Making Pizza Dough
See Also: Grilled Sourdough Pizza Recipe (below)
Pizza critics often contend that it’s the quality of the crust that makes the pizza. Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to make an excellent pizza crust at home with a simple pizza dough recipe as long as you follow a couple of easy, yet critical, instructions to get that great crust.
They are…
1. Crank up the temperature of your oven to the highest heat it will reach. Most home ovens will not exceed 500 to 550 degrees, but that is plenty sufficient as long as you also…
2. Use a quality baking stone and give it time to reach full heat saturation. By “a quality baking stone”, I mean a thick stone with good heat retention and heat transfer qualities. If yours doesn’t fit this description, any baking stone is better than none. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Many people even find quarry tiles purchased at their local building supply store for a few dollars quite satisfactory.
The rest comes with a little practice. Once you’ve made a few pizzas, you’ll develop a good feel for the dough and for the baking characteristics of your oven and baking stone. I’m reluctant to claim that the pizza I make in my kitchen oven or outdoor grill is as good as or better than the award winning wood fired pizza available in town. So I won’t 
. But it’s close enough that I haven’t felt the usual compulsion to buy theirs in a long time.
If you want everyone at your house to be happy, make one of these crusts, put on your favorite toppings and follow the simple baking instructions. Making exceptionally good pizza is easily within reach. I hope these videos inspire you to give it a try.
The pizza dough I make in this video could hardly have been faster or easier. The “appreciation-to-effort ratio” on this one is excellent. In other words, you’ll chalk up some serious points with your spouse, kids and guests without knocking yourself out.
This recipe makes two 12-14″ thin crust pizzas and calls for:
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose or bread flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
- 3 Tbs. olive oil
- 3/4 cup luke warm water
- Your choice of toppings
Before making this pizza, you may also want to watch the following sourdough pizza video.
Grilled Sourdough Pizza
Given my obsession with sourdough starter, doesn’t it figure that I would include a sourdough pizza crust recipe here as well? You bet! And predictably I think it’s fit for the Gods.
This recipe is more involved and may take a little getting used to because of the addition of the sourdough starter. If you haven’t worked with sourdough before, you’re facing a bit of a learning curve. But if you’re already baking bread with it, then you’ll find this recipe almost as easy as the one above.
This recipe also makes two 12-14″ thin crust pizzas and calls for:
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose or bread flour
- 1 1/2 cups sourdough starter
- 1-3 Tbs water (see video)
- 2 Tbs olive oil
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- Toppings
More elaborate recipes may coax more flavor from the grains and possibly improve on the texture and consistency of the crust. But as with the no knead bread recipes, I think these pizza recipes and methods strike the right balance of time, effort and quality that’s suited to the typical harried lifestyle we tend to live.
Breadtopia reader comment:
The “sour dough workout” shouldn’t be a joke. I found that when “air kneading” I got the same exercise for my arthritic hands as I do with my little ball of soft “clay stuff.” Thanks for a great new recipe. Pizza dough has always been a failure for me, but I love my sour dough and this worked great; both eating and exercising.
Notes:
- If you don’t have a pizza peel, prepare your pizza on the back of a cookie sheet spinkled with corn meal.
- From the comments below, Ed suggests: “Try a little semolina flour in your pizza next time. It makes the crust a bit chewy and gives it a nutty flavor”. Thanks Ed!
- Another great tip from Connie Dove’s comments below: Prepare the crusts on top of upside down cookie sheets that have been lined with parchment (works better than semolina or bread crumbs). Slide paper & pizza into oven/grill and once the pizza has been on the stone for a half minute, the parchment paper slips right out from beneath!
- Scroll down (or click here) to the Feb. 12, 2008 post by Fonseca for some great info on converting this recipe to all whole wheat.
- News Flash (8 Nov, 2009). Thanks to Mike Gallaher for scoring this great looking pizza dough recipe, and to “hipkip” for sharing his pizza sauce recipe just below Mike’s posting. (Clicking links will take you directly to their posts below.)
