The Best Pizza Dough

Name: The Best Pizza Dough
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 2 crusts (8 servings each).
Cuisine: Asian Appetizers, Asian Dinners, Indian Recipes, Italian Dinners, Italian Pizza Recipes, Italian Recipes
Ingredients: 1-1/4 cups warm water (110° to 115°); 2 teaspoons sugar, divided; 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast; 3-1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose or 00 flour; 1 teaspoon sea salt; 1 teaspoon each dried basil, oregano and marjoram, optional; 1/3 cup vegetable or olive oil

This easy pizza dough recipe is the key to making an extraordinary homemade pizza. We use all-purpose flour because double zero is hard to find. But if you're lucky enough to live near an Italian market or willing to purchase double zero flour online, using this flour will take your crust to the next level. You won't be disappointed with the results! —Josh Rink, Taste of Home Food Stylist

Ingredients

1-1/4 cups warm water (110° to 115°)
2 teaspoons sugar, divided
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
3-1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose or 00 flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon each dried basil, oregano and marjoram, optional
1/3 cup vegetable or olive oil

Directions

In a small bowl, mix warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar; add yeast and whisk until dissolved. Let stand until bubbles form on surface. In a large bowl, whisk 3 cups flour, salt, remaining 1 teaspoon sugar and if desired, dried herbs. Make a well in center; add yeast mixture and oil. Stir until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
Turn onto a floured surface; knead, adding more flour to surface as needed until no longer sticky and dough is smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a large greased bowl; turn once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes; transfer bowl to refrigerator and chill overnight. Allow dough to come to room temperature before rolling, about 30 minutes.

Test Kitchen tip

All-purpose flour is an easy choice for this recipe; but if you're willing to go the extra mile and use 00 flour (usually imported from Italy), the dough will have a noticeably silkier texture. Customize the crust and increase the flavor by adding dried herbs such as basil or oregano, and substituting garlic or onion salt for the sea salt.

Nutrition Facts

1 piece: 144 calories, 5g fat (1g saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 121mg sodium, 22g carbohydrate (1g sugars, 1g fiber), 3g protein.

Reviews

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Average Rating:

Rebecca

May 10, 2020

Incredible! Delicious- flavorful, amazing texture and EASY! This was a great recipe and I’m so happy we have it now for Friday’s during the quarantine!!!
NH-rescue

Apr 30, 2020

This is one of the few recipes I have found that uses 00 flour (which I have a large bag of.) I found this dough easy to work with. Other optional add-ins you could try in addition to the herbs might be grated parmesan cheese or garlic powder. We often spread a thin layer of minced garlic (from a tube) on top of the crust before baking. Delicious!
Cheryl_933

Apr 30, 2020

I thought it was tasteless. Not at all deserving of 'the best' of anything.
ms11145

Apr 28, 2020

This is the same recipe that my Mom passed down to me years ago. The only difference is that I had never refrigerated my dough before until last evening. I didn't see any difference in the dough itself. Both ways are easy enough to shape into a round shape. I also add some corn meal to my stone before shaping the dough onto it. For an extra herb kick, I also spread herb butter onto the dough (lightly) before adding the pizza sauce and toppings.
Christi

Apr 21, 2020

Just made this a third time. We freeze the baked crusts and thaw them when we want a pizza. Take out and frozen commercial pizza is loaded with sodium. These crusts and our homemade sauce give us a truly excellent pizza that keeps sodium levels down. Green pepper and purple onion are our favorite toppings. This crust recipe has been a wonderful find! Thank you!
Paula

Apr 15, 2020

Great recipe - and easy too!
Esther

Apr 5, 2020

Tried the dough! It was excellent ! Thank you for sharing the receipe!
ReneeMurby

Feb 29, 2020

Good Dough. Held up well to the toppings. Great chew.
amsm

Feb 16, 2020

We enjoyed this crust. The only thing I didn't like was that you have to make it the day before, so you have to plan ahead. It was crisp and rolled out nice. I did adjust the seasonings and only added a scant teaspoon of an Italian mix blend. Other wise I followed everything exactly. I was able to make one pizza for my kids and one for the adults!
Susan

Feb 16, 2020

Very nice dough. Made the dough early in the morning and let it rest in refrigerator until dinner time, made one pizza and put the second half of dough in refrigerator. My intention was to put it in a freezer bag the next day but we liked it so much I made another pizza the next day. That dough was also wonderful