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This is a super simple pizza dough recipe you knead to know.
This super simple pizza dough recipe is the best one I've done. It is really easy to make, only needs 5 ingredients and can be frozen to use on another day.
Dish Info
Makes: 3 x 12" pizzas
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Rise time: 60 mins
Cook time: 5 minutes
Pizza dough is so versatile that it doesn't need to be used for just pizzas. Garlic bread, dough balls can both be made by the same recipe. This is my simple pizza dough which uses regular bread flour. It can be made the same day, or can be made the day before you need it and stored in the fridge.
Contents
I love to make pizza dough because I find it so versatile with what it can be used for. I make Garlic bread, Pizza, dough balls and all of them normally come out really well.
Another good thing about this simple pizza dough recipe dough is that it cooks beautifully on the BBQ. Just adding a few toppings to the dough and popping on the BBQ for 5 minutes offers a delightful dish for hungry family members.
🥘 Ingredients for pizza dough
- Bread flour
- Yeast Dried
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Water (lukewarm)
🔪 how to make Basic Pizza dough
Measure out all your ingredients. Mix together the warm water and yeast and let it stand for at least 5 minutes before beginning. This lets the yeast start to react with the water.
If you are looking for pizza dough options and detailed instructions how to make it, try my pizza dough calculator. This offers all weights and measures to get a great dough.
Measure out all your ingredients. You are looking to use lukewarm water for the pizza dough, somewhere around 25C - 30C to give the yeast a good start.
Start mixing the yeasty water into the flour gradually and form a sticky ball.
Now it is time to knead pizza dough. Work it by kneading until you have a smooth dough.
This will take about 10 to 15 minutes by hand. If using a food mixer, do 5 minutes, let it rest for 5 minutes and then do another 5 - 8 minutes.
Cover with a cloth, cling film or even a shower cap. Depending on the room and ambient temperature, this could be from 60 to 90 minutes.
Your dough is risen once it has doubled in size. At this point, take the cover off and knock the air out of the dough.
Split the dough into smaller balls. If making pizza, 270g is a good amount per pizza. You can also freeze this to have a ready made pizza dough for later.
Preparation for a simple pizza dough recipe
Having the right tools and ingredients in advance is a sure fire way to make sure your simple pizza dough recipe is a success. One of the most used (but not necessary) ingredients that I use is my semolina flour. I say not necessary, as you can use plain flour for dusting but a semolina flour will help it stop sticking when it comes to stretching your pizza to make bases.
For a true Italian taste using 00 flour try my Italian pizza recipe and will take your simple pizza dough recipe to the next level.
Stretching the dough
To make a pizza base which you can use the dough needs to be stretched. For simplicity and ease you can roll the dough out using a rolling pin to the size you want your pizza base to be.
However the authentic method is to hand stretch the dough. This takes skill and practise (but is worth it in the long run). This is beyond the scope of this post as there are plenty of resources to learn this but I do encourage you to try.
Adding toppings
So this simple pizza dough recipe can be used for many flavours of pizzas. The dough is made from simple concoction of ingredients which can be used as a base for any flavour of pizza.
The general rule of thumb when making a pizza is:
Sauce > Cheese > Toppings
So keep in mind you can use a tomato based sauce or barbecue flavour sauce for underneath the cheese. My favourite sauce to use is the Pizza Express Tomato Passata sauce. It's a bit of a cheat as I also like to make my own sauce, however for simplicity, this is the best one I've found. There is normally enough in a tin to cover 6 pizza bases of 10" so if you have any spare, best off to place it in a food storage container and pop it in the fridge. These plastic food storage containers are great and are dish washable too.
Why not try sauce > toppings > cheese to help stop toppings falling off if transporting the pizza.
Then pop your cheese on the top of the sauce. Again, much debate can be had as to the best cheese to use for a pizza. I personally prefer grated mozzarella which one bag will cover 3 pizzas. There are all types of cheese for pizza, but mozzarella will give you the stringy pull when it melts - and that is what pizza is all about right?