For a super thin & crispy crust:
Marty (a Breadtopia reader) has developed a method for making a cracker thin pizza crust. So if you like a thin and very crispy crust, give this a try…
Special equipment needed:
- Dough Docker (a fork could be used but the docker really puts a lot of holes in the dough quickly)
- Pizza screen (I use a screen, it has the advantage of being very light weight, and no peel is needed).
- Or a Pizza stone
- Pizza peel, if using a pizza stone.
Instructions:
- Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.
- Roll out your favorite pizza dough, very thin.
- Place dough on pizza screen(or a pizza peel if using a pizza stone).
- Using the dough docker (or forks), pierce the dough, make sure there are a lot of holes! This will keep the crust from puffing up.
- When oven is heated up thoroughly, quickly place the dough in oven (or on stone, if using)
- cook for 3 minutes.
- Take crust out of the oven, and flip upside down, and return to oven, cook for 3 minutes more.
- Take crust out of oven, the crust should be light brown and crispy.
- Top with your favorite toppings and return to oven.
- Continue cooking for another 5 to 8 minutes.
The crust will be thin and cracker-like and very crispy!
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I’m sort of a pesto geek and here’s a tip your wife may find interesting. She may have discovered that when pesto leaves are cut or chopped finely, for example, like when making pesto, the pesto begins to turn brownish after several minutes . Here’s a little trick- I first blanch the basil leaves in boiling water for 30 seconds then plunge the leaves into a bowl of ice water, which sets the beautiful green color. I’ll then make enough pesto for a few jars and I’ll keep them in the fridge for a few months and that vibrant green color is still a sight to see. The interesting thing is the boiling water turns a brownish color. Hope this helps.
My brother suggested I might like this web site. He was totally right.
This post actually made my day. You can not imagine just
how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
Hi,
does anyone have a recipe for spicy pizz sauce. I’m sure I saw one on this site ages ago but I can’t find it… the ingredients called for can whole tomatoes crushed, marjoram, basil, fennel ,olive oil and garlic.. I am just not sure of the quantities. I’m pretty sure it was 2 tsp of marjoram and basil plus 1/4tsp of fennel. Not sure if the tomatoes were drained and then crushed or the entire can along with it’s juices was thrown into the skillet to simmer for 30 min along with the other ingredients.
Renaldi’s Pub, 2827 N. Broadway, Chicago, IL 60657 makes a specialty pizza in addition to their regular Chicago style pizza called spongioni. I has a lot of air in the crust and seems to be crunchy throughout. Is this likely a variation on sourdough pizza, perhaps using more yeast than usually required?
I have a question about baking stones.
I have an inexpenive pizza stone that I got from my local kitchen store. I also have some marble pieces that are apprx. 1″ to 1.5″ thick, one side is finished and the other isn’t, would the mable work?
Thank you
Might work. Only way is to try it. Depends on the marble. Some will crack. What don’t you like about the pizza stone? Terracotta tiles work, Iron griddles work. Lots of options. Experiment ! The stone doesn’t have to be a fancy one. They all pretty well do the job. Good luck!
No, the Marble isn’t what you’re looking for. It’s more dense than a pizza stone or unglazed quarry tile, and is likely polished and buffed. The pizza stone is more porous, and that will wick steam away from thee pizza, giving you a crispier crust. The marble won’t suck up any of the steam, and instead you’ll end up with pizza with a soggy bottom.
Thanks for all the info on this site !
Just wondering, in the grilled sourdough video, what are you using on your pizza peel to make the dough slide so easily? Where can I buy it? The pie looks delicious btw!
