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Home Pizza recipes

Pizza Dough recipe – best ever homemade pizza!

By:Nagi
Published:1 May '20Updated:18 Aug '23
537 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

The RecipeTin Eats’ pizza dough recipe has landed! An easy pizza crust that makes an exceptional homemade pizza – puffy crust with a chewy, flavourful crumb inside. Enough structure to pick up, but not thin and stiff like a cracker.

5 minutes kneaded by hand or 40 seconds flat using a food processor. Top with anything your heart desires – see our Pizza Sauce and favourite pizza toppings! No yeast? No worries – use my Secret No Yeast Pizza Dough.

Overhead photo of homemade pizza dough recipe - pepperoni pizza

Pizza Dough recipe

This is the RecipeTin Eats’ family pizza dough recipe. It’s a rare thing when the entire RTE family agrees on something to do with food. So when I tell you that we all agree this is the best pizza crust recipe, that means something!

It makes a homemade pizza crust like you get from your favourite wood fired Italian pizza place. Puffy edges that are slightly crispy on the outside, but chewy and moist like Artisan bread on the inside.

The base gets crispy enough so each slice has just enough structure to pick it up with one hand, rather than being a sloppy mess. But it still has that slight bend on the end, so you know the base of the crust is not dry and stiff like a cracker, nor paper thin.

See? Prawn pizza evidence! (Recipe here)

Showing structure of homemade pizza dough - slice of Prawn Pizza
Slice of prawn pizza – shows how this homemade pizza crust has enough structure to be picked up without being sloppy. Topping recipe here.
Ball of dough and spreading pizza sauce on homemade pizza crust
Spread pizza crust with Instant Pizza Sauce – recipe here.

How to make homemade pizza – 3 easy steps

  1. Make dough & Rise 1 – make the dough, Rise #1 for 1 – 2 hours;

  2. Balls & Rise 2 – form 3 balls, then do Rise #2 for 1 hour;

  3. Top & bake – Stretch out to make pizza crust, spread with sauce, toppings of choice, bake 10 minutes!

Useful tip: The dough can be made ahead up to 5 days. And it can sit around for hours once the individual pizza balls are formed. So don’t fret about getting the timing exactly right!


What you need for pizza dough

Here’s what you need to make pizza dough:

Ingredients in homemade pizza dough
  • Yeast – instant / rapid rise yeast is what I use because it makes the dough rise faster and eliminates the need to dissolve yeast in water. However, the recipe includes directions for active dry yeast too (ie ordinary yeast powder);

  • Bread – While plain/all purpose  flour will work just fine, the best flour for pizza dough is bread flour or pizza flour which are high protein flours. It makes the crust chewier and creates big holes just like you get from your favourite Italian pizza shops – see photo below. I wouldn’t make a special trip to get bread flour just to make pizzas. But if you are menu planning, then seek it out!

  • Sugar – helps the dough rise and brown the crust;

  • Salt – nobody likes a bland, flavourless pizza crust!

  • Warm water – yeast loves warmth so it helps the dough rise faster;

  • Olive oil – required to keep the crust tender and moist inside when making pizza in home ovens. Traditional Neapolitan-style Italian pizza dough doesn’t have oil, but that’s because pizzas cook in just a few minutes in fiercely hot pizza ovens that reach 400°C/750°F. Home ovens will max out at about 275°C/530°F or less = longer to bake = crust dries out unless we use oil.

Close up showing crumb structure of homemade pizza dough / pizza crust
You need bread flour to get these large, irregular size holes you see in the crumb. This is authentic wood fired Italian pizzeria style!

Part 1: How to make pizza dough

It. Is. EASY! And so many options:

  • Hand knead – 5 minutes

  • Standmixer – 3 minutes

  • Food processor – 40 seconds (yes, really!)

How to make pizza dough
  1. Mix flour, yeast, salt and sugar, then mix in water and oil;

  2. It will come together into a rough dough that leaves the bowl pretty clean;

  3. Scrape out onto a floured work surface and bring it together into a ball; then

  4. Knead for 5 minutes using your hand or 3 minutes in a stand mixer (see next section for food processor).

This is what the dough looks like before and after kneading. It doesn’t need to be completely smooth like some bread doughs.