Finally, its the toppings. And here you can pick what you like. My personal choice? Pepperoni and Nduja paste. It gives a nice meaty pizza with a good kick. Nduja paste is made from nduja sausage and gives it that extra kick.
Cooking the pizza
At the top of this post I advised 5 minutes on the BBQ. This method uses a pizza stone on a gas BBQ which has a lid. Let the BBQ with the stone on heat for up to 15 minutes and then slide your pizza on to the stone. For ease, use parchment paper.
If you have the luxury of a pizza oven, each pizza will only take around 1 to 2 minutes to cook. Pizza ovens run hotter than BBQ's and has a more direct flame so cooking times are much quicker. I would encourage you to buy a pizza oven for a more authentic pizza. It is also useful to have a pizza peel on hand for moving the pizza around while cooking.
🥗 Other Pizzas to try
Don't just stick to pizzas. You can make garlic dough balls with pizza dough too. Don't forget the sides too, these nduja stuffed tomatoes and this mint dip make a great accompaniment.
Pizza FAQs
Yes you can do but you will find there is less chew and it offers a softer base. If you don't quite have enough bread flour, topping up with plain flour will work. Bread flour gives a dependable, easy to find base and 00 is the step up if you want a more authentic Italian result.
Pizza dough will last up to 3 days in the fridge before it goes past its best. It will still cook but it might start to develop a more sour, fermented flavour. Personally I'm not a fan of leaving it past 2 days. If you need to store longer, you can freeze it.
There are lots of variables when it comes to pizza dough not rising. In most cases the ambient temperature is too low and therefore longer is needed before you see a rise. There is also a possibility your yeast is past its best (or even have died) so will not be as active. Water being too hot or too cold can also cause the yeast not to react.
You will need a ball of around 270g for a 12" pizza of regular thickness. Less dough is needed for a thinner base of course. Check out my dough calculator for various options.
The Recipe
The Best Simple Pizza Dough
Equipment
- 1 Pizza stone optional
Ingredients
- 500 g Bread flour Strong white bread flour
- 7 g Yeast Dried fast acting is ok
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
- 325 ml water luke warm, approx 22 - 25 degrees Celsius
Instructions
- Measure out all your ingredients. Mix together the water and yeast and let it stand for at least 5 minutes before beginning. The water needs to be about 25℃ to 30℃ to allow the yeast to become active.7 g Yeast, 325 ml water
- Pour in the yeast water a little at a time. Mixing with the spoon takes at least 5 minutes and needs to keep going to mix everything in. Gradually add the oil in to the mix and keep mixing. Add the salt with the flour rather than straight onto the yeast, as direct contact can slow down the yeast action.500 g Bread flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp olive oil
- Keep mixing until the dough starts to form a ball and stops sticking to the side of the bowl.
- At this point, it's now time to cover your hands in flour and grab the mix. Start kneading the dough and make a note of the time. You need to knead for at least 10 minutes to get a good rise on the dough. Kneading dough develops the gluten, which gives the dough its structure and stretch.
- After 10 - 15 minutes of kneading you should be knackered and have a really nice malleable ball of dough. Give your mixing bowl a good wash out and then spray it with oil. You can also use butter or oil, but I find oil spray is a bit easier to manage and gives a more even covering.
- Place the dough ball in the oiled bowl and then cover with cling film (or if you want a tea towel) to keep it from drying out. Then set the bowl down somewhere nice and warm for an hour to let the yeast work its magic and start to rise to just under double in size.
- After an hour, you should see the dough has risen to at least twice the size it was when it went in. At this point the dough can be given another quick knead, then split in to the portions required. I'd suggest balling up into equal measures of around 270g per pizza. You can then put the dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours until ready to use, or let it sit on the top for 30 minutes before it will be ready to shape.
- *** Freezing ***If you plan to freeze your dough, once you have split it up, wrap tightly in cling film and freeze them at this point.
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