Best Pizza Dough Recipe – Chewy Crispy Crust!
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Want to know how to make the best pizza dough ever? The kind that’s chewy and crispy with beautiful scorched bubbles on the crust. Would you also like it if the pizza dough were super easy to make (no kneading required!) and could be baked in your home oven? You’re in the right place because this is the best pizza dough recipe, and it’s all those things and more.
There are three ways to get pizza on the table: order in, grab store-bought dough and add your own toppings, or make pizza dough from scratch. I’m firmly in camp three. It’s easy, inexpensive, and so good you can taste the love in every bite.
Homemade pizza dough is one of those simple pleasures that’s hard to put into words. If you’ve had it before, you already know how good it is. And if you haven’t? Yes, the grass really is greener. Making it at home gives you a crust that’s chewy, crisp, and full of flavor in a way store-bought just can’t match.
This no-knead pizza dough uses just four ingredients, makes four pizzas, and delivers beautiful scorched bubbles with minimal effort. All you need is water, salt, and two pantry staples: all-purpose flour (which this recipe is tested with and works perfectly) and active dry yeast, my go-to choice for reliable, beginner-friendly results.
Favorite pizza toppings
You can’t really go wrong when it comes to choosing pizza toppings. The best way to choose your toppings is to go with what you love or what your family loves. But remember, don’t overload each pizza; You want the toppings and the crust to sing. Here are some ideas for inspiration!
- Sauce: When it comes to pizza sauce you can try this homemade pizza sauce recipe or this sweet and spicy pizza sauce. Another nice option for pizza is this easy pesto recipe. A basic marinara sauce or tomato sauce also works well.
- Garlic and onions: Yum! Adding fresh garlic to your pizza base gives a warmth and onions really make the entire pizza shine. You can add caramelized onions or raw onions.
- Meat: Unless you have a serious meat lover in your house, adding one type of meat per pizza is a good idea (this goes back to letting all the toppings sing). Bacon, sausage, and other cured or cooked meats like prosciutto or chicken are tasty options.
- Veggies: When it comes to veg, go with what you like most. Sliced green or red bell peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, fresh arugula – you name it and it can live on a pizza!
- Cheese: Cheese, glorious cheese! Fresh mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, feta cheese – it’s all delicious!
Storage
- Storage: You can make homemade pizza dough in advance. It will last in the fridge, if wrapped or stored in an airtight container, for up to 3 days.
- Freezing: Wrap the pizza dough in parchment or wax paper, or place it in a fitted container and store it in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Best Pizza Dough Recipe – Chewy Crispy Crust!
Ingredients
- 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (plus more for shaping dough)
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 ½ cups warm water
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and yeast.3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons fine sea salt, ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
- Add 1 ½ cups of warm water and mix it with a wooden spoon until it becomes a rough dough. Then use your hands to gently bring the dough together to form a rough ball. Note: you may need to knead it a couple of times to get it to create a ball.1 ½ cups warm water
- Transfer the ball to a large, clean bowl and cover it with a clean kitchen towel. Set the bowl aside in a warm (room temperature) draft-free location for at least 18 hours, or until the dough has more than doubled in size.
- Transfer the dough to a floured work surface. Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Take a corner of the dough and pull it towards the center of the dough. Repeat with the remaining 3 corners until you have a little package. If the 'package' is a little sticky, dust it with flour.
- Place the 'package' seam-side down on a lightly floured surface. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough. Cover with a clean, damp tea towel and set aside for 1 hour.
To make pizza
- Place a pizza stone (or a baking sheet turned upside down on a rack in the top ⅓ of your oven. Turn your oven on as high as it will go. Make sure it comes to temperature before baking the pizzas. Generously flour your work surface, hands, and 1 ball of pizza dough. Press the pizza dough down in the center then gently push and pull the edges into a 10-inch circle. Try not to squeeze out the air bubbles; they're the best part.
- Transfer the pizza dough to a well-floured pizza peel then top the pizza lightly with sauce and toppings. Slide the pizza from the peel onto the hot pizza stone and bake until the bottom is crisp and the top is blistered – about 5-6 minutes if using a pizza stone or 10-12 minutes using a baking sheet. Allow your oven to re-heat for 5 minutes between pizzas.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
Tips for the perfect pizza dough
Before you get started, consider these tips for this chewy pizza dough recipe – trust that they’ll make a big difference to your final product!
- Put your rolling pin away! Seriously. Using a rolling pin will remove all the little air bubbles leaving you with dense pizza crust.
- Turn your oven to the highest temperature for a full hour before baking the pizza. You want it HOT!
- On a lightly floured surface, stretch the dough, starting at the edges and moving in a circle around the dough (or a rectangle if you want to make flatbread)
- Resist the temptation to flatten the pizza dough (see tip #1)
- Make a fist with one hand and drape the pizza dough over your fist. Make a fist with your other hand and slowly rotate with pizza dough around in a circle using your two fists. The pizza dough will look a little like a blanket covering your two hands.
- Once the dough is about 10-12 inches, drop it onto a lightly floured pizza peel or baking sheet.
- Don’t worry if it is oddly shaped, it will have more character this way!
Hi Kristen
Should the yeast be prepared according to package directions first or just added dry to the recipe ? I want to give it a try but not sure . Thanks!
