How to Make Pizza Dough - An Easy Recipe

Mix 500g of strong white bread flour with 320ml of lukewarm water, 7g of fast-action yeast, 10g of salt and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, knead for 8 to 10 minutes, then leave it to rise for 1 to 2 hours. If you were after a how to make pizza dough recipe, that's all of it, and it makes two 30cm bases. What decides whether you bake a chewy, blistered crust or a pale, bready one isn't in that list, though. It's the flour you choose, and in an Irish supermarket the bags of plain, strong and 00 flour (a very fine Italian pizza flour) look almost identical, so the wrong one is easy to grab.

Choose well and the rest is forgiving. You can mix the dough on Sunday and bake it on Wednesday, and it will taste better for the wait. No yeast in the cupboard? There's a 10-minute version further down.

What ingredients does pizza dough need?

This dough needs five ingredients: flour, yeast, salt, water and olive oil. Everything else is optional.

Recipe card

Difficulty: easy

Equipment: large bowl, wooden spoon or stand mixer, tea towel, pizza stone or steel (a thick slab that stores heat), pizza pan or heavy baking tray, pizza peel (a flat paddle for sliding the pizza in, optional)

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour

• 7g fast-action yeast, one sachet (Allinson's Easy Bake sachets)

• 10g sea salt

• 320ml lukewarm water

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little for the bowl

• 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)

• Semolina, for dusting the peel (optional)

Method at a glance

1. Whisk the flour, salt and yeast together, add the lukewarm water and olive oil and stir to a rough dough.

2. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

3. Cover and leave it at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours, until it has doubled.

4. Divide into two balls and rest for 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Stretch each ball to 30cm, add your toppings and bake at 240°C (220°C fan, gas mark 9) for 8 to 12 minutes.

The full steps are below, after a closer look at the flour.

Weigh everything. Cup measures vary from cook to cook, and 30g extra can turn a soft, stretchy dough into a stiff one.

Making one pizza? Halve everything: 250g flour, 160ml water, 5g salt, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of yeast (about 3g). Or make the full batch and freeze the second dough ball.

Fast-action yeast, sold as instant yeast in other countries, goes straight into the flour with no need to foam it in water first. If you bake often, Doves Farm Quick Yeast comes in a 125g pack, and 7g is about 2¼ teaspoons. If you only have active dry yeast, follow the pack for the amount and stir it into the lukewarm water for 5 minutes first.

Two tablespoons of olive oil make the dough easier to stretch and the inside of the crust softer. Lilliput Trading Co 100% Arbequina Olive Oil is a fruity oil with a hint of pepper, lovely drizzled over the finished pizza. De Cecco extra virgin olive oil comes in 1 litre if you want a bottle for dressing too.

Measure the salt by weight, because fine and flaky salts differ hugely by the teaspoon. Donegal Sea Salt is hand-harvested along Ireland's coast.

Which flour is best for pizza dough?

Strong white bread flour is the best choice for a home oven. It has more protein, so the dough stretches thin without tearing and bakes into a chewy crust with big, uneven bubbles. 00 flour suits the hottest ovens, and plain flour works if it's what you have.

Strong flour or plain flour for pizza?

Strong flour is what American recipes call bread flour, and plain flour is their all-purpose flour. The difference is protein: strong flour carries roughly 12 to 14 per cent, plain roughly 9 to 11 per cent. More protein means more gluten, the stretchy network that traps the gas from the yeast and holds the shape of the pizza.

Plain flour makes a good pizza with a different texture. The dough is softer and tears more easily when you stretch it thin, and the base bakes thinner and crispier, with fewer bubbles. For chew, stay with the strong flour above. For a thinner crust, Doves Farm Plain White Flour does the job. Both sit in our flours collection with the rest of the baking range.

Is 00 flour better for pizza dough?

Not automatically. 00 flour, often sold as pizza flour, is milled much finer than plain flour. It's the traditional choice for Neapolitan pizza ovens that run at about 485°C, where a pizza cooks in 60 to 90 seconds. In a kitchen oven at 240°C it gives a lighter, crisper base than strong flour, with less chew.

For 00 flour, we stock Caputo 00 Flour and De Cecco Farina 00. Swap either one for the strong flour, weight for weight, and hold back a splash of the water. Add it only if the dough feels dry, because 00 flour absorbs water differently.

How do you make Neapolitan pizza dough?

