Hello. My name is DaNelle, and I used to be addicted to Papa John’s Pizza.
It’s true, my friends. Before I made the switch to real food, before I knew that fake food made with chemicals was contributing to my weight gain, before I even knew what a GMO (genetically modified organism) was, I was inhaling Papa John’s pizza like it was my last meal. Every weekend.
Later I learned that restaurants made their pizza with, well, everything I didn’t want in my body every single weekend. Check out this list of ingredients:
Pizza Dough: Bleached, enriched wheat flour (niacin, iron (reduced), thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), malted barley flour, clear filtered water, sugar, soybean oil, salt, yeast, inactive dried yeast, ascorbic acid, (added as dough conditioner), enzymes.
Pizza Sauce Mix: Fresh tomatoes, sunflower oil/extra virgin olive oil blend, salt, oregano, spices (pepper), citric acid, sugar, garlic, basil, soybean oil, pectinase.
Cheese: Part-skim mozzarella cheese [pasteurized milk, salt, cultures, enzymes], modified starch [derived from corn], sodium propionate (added as a preservative).
I knew I had to recreate that pizza at home. There had to be a better way to make that pizza. Because I’m not a great cook and I am inherently lazy, I gave up after about the third try. And because my husband isn’t picky and doesn’t care if he’s eating a brick with sauce and cheese on it for dinner, we settled for mediocre pizza for about three years. I came to the conclusion that the reason my pizza crust was dense and thick was from of the absence of white flour.
Boy, was I wrong.
Oh, the injustice! Now that I know the secret to making ANY pizza dough recipe light and fluffy, I wish I could go back and tell Past DaNelle the secret to true happiness. I know she’d be real grateful once she got over the shock of seeing herself talking to herself. She’d be cool like that.
So listen up, friends, peeps and stalkers. ‘Cause this one’s good.
Full disclosure: This is not my secret exclusively. It’s a combination of tips from professional pizza chefs. You guys are so lucky you’re getting it now instead of later!
How to make ANY pizza dough recipe LIGHT and FLUFFY!
The first thing you must understand is the reason your pizza sucks ISN’T because of your recipe. If you spend any time on the internet, you’ll find that all pizza dough recipes are pretty similar. Shockingly similar actually. A pizza dough recipe will typically have some water, flour, salt, a little sugar, and oil. How can they all be broken?
So let’s just debunk the Bad Recipe Myth right now. It doesn’t matter what kind of recipe you’re using. White flour dough, half white flour/wheat flour dough, gluten free dough, sourdough, soaked dough, etc.—it doesn’t matter. They will all turn out awesome if you use my little secret.
First things first. Let’s go over the basics of how dough rises.
When you’re making pizza, all ingredients are usually mixed together and then is placed in a bowl to rise. This builds the gluten, a.k.a. the glue that holds the bread together. The yeast (whether it be commercial or natural sourdough yeast) works by metabolizing the sugars in the flour and giving off carbon dioxide as a byproduct. This is what makes your dough rise.
So you’ve got two things working together: The gluten proteins are holding on for dear life while the yeast is being especially gassy. In the case of gluten-free dough, it’s usually a gluten substitute like xanthan gum doing the dirty work. It doesn’t work as well as gluten, but it does a pretty good job.
The PIZZA DOUGH SECRET is divided into three parts.
The first secret is to not add oil when it is mixing. Your flour can’t hydrate properly if you add the oil in first. The flour needs to be sufficiently hydrated to be able to produce enough sugars for the yeast.
What you should do instead is mix all the ingredients and then pour your oil in a bowl. Set your dough in the oil to rise. This accomplishes two things: It allows the flour to be hydrated properly and helps the dough not stick to the side of the bowl. You will see that this is VITAL to making an awesome pizza dough.
The second secret to making a spectacularly light and fluffy pizza dough is in you handle it after it is mixed. How you handle your pizza dough is everything, EVERYTHING, I TELL YOU!
