The Best Pizza Dough Recipe - video
Servings: 3 pizzas
Ingredients
for the pizza dough:
- 335 g water (1 ⅓ cups + 1 tablespoon)
- 3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
- 500 g Pizza Flour '00' (4 cups) spooned and leveled, not scooped!*
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
additionally:
- more olive oil to brush the edges of the dough and for working with the dough
- fine semolina flour and regular flour for working with the dough
Instructions
Make the dough:
- Heat water to 100-102°F (38-39°C) and add the yeast. Stir until yeast is dissolved.335 g water (1 ⅓ cups + 1 tablespoon), 3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
- Add flour to a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture and sugar.500 g Pizza Flour '00' (4 cups), 1 tablespoon sugar
- Stir the dough briefly with a wooden spoon or by hand until all the ingredients are roughly combined.
- Add olive oil and salt.1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- Knead the dough until very smooth—about 10-15 minutes by hand or 7-10 minutes with a mixer fitted with a dough hook. The dough should be very smooth and no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl (it can stick a little bit to the bottom of the bowl). If using a mixer, the dough will still be just a little bit sticky (but very smooth). Transfer it to the counter, lightly grease your hands with olive oil, and use the fold-and-slap method (see video): lift the dough, fold it over, and repeat until it forms a smooth ball that is no longer sticky.
First rise:
- Grease the mixing bowl with a small amount of olive oil, put the dough in the bowl, and lightly grease it with olive oil.
- Cover the bowl with plastic foil and put it in a warm place to rise, until at least doubled in volume, about 3 hours (I'm putting it in a turned-off oven with a light on). See notes for rising times.
- Preheat the oven: Place a pizza stone in the center of the oven. Turn on the oven and set it to its highest temperature (for me it's 570°F/300°C), if you have a convection setting, turn it on. Let the pizza stone preheat for at least 30 minutes.
Second rise:
- Divide the dough into 3 parts. Shape all the parts into smooth balls and place them on a floured surface. Brush a piece of plastic foil with olive oil and place it on top of the dough balls (the olive oil will prevent the dough from sticking to the foil).
- Let the dough rise for 20-30 minutes. It should increase its volume.
- While your dough is rising again and your oven is preheating, prepare all the toppings, pizza sauce (should be cold), and additional ingredients so you have everything on hand when the dough is ready. Once your dough is stretched into a circle, you need to top it very quickly.
Prepare your pizza:
- Generously flour your pizza peel (preferably wooden!) with a mix of fine semolina flour and wheat flour (any kind). Flour your hands and gently stretch the dough into a circle and place it on the pizza peel. Do not roll the dough with a rolling pin! Stretch it on your fists or gently pull with your fingers until it covers your pizza peel.
- Gently brush the edges of the dough with olive oil trying not to drop any oil on the peel.
- Gentry spread a small amount of pizza sauce onto your dough with a circular motion starting from the middle and working outward leaving some border (I don't like to leave much border, the crust will rise considerably in the oven).
- Top the pizza with the toppings of your choice.
Bake:
- Make sure your pizza is ready to go into the oven and does not stick to the pizza peel. Shake gently with the pizza - it should move on the peel. If it's not moving, it probably stuck to the peel and it will be difficult to transfer it onto the baking stone in the oven. Gently lift the edges of the pizza and sprinkle some of the semolina-flour mixture, making sure that the edges are not sticky. Shake gently with the pizza peel again making sure the dough is moving slightly. (If you still have problems with transferring the dough onto the pizza stone, check more tips in the notes, especially the pre-bake method.)
- Open the oven and carefully slide the pizza onto the baking stone.
- Bake until browned, about 5-6 minutes (it may take longer depending on your oven).
- When nicely browned, take it out of the oven using preferably a metal paddle and transfer it to a cutting board.
- Repeat with the remaining dough.
- If you're not eating your pizza right away and want to wait for the other pizzas to be baked, do not cut the pizza into slices. It will keep warm better, when not sliced.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- You can adjust the amount of yeast and the rising time. The more yeast you add to the dough, the quicker it will rise. So if you're short on time, you can speed up the process by adding more yeast. However, the less yeast you add and the longer the rising time, the better the flavor of the dough.
- 3/4 teaspoon - 3 hours
- 1 teaspoon - 2 1/2 hours
- 1 1/4 teaspoons - 2 hours
- 1 1/2 teaspoon - 1 3/4 hours
- 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) - 1 hour
- Please note that the times are estimates, and it may take longer or shorter for your dough to rise, depending on the temperature, time of year, and where you place your dough.
- Tips for transferring the dough from the peel to the baking stone in the oven:
1. The material of the pizza peel - a wooden pizza peel works better than a metal peel. Also a professional wooden pizza peel has a smoother surface than a regular chopping board which helps the dough slide off the peel.
2. Make sure to sprinkle your pizza peel well with flour and semolina flour.
3. Make sure your pizza sauce and ingredients are cold (preferably) or at least cool. Warm pizza sauce will warm up the dough making it stick to the pizza peel.
4. If you're still having trouble with this, try the pre-bake method: Shape your dough on the pizza peel and spread with pizza sauce. At this point, it should be much easier to get the dough into the oven. Bake for 3-4 minutes or until just slightly firm, take out of the oven, top with your toppings, then bake until done. - If your cheese is browning too quickly and your dough isn't browned and crispy to your liking, make sure your cheese is not pre-grated (starch is added to such cheese to prevent it from clumping and burns easily in the hot oven), is cold (grate it yourself and put in the fridge), or even frozen! (grate it yourself and spread it flat on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper).
- If possible, please use a scale to measure flour and water. The ratios have been carefully selected after months of testing, and a little bit more or less flour changes the recipe. The dough from this recipe comes just slightly sticky and loose but it results in a light and crispy pizza crust. Try to resist the urge to add more flour and just knead the dough longer, it will for a smooth dough ball, I promise.
- Olive oil coating for the crust is optional but recommended, it helps the edges to get nicely brown and crispy.
- The order of adding ingredients is also important, the dough will rise better if the yeast is incorporated into the dough, and fat (olive oil) and salt are added later.
- How to correctly measure flour: Fluff the flour by stirring it in the bag or flour container with a spoon. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup, then level it off with the back of a knife.
- This recipe yields 850g of dough which is enough for 3 medium pizzas.
- Calories = whole recipe. This is only an estimate!
Nutrition
Calories: 1996kcal