Pizza Dough Recipe: A Simple Method for Home Bakers

A good pizza dough recipe is short. You need flour, yeast, salt, sugar, water and, in most versions, olive oil. Mix them, knead for 7 to 10 minutes, let the dough rise, then divide, shape and bake. This guide gives you two versions, one in metric for UK kitchens and one in cups for US kitchens. It also covers oven temperatures, making dough ahead and why you shouldn’t taste it raw.

What you need for a reliable pizza dough recipe

Both versions below use the same basic ingredients. The main differences are the flour and the quantities.

The metric recipe uses strong white bread flour. The US recipe uses unbleached all-purpose flour, although King Arthur also lists its own Pizza Flour Blend as an option. Yeast is flexible too. The US recipe accepts active dry or instant yeast, and the UK one uses a 7g sachet of fast-action dried yeast. Olive oil is optional in the US recipe but part of the UK one.

Pizza dough recipe in metric measures (makes two pizzas)

This version comes from Great British Chefs. It’s written for a pizza oven, with a home-oven option.

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour
• 7g fast-action dried yeast (one sachet)
• 1 tsp golden caster sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 300ml warm water
• 50ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing
• Semolina, for dusting

Method

1. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
2. Stir the water and oil together, then mix them into the dry ingredients.
3. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. With a stand mixer and dough hook, 5 minutes is enough.
4. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it with a clean tea towel and leave it until it has doubled in size.
5. Divide the dough into two pieces. Keep the second piece under the tea towel while you work on the first so it doesn’t dry out.
6. Roll one piece as thin as you can on a lightly floured surface. Press down the centre with your fingers to form a crust around the edge.

In a pizza oven, the recipe cooks the pizza in about a minute, turning it every 10 seconds. With a standard oven, it says to preheat for an hour at the highest setting and expect a cooking time of about 10 to 15 minutes.

Pizza dough recipe in cups (makes up to four 12-inch pizzas)

This is King Arthur Baking’s “Easiest Pizza You’ll Ever Make.” It’s built for an ordinary home oven, and the batch is large enough for a party.

Ingredients

• 2 cups (454g) lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons (25g) olive oil, optional
• 1 tablespoon (18g) table salt
• 1 tablespoon (12g) granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon (9g) active dry or instant yeast, or one packet of active dry yeast
• 6 cups (720g) unbleached all-purpose flour

Method

1. Combine the water, oil, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl or stand mixer bowl.
2. Add the flour. Mix by hand, with a mixer, or in a bread machine on the dough cycle, adding more water if needed to get a soft dough. Knead for 7 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
3. Put the dough in a lightly greased container, cover it and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours, whichever suits your schedule.
4. Gently deflate the dough on a lightly greased surface. Divide it into four pieces for a medium-thick crust, or three for a thicker one. Roll each piece into a 12-inch round, letting the dough rest several times so it relaxes and is easier to handle. You can stretch it by hand instead if you like an irregular crust with air pockets.

Shaping and baking at home

For the US version, shape each round on parchment and trim any excess around the edges so it doesn’t burn. If you bake on a stone or steel, you can skip the pan. Put the stone or steel on the centre rack and let it heat with the oven.

Preheat the oven to 450°F (about 230°C). Brush the crust with olive oil, spread sauce lightly, then add toppings and grated cheese. Bake one pizza at a time for 15 to 20 minutes, until the crust is golden, the toppings are hot and the cheese has melted.

Move each pizza straight to a cooling rack so the bottom doesn’t turn soggy. Wait about 10 minutes before cutting so the toppings can set.

The two sources give different baking instructions because they assume different equipment. One is written around a pizza oven with a home-oven fallback, the other around a standard oven at 450°F. Use the approach that matches what you own.

Making the dough ahead

King Arthur suggests a simple way to split the work over two days. Let the dough rise once at room temperature, gently deflate it, then cover it and refrigerate overnight. The next day, stretch it into its pan or shape it, let it rest and warm up until slightly puffy, then carry on with the recipe.

You can also freeze partly baked crusts. Bake the crust on the lower oven rack until it is set and just beginning to brown at the edge but still pale on top. That takes about 8 minutes for thin crust, 10 to 12 minutes for medium and 12 to 14 minutes for thick. Cool it completely, wrap it well and freeze it for up to 3 months. To finish, thaw the crust loosely wrapped at room temperature, add toppings and bake in a preheated 450°F oven until golden and cooked through. Leftover baked pizza keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.

Why you shouldn’t taste the dough before baking

Whichever pizza dough recipe you follow, don’t sample the dough raw. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says most flour is a raw food. Processing grain into flour does not kill bacteria, and cooking or baking does. The FDA advises against eating or tasting raw flour, dough or batter. It also says children shouldn’t use raw dough for crafts or play clay, because they may put their hands in their mouths afterwards.

The agency notes that it and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have investigated several foodborne illness outbreaks linked to raw flour or flour-containing products, caused by either Salmonella or E. coli. It also cites a 2019 FDA survey in which most people in the US did not think raw flour was risky to eat.

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