Just add it dry to the recipe. 🙂
Wow! Fantastic pizza. Made this tonight for dinner and everyone was really impressed. I still can’t believe how good it tasted. I will be making this more often. Thanks for posting. C
Thank you so much for the feedback, Cate! So happy you loved the pizza as much as I do 🙂
Best pizza crust! Can’t believe I made it. Followed to a t except my yeast was a tad expired. Still I live in a city not known for pizza -this was better than you can get at a pizzeria. Thank you so much for your tips and posting.
I love this recipe, it’s so simple and easy, plus everyone compliments me on my tasty pizza!! I usually cut the dough in portions and freeze what I’m not using on the same day. I have been making this recipe several times and it never disappoints.
I also tried it with 1/2 unbleached flour and 1/2 whole wheat and it worked ok.
Hi Jessica,
I haven’t tried it but my hunch is that it would work great. It would probably be a bit heavier though since whole wheat flour is more dense. If you try it I’d love to hear how it turns out!
1/2 white 1/2 whole wheat worked great!!!
I doubled the yeast to 1 tsp! That was the only change I made!!
Yummy yummy!
Do you think this recipe would work with whole wheat flour?
I would love to try this recipe, but I’m just wondering if the amount of yeast stated in the recipe is correct. 1/2tsp. for all that flour seems like way too little yeast. I’ll wait to hear from you before trying it, I don’t want to mess it up.Also, How many pizzas does this make?
Thanks so much!
Lori
Hi Lori,
I know it doesn’t seem like much but it is the correct amount. When I make this recipe I usually get between 5-6 pizzas depending on the size. Make sure you barely work the dough, that’s the real trick
I actually had this last night with pesto sauce, prawns, thinly sliced lemons and a little drizzle of lemon oil and it was out of this world!
It did!!!!! Even got the bubbles. Made my day! Thanks so much.
That’s awesome news! You are very welcome 🙂
Hi There,
I just put my ball of dough in the oven (for rising) I guess the 18 hrs will be up Saturday lunch time…cant wait to see how this goes. Cant say how many failed attempts I have had, making pizza at home. The worst was this “namaste” spreadable dough.
Thanks for posting this!
Minu
You’re welcome, Minu! I hope it turned out awesome for you!!
I’ve been making pizza dough for years but have struggled with it being too bread-like: puffy and soft. This is the first recipe I’ve used that gives a chewy, crisp crust – and a five-minute effort the night before allows a pizza meal to be pulled together quite quickly. Next time I’ll experiment with adding a little whole grain flour – though I don’t want to ruin a good thing!
I confess that I fumbled the “folding in the corners like a package” part and just kind of wrestled these into blobs during stage 2. Good results nonetheless – so I’m happy to report that this recipe suffers fools gladly.
Thanks for a great recipe and instructions.
Hey Linda,
I’m so happy the recipe turned out for you. I had the same problem with dough-y crust before I found this recipe. Let me know how it turns out if you try adding some whole wheat flour, I’d be really curious to know!
this recipe is so good. i tried it for supper. made the dough at 3 pm and tried 1/6 of the recipe. turns out the dough is yummy. not at all oily. the best crust ever.
Thank you so much, Lynette! I’ve been wondering how it would turn out if I made enough for just one pizza. Thank you for letting me know!!
This recipe seems like it would make a lot. Can you freeze the extras?
Hey Lauren,
It does make a lot! Although I haven’t tried freezing the extras myself, my hunch tells me it would be okay. Definitely make sure you leave ample time to allow the dough to come back to room temperature. I’d probably take it out in the morning if I was going to make it for dinner.
Here’s what I would do:
1. Make the dough up to the step where you divide it into 6 pieces (let it rise for the hour)
2. Take any dough you are not going to use and wrap it well in plastic wrap. Place in the freezer.
3. When using the frozen dough: take out of the freezer in the morning. Unwrap, dust with flour and place on a flat surface. Cover with a damp tea towel.
4. Proceed to step 7 in the recipe directions.
If you try this, let me know how it turns out for you!
BTW: I’ve halved this recipe and it has turned out great. Might be easier to go that route 🙂
Kristen, I LOVE this dough recipe! I made it a couple of weeks ago for the first time and I was so happy with it! However, I DID use a rolling pin, which I will leave on the shelf next time! Thanks for all of your tips!
Hey Rachel,
You are so welcome! I’m happy the pizza turned out great for you. Definitely try it without the rolling pin next time. It’ll be even tastier!
nice recipe.
i’m using 00 type pizza dough for my pizzas. very elstic and easier to stretch out without a roller
Thanks, Rodrigo! I’ve never tried OO flour before. If you make this recipe using it I’d love to hear how it turned out 🙂
By the way, I forgot to mention how awesome that opening picture is. LOVE the hand all covered in sticky dough.
Thank you so much, Maria!
I remember seeing this recipe when the issue of the magazine came out. I forgot all about it. So glad you posted this. I need to try it, especially after reading your rave reviews. Have you halved the recipe? It seems like it makes a ton of pizza dough, far more than I need in one shot.
Hey Maria,
I did try halving it but I put it in my oven to rise (so it would be out of the way) but forgot about it and turned my oven on. Oops! I ended up with a cooked ball of dough covered in melted plastic wrap 🙂
I think it would work just great to half the recipe. Or you would always freeze the ones you don’t use to have them on hand for another time 🙂
you’re my hero…..pizza is the most perfect food ever, I could eat it every day. I’m trying this real soon.
I agree, I love pizza too!