Okay, sorry for yelling. After your dough has doubled in size (while sitting in your bowl of oil), simply turn that bowl upside down onto parchment paper (oil and all). Then ever so gently, lightly press the dough using two fingers into your desired pizza size.
 |
| This is a personal sized pizza, but you can make whatever size your heart desires. |
You must resist the urge to:
- Knead it like bread
- Add more flour
- Toss it in the air
- Become impatient
- Push it with your palms or knuckles or elbows
The third secret is to bake on a pizza stone. Pizza stones are necessary because they get nice and hot in such a way that will help your dough bake evenly. Without a pizza stone, your pizza will have a browned top and an undercooked, doughy crust underneath. Not fun.
No worries though—pizza stones are cheap. You don’t even need a paddle! A cutting board will work fine as you transfer your pizza to the oven.
That’s it! Pretty darn simple, if you ask me!
Click here to see the BEST Pizza Dough Recipe!
Aren’t you glad I told you the secret to making the perfect pizza dough? You’re welcome.
The ingredients in Papa John’s pizza is the least of the reasons to avoid it, imho. The biggest threat to your health is the company itself. Even after they got rid of their toxic founder John Schnatter, this company like most fast food chains is a lousy employer and drives out local restaurants — these things are bad for everyone’s health whether they eat there or not. By all means make your own pizza when you can but when you can’t, do your neighborhood a favor: find a good local pizza joint that makes their own crust and uses real food ingredients.
This may work for you but I guess I shouldn’t mix and match recipes. I proof my yeast in the water first and then add the olive oil to the yeast/water after it starts to foam. I pour that mixture into the flour and salt that’s already in my food processor and let it do the mixing. This has always resulted in delicious crust, baked at 500 on bottom rack for 10 minutes (thin crust). I thought I would try to add the oil after the dough had risen as you suggested, but the dough just sat there like a big lump and didn’t rise light and fluffy as usual. I suspect it was because the dough mixing didn’t happen as quickly in the food processor without the oil. After mixing and scraping down, I finally had to dump it out and push it together by hand before putting it in the covered bowl to rise. So this might work if you follow to a T but it didn’t work for my tried and true pizza crust recipe from Cuisinart. Mixing the dough in the food processor is a breeze and made pizza night a weekly dinner at my house for about five years.
Just a thought on your dough recipe that calls for 2 cups water 4 1/2cups flour,,,thats roughly 84 percent hydration,,, very difficult to handle unless your very experienced, could that be a slight mistake?
Hi Gabriel-
This is the recipe DaNelle uses and it works well for her. As with any recipe though, feel free to make adjustments to make it work for you.
Thank you -Bobbi (DaNelle’s Assistant)
Hi.
I’ve just started milling whole grain berries from the big grain bins at Whole Foods into flour. I use a KitchenAid Grain Mill. I’m not finding any information on the internet on how to make pizza dough using home-milled flour. I know all about commercially available “00” double-milled flour, all-purpose flour, pastry flour, bread flour, those fancy expensive packets of specialty flours, etc. I want to hear from bakers who make pizza dough from their own home-milled flour. I’ve been experimenting all week and wonder if anyone has any tips. Thank you.
I tried the “ don’t add the oil, put it in a bowl then put the dough in the oil after”. Turned out hard and not fluffy at all.
Hi Chris-
Typically pizza doughs turn out hard and not fluffy when they have been handled improperly after rising or they were not allowed to rise long enough. Try to make sure you allowed your dough enough time to rise (so it is doubled in size) and that you handle it very gently, and as little as possible, when you are pressing it onto the parchment paper.
I hope that helps! Best of luck with your next pizza!
Thank you -Bobbi (DaNelle’s Assistant)
yeah me too! I haven’t tried to actually roll out the dough yet – I remixed the oil in and waiting with my fingers crossed to see if the dough rises. It doesn’t look good though….The rationale for putting the oil in later sounded sketchy and unscientific but I thought it was worth trying once.
Can i use vegetable oil instead of olive oil?
Hi Allison-
Yes, you can use vegetable oil, but the taste will be slightly off, plus olive oil is a much healthier choice to use.
