With more than 5 million page views and rave reviews, this really is the BEST Pizza Dough recipe on the internet! We use all the time when making pizzas for our Friday night dinner and movies at home with the kids or casual pizza parties with friends where everybody gets to top their own. It’s easy to make homemade pizza dough that is crispy and chewy with great flavor, and it makes the perfect base for all your favorite pizza topping combinations!
Craving pizza but want something a little different? Try our Cast Iron Pan Pizza (Copycat Pizza Hut Pizza Recipe), Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, Easy Stromboli Recipe, or Four Cheese Pizza with Tomato Basil Arugula Salad!
The BEST Pizza Dough Recipe
I have been making this easy homemade pizza dough recipe for years. It’s really simple and uses ingredients we always have on hand. And it rises really quickly (only 30 minutes), so I can get things started and have cheesy, fantastic pizza customized with all of our favorite toppings ready in about an hour.
It hardly takes any longer than picking up pizza from our favorite pizza place. And it’s definitely WAY less expensive to do a weekly pizza night tradition when you make them at home.
If you find yourself making pizza at home often, you might also want to try this whole wheat pizza dough or sourdough pizza dough next!
Pizza Dough Recipe Ingredients
- Water
- Sugar
- Yeast
- Bread flour
- Olive oil
- Salt
What is the best flour for pizza dough?
I highly recommend using bread flour when making this pizza dough recipe.
I know it’s a pain buying a special ingredient if you don’t regular stock bread flour in your pantry. And you CAN make this pizza dough recipe with all-purpose flour if that is all you have on hand.
BUT, there is a noticeable difference between pizza dough made with bread flour and all-purpose flour. Which is why I swear by it for making homemade pizza dough.
Bread flour gives a crispier pizza crust that is truer to the classic pizzeria-style crust, which can be difficult to attain at home.
I recommend either King Arthur Bread Flour or Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour. This post isn’t sponsored, those are just two widely available brands that always have great quality to make the best pizza dough.
Can I use 00 Pizza Flour?
Yes, you can replace the bread flour in this pizza dough recipe with 00 flour, although it might require slightly more so the dough isn’t too sticky.
For serious pizza aficionados, you might have heard of “00 pizza flour” or double zero flour which is a special type of finely ground Italian flour used for making pizza or pasta dough. Because of it’s lower gluten content than regular flour and fine texture, it is said to make the best pizza dough with a chewy texture and crisp crust on the edges.
You will likely need an extra 100 grams of 00 flour (usually between ½ to 1 cup) if using it in this pizza dough recipe to replace the bread flour.
How to make Pizza Dough
- Combine warm water, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl. If using active dry yeast, you will need to let it proof for 5 minutes (until it starts to get foamy) before adding the flour, salt, and olive oil. Or if using instant yeast, you can add the flour, salt, and olive oil right away.
- Stir together with a wooden spoon or dough hook until everything starts to come together, then knead for 5 minutes using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, or by turning the dough only a lightly floured surface and kneading for 6-7 minutes by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic. It should be tacky, but not so sticky that it is difficult to work with. If it is seeming too sticky, add a little extra flour, 1-2 tablespoons at a time.
- Transfer the dough to a large clean bowl with 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil. Turn the dough to coat it in the oil, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for up to 3 days (if you are making the pizza dough in advance) or let it rise for at least 30 minutes or up to 1 ½ hours until doubled in size. I find that pizza dough is pretty forgiving, so I wouldn’t sweat a super specific rise time. I usually just make it, then work on cleaning the kitchen and prepping our pizza sauce, grating cheese, and gathering toppings, and by the time I’m done with that I’m ready to start stretching out the dough.
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (or 475 if that’s as hot as your oven will go) for at least 30 minutes to an hour while the dough is rising.
- When the dough has risen, divide it into 2-3 evenly sized balls (or more if you are making personal pizzas). I like to lightly dust the outside of each ball of pizza dough with a little additional flour.
Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe FAQs
If you aren’t an experienced bread baker, you may wonder how long to knead pizza dough. If you are using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, I recommend about 5 minutes. If you are doing it by hand, I would probably go another minute or two longer at 6-7 minutes.
Kneading the dough helps develop the gluten in the flour, which is baker-speak for getting the texture right in your pizza dough so it has that wonderful chewy-crisp quality that I love in a good pizza crust.
Pizza dough should rise until it has doubled in size. Which can be anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 ½ hours, depending on how warm it is in your house. That said, I almost always give mine about 30-45 minutes because I don’t like to wait longer and that’s about as much time as it takes me to clean my kitchen and prep everything else.
