written 10/12/23, updated 10/15/23
What
Pizza dough recipe
Ingredients
*See notes for unit conversions and other tips
3½ cups All-Purpose Flour (plus for kneading)
1 packet Active Dry Yeast (2¼ tsp)
1⅓ cups Warm Water (105 -115F/38-46C)
1 tsp Sugar
Honey (optional)
2 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
Pinch of Cornmeal (optional)
Toppings of your choice
Supplies: Stand Mixer, Working Surface, Plastic Wrap/Kitchen Towel, Large Mixing Bowl, Wooden Spoon, Measuring Supplies, Somewhere Warm, Oven
Time
5-10 minutes yeast activation
7-10 minutes in Stand Mixer
~1½ hours for dough to rise
15 minutes for another dough rise after separation or punch down
10-15 minutes to shape the pizza + 5 minutes for more resting
10-15 minutes to let olive oil sit
~10-20 minutes to bake
Total: 2-3 hours
Steps
Making the Dough
- In stand mixer bowl or other bowl, dissolve sugar (1Tbsp), honey (optional) in warm water (1⅓ cups @ 105-115F)
- Sprinkle the dry active yeast (2¼ tsp or 1 packet), trying to not let it clump (you want them to dissolve, and clumping won’t allow that)
- Cover with plastic wrap or towel
- After 5 minutes, if not all the yeast has dissolved, stir it a bit, and wait a little again for them to foam up (they’re alive!!)
- Then add flour (3½ cups), salt (2 tsp), and olive oil (2 Tbsp)
- Using the mixing paddle attachment, mix the ingredients until they combine
- Swap out for the dough hook attachment (sticky! messy!), and now set it on low-medium for about 7-10 minutes
- Test the dough around the 7-minute mark. It should be a little sticky/tacky and smooth-looking. If it’s too wet, sprinkle on some more flour and keep going. It’ll be ready when you can poke it with your finger and it bounces back
- Lightly grease a large bowl
- Form the dough into a rough ball and place it in the bowl
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap or towel and place it in a warm place for about 1.5 hours until it doubles in size (see notes for tips)
- Remove the wrap/cover
- With lightly floured hands split the dough into however many pizzas you’re making (or just 1 big pizza is cool)
- Roll them into balls, cover, and let it/them rise again for about 15 minutes to 2 hours
Pizza Time
- Preheat your oven and stone/pan to 450F (highest mine can go)
- Start prepping the toppings
- Take your dough ball and using your fingers, start stretching the dough from the center, outwards. Get the thickness as thin or thick as you’d like (if it starts to resist, let it rest a little before continuing to the size you want)
- Brush on olive oil and let it sit for 10ish minutes to soak in
- Work on other dough balls in the meantime
- Optional: Sprinkle cornmeal on bottom of working surface, pizza pan, and/or pizza peel (helps with transfer and prevention of sticking, plus it adds some texture to the crust if you like that)
- Put those toppings on!
- Get it into the oven (watch out, the pan will be HOT)
- Bake for 10-20 minutes
- It’ll be done when the crust is golden brown, and the toppings are melted
ENJOY!
Notes
- Try not to pile too much stuff on the pizza or it won’t cook evenly
- You can do stuffed crust pizza easily with some mozzarella tucked under the crust edge!
- Don’t overwork the dough unless you want it denser. Be gentle!
- Bread flour will give the pizza some chewiness. You can substitute it 1:1
- Pizza dough needs 4 basics: Flour, Water, Yeast, and Salt. Salt and olive oil are optional though, they help with browning, slightly taste, and texture, especially since home ovens can only get to around 450F (professional pizza ovens cook at 600 – 850F)
- Active Dry Yeast needs to rise at least twice, but Rapid Rise Yeast only needs to rise once
- 12/25/23: used bread flour and accidentally used 2 Tbsp salt. Incredibly salty
Generally, Neapolitan pizza is about 60-65% moisture (depends on the style. Detroit it 70-80% moisture). Here is some math, if you want to use a custom amount of flour for your pizza
Conversion
Example
3.5 cup = 438.04 grams
438.04 grams ✖ 0.65 (65%) = 284.73 grams
284.73 grams ✖ 1.17ml = 333.13 ml
333.13ml ✖ 0.00423 cups = 1.41cups
Proofing Dough
65% moisture: 3.5 cups flour @ 1.41 cups water
60% moisture: 3.5 cups flour @ 1.30 cups water
If your house is cold and can’t find a warm place, you can try:
Cup of boiled water – Boil some water and pour it into a mug. Put your dough and the mug in a hard cooler or a toaster oven (I tried the microwave, not recommended). This should give it the right environment to rise. May need to top off if it’s too cold. I used this with success when trying to make French bread
Oven – You can heat the oven up to 150F or so for about 30 minutes, and then place the dough in the oven with the door propped with a wooden spoon. After about 30 minutes, close it to keep the heat in. I used this technique though it was much hotter because I’d just finished baking potatoes at 350F for an hour. I let it air out a bit, tested the temperature with a thermometer to make sure it was aroudn 200F (I figured if it’s too hot, it’ll bake the dough), then propped the toaster oven door open with a spoon. Dough rose amazingly