Thank you-Bobbi (DaNelle’s Assistant)
No real magic here. Long story short, oven heat is the key folks. Oil is for lubrication and saturation and does contribute to the overall texture in a positive way.. but can be omitted if so desired. You’ll still want to stretch that dough out vs pressing down on it with two fingers, which is still kind of like kneading. Practice makes perfect. Turn your oven on to full and heat up that stone for 40 – 60 minutes, slide the pizza in on top of it and off you go.
I have been making my own pizza for ever. But not to happy with my crust. THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST CRUST EVER. Thank you! ?
Last year, I stumbled upon your recipe whilst searching for pizza crust recipes and it hasn’t been my go to recipe ever since! This is THE best and most successful pizza crust I have ever made. Thank you so much for sharing!!
Amazing!! Absolutely amazing! I’ve been making homemade pizza for years. I always try to use the healthiest ingredients possible and my crust has always tasted good but was never fluffy and more like cardboard texture-wise. Of course like all recipes I did some tweaking 🙂 I use coconut oil instead due to Olive oil’s tendency to go rancid with high heat. And I now use a bread machine and just work out of that rather using all the bowls and oil.
I put the parchment paper on the counter, brush on some coconut oil, then pour some on my hands (or gloves), close the lids between each pizza so the dough keeps rising, and they rise perfectly! Each and every one. Thanks so much for this recipe and the technique! Total life changer 🙂
Hi Tony-
So glad it worked for you! And great tweaks! Happy Baking! -Bobbi (DaNelle’s Assistant)
Tony do you still add oil in the machine as it mixes? I know the article would suggest otherwise or do you just apply the oil to each pizza dough
Are you the famous pizza tosser mentioned in the article? 😉
Thanks for this great article I really cant find any article that explains these details so well. I always wonder why my dough turns out so crispy and not soft
I will try your method next time
And btw the article was really funny ? you made me laugh while reading although
Hi Hiyam-
Thank you so much for reading and posting! I really hope the recipe works great for you. Let us know how it goes! Thank you -Bobbi (DaNelle’s Assistant)
Also, the ingredient list looks pretty clean to me. Ascorbic acid is vitamin C. Pectinase is an enzyme that breaks down pectin (or the starches in fruit). It’s completely natural. Enzymes happen in all places- in your body, and in every living thing. Citric acid is what makes things tart or sour and occurs naturally in citrus fruits. Modified starch is just a starch (like in anything- corn, potatoes, rice, grains, etc.) that has been heated to swell up the starch granules and then dehydrated to make them swell up faster and thicken your sauce quickly when you put it in food without cooking it. Sodium propionate kills mold and various bacteria such as Listeria (which is a huge problem and is nasty- you really don’t want this bacteria in your system). Listeria, unlike many bacteria, can grow quite well in refrigerated conditions. I believe that it is the number one food born illness. This compound also occurs naturally in your body to protect it from pathogens.
Anyways, many people are uninformed on this. Maybe you shouldn’t eat Papa John’s for the high levels of fat and sodium, but not for the ingredient list or for GMO’s.
OMG, Madison! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I am so sick of these scare tactics! If you hadn’t said it, I would have. Now let’s see if my reply actually gets posted or moderated out.
I read the recipe too, and immediately KNEW what the additives were and that they were NOT bad, but most are GOOD for your body and in fact, many REQUIRED by your body to function properly! (yes, I’ve studied nutrition as a major, AND I’m in the medical field.)
I wish these self-proclaimed nutrition and health “experts” would go to school and learn what the ingredient names actually are instead of just jumping on a bandwagon that someone else started as their own agenda!
Simple Simon says…..some people don’t know how to think for themselves, so they follow Simple Simon.
Hi! That’s so awesome that you’re making your own pizza dough and stuck with it in order to experiment and make a great pizza. That’s admirable.