I find this is a really easy, forgiving dough and a more specific rise time really isn’t necessary. If it looks noticeably bigger than when you first put it into the bowl and covered with plastic wrap, you should be good to go ahead and start making your pizzas.
A baking stone doesn’t make a huge difference so it isn’t totally necessary for making really great homemade pizza, but it certainly helps achieve a crispier crust and great results. They aren’t too expensive, so if you find yourself making homemade pizza often, it’s probably worth the investment.
If you have one, use it, but if not, my cheater approach is to turn a baking sheet over and use that to bake your pizzas on.
Pizza Dough Recipe: make-ahead & freezing instructions
Make-Ahead: You can make the dough up to 3 days in advance and just keep in in the fridge covered with plastic wrap until you are ready to make your pizzas. Just combine all the ingredients and knead like normal, then place the dough in a clean bowl with a little oil and transfer to the fridge immediately, skipping the rising time.
When you want to make your pizzas, just pull the dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for two hours to come up to room temperature and rise before proceeding like normal.
I actually think the flavor and texture of the crust of the pizza is even better when the dough is made at least a day in advance!
Freezing: You can actually even freeze pizza dough to always have some one hand. Make the dough like normal and let it rise, then divide it into 2-3 balls. Rub a little extra olive oil around each ball of dough, then place the balls of dough into freezer-safe ziploc bags and freeze completely. You can keep the balls of frozen pizza dough in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Thaw overnight in the fridge for at least 12 hours, then let it sit on the counter at room temperature for at least 1 hour before using.
How to use this Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe
- Once your dough is ready, pat or roll it out into circle-ish shapes and place on a pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal or on a large piece of parchment paper set on a large, fairly sturdy cutting board. My personal preference is to stretch out my dough and set it on parchment paper since I don’t have a pizza peel, but you can use a rolling pin (affiliate link) to roll the dough 1/4″ thin if you prefer.
- Top each circle of dough with about ¼ to ½ cup of sauce (classic pizza sauce is always a hit, but you could use BBQ sauce, pesto sauce, a white sauce, skip the sauce entirely if you feel like it).
- Add cheese and additional toppings to make your pizza however you like it!
- Slide your pizza off of the pizza peel or cutting board onto the preheated pizza stone or upside-down baking sheet. I find it’s easiest to just slide my rack out of the oven, then slide my piece of parchment paper with the pizza on it over onto the heated pizza stone.
- Bake for 5-10 minutes. The cheese on top should be melted and the crust should be turning golden brown around the edges. The amount of time will depend on just how hot your oven is, how many toppings you added to your pizza, and how thick or thin the crust is.
This homemade pizza dough recipe is super versatile beyond just making a classic pizza crust for your family.
- Breadsticks – Use this pizza dough to make cheesy garlic breadsticks by brushing it with garlic butter and sprinkling with mozzarella cheese before baking. Once it’s done slice it into sticks and serve with some marinara sauce for dipping!
- Stromboli or calzone – Wrap up your favorite pizza fillings inside the crust to create your own delicious calzone or stromboli to create your own homemade pizza pockets.
- Make dessert – Try frying chunks of dough in hot oil then toss them in a bag of powdered sugar to coat for zeppole, which is like an Italian fried donut. I used to get these from my favorite corner pizza place in New Jersey when I lived there!
How I shape pizza dough
I always shape my pizza dough by hand, rather than using a rolling pin.
A rolling pin totally works and gets uniform thinness, but I actually like a little bit of a thicker crust around the edges and thinner center, which also helps the pizza cook more evenly as well, and that isn’t something you can achieve with a rolling pin.
These are the two best way I’ve found for achieving this is to shape the pizzas by hand. They both take a little practice, but neither is hard once you get the hang of it. And if you find that your dough keeps shrinking back as you are trying to stretch it out, let it rest for 5 minutes so the gluten can relax, then try again.
Method 1: Drape the dough over your fists
Start with a ball of dough and pat it out into a disc. Then make sure you aren’t wearing any rings and lay the dough on top of your balled fists, using them to rotate and gently stretch the dough. Go ahead and try giving it a little toss even!
This is going to cause the dough to thin more in the center while leaving a slightly thicker ring around the edges.
Method 2: Steering wheel approach
My other technique starts the same way with flatting a ball of pizza dough into a disc. Then I hold it like a steering wheel with my hands at the top. The weight of the dough will cause it to naturally start to stretch on its own.