How to make pizza dough
Pizza dough before and after kneading.

40 Second Pizza Dough – food processor

After years of hand kneading, I’ve discovered in recent weeks that it can be made in a food processor in less than a minute. End result is exactly the same!

The trick is to pour the water in gradually while the motor is running, then just blitz for 30 seconds to develop the gluten (instead of 5 minutes of hand kneading). Unless you have a very large food processor, the dough will not turn into a neat ball inside the food processor – and that’s fine, it’s still kneaded.

Also, the dough pulls away from the edges and blade so the food processor is easy to clean, which makes this method even more appealing!

How to make pizza dough

Dough Rise # 1

After the dough has been kneaded using your method of choice, it’s time to let it rise.

  1. Drizzle the same bowl with olive oil, then put the dough in;

  2. Cover with cling wrap and rise 1 hour in warm place. Once the dough has risen, use immediately or refrigerate up to 5 days for even better flavour!

How to make pizza dough

Optional: Fridge up to 5 days = extra flavour!

The beauty of this dough is that it’s fantastic made and cooked right now, but it’s better tomorrow and even better on day 5! This is because dough develops more flavour over time.

Typically, I make pizza dough the night before, leave it overnight then make it the next day.

Just put the bowl in the fridge with the puffy dough in it, don’t punch it down and deflate. The dough may rise a little bit more in the fridge. If it deflates, that’s ok too.

It can also be frozen. Directions provided for fridge and freezer in the recipe.

Homemade Rocket Prosciutto Pizza
Prosciutto and Rocket Pizza – classic Italian. Recipe here.

Part 2: Forming balls

If you refrigerated your dough, take the bowl out of the fridge then immediately proceed with these steps starting with cold dough.

  1. Scrape dough out of bowl;

  2. Shape into a log, knocking out all the air, and cut into 3 equal pieces;

  3. Tuck the sides of the dough underneath, money-bag style;

  4. This stretches the dough on one side so you have a smooth surface;

  5. Place on a tray, then cover with a damp tea towel;

  6. Rise for 1 hour in a warm place until almost doubled in size. If your dough was in the fridge, this will take 3 – 4 hours (because the dough needs to come to room temperature first before it will start to rise).

How to make pizza dough

After the balls have risen, you can leave them sitting around like that for up to 5 hours in a cooler room (so they don’t continue rising – if they rise way too much eg 3x or more, it won’t rise in the oven). Just make sure to keep covered with a damp tea towel so they don’t dry out.


Part 3: Stretch pizza base

There’s many ways to stretch dough to make the pizza base and they all work just fine, just remember these 2 golden rules:

  1. Don’t handle the edges so you don’t knock the air out = authentic puffy edges

  2. Use a light touch – if you flatten the dough to death you’ll end up with a dry, super crisp crust. Pizza dough should be stretched, pulled and pushed outwards as opposed to flattening down like when rolling out pie crusts.

Do not stress about forming perfect bases. Patch tears with extra dough. Wonky and bumpy = hidden once baked. Rustic = authentic!

 I typically use this easy stretch-on-counter method:

How to stretch pizza dough
  1. Use fingers to flatten puffy dough dome and stretch it out slightly. I never press down or pinch the edges;

  2. Once you flatten with your fingers / palm, then start using your hands to stretch and pull the dough to make it larger, rotating as you go, until it’s almost about 25cm / 10″ wide;

  3. Drag onto pizza pan, then continue to shape, pulling right to the edge of the pan.


Part 4: The Sauce

Here are our Pizza Sauce recipes. We have three versions:

  1. Cooked down pizza sauce using canned tomato, simmered to cook out water and thicken, then cooled prior to using.

  2. Almost-instant pizza sauce made using tomato paste. I use this one the most because there’s a slight tang that cuts through the richness of the toppings, with salt and sugar added for balance. Plus, it takes seconds to make!

  3. An “in-between” pizza sauce that gains freshness from passata, a hit of tomato paste for some intensity, but without the hassle of any cooking.

Quick pizza sauce made with tomato paste
Almost instant pizza sauce made with tomato paste. The tart flavour is perfect for using on pizza!

