Easy Pizza Dough Recipe

Two balls of pizza dough covered with plastic wrap on a half-sheet pan.

This easy pizza dough recipe is a scaled-down version of the dough I made at the restaurant. It makes a great, thin-crust pizza, or if you prefer a thicker crust, after topping your pizza, cover it and allow it to rest for 30 minutes before baking.

Nutrition information is based on 1/8 of a pizza. This recipe makes 2 12-13" pizzas.

Course Bread and Rolls Recipes

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 10

Rise Time 2 30

Total Time 2 55

Servings servings

Calories 60kcal

Author Jennifer Field

Ingredients

4 oz bread flour 112 grams or about 1 scant cup
4 oz all-purpose flour 112 grams or about 1 cup
4.25 oz water 120 grams or 1/2 cup + 1 1/2 teaspoons
3 grams dry yeast about 1 teaspoon, active or instant
½ oz. extra virgin olive oil 14 grams or 1 Tablespoon
¼ oz salt 7 g or 1 1/4 teaspoons Morton's kosher salt

Instructions

Put all ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.
Miix/knead on medium-low speed for 8 minutes.
Turn the mixer up to medium speed, and knead for an additional 4 minutes.
Scrape dough out onto a clean work surface.
Divide dough in half (about 6.6 oz each, give or take), and shape each piece into a tight round.
Place on a lightly floured pan, and spray each round with some pan spray. Cover with plastic wrap.
Let rise until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. (See Notes)
At least 45 minutes before baking, place a pizza stone or pizza steel on the lowest rack in your oven and preheat your oven to as high as it will go.
Grab one of your rounds of dough, leaving the other one under the plastic until you're ready for it.
Stretch the round of dough into a thin disc about 12" in diameter.
Scatter some flour, cornmeal, or a mixture of the two onto a pizza peel, then transfer your stretched pizza dough to the peel.
Top as desired, shaking the peel frequently so the dough doesn't stick.
Using a quick shaking motion of the peel, transfer your pizza to your preheated baking stone and bake until the edges of your pizza dough are deep golden brown and all your toppings are sizzling, about 6-12 minutes, depending on oven temperature and how many toppings you use. In my oven on a very well-heated pizza stone at 550F, my pizzas were ready in 7-8 minutes.
Repeat with second round of dough, or wrap it well, refrigerate it, and bake it the next day.

Notes

Rather than letting rise for 2 hours at room temperature, you can immediately refrigerate the dough overnight or up to two days. This gives you a long, slow ferment and will help your dough develop more flavor as well as help your crust blister in the oven. After removing from the fridge, let the dough come to room temp for about an hour before shaping and topping.

If you want a chewier crust, top the pizza, cover, and let rise again for about 30 minutes before baking.

Nutrition