My wife just mixed up her first batch of your sourdough starter a few minutes ago. She and I are homemade bread newbies but she’s got some experience using store-bought whole wheat dough to make pizza in our oven on a pizza stone. The dough gets hung up on our wooden peel even with cornmeal. Can’t say I really care for cornmeal under my pizza either…
Had to go this route due to cholesterol issues (reduce white flower intake) and not being able to buy a local whole wheat pizza with lowfat cheese. Homemade dough looks so much healthier and tastier anyway…
Thanks again for maintaining this site.
Hi Ken,
That’s the Super Peel, a great product and one of my favorite culinary toys.
SO – i”ve now become addicted to making homemade pizza.. after several “good” attempts… and playing with the dough… I’ve got what I think it’s enough to keep my household away from the fast-food variety! AND i use my BBQ to get the hot hot hot temps! Your tips on here are perfect.. very helpful. I’ve also found keeping the dough as “wet” as possible ensures a great crispy crust on the outside…nice and chewy on the inside! Love this website! ..next time I’ll try adding some sourdough starter to it! who knew! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NotJustAChick/~3/VP6wSKuNhSs/pizza-on-bbq-living-outdoor-lifestyle.html shows my successful tries!
So I made the yeast pizza crust using Whole Wheat Bread Flour. It’s okay but I like the mix of whole wheat and white flour better.
Made exactly as described and grilled on a stone on the barbecue, the sourdough version was a delicious pizza, best we have had in years. The dough was very relaxed when I rolled it out, perhaps something to do with the sourdough. We used the Carl Griffith sourdough starter for what it’s worth. You have a wonderful, useful, site.
Hi, just a note on simplifying pizza toppings and at the same time augmenting flavor! Here in France, we have an outstanding frozen food store : PICARD. Their frozen foods are like no other! I imagine you might find similar ingredients in the States. I use their chopped garlic, frozen herbs, grilled multi-colored sweet peppers, grilled eggplant, grilled onions, grilled zucchini. These ingredients have so much flavor and much less water in them, making them perfect for pizza. When I remove them from the freezer, within minutes, they are ready to cut to size, and a few minutes later, I can top the pizzas with them. While the pizza stone preheats, I mix some tomato sauce with the frozen garlic and reduce it in the oven. I also roast the frozen mushroom slices in the oven while the stone is preheating. Allow these ingredients to cool before topping the pizza with them.
In the summer, I often grill Mediterranean vegis on the grill and freeze them for such quickly made pizzas. Such grilled vegis are also excellent in last-minute lasagnes and casseroles.
Hi
I’m making sourdo pizza and am wondering if I use some white wine, will it adversely affect the sourdough? I’ve made the sourdo before, and love it!
I have made several bread dough’s and pizza dough’s and I can’t seem to find a good way to store the ready made dough’s overnight without them building up a crust. Any suggestions? Thanks
Mike,
I’ve had good luck brushing or spraying the top with olive oil then covering, as airtight as possible, with plastic wrap.
Ed
I oil up the bowl well, toss the dough to coat, and use plastic wrap to keep it sealed… so far works great
Hahaha, and at 450F, the pizza should be about done in 7-8 minutes, start watching after 6 1/2 minutes…use timer!
Also…if you just place the dough in oven for maybe 1 1/2 minutes before adding topping….pull out, then add the topping then cook for 5-6 more minutes, you’ll get a crunchy chewy dough texture….with huge bubbles in crust!
Oh heck: I forgot to say add the salt to flour when adding the oregano and thyme…there, I just did!
Thanks for the info, going to try making the sourdough starter, then the sourdough pizza. Then I’ll compare to the one I’ve been using with rave reviews for a couple of years:
4 cups all- purpose flour, or the “00″ Pizza flour, both taste about the same. The GP flour seems to rise a tad more.
1 teaspoon seasalt.
1 1/4 cups 110F water.
1 package (1/4 oz/2 1/4 tsp) Fleishmann’s active dry yeast.
1 tsp honey or sugar.
1 tsp Oregano (rubbed together between palms to powderize)
1/2 teaspoon thyme.
1/4 cup milk.