Keep turning and rotating the “wheel” of pizza dough, holding it a couple inches in from the top, until it has stretched out into a large thin circle.
How hot should the oven be to make Homemade Pizza Dough?
Professional pizzerias use really hot ovens, which gives their crusts the signature crispy texture that can be hard to achieve at home.
Cooking at lower temperatures (or overloading your pizza with too many toppings) can cause the pizza to cook slower, which can result in soggy, limp pizza that might taste okay, but won’t be nearly as close to authentic pizzeria-style pizza that we’re going for.
I recommend preheating your oven for AT LEAST 30 minutes, even up to an hour, at 500 degrees F (or 475 if that’s as high as your oven will go). Many ovens will indicate that it is completely preheated when it actually is not all the way there, which is why I recommend the extra heating time.
If you are using a pizza stone, put it in the oven before turning the heat on so it has plenty of time to get hot as well.
Best Pizza Toppings
You can top your pizza however you like, but keep in mind that because pizza cooks so quickly at such a high temperature, the ingredients won’t have a lot of extra time to cook.
So things like sausage need to be cooked in advance, and it’s best to slice veggies on the thin side, or even roast them first.
Also, I always spread my sauce over the dough then sprinkle with half of my shredded cheese first, followed by the toppings and then the rest of the cheese. I find having cheese on the top and bottom helps the pizza cook more evenly, not be as soggy (especially if using toppings like pineapple or sliced tomatoes), and the toppings don’t all slide right off.
Here is our long list of our favorite pizza toppings. We change it up all the time and when we have friends over, it’s fun to pull out a bunch of different toppings so everyone can make their own!
- Cheese: freshly grated mozzarella cheese (it melts so much better than the pre-shredded kind), ricotta or burrata cheese (if you want to get all fancy), freshly grated parmesan or pecorino romano
- Meats: pepperoni (forever and always), cooked sausage, Canadian bacon, crumbled cooked bacon, sliced Italian meatballs, leftover grilled chicken
- Veggies: sliced green, red, or yellow peppers, chopped red onions, sliced olives, sliced mushrooms (we prefer fresh), thinly sliced Roma tomatoes, roasted red peppers (so good!), minced garlic, artichoke hearts, roasted broccoli, thinly sliced zucchini (a personal favorite that I came to love on pizza while traveling through Italy), caramelized onions
- Fruit: Sorry, Italians, but we love pineapple tidbits (if using, be sure to drain these really, really well or they will make your pizza soggy) or even pear (especially good with a balsamic drizzle and arugula)
- Herbs & spices: fresh basil leaves or other herbs (add these right as the pizza is coming out of the oven) or dried Italian seasoning, parsley, or red pepper flakes.
- Olive oil
I would love to hear your other favorite toppings in the comments below and will update this list periodically as I think of more toppings!
Also, anybody else love dipping your pizza in ranch dressing or butter garlic sauce? So good!
More Dinner Recipes
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- Baja Fish Tacos Recipe
- Red, White, and Blueberry Bacon Burger with Basil Aioli
Did you make this recipe?
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
BEST Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast or instant yeast (1 package)
- 3 ½ to 4 cups bread flour (455g to 520g)
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
Instructions
- Place a pizza stone in the oven if you have one. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (or 475 if that’s as high as your oven will go) while preparing the pizza dough so it can be completely hot when you are ready to bake the pizzas.
- Combine warm water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. If using active dry yeast, let it proof for 5 minutes until foamy. If using instant yeast, there is no need to wait for the yeast to proof.1 ½ cups warm water, 2 teaspoons granulated sugar, 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast or instant yeast
- Add flour, olive oil, and salt and stir well with a wooden spoon or mix in a stand mixer with a dough hook until combined.3 ½ to 4 cups bread flour, 2 Tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt
- Knead for 5 minutes using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment or 6-7 minutes by hand until smooth and elastic. The dough will be tacky and slightly sticky, but should still be manageable to work with.
- Drizzle a clean bowl with a little olive oil, then place the ball of dough in the bowl and turn it to coat in the oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean cloth and let rise for at least 30 minutes (or up to 1 ½ hours) until doubled in size.
- Divide the dough into 2 or 3 balls (or more if you want to make personal-size pizzas).
- Roll, pat, or stretch the dough out until it is roughly 1/4" thick, then top with 1/4-½ cup of pizza sauce, freshly grated mozzarella cheese, and other toppings.
- Bake for 5-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown and crispy around the edges.
- Cool slightly before cutting and serving.