Supreme and other pizzas with salty meat toppings are a good example of the type of pizzas that are ideal to make using the Instant Pizza Sauce because the slight sourness from the tomato paste balances out the strong flavoured toppings.

Homemade Supreme Pizza
Supreme pizza. At least 2 types of meat is mandatory – this has 3! Recipe here.

Part 5: Toppings – don’t be greedy!

See the RecipeTin Eats Pizza Toppings menu for recipes for our favourite pizzas.

You can top pizzas with anything your heart desires, but the key thing to remember is this: LESS IS MORE!

Pizza bases like this are not built for fully loading with toppings. It weighs down the dough, prevents the crust from rising, the centre of the pizza ends up soggy and it will be sloppy when you pick it up.

I’m the biggest offender of being greedy with toppings – and I always regret it. So this lecture is really for me!

Pizza Toppings

Useful tip: use freshly shredded cheese rather than store bought which is cut thicker so it’s heavier, so you need more to cover the pizza which weighs the crust down.

Potato Rosemary Pizza in a pizza pan, fresh out of the oven
Potato Rosemary Pizza, a personal favourite! Carb on carb heaven…. Recipe here.

Part 6: Baking

Pizza stone > pizza pan with holes > baking sheet.

I use a pizza pan with holes in it 99% of the time for sheer convenience. The holes lets the heat have direct contact with most of the base which makes it crisper than using a normal baking tray, and it’s less fussy to use than a baking stone.

If you use a baking stone, you need to assemble the pizza on a paddle, then slide it onto the preheated stone. (See recipe notes for directions)

Close up showing crumb structure of homemade pizza dough / pizza crust

Pro tip: look for pizza pans with extra large holes. Holes = crispier base!

Close up of homemade BBQ Meatlovers Pizza
BBQ Meatlovers’ Pizza. 4+ types of meat! Recipe here.

If you use a knife and fork to eat pizza, I’m afraid we can’t be friends…. 😂

Hands all the way. You won’t have grease running down your elbows because they’re homemade so we use a fraction of the oil of Dominos and Pizza Hut. Which, to my logic, means we can have MORE with LESS GUILT.

Cheese pull picking up slice of homemade pepperoni pizza
Pepperoni pizza – recipe here.

Parbake make-ahead pizza bases

The pizza bases can be par-baked then stashed in the freezer for handy pizza-on-demand! Just stretch out the pizza bases per this recipe, and bake for just 2 minutes at 275°C/530°F (all oven types), or as high as your oven will go if it won’t go that high.

The pizza bases will be pale and just cooked through in the centre which is what you want. Remove from hot trays onto cooling racks, then wrap in cling wrap and freeze. (Or refrigerate only overnight)

To use, thaw (about 2 hours on counter, or half a day in fridge), top, then bake 10 minutes at temp per recipe.

Note: Freezing straight away is key to keeping the bases fresh, it will keep for a few months and be fresh once thawed as long as it’s properly wrapped or better yet, also in an airtight container. If you refrigerate, it’s fine the next day but noticeably drier the day after that.


Best way to reheat leftover pizza

If you’ve got leftovers, the microwave is always there for emergencies – though you know it’s going to mean a soft crust. The best way is to use a covered skillet – this makes the crust crisp again whilst also reheating the top. The other way is covered on a baking tray in the oven.

And of course, there’s cold pizza, eaten straight from the fridge. I’m not a cold pizza gal, but I won’t judge. Because I truly believe to my very core that no one should tell you how you should or should not take your pizza. Do as you please! – Nagi x


Watch how to make it

Here’s the recipe video to knead the dough by hand. See below for the 40 second food processor method. (PS Accidentally left out sugar, oops!)

And here’s the recipe video for the 40 second pizza dough. After the dough is made, the steps are exactly the same and the pizza crust comes out exactly the same!