2 tbls virgin olive oil
Place flour in mixer bowl. Add oregano and thyme to flour.
Use thermometer, heat water to 110F. Add yeast to measuring cup, add sugar. Add 1 1/4 cup of heated water to yeast/sugar.
When it increases by 50% volume, start mixer and add the yeast water. Let mix on low setting, using plastic spoon to lift dry flour off bottom of bowl. Add milk. Add olive oil. When the dough forms a ball around the mixer blades, stop and remove from bowl. Add dough to a glass bowl that has been oiled with olive oil. Cover with same size glass bowl, set on counter overnight. In one hour, punch down the mixture, which should have increased triple or more in size . Repeat after two hours.
Heat oven to 450F. Divide the dough into four baseball-size balls.
Flour counter top, place one ball inside, roll around, lightly sprinkling more flour on any sticky areas. “Lightly” brush a little olive oil in pizza pan (12″) and sprinkle on corn meal ( 1/2 tbls).
Add flour to rolling pin, roll out the dough from middle. It should be @ 1/8″ thick when finished rolling, or less. The thinner the better, but too thin is harder to place on pizza cooking pan.
Pick up dough from edges, get it “loose” from countertop and “flip” onto pan like you were flipping a sheet making a bed. If it tears, try again, just roll in out again, no harm done, and after one or two tries, you’ll see how easy.
Add toppings. Place in oven, and watch for the middle of the pizza to “just start” browning the *top* of the cheese…forget what the edges look like: concentrate on the middle cheese “just starting” to get golden brown on a *few* areas.
Remove, and slide onto metal cooling rack for at least 3 minutes.
It will rival any pizza you’ve ever had. Really. Patience, and closely watching the cooking time. Big bubbles in dough, the “sourness” from the milk and a hint of oregano/thyme…it’s really good!
If you don’t have a pizza stone…use a 12″ cast iron skillet.
I thought of using a cast iron pan but I was afraid of it cracking from the high heat of the BBQ. I did break my pizza stone by using it on the BBQ. So what I have ended up doing is buying some fire brick from the lumber store. I lined them up on the grill. They take a bit to get hot but it works beautifully.
Looks great. Wondering what kind of salt you are using as the weight between Kosher salt and table salt can differ greatly by volume. There is even a big difference between Morton’s and Red Diamond Kosher salt. Thanks
Hi Elliot,
I use some kind of mineral rock salt I get in bulk at a local Whole Foods type grocery store. But I really don’t think it matters much at all what kind you use.
I have made this sourdough pizza dough (3) times and everybody that has eaten it has said it was the best they have ever eaten. I have heard by leaving the dough in the refrigerator for up to (2) days, it will have more of a sour taste to it. I will try that next. I love this website by the way. Talk to all next time and I will continue to read.
I am a newbie with the sourdough starter and on my second attempt. the starter seems to bubble just fine, but when I use it in recipes, it takes what seems like 24 hours to accomplish what was supposed to be a 90 minute rise of the dough. Bread still tastes good, but any suggestions as to what I can do differently to get the started to have a little more oomph ? Generally I let it sit for about 4 days with feedings.
It could be your ambient temperature. My house, and particularly kitchen, is cold this time of year so I preheat the oven while I’m mixing stuff (usually for only 5 minutes to get it warm and not hot) then turn it off and put my doughs in there to rise.
Also, make sure to use purified water – bottled or boiled and cooled to make sure there is no chlorine to kill your culture.
Ciao,
L
Thanks for the advice I will keep at it until I get it right. I’m on a mission to make this work
Believe it or not, after much trial and error I have found that a splatter screen works wonderfully to bake my pizza on. Crust is crispy and brown.
I will have to try that, cool idea. thanks
I am doing my first starter and will be baking my first sourdough bread tomorrow after the starter is ready. I will use any remaining starter for a sourdough pizza crust. I can’t wait. Wish me luck!