I’m a food scientist and I just want to clarify a few things. GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) aren’t as scary as everyone makes them out to be. They are simply silencing genes or basically vaccinating fruits/vegetables, among other things. GMO’s have saved the papaya industry in Hawaii because a virus was killing all of the fruit. Scientists inserted the inactive DNA from the virus into the fruit, basically vaccinating the fruit. Thanks to GMO’s, we have papayas, bananas, the corn we have today (basically all GMO), and many other things. It can increase the yield of the plant, protecting the environment by destroying less natural habitat for faming for the same amount of food; give the plant genes to increase its natural defenses and decrease the amount of pesticides needed, improve nutritional quality, and other things. It’s basically selectively breeding plants for their good qualities, but faster and more scientific. Without GMO’s, it would be much more difficult to help undermine world hunger and prevent malnutrition (look up Golden Rice).
Whatever, I don’t want to be vaccinated, not reat foods that were “vaccinated”. Enjoy your GMO’s I’m for the real thing.
Vaccinated? A new word for “You mean the process of injecting poisonous weed killer into the genes of a food seed = the true meaning of GMO’s”? No thanks. There’s nothing ‘clean’ about that. No Papa John’s anything.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, Monsanto’s herbicide (designed to kill plants), kills all kinds of plants by disrupting their internal, metabolically essential, 7 step Shikimate pathway. Monsanto created Genetically Modifying Organisms (GMOs) to resist the destruction of their Shikimate pathways when the farmers drench their fields with Roundup throughout the growing season. Human beings do not have a Shikimate pathway. HOWEVER, all our gut bacteria do have the Shikimate pathway! When we eat GMO food plants, the glyphosate that was taken up by the “Roundup ready” plant then kills off our gut bacteria by destroying THEIR essential Shikimate Pathway. Our gut “biome” is essential to digestion and our immune health. Killing it off by eating glyphosate contaminated food is not a good idea!
Have you experimented with deep dishes and tohr cooking style at all? Id like thoughts and tips youd have for the pan change. Would a stone still be recomended?
I haven’t:)
Danelle,
We use Autolyse and more than 48 hours cold fermentation techniques in our shop and that gives amazing crispy crust. We tried 100s of different techniques but this is the best so far. We do have wood-fired oven imported from Italy, which also contribute to crispy crust but these two techniques can give best crust in home oven as well.
Can you please explain cold fermentation process. Thanks
Hi there thank you for the amazing tips you worked very hard for. Do you have any tips for pizzas without using yeast? Thank you very much. You might have already answered this.. There are a zillion comments forgive me for not reading through them..
Unfortunately, I haven’t tried to make it without yeast, so I wouldn’t be much help:)
These are good tips. I also like to take a fork and make holes all throughout my pizza( even the crust). This allows for the heat to penatrate through and cook evenly. You will see how much the crust is better just after doing this.
Hi,
Thanks for these tips. Quick question regarding the technique of cooking the oiled pizza on a stone…. The instructions on my stone say not to place anything oily on the stones. They are very porous and have grease stains where a little cheese has hit the stone during cooking. Additionally, I find I need to use extra flour and corn meal to slide the pizza off the peel onto the stone. How do you get the pizza from the peel to the stone without sticking if its oily?
Hi Martin,
You cook it on the parchment paper and put the entire thing (parchment paper included) on the stone. Works great!
I started making yeast dough pizzas about 42 years ago. The dough is the easiest yeast dough to make in my opinion. The key to a light crust is after the first rise, roll out or toss you finished dough to fit the pan and then spray a little water on it and place it in an oven preheated to about 100 F. Meanwhile, start your gas grill with each burner set to low. One more thing, use a pizza pan that’s perforated. After about 20 minutes, the dough should have risen significantly on the pan. Spray some more water on the edges of the pizza and build it with your sauce and toppings. Try to use whole milk low moisture mozzarella cheese. Preheat your oven to 400 F convection bake. Check your pizza on the grill and when the bottom looks golden brown, remove and place in the oven. About 10-15 minutes at most and you should be amazed at the outcome.
