour? My first suggestion would be to invest in a scale if you are not using one already to ensure you are measuring accurately. It sounds as though you might be simply being a little heavy handed with the flour.
Love the easy recipe & 4 Qrt. balls in deli containers- Made a pizza a day! We all taste tested & came to a conlusion & how to use dough next time.
1. Favorite is Thin crust easily pressed /stretched by oiled hands then on a peel then hot stone or directly on a oiled round thin old cookie sheet placed ontop a cast iron hot griddle (450)
2. Thicker crust is good but 1 tiny piece fills you up too much.
3. Small pizza is much more managable so again love the 4 balls
4. toppings easy part. Got. the rythm now!
Thanks again for a great practical guide/recipe. Excited for your pizza book
Great to read all of this, Teresa! Thanks so much for writing and sharing all of your notes.
I would like to use this recipe to make 1 pizza using a 12×16 pan. Would you recommend cutting it in half? I’m not sure if the full recipe would be too much dough. Thanks
Hi Matt! What style pizza are you trying to make? In other words, do you want to make a thicker Sicilian style pizza or are you looking to make a thin-crust pan pizza?
If you use the full amount of dough, you’ll essentially be making something like this: Homemade Sicilian-Style Pizza
We used your Sicilian recipe and it came out fantastic, we are looking to make it again but looking for a thinner crust this time
OK, got it. Great to hear. If you want a thin-crust, you can use roughly half the amount of dough, or better, if you have a scale, use roughly 525 grams of dough… you can use the remaining dough for other pizzas or you can make a smaller pan pizza. I’d butter the pan before adding a tablespoon or so of olive oil into the center. I’d let the dough proof at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours in the pan to allow it to relax and more easily stretch to fit the pan. After that, you can top it, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it sit at room temperature for a couple of hours before baking or you can stick it in the fridge, too, if you need more time. Let me know if you have other questions.
Ok , thanks for the info , would you still recommend a par bake like on the Sicilian or should
It be good to go since the dough will be thinner
I do not parbake the dough for this thinner style sheet pan pizza. Now, I do use a Lloyd grandma pan for these pizzas, and the material (steel) helps promote a crisper bottom. I do also use my baking steel, which further promotes a crisper bottom. I think it will be a matter of experimenting. Try it without the parbake, then adjust the method next time around depending on your results.