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Pepperoni pizza

Pizza Dough recipe

Author: Nagi
Prep: 30 minutes mins
Cook: 30 minutes mins
Dough rising: 3 hours hrs
Mains
Italian, Western
4.99 from 202 votes
Servings3 pizzas, 30cm/12″
Tap or hover to scale
Print
Recipe video above. This pizza dough can be made by hand with 5 minutes of kneading, or in 40 seconds flat using a food processor (see 2nd recipe card below). It makes a pizza crust like you get at Italian wood fired pizzerias – puffy edges with a chewy crumb, enough structure so you can pick up slices rather than being a sloppy mess. But not dry and stiff like a thin cracker! Best to use weights provided, if you can.
Makes 3 pizzas.

Ingredients

  • 600g (4 cups) bread flour or pizza flour (or plain/all purpose) (Note 1)
  • 2 tsp (6g) rapid rise or instant yeast (Note 2)
  • 2.5 tsp (15g) salt , kosher / cooking salt (Note 3)
  • 4 tsp (20g) white sugar
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 330 ml (1 1/3 cups) warm tap water (330g, Note 4)

For Working:

  • 1 tbsp Extra Flour
  • 2 tsp Extra Olive Oil

Toppings

  • 130g / 1 1/3 cups mozzarella cheese, freshly grated per pizza, (Note 8)
  • 1/4 cup pizza sauce per pizza
  • Toppings of choice

Instructions

Dough:

  • Mix dry: Place flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon.
  • Add wet: Make a well in the centre. Pour in oil and water. Mix to bring together so it comes away from the side of the bowl.
  • Knead 5 minutes: Sprinkle work surface with 1/2 the Extra Flour. Scrape dough out of bowl. Bring together into a ball then knead for 5 minutes until pretty smooth (see video for Before v After, Note 5). Shape dough into a ball.

Rise #1:

  • Drizzle large bowl with Extra Olive Oil (can use same bowl).
  • Place dough in, turn over and rub top with oil.
  • Cover with cling wrap, then put in a warm place for 1 – 2 hours until it doubles in size. (Rise #1)

Optional fridge – flavour development:

  • After rising, refrigerate bowl with dough for up to 5 days (do not punch down). Flavour gets better with time. (Note 7)

Form small balls, Rise #2:

  • Scrape dough out of bowl on work surface lightly dusted with flour. Shape into log, fully deflating dough in the process.
  • Cut into 3 equal portions (330g / 11.6 oz each) – one for each pizza base.
  • For each dough portion, shape into a ball, tuck the sides under, money-bag style, so you have a smooth surface.
  • Place balls, smooth side up, on a large tray – 5cm / 2" from edge of tray, 10cm / 4" from each other.
  • Sprinkle balls with a touch of flour and lightly rub to coat surface (so they don't stick to tea towel). Cover balls with lightly damp tea towel. Alternatively, cover loosely with a sheet of baking paper then seal tray with cling wrap, ensuring the dough balls have plenty of space to rise under the cling wrap.
  • Leave in warm place 1 hour until almost double in size. (If fridge-cold, this will take 3 – 4 hours).

Stretch pizza base:

  • Preheat oven to 275°C / 530°F, or as high as it will go. Put shelf in top third of oven.
  • Sprinkle work surface with 1/2 tbsp flour. Place one dough ball on top.
  • Without touching the edges, use finger tips and back of fingers to deflate dough gently and spread out into a 20cm/8" round. Then use your fingers and palms to stretch the dough, working around the circle, until it's almost the size of a 30cm / 12" pizza pan.
  • Drag onto the pizza pan (or paddle if cooking on pizza stone, Note 8). Then finish stretching it to fill the pan. Neaten up the shape so it's as perfectly round and uniform as possible – the shape you have now is the shape it will bake to! Leave 1 cm / 1/3" of the edge untouched as much as possible (for puffy crusts!).

Topping / Cooking (work quickly!):

  • Spread with 1/4 cup pizza sauce, 130g / 1 1/3 cups freshly grated mozzarella, then toppings of choice (see Topping recipes here).
  • Bake 10 minutes, rotating at 4 minutes and checking at 8 minutes, until cheese is melted and has some golden spots.
  • Cut into wedges, serve immediately!!
  • Repeat process for remaining balls to make two more pizzas.