Thank you for the truly wonderful pizza crust, have tried for many/many years…this was wonderful, appreciate the tips also….. crisp but light crust//YES! I say kudos to you
I’m so glad you liked it, Janet!
Best pizza crust I have ever eaten ,sure to impress your friends.
I made the pizza dough I am impressed it is the best pizza crust I have eaten.
Thank you so much for this post, I followed the way you said and the pizza turned out great . It’s probably the best pizza I ever made . Thanks you so much I really appreciate it ??
At last! I may have found help with my pizza dough, thanks to you. I’ve been online reading to the search Yahoo posts in answer to my question….my pizza dough turns out so tough I can hardly get my teeth through it.
Then I went to Google search and found some help with your although my question hasn’t been answered directly.
The recipes I’ve read are to add oil and salt and sugar. Personnaly I don’t like sugar in my pizza dough but have been eager to make homemade pizza instead of buying unheathy GMO pizza starting at 15.00 $ a pop.
Your comments have made me think I add the salt too soon, in the yeast, and the sugar and the oli… Also, I thought it was suppose to be kneaded a few times just like bread. I have been letting it rise to double, but then pounding it down and kneading it again, letting it rise on the pizza pan, then pushing it down to rise again in the oven. Any comments. I also bake the crust for about 7 minutes before adding the toppings so that the crust doesn’t turn out mushy. No?
Hi Sherry,
I think the kneading is where you’re having the problem. Pizza dough should be kneaded BEFORE the rise, but not afterwards:)
P.S. To do things right, you should use buffalo mozzarella, not cow’s milk mozzarella. It may be hard to find and it’s more expensive but you should try an official DOC Neapolitan pizza at least once in your life.
Real Italian Neapolitan pizza dough will not contain oil or sugar. Generally, Italian Tipo 00 flour is used. Many people use 80% Italian flour with 20% American unbleached all purpose flour. There’s a reason for that but I won’t go into that here.Use olive oil to put a light coating on your finished dough ball while it’s in the fridge. Three days is the max. Overnight is the minimum for a good cold rise. Don’t use a rolling pin to roll out your dough…unless you are trying to make matzo. Most modern ovens only go up to 500 degrees. Use a pizza stone and put it up near the top, close to the broiler element. Preheat your oven for at least 30 minutes, 45 is better, at 500 degrees. Let the pizza stone get good and hot. When you slide your pie onto the stone, switch the broiler on. Keep a close eye on things. You may only need a minute or two. Go easy on the toppings and if you made your own sauce, strain off the excess juice. Most new chefs make a huge mess in the oven by adding to much stuff. The crust will be soggy in the middle too. I very rarely put pepperoni or sausage on my pizza but I will do veggies like onion, mushroom and red and green bell peppers. If I do use pepperoni I will sauté it in a pan to get rid of the excess fat. I have a couple ingredients in the sauce and in the toppings that I keep to myself. I make my own dough always and my own sauce always. I use 300-330 grams of dough for a large pie. I have hand tossed my dough but find it’s not necessary. Lots of people prep their pies right on the pizza peel. Use semolina or corn meal to make sure the pizza doesn’t stick to the peel. You can use flour too but if the pizza sits on the flour too long if will get damp and the pie will not slide off easily. If you watch how they make them on the peel on TV, it seems like stretching the dough and adding the sauce and toppings only takes a few seconds, they do it very quickly.
HOW LONG DOES THE DOUGH TAKE TO RISE TO DOUBLE IT’S SIZE, I LIVE IN MICHIGAN & OUR INDOOR TEMP IS USUALLY UNDER 70 IN WINTER IF THAT MATTERS
ALSO IS IT CRITICAL TO MAKE IT AS SOON AS IT RISES TO DOUBLE ITS SIZE? ANY PARTICULAR PIZZA STONE BRAND YOU LIKE? THANKS!!
OH DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR PIE DOUGH? SAME PROBLEM–ALWAYS DOUGHY!
Hi Anne,
You can place it on a heating pad on low and that should help it rise a bit faster here in the winter:) I have a link to my fav stone above:)
Tony? LOL!!!