Video
Notes
- After rising, the dough can be divided into smaller balls, then frozen for up to 3 months. Rub each ball with a little olive oil first, then place in a freezer-safe ziploc bag before freezing. To thaw, set the dough in the fridge overnight for at least 12 hours, then let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour before using.
- This pizza dough recipe can be made up to 3 days in advance. Just transfer it to the fridge before letting it rise. Remove from the fridge and let it rise for 1-2 hours before using.
- See post for pizza topping ideas.
First time making pizza dough actually first time using yeast and I’m 65 yrs old. First of all I wish we would have taken pictures I guess my husband and I were so excited the dough came out so good we just gobbled up the pizza before we knew what hit us. Honestly great direction very easy to follow recipe loved it and will be using this recipe again and again. Thank you so much
Oh wow thank you for such a nice comment! And it’s never too late to try something new! I am glad you enjoyed the pizza. It really is so fun to make and now you are experts with the dough you can make amazing and fun pizzas!
We’ve used this recipe a few times and love it! I like to use the instant sourdough yeast packets instead of just regular yeast, adds a little extra flavor. Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour is a must for me when making this. High heat is everything when making pizza! This one is a winner. It’s simple and delicious. Sometimes we will add a teaspoon or two of dried oregano/other herbs to add even more flavor to the dough. Thanks so much!
Wow thank you! I am glad you like it! Those changes sound like they are working out great. And adding herbs to the dough makes it even better! Way to go!
Replaced yeast with fresh one and it turned out amazing! Beste pizza dough!!
Thank you! Homemade pizza dough is the best!
I love this dough recipe I include a few toasted spices into the dough and my boyfriend requested this specific recipe 🥰
This dough recipe made the greatest pizza crust!!! Easy to follow directions, and it tasted delicious!!!
Thank you for sharing!
Oh thank you for such a nice review! I am glad you enjoyed it!
This recipe was so easy and it’s really good!
I made this recipe and love it!
I pulled my dough out of the freezer Saturday and placed in the fridge planning to make Sunday but didn’t. Is my dough still okay to use today(Monday)?
Yes it should be fine. It should last for about three days after being defrosted.
I make pepperoni rolls and lost my recipe for the dough. I found yours with a Google search and it’s a winner for my family! I add herbs and parmesean cheese to it for this specific recipe. I will be using this again!! I think I found the replacement recipe for my lost one!! Thank you for sharing!!!
Easy peas, love that I can make ahead and freeze!
My grandson and I love the dough recipe. I make it every time he comes over. I use all the dough at once and make a thick crust.
Simply the Best!! Recipe and ALL the directions are easy to understand. Thank you!!
Easy to make and double for the best super bowl party. Have made this several times and always turns out great. Thanks for the recipe.
Simple and easy – store bought, for whatever reason, always kicked our … when using it. This solved that for us and is our go to now when we want to make pizza at home. Thank you.
Homemade pizza dough is so much better! Thanks for the nice comment!
Hands down the BEST pizza dough recipe. Made this last weekend and making again today. Came out perfect! I LOVE IT!!! Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome! so glad it’s a favorite in your house as well!
This is the only pizza dough recipe I use now! It’s the best!
Did not work. Had to add more water. I used bread flour and followed recipe exact. Won’t make again
Can I use all purpose flour?
Yes. The results are better with bread flour, but all-purpose flour will still make a decent crust.
This is our favorite dough recipe. It comes out perfect every time!
We’ve put pesto on the crust when we shape it and it is so good.
How would I refrigerate? Do I do this after it rises or after kneading it?
So glad you love this recipe! It’s a favorite here as well. If I need to make this ahead and refrigerate, I do it right after kneading, before rising. Then cover it and let it do a slow rise in the fridge and pull it out about an hour before using so it can come to room temp and finish its rise on the counter. I hope that helps!
I tried this recipe and used the dough for Calzones, and it was perfect!!!!!
I’m so glad to hear it!
I was curious to try this recipe as it was very close to the recipe I have been using for years.
Despite the fact that I needed to add double the flour the dough turned out great!
I was sooo pleased how it cooked up. I’m not really sure how to describe the differences. One thing I know is that it has the chewy texture of a bought pizza. I didn’t really know before that this is what was missing from my other recipe.
I’m not sure how to describe the beautiful texture. It feels pillow like yet still firm enough to handle all the toppings your heart desires.
I doubled the recipe so I can either make another pizza or maybe some rolls.
This is one of my most popular recipes! It makes such a good pizza crust. Thank you for your great review!