I am a fan of pizza stones and high oven temperatures also,
but why do you not use sugar in you dough recipe? Most recipes I have used/seen use sugar.
I used to use a peel and oftentimes had difficulty sliding the pizza onto the oven onto the stone. Then I had several good stones crack. So I started using a metal no stick perforated pizza pan. I spray the pan first though just to make sure it doesn’t stick in the event my pizza has taken me longer to dress than usual. I brush the dough with olive oil and using a fork I prick holes all over it. Then I prebake in a hot450 or 500 degrees for several minutes on the middle rack, remove and dress as usual. I bake the dressed pizza for another 5 minutes or so, removing when the crust is light brown and the cheeses metlted. Immediately upon removal I brush more olive oil on the exposed crust to keep it from getting dried out.
The result is as good as using the peel and stone.
( I leave the cracked stone in the oven to maintain more even temp)
i just used up most of my starter on this very first project.
i’ve been using spelt with some barley
my dough is oiled up and waiting for it to rise.
my question is…i just realized i dont have a working oven
all i have is a toaster oven
what can i do with my pizza dough now?
pretzels?
any ideas?
Just finished putting together the thin crust, sour dough pizza
dough. Covered and put it into the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Shall be taking it out then, and letting it rise, etc. for an early dinner.
Compliments to Ed for suggesting a bit of semolina flour. His advocacy of semolina has led me to add a cup or so to nearly every bread recipe with excellent results. His “Sicilian” bread is really
“made” with the semolina.
Eric,
Assuming the full recipe yields two 12/14″ pizzas, I wondered
how these would freeze. I thought about completing and eating one pizza and freezing the other without topping, then whipping the frozen base out, thawing (or bake it frozen?) it, adding toppings, baking till cheese is brown?
Freezing pizza dough is a great way to go. I do that a lot. After mixing up the dough, I put a few extra dough balls in small individual oiled freezer bags and put them in the freezer. They’re good for up to at least 2-3 months in there and really nice to pull one out to thaw several hours before you want a pizza.
Wow never thought of that. Could you flatten the dough slightly it stacks in the freezer better that way and would defrost faster.
Hi Kaye,
And I never thought of that. Yes, I think that would speed up defrosting.
Great information. I’ll get started in a few minutes. Was just putting together the dry ingredients for bread and had not visited “topia” for a while, and saw this wonderful guide to sour dough pizza. Question: does one line his peel with parchment? The last time I tried pizza, I got wonderful flavored dough, but a big mess of a lump of what turned out to be tomato flavored bread! The paper seems to be the key to neatly sliding the pizza on to the heated stone. So, is parchment the paper?
Then, what is a “pizza screen,” (one can imagine it, but seeing it is the important thing!) and is it available at the Breadtopia store?
Parchment paper can be a big help with sliding the pizza off the peel easily. People often use cornmeal or semolina flour on the peel too so the dough is less likely to stick.
I think the pizza screen you’re talking about is also called a pizza crisper. I’ve never use one, but I suppose I should give it a try one of these days.
Not an emergency..just wondering why ..when i click on the links .. I do not get redirected..tried with two browsers, and also restarted my comp..also tried to go to Archives, and there is nothing there..is this a me thing? I was going to check out the whole wheat pizza dough recipe and the pizza sauce..
yes..the archive mess up was a me thing, not sure about the links tho…
Sorry to put you through all that, Doug. It was totally my bad. The links should be working now.
Thanks VERY much for catching it and bringing it to my attention.
This was delicious. My only problem is trying to decide which toppings to use without getting carried away! I cranked up the oven to 550* and 7 minutes later it was mottled browns on the bottom and cheeses were melted and browned. I did put too many veggies and those juices all come flooding off when I cut it and picked it up to eat, oouuch! really hot. so… don’t make my mistake. I called it the “libra” pizza cuz of my indesiciveness. The second crust I’m going to make the cinnamon and brown sugar, butter one. I can hardly wait.
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