Papa johns chain conveyor oven temp 511 degrees, 11minutes chain conveyor feed.
DOUGH SHOULD AGE 3DAYS, 4 IS TOO MUCH AN 2 IS 2 LITTLE. LET THE YEAST DO THEIR WORK. WE HAD TO BUY AND ROTATE STOCK IN THE COOLER ON A REGULAR BASIS TO CAPITALIZE ON 3 DAY AGING PROCESS. FYI COOKIES TASTE BETTER IF THE DOUGH RISES FOR 2 DAYS. TIME TO RUN TO THE STORE. 🙂
I’m sorry but what pizza places have 700-1000 degrees ovens? Either very very old coal ovens or brick oven spots do, the average store will have a conveyor or standard brick oven that cannot hit 600 temp,I’ve been in pizza since my driver permit, and if you’re dough doesnt include melted unsalted butter and peanut oil well it should, also dough should proof for 24-48 hours.
A number of pizza places have ovens going at and above 800 farenheit. Especially the Napolitan style pizza joints where the pizza is cooked in 90 seconds.
Most chains will have conveyors or gas oven which operate at lower temp.
For home use, it is difficult to reach a very high temperature so tricks are required.
Agree with you on the proofing. I let my dough proof for minimum 72h in the fridge before cutting it in dough balls.
The good places have ovens that get that hot. No good pizza comes out of a conveyor belt oven. You have been eating shitty pizza your whole life. It happens.
Also, good pizza does not have butter or peanut oil in the crust. Thats for bad pizza to make it palatable.
I don’t have pizza stone, can I use baking sheet, putting up side down and put pizza on it, so baking sheet put at middle rack or bottom? Must i put baking paper at bottom of the pizza?
Upside down metallicn baking tray can help but won’t be as good at storing and giving back heat under the pizza.
I put my pizza as close a possible. To the broiler (which is the resistance at the top of the oven for me)
That sounds like a good idea! I’d try it!
Silly question here about soaking the dough in oil while it rises. I make dough and put it in a bowl to rise. If I put the oil in the bowl after the dough, won’t the dough simply be sitting in a half-inch or so of oil, and thus only the bottom of the dough ball will actually have anything to do with the oil? And how does the oil “get inside” the dough anyway, that way? I thought the whole point was to have the oil actually incorporated into the ball of dough, not just coat the outside of the dough ball…?
The oil cannot get into the dough unless you knead it into it. Ie: capillary effect can’t work.
Google “hydrolyze pizza dough” to see how to “lubricate” you dough efficiently. (basically: you knead the oil into the dough after letting all the water soak into the flour).
Oiling the outside of the dough before proofing prevents drying / formation of a dry crust on the dough.
Thanks, but now I’m even more confused. The article never says to knead the oil into the dough. Are you saying that oil never gets into the dough at all? Or that it should?
Hi Dave,
Pizza dough is not just about the recipe. The technique plays a role in the quality of the end product
A couple of things :
Why are we putting oil at all?
We put oil into the dough because it makes the dough stretchier after the gluten has developed.
It is not mandatory but it helps at the shaping stage.
Using olive oil gives some fragrance to the dough but a neutral oil (canola, rice bran) Also works.
At proofing stage, coating the dough in oil prevents a “crust” to form on the doughball
. This oil doesn’t get into the dough at this stage.
My technique is to combine first 80pct flour with all ingredients except salt and oil. Knead lightly and let the flour soak the water, yeast (and sugar if used). Wait 15 mins. Consistence should be very soft at this stage (semi liquid. It is ok: u just want to hydrate your flour and get the yeast started). The fancy term is to”hydrolize” the flour/dough.
Then add remaining flour + salt and oil. Knead and make your dough. (at this stage 8 put my dough in the fridge in a well oiled container for 3 days. It helps develop the flavor of the dough)
The reason for doing it in 2 steps us simple :water and oil will “compete” for the gluten in the flour if u put everything together and knead in a single step.
