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The Best Recipe For Pizza Dough

If you’re a pizza lover, you know that the dough is just as important as the toppings, so getting it right is key. Some people might think that making your own pizza dough can be difficult, but if you’re using the best pizza dough recipe it’s really quite easy.

This recipe for pizza dough will show you how to make the perfect pizza dough from scratch every time, so you can enjoy a delicious homemade pizza whenever you please. You’ll be surprised how good it tastes! So, if you’re looking for a new yummy pizza recipe, be sure to try this one out.

Pizza Dough

Cuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy

Makes

Bases

Prep time

minutes

Ingredients

2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
4 cups (600g) of all purpose flour or bread flour
pinch of caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
375ml (1 1/2 cups) of warm water
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Directions

Add the yeast and sugar to the water and mix in a small bowl. Set aside for 5 mins until it becomes frothy.
In a large bowl, add the flour and salt together, and create a well in the middle.
Pour the yeast mixture and oil into the well you created. Then get a fork and bring the flour in from the sides gradually and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing and when it starts to all come together, use your clean, flour-dusted hands to form the dough.
On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until it becomes smooth and springy.
Lightly coat the dough in oil and place in a large lightly flour-dusted bowl. Use a damp cloth to cover the bowl and place in a warm area for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
Remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it to push the air out.
Form into a long cylinder to then divide into thirds. Use a rolling pin to roll each third into roughly a 20cm disk, 0.5cm thick.
Add your favourite pizza toppings, and bake until ready.

Notes

If using instant yeast instead, add 3 teaspoons directly into the dry mixture of flour and sugar to combine, then add the water and oil.

Can self raising flour be used for pizza dough?

Self raising flour is a mixture of made up of regular flour, baking powder and salt. Typically, you see self raising flour as an ingredient in baking, rather than using yeast.

Technically you could use self raising flour for pizza dough, however it probably won’t turn out to be very good. This is because the base will be more like a cookie/biscuit, with a fine and dense crumb rather than a soft and chewy crust filled with holes. It will also taste of bland flour.

What happens if you let pizza dough rise too long?

Although it’s said that a long and slow rise is beneficial for the flavour and texture of the dough, you can run into problems if you let it rise for too long.

A few days is fine, and will enhance the taste of the crust, but any longer than three days, then the yeast will start to eat up all the sugar in the dough and convert it into alcohol, which will adversely affect the flavour of the crust.

Another consequence of resting your dough too long is over-proofing. Any longer than 24 hours and he dough will fall flat which will give it a denser crust. When dough is over-proofed, the gluten over-relaxes and the internal structure of the dough is compromised, causing the final product to collapse.

What is the difference between active and instant yeast?

The main difference between the two yeast varieties the moisture content. Active dry yeast must be dissolved in liquid as it needs rehydration. Once the yeast has dissolved and starts to bubble, then the mixture can be added into the rest of the ingredients.

Whereas instant yeast can be mixed straight into dry ingredients. Instant yeast particles are smaller, which allows them to dissolve quicker. Instant yeast also requires less time to rise. Since it has a finer texture, it’s possible to skip the initial rise time and shape the dough immediately after kneading.

What happens if I put too much yeast in pizza dough?

If too much yeast is added to the dough, the activity of gas and ethanol rapidly increase which creates a gassy dough that can be hard to work with

Why does my pizza dough keep shrinking?

Shrinking pizza will usually be at its most noticeable when you are trying to roll the dough out. If this is happening, it is most likely caused by an overly strong gluten network in the dough. You can avoid this from occurring by:

proofing the dough for longer
weighing your ingredients so they are accurate
bring the dough to room temperature
reduce the protein in your flour as this forms gluten
stretch by hand

Is plain flour the same as all-purpose flour?

One of the most popular types of flour is the plain flour or all purpose flour. So, the answer to the question is that they are both the same. There is no difference.

Do you knead pizza dough after it rises?

You can knead the dough very gently and briefly to avoid tearing. This helps larger bubbles to be deflated and go away. Being gentle is important as it prevents tearing the gluten network which is delicate after resting and crucial for good dough.

You can do this by pressing down with your knuckles on the dough to deflate it. Folding the dough is also a good technique as it helps strengthen it.

Just make sure not to be as rough when you first kneaded your dough on the counter as this will break the gluten strands that you built up, but have now relaxed.