Recipe Notes:

1. Flour – bread flour / pizza flour has higher protein and creates a slightly better chewy crust with some big holes aka Wood fired pizzeria style. But I wouldn’t make a special trip for it – all purpose / plain flour works just fine!
2. Yeast – use yeast labelled “instant” or “rapid rise”. If you can only find normal yeast (can be labelled “active dry yeast”) then dissolve yeast with the sugar in the warm water (no need to let it foam, use all the water). Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, make well. Pour in yeast mixture and oil. Proceed with recipe as written.
Fresh yeast – I have not made this with fresh yeast, but using the standard conversion, you will need 15.5g / 0.55 ounces of fresh yeast. Crumble into warm water with sugar and follow above directions for active dry yeast.
3. Salt – reduce to 1 1/2 tsp if using table salt (finer grains = less volume for same amount of salt)
4. Water temp – if it’s so scorching hot you wouldn’t bathe in it, it will kill the yeast. If it’s a lovely temp you could sit in for hours in a bubble bath, it’s the perfect temp.
5. Pizza dough doesn’t need to be as smooth as other breads. Dough should be soft and a bit sticky – not so sticky it gets stuck all over your hands, but JUST enough flour so it’s barely sticking to your hands. Softer dough = better pizza crust, tough dry dough = dry pizza!
6. Dough rising – time will vary depending on room temperature, humidity. Over 30°C, should rise in 1 hour. 25-27°C = 1.5 – 2 hrs.
If it’s not rising, move to somewhere warmer – will work fine even if it takes 5 hours to rise. Warm place ideas – run empty dryer, turn off then put bowl inside. Or oven at 30°C/86°F (no hotter, will kill yeast). Do not put in direct sunlight.
7. Fridge & flavour development: fridge = slows down yeast rising = time to let enzymes in the yeast to do their work, transforming starch into sugar which creates a more flavourful pizza crust. This dough is terrific cooked immediately once made, but gets even better with time. I usually make dough the day before, the cook the next day.
Note that the dough will likely deflate while stored in the fridge. This is not a problem! Just ensure you take the dough out ~3 hours before you plan to cook. Shape the individual balls while cold, then leave to rise in a warm place.
8. Cheese – always use freshly grated for pizza, not store bought pre-shredded which is chunkier (so you need more to cover = weighs down crust) and coated with anti caking agent (doesn’t melt as well). Just grate with standard box grater.
  • Mozzarella is the most commonly used. It melts well, gets nice golden spots, and has a fairly neutral flavour so you don’t have overly salty toppings when you add bacon, pepperoni etc.
  • To up the flavour, add a mix other cheeses with more flavour that melts well, such as Monterey Jack, Cheddar (don’t use too much, it’s greasy), fontina, gruyere, provolone, Swiss cheese.
  • Buffalo mozzarella is used for Margherita pizza, see recipe here.
  • Blue Cheese is used for Quattro Formaggio (4 Cheese Pizza) along with provolone, parmesan and mozzarella (and it’s fabulous! Recipe here)
9. Pizza stone – preheat stone in oven. Sprinkle wooden paddle very generously with semolina (or flour or cornmeal/polenta). Slide raw pizza base onto paddle, cover with toppings. Remove hot stone from oven, then slide pizza onto hot stone. Transfer to oven immediately, cook 6 to 7 minutes.
10. DOUGH STORAGE:
Dough in fridge up to 5 days – Plan ahead, do Rise #1 in a large container (or separate dough into 3 smaller containers for Rise #1). After you do Rise #1, remove cling wrap and cover with lid*, and put the puffed up dough in the bowl straight into the fridge with the cling wrap on (ie do not deflate it). It will probably rise a bit more in the fridge in the first 24 hrs, then it might deflate. Either way ok. 
Then remove cold dough from fridge and immediately proceed to “Form small balls, Rise #2″ steps. Will take 3 – 4 hrs for Rise #2 using fridge cold dough, doesn’t matter if it even takes 6 hrs (ie you left to rise, came back and realise it’s not rising, move to warmer place, as I have done!). Also see “Practical Timing” tip below.
* Do not use airtight lid for Rise #1, need some air escape. Cling wrap is best – I know it’s not environmentally friendly, but it is the most effective for Rise #1.
Alternative – After Rise #1, form log, cut into 3 and form balls per recipe. Use one/two now, save the other by putting in fridge or freezer BEFORE doing Rise #2. When ready to use, take out of fridge (or thaw from freezer) and follow recipe for Rise #2. Dough rises a wee bit less which is why I prefer refrigerating straight after Rise #1 (ie pre cutting) but once baked it is barely noticeable (I only notice because I measured during testing!!)
Freezing dough – do Rise #1, shape into log and cut into 3 per recipe. Lightly coat ball with oil (or use oil spray), then freeze ziplock bags for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in fridge, then shape into ball and proceed with Rise #2 – it will take 3 to 4 hours because the dough is starting from fridge cold.
11. Reheating cooked pizza
  • Emergency – pizza on paper towels, microwave reheat. Soggy base, but does the job!
  • Stove – pizza in dry skillet over medium high heat, lid on to warm the top (3 – 5 minutes). Crispy base!
  • Oven – pizza on tray covered loosely with foil. 7 minutes at 180°C/350F. Crispy base!
12. Make ahead pizza bases only
Bake base only 2 minutes at 275°C/530°F (all oven types), or as high as your oven will go if it won’t go that high. Will be pale but just cooked in centre. Cool on cooling rack, then immediately wrap in cling wrap and freeze up to 3 months (even better, put in containers or large ziplock bags as well). To use, thaw, top and bake for 10 minutes at temp per recipe.
Can also refrigerate base overnight (wrap well to avoid drying out), but the day after the bases are a bit dry. Freezing is definitely best to preserve freshness.