A 2 stage approach ensures proper absorption of both liquids by the flour
I put the salt in step 2 as salt inhibits the yeast (and you actually want the yeast to multiply, not fight the salt).
Check the “pizza lab” at” serious eat”.
The guys are fanatics. You will find good recipes and tips for cold retardation (fancy term for “leave your dough alone in the fridge for a few days). They also provide good advice on the baking. (use broiler + pizza stone in your oven)
Btw: 250gr of dough should yield a 12/13 inch pizza.
Enjoy your journey! Pizza making is fun 🙂
My apologies: it is “autolyse” not “hydrolyze”.
Hi Alex,
I found your comment above to be very imformative, but I am not quite understanding what you mean when you said, “80pct flour”. What does “pct” stand for? Is it some kind of measurement? Does it cover to cup/tablespoons? I would really like to try it!
Hi i just saw your website, very interesting, i have problem of making pizza also, my crust is always so hard.. My oven is small, must i preheat the oven to the highest temperature and preheat how long? Should i place the wooden cutting board in the middle rack or bottom? What the different of honey and sugar? Can I use any kind of honey? Your recipe is too much for me, how to make it in half? Garlic and onion powder isn’t necessary? Pls help me,i almost giving up making pizza…
Honey is ok but it will impact the yeast production (perhaps add a bit more yeast if using honey instead of sugar)
In your oven: put your pizza stone at the highest level, closest to the broiler.
That way the stone will be hot (preheat for 30min).
The drawback is that u will need a peel to put your pizza in. The benefit is that u can get pretty good results with this “tweak” as it allows your pizza to be cooked at the highest temperature your oven can deliver (pro pizzerias operate at 800/1000 farenheit sometimes)
Joline,
I’m not sure how long to preheat your oven, you’ll have to refer to the user manual for that. Also, don’t place a wooden cutting board inside the oven. A wooden paddle is often used to transport the pizza, but never to cook on, as wood burns. The difference between honey and sugar is that honey is made by bees and is a thick liquid. You can get sugar or honey at any store, and either will work for this recipe, so it’s up to you:) You can cut the recipe in half by cutting all the ingredients in half. So, if a recipe calls for 1 cup, simply use 1/2 cup instead. You can omit the garlic and onion if you choose, but it will reduce the flavor significantly. Good luck!
I tried this and it had a wonderful taste. Most unusual pizza recipe I have ever seen. Because the dough was wet when I was mixing it in my kitchen with dough hook on highest setting it could go, I added more flour. Was this a mistake? Also pizza was brown on top and bottom but it was not a crispy bottom crust but soft. If you can help me figure out how to get the bottom crust crispy – this will be the BEST recipe ever! Thank you!!
Hi Lisa-
As long as you added the flour slowly and didn’t make the crust too dry it should be ok to add the flour.
If you did not use a pizza stone I would suggest doing that so crust comes out done on the bottom. Make sure your oven is hot and you cook it long enough.
Thank you -Bobbi (DaNelle’s Assistant)
Hi am phil from Uganda i tried my best with the pizza and it worked better than yesterday however it was very hard i would like to make it softer next time otherwise thanks again
This recipe was the best!!! Thanks so much
Yay! I’m glad you liked it!
Brad,
The recipe is in the link placed at the end of the article.
Well… Click here 🙂
https://www.weedemandreap.com/the-best-pizza-dough-recipe/
Where are the ingredients to this recipe it doesn’t seem to be on this page ?
Where are the ingredients to this recipe ?
I have read your book and printed out all the directions and recipes. Week One Friday has “Homemade Pizza” for dinner. The recipe included in the book is not this one (above) but is the “Light & Fluffy” recipe calling for soaking the flour. “The Breakdown” for Week One does not mention flour-soaking at all and just says “45 min” for making the Pizza.
So it sounds like you meant to use this (above) recipe in the book instead of the one (soaked flour) included…..
Please tell me, tho, since the recipe in the book calls for soaking the flour 12 hours…how do you do that before / by needing it for dinner? Assuming most people want to start dinner around 5-6 PM, starting the soak 12 hours prior would be first thing in the morning, eh?