Real Neapolitan dough is flour, water, salt and a tiny amount of yeast. It rises slowly for many hours. Use 00 flour, leave out the oil, cut the yeast right down (about 1 teaspoon or less) and give the dough the overnight fridge rest described below. A hot stone will then get you a Neapolitan-style pizza at home: soft in the middle and blistered at the edge. It won't match a dedicated pizza oven.

Which flour should you use for gluten-free pizza dough?

Use a gluten-free flour blend. We stock Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain White Flour and a wider free from range. Gluten-free dough behaves differently, so follow the method on the pack. The kneading and rising times here won't suit it.

How to make pizza dough step by step

1. Mix the dough. Whisk the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl, adding the sugar if you're using it. Make a well in the centre, pour in the lukewarm water and olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms. The water should feel barely warm on your wrist, because hot water kills yeast.
   
   

2. Knead. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes: push it away with the heel of your hand, fold it back, turn it a quarter and repeat. It's ready when it feels smooth and springs back slowly when poked. With a stand mixer, use the dough hook on low for 5 to 6 minutes. If it sticks to your hands, add flour a teaspoon at a time, because too much flour is the most common cause of a dense base.
   
   

3. Let the dough rise. Shape it into a smooth ball, place it in a bowl lightly oiled with olive oil and turn it once to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and leave it at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours, until you can see it double in size.
   
   

4. Divide and rest. Punch the dough down gently to knock out the largest air bubbles. Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a smooth dough ball of about 430g. Cover the balls and rest them for 15 to 20 minutes. Resting relaxes the gluten, so the dough stretches instead of springing back.
   
   

5. Heat the oven. Set it to 240°C (220°C fan, gas mark 9) and put a pizza stone, a pizza steel or an upturned heavy baking tray inside for at least 30 minutes. The stone or steel crisps the base from underneath.
   
   

6. Stretch the dough. On a lightly floured surface, press one ball flat from the centre outwards and leave a thicker rim. Lift it and let gravity do the work over your knuckles until it's 30cm across. Skip the rolling pin, which presses out the air bubbles that give you a crispy crust.
   
   

7. Top the pizza. Dust your pizza peel with semolina. Lay the stretched dough on it, add your sauce and toppings (the toppings section below covers the sauce), then shimmy it to check it moves freely. No peel? Use a floured, upturned baking tray.
   
   

8. Bake. Slide the pizza onto the hot stone, steel or tray and bake for 8 to 12 minutes, until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbling at the edges. Leave it for 2 minutes before cutting.
   
   

Do not taste the raw dough. Flour is a raw food, and any bacteria on it are only killed by baking.

How long does pizza dough need to rise?

Pizza dough needs 1 to 2 hours in a warm kitchen, until it has doubled. Judge it by the dough, not the clock. Press a floured finger in gently: if the dent springs back slowly, the dough is ready, and if it springs back fast, give it another 15 minutes. If it has collapsed and smells sharp and boozy, it has over-proofed, which means it rose past its peak. Proofing is the rise before baking.

A cool kitchen slows everything down, so a January dough can take 2 hours or more.

Can you make pizza dough rise faster?

Put the covered bowl in a switched-off oven next to a mug of just-boiled water, and the dough will rise in 30 to 45 minutes. The crust tastes plainer than one that has risen slowly, but it's good enough for a Tuesday.

Thin crust or thick crust pizza dough?

For a thin, crispy pizza crust, use the plain or 00 flour above, stretch it thinner and bake it hot. For a thick, chewy base, stay with strong flour, rest the shaped dough on an oiled tray for 20 to 30 minutes before topping it and bake it a few minutes longer.

Why is my pizza dough dense, tearing or soggy?

A dense base usually means too much flour or too short a rise. Tearing means the dough hasn't rested. A soggy middle usually means an oven that wasn't hot enough. All three are fixable on the next batch.

How do you store pizza dough?

Pizza dough keeps for up to 3 days in the fridge and about a month in the freezer. A ready ball of dough is also the easiest way to have pizza on a night when you have no time to knead. Whichever way you store it, let the dough sit at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours before you shape it, because cold dough snaps back.

Can you leave pizza dough in the fridge overnight?

Yes, and it improves the dough. After kneading, let it rise for an hour, divide it into dough balls and put each one in a lightly oiled, lidded container. Refrigerate the dough for 24 to 72 hours. The slow fermentation, which is the yeast working gently in the cold, gives a crust with a deeper flavour and more chew.

For anything over a day, cut the yeast to about 1 teaspoon (about 3g), or a little less if you're going the full 3 days, so the dough doesn't over-proof.

Can you freeze pizza dough?