HOMEMADE PIZZA TIPS

  • Forgiving dough – if you use weights listed, dough should be perfect. But if too sticky, just use more flour when kneading. Too dry, sprinkle with water. Takes hours longer to rise? That’s fine too. Rises way too quickly, not ready to cook? No worries, put it somewhere cold (fridge, bathroom) to slow/stop the rise.
  • Practical Timing – dough rising time can be temperamental depending on humidity, kitchen warmth etc. Best to start earlier in day, and get to Rise #2. Once Rise #2 has been done, the puffed up balls ready for stretching into pizza bases can sit around for up to 5 hours in a COOL room (to stop rising further). Just make sure you keep them covered with a damp tea towel (and dusted with flour so they don’t stick to tea towel) so they don’t dry out. Cling wrap on top would be extra insurance policy.
  • Uneven base – don’t fret about your base looking uneven or even if you tear a hole in it – just patch it up. Once cooked and the dough puffs up, everything evens out – and anyway, the “rustic” look is in! And with practice, you will get better stretching base out evenly.
  • Rolling pin not the best – it will knock the air out of the dough, and the crust will be crisper as it won’t rise as well.
  • Toppings (see here for recipes) – don’t load up too much and don’t use too many “wet” ingredients on the one pizza. Too much toppings = weighs down crust, makes centre soggy.
  • Pizza sauce – same as toppings, use less (I use 1/4 cup). 1/2 cup that some recipes call for is way too much – will make your pizza soggy.
  • FRESHLY GRATED mozzarella cheese – is best for max surface area coverage and best melt. Store bought grated cheese is bigger pieces, so you need more to get the same coverage = thicker layer of cheese = weighs down the crust.
  • Cook immediately once you stretch the pizza base, transfer to pizza pan, top & cook immediately. Don’t leave it sitting around even for 5 minutes, sweats underneath = soggy base.

Nutrition per slice of pizza (assuming pizza cut into 8), base only ie excludes pizza sauce and toppings.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 116cal (6%)Carbohydrates: 19g (6%)Protein: 3g (6%)Fat: 3g (5%)Saturated Fat: 1g (6%)Sodium: 244mg (11%)Potassium: 28mg (1%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 1g (1%)Calcium: 4mgIron: 1mg (6%)
Keywords: easy pizza dough, pizza dough
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

40 Second Pizza Dough

Below is the recipe for the same pizza dough recipe made in a food processor in 40 seconds flat! A fairly recent discovery that our pizza dough recipe we’ve been making by hand for years works 100% perfectly in a fraction of the time using a food processor!