Freeze it right after dividing the dough into balls. Rub each ball lightly with olive oil, wrap it tightly, slide it into a freezer bag and write the date on it. It keeps its best rise for up to a month.

Thaw it in the fridge overnight, then let it warm up as above until it's soft and slightly puffy. There's no need for a full second rise.

Can you make pizza dough without yeast?

Yes, you can skip the yeast, and the dough is ready for the oven in about 10 minutes. Baking powder does the lifting, so there's no rising time. The base is crisp and flatbread-like, without the chew of a yeasted dough.

This makes one 30cm pizza:

• 350g plain flour

• 2½ teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 175ml lukewarm water

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together, then add the olive oil and water and stir until it comes together. Knead for 3 to 4 minutes until smooth, and stop there, because this dough doesn't need the long knead a yeasted dough does. Stretch it to 30cm, add your toppings and bake at 220°C (200°C fan, gas mark 7) for 12 to 15 minutes.

If you have self-raising flour, it should work: use 350g of it and leave out the baking powder. You'll also see a two-ingredient dough made from self-raising flour and Greek yoghurt. It's quick, but softer and closer to a flatbread than to a pizza base.

What toppings go on a homemade pizza?

Two to five toppings is the sweet spot for a homemade pizza. Any more and the steam has nowhere to go. Cook wet toppings such as mushrooms first, and add delicate things like rocket and burrata after the bake.

What sauce goes on homemade pizza?

Uncooked passata is all you need. Spoon Biona Organic Passata thinly over the base with a pinch of salt and a pinch of oregano. For a richer sauce, crush a tin of Mutti San Marzano tomatoes by hand. Our lasagne recipe makes the same point about buying good tinned tomatoes.

Margherita with buffalo mozzarella and basil

Spread a thin layer of passata, add torn Macroom Buffalo Mozzarella and finish with a drizzle of olive oil. Scatter fresh basil over the top once it's baked. Buffalo mozzarella holds a lot of water, so pat it dry with kitchen paper first.

Pepperoni and mozzarella

Pepperoni needs only torn mozzarella and a single layer of pepperoni slices over the passata, spaced so they don't overlap. In the heat the edges curl and crisp, and the pepperoni releases a little red oil into the cheese.

Prosciutto and rocket after the bake

Bake the base with passata and mozzarella only. Once it's out of the oven, drape over Levoni Prosciutto Crudo, a handful of rocket and shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano, then finish with a line of balsamic glaze.

Spicy 'Nduja and creamy burrata

Dot Diforti 'Nduja, a spicy spreadable salami, over the passata before baking, and it melts into the sauce. When the pizza comes out, tear Sheridans burrata over the top so it stays cool and creamy against the heat.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the secret to good pizza dough?

Time and restraint. Give it a full rise, add as little extra flour as you can while kneading, and rest the balls before stretching.

Is 4 hours too long to let pizza dough rise?

Not necessarily. Four hours can be fine in a cool kitchen and too long in a warm one, so check the dough itself. If it has doubled and a poked finger leaves a dent that springs back slowly, it's ready. If it has collapsed and smells sharp, it has over-proofed.

How long should pizza dough rest before stretching?

Rest the divided balls, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes. Straight from the fridge? Give them 1 to 2 hours first.

Can I prepare pizza dough the night before?

Mix and knead it with about 1 teaspoon of yeast instead of 7g, let it rise for an hour, shape it into balls and chill them in lidded containers. Bring them out 1 to 2 hours before you want to bake.

What flour do Italians use for pizza dough?

Tipo 00, mostly. That's the Italian name for the finest-milled flour. It's made for ovens far hotter than a home oven, so either flour works at home, and strong flour gives more chew.

What temperature should I bake pizza at?

As hot as your oven safely goes. Aim for 240°C (220°C fan, gas mark 9) or higher, with the stone or steel preheated for the full 30 minutes. The no-yeast dough bakes cooler, at 220°C (200°C fan).

How much dough do I need per pizza?

About 430g makes a 30cm pizza with a thick, chewy base, and less gives you a thinner one.

Best ingredients for pizza dough in Ireland

Most of what you need is in one order. Our flours collection covers strong, plain and 00 flour, our baking ingredients collection has the yeast and baking powder, and our Italian ingredients collection has the passata, oil and olives for the topping. The cheese, cured meats and other toppings sit in our dairy collection, meats collection and pizza, antipasti and hummus collection. Orders ship across the Republic of Ireland, and you can collect from our shop on Castle Street in Sligo.