The world's fastest pizza dough

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The world's fastest pizza dough

40 Second Pizza Dough – Food Processor

Author: Nagi
Prep: 5 minutes mins
Mains
Italian, Western
4.99 from 202 votes
Servings3 pizzas, 30cm/12″
Tap or hover to scale
Print
Recipe video above. When we make pizza, we usually knead by hand because it only takes 5 minutes and we enjoy the tradition and feel of the dough. But I recently discovered the dough can be made in a food processor – the whizzing blades develop gluten at a super sonic speed. The pizza crust comes out exactly the same in every respect as when kneaded by hand! You just need a touch more water so it comes together in the food processor. Best to use weights provided, if you can – it's the most accurate way to make this.

Ingredients

  • 600g (4 cups) bread flour , or plain/all purpose (Note 1)
  • 2 tsp (6g) rapid rise or instant yeast (Note 2)
  • 2 tsp (12g) salt , kosher / cooking salt (Note 3)
  • 4 tsp (20g) white sugar
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 375 ml (1 1/2 cups) warm tap water (375g, Note 4)

For Bowl:

  • 2 tsp Extra Olive Oil

Instructions

  •  Fit food processor with dough blade, if you have one.
  • Place flour, yeast, sugar and salt in large food processor (8 cups/2L+). Pulse twice.
  • With motor on low, pour oil in quickly. Then pour water in slowly over 10 seconds.
  • Continue blitzing for 30 seconds – dough will come together, but won’t be a neat ball (that’s ok).
  • Take dough out and shape into a ball.
  • Follow recipe above for Rise #1, shaping, cooking etc – this dough is exactly the same as the above dough.

Recipe Notes:

1. Flour – bread flour / pizza flour has higher protein and creates a slightly better chewy crust with some big holes aka Wood fired pizzeria style. But I wouldn’t make a special trip for it – all purpose / plain flour works just fine!
2. Yeast – use yeast labelled “instant” or “rapid rise”. If you can only find normal yeast (can be labelled “active dry yeast”) then dissolve yeast with the sugar in the warm water (no need to let it foam, use all the water). Pulse flour and salt in food processor. Then, per recipe, slowly pour water and oil in while motor is running. 
Fresh yeast – I have not made this with fresh yeast, but using the standard conversion, you will need 15.5g / 0.55 ounces of fresh yeast. Crumble into warm water with sugar and follow above directions for active dry yeast.
3. Salt – reduce to 1 1/2 tsp if using table salt (finer grains = less volume for same amount of salt)
4. Water temperature – if it’s so scorching hot you wouldn’t bathe in it, it will kill the yeast. If it’s a lovely temp you could sit in for hours in a bubble bath, it’s the perfect temp.
Keywords: easy pizza dough, pizza dough
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537 Comments

  1. Jess says

    December 9, 2023 at 10:54 pm

    5 stars
    Here I was going about my life thinking a pizza base was just a pizza base, a vessel to pile the delicious bits onto but now I know that the base can actually be the highlight. Best pizza base ever.

    Reply
  2. Yvette says

    December 1, 2023 at 8:46 pm

    5 stars
    First but not the last time making this! So easy, crisp and delicious

    Reply
  3. Renee says

    November 28, 2023 at 10:56 pm

    5 stars
    I made this dough 4 days ago, I made 2 pizzas on the day, which came out great, and left one in the fridge. I just made a pepperoni pizza out of the last dough ball and it was probably the best pepperoni pizza I’ve ever eaten. The dough was so much nicer today! Will use this recipe from now on. Amazing!

    Reply
  4. Julie says

    November 25, 2023 at 2:54 am

    Hi Nagi, you forgot to put the sugar in the recipe in the video! I nearly forgot too!

    Reply
  5. Susanna says

    November 6, 2023 at 7:10 am

    My husband was just like dozer in the pic 😍 Its the only pizza he now will eat. Very simple to make

    Reply
  6. Susanna says

    November 2, 2023 at 7:32 pm

    5 stars
    Thank you for all the useful tips to make cooking a success. My husband loves this pizza, after years of soggy bases, learnt to not overdo the toppings and an amazing base recipe. I just love you guys! I plan my weekly meals only through this site

    Reply
  7. Rania says

    October 8, 2023 at 6:16 pm

    5 stars
    Amazing dough!

    Reply
  8. Shawn says

    September 30, 2023 at 5:28 am

    I’ve been using this recipe for over a year. My family prefers it over delivery. Been using hard flour, plan on switching to 00 after this bag of flour. I go back and forth between aging and same day. Better flavour from aging. I’ve also made panzerottis as well excellent. Thanks for recipe.

    Reply
  9. Mark says

    September 8, 2023 at 6:14 pm

    5 stars
    Forgot to mention it’s your recipe. Using for years and one of the very best out there, in my opinion of course 😊

    Reply
  10. Asif says

    August 22, 2023 at 10:11 pm

    I loved your piece very much, you should write more. Can you have a look at my blog? link is http://www.kitchennblog.com

    Reply
  11. Lj says

    August 11, 2023 at 8:32 pm

    5 stars
    Amazing..used the food processor to mix dough. Followed recipe exactly.
    Would love to know if we need 4 large pizzas quantities.

    Reply
  12. Daniel says

    July 7, 2023 at 1:15 pm

    Hi Nagi, I love this pizza dough recipe and I have been using it for ages but I have a question. My pizza tray is a 36cm. What measurements would you recommend if I only wanted 2 pizzas but enough to make them a larger size to fit my 36cm tray? Thanks! Daniel

    Reply
    • Nige says

      August 15, 2023 at 8:52 pm

      Hi Daniel, some quick Googling and using pi*r squared gives the answer that 3 pizzas at 30cm or 2 pizzas at 36cm are almost identical. The 2 x 36cm pizzas use 104% of the ingredients of the 3 x 30cm pizzas. Not worth the bother of converting up I would say.

      Reply
  13. Rashidulhaq says

    June 20, 2023 at 6:30 am

    4 stars
    Best pizza of the world

    Reply
  14. Linda Campbell says

    June 18, 2023 at 10:34 am

    Incredible crust !!!! I’d been trying to figure out how to make yeast doughs in the food processor for ages, your instructions were PURE GOLD. Crust is ahhhmaaazinggggg, hubby says the best ever ! Thanks for another stellar recipe. You never fail me.

    Reply
  15. Sydney says

    May 16, 2023 at 11:37 am

    5 stars
    I am in primary school and I love this recipe. It is my favourite pizza recipe ever. I made a bacon and cheese pizza. It was delicious and super easy to make.

    Reply
  16. Julia Ovington says

    April 29, 2023 at 6:02 am

    4 stars
    If I spread a tomato type sauce on my pizzas they never seem to cook properly in the centre. Whereas if I don’t put a sauce type topping on they turn out fine. Should I do a pre-cook of a few minutes before putting the topping on?

    Reply
  17. Chole K says

    April 21, 2023 at 6:20 pm

    5 stars
    Brilliant first time

    Reply
  18. Karen says

    March 31, 2023 at 8:17 pm

    5 stars
    Wow, I have made this pizza reciepe many times using a 000 flour from Coles , Italian brand.
    Today I bought from IGA Wallaby Bakers bread flour ( Australian South Australian brand), and followed the recipe as always.
    I wish I could upload a picture!
    The crust and texture was amazing. Brown crunchy edges and light. Highly recommended.I am truly amazed that the flour brand can make such a difference.

    Reply
  19. Sol says

    March 25, 2023 at 11:48 pm

    5 stars
    I’ve been making homemade pizza for over 2 decades with ok-good results, similar recipes to yours. Yet, your double-rise method is such a game changer. Thank you SO much, Nagi! Love from BNE

    Reply
  20. Ted says

    March 13, 2023 at 8:46 pm

    5 stars
    Hi Nagi. I’ve used a lot of your recipes and like usual, this one is great. Cooked in very hot bbq with hood closed on a pizza stone. Came out fantastic. Better than a lot of pizzas I’ve bought from a pizza shop. Halved all the ingredients and it made a ‘large’ and a ‘medium’. Will become a regular in the dinner rotation.

    Reply
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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