Yep, that’s right:) You can also do my quick pizza dough recipe as well:)
Used bread flour and all-purpose flour because that is what I had. Dough was way too wet. Added another 3/4 cup of flour, but it was still very sticky. Went ahead and decided to let it rise. It was still soft, but not as sticky after it rose. Baked it. It rose well, but some parts were still doughy. The outside was edges were crunchy-yum. Will try to spread out more and cook longer next time. Did anyone else have problems with wet, sticky dough?
For a thin crust you can stretch it without concern for the bubbles, let it rise again after it’s formed and then move to the hot stone.
I made this two weekends ago and it was amazing. I also used 1/2 cup of organic milled flax seed. The dough was fluffy and my nephew said it was better than Papa Johns, my ant told me it was better than California Pizza Kitchen and my brother said it was one of the best pizzas ever!
That’s awesome!
What if I don’t have a pizza stone? Can I just use a baking sheet? And if so do I still set my oven to 500 degrees?
Hi Jordan,
You can definitely use a baking sheet, you just may have to cook it a bit longer to make sure the bottom is well-cooked:)
I tried this last night and it came out wonderful, all in all. I found it to be too salty (and I like salt!) but I am pretty sure this is my fault, as I also added a few TBS parmesan cheese to the crust, so if I do that again, I will definitely reduce the salt. I used a combination of wheat flour and bread flour, and it came out light and fluffy. For my next round I am going to reduce the oil by at least half. I found it to be way too much…it was dripping off the dough and ended up all over my counter anyway. I had a little trouble with the baking, although yesterday was my first time ever using a pizza stone. (I bought one specifically on your recommendation.) I found that after 5 minutes at 500, it was starting to burn on the botton, while the top wasnt done. (I always precook my toppings slightly to prevent sogginess too.) I ended up switching the oven to boil, to finish the baking, and it came out great. I am super glad I found your site! Thanks for the great info!!
wow – can’t wait to get home and try this ! love, Ollie Bear 🙂
I made this crust twice now and while the flavor is great, it is not light and airy. There really aren’t any air bubbles in the crust at all. I don’t believe that the problem is with the yeast and I do place the dough in two separate bowls with 1/4 cup of olive oil in each. I bake on parchment paper on a pizza stone and handle the dough as you instructed. Any ideas what I am doing wrong? Thanks!
Are you letting it rise long enough? If they doubled in size, they should have air bubbles in them.
Tried this recipe and loved the flavor, but the crust came out thick and doughy like raw bread and did not brown at all. It also stuck horribly to the parchment paper. I used a pizza stone and used your natural yeast recipe. Any suggestions?
I think it could be one or both of the following: 1) You need to add more flour 2) You need to bake it longer. I always bake my pizza until the cheese is almost too browned. The longer on the pizza stone, the better it does.
Ok! I’m guessing that I need to add more flour because I baked it for about 20 mins at 500 with no change. Im also guessing that i need to spread it a bit thinner and make sure that there is a decent layer of olive oil between the parchment and the dough? Thanks for the tip! 🙂
Alright!! I have to try this at home immediately. I and wifey tried 1st Whole wheat flour and 2nd with all purpose flour and both came out pretty thick and hard. One more difference is that I have always used Baking Soda (in place of Yeast), do you think I should switch over to Yeast as well?
Absolutely. Yeast will work better than baking soda:)
Can I use bread flour? Thanks
I regularly find good recipes on the internets, but I’m never compelled to come back and comment on how it turned out. I just had to let you know how AWESOME this method is. I have been trying unsuccessfully for many years to make a good pizza crust…until yesterday when I stumbled across this super helpful post! I used my own recipe, but applied your technique and it turned out absolutely delicious. I let the dough rise in garlic infused olive oil. After I pressed it to size on the parchment, I put it in my cast iron skillet (along with the oil), added my toppings and baked for 15 min at 425. I’ll never make pizza any other way again. SO GOOD. Super light and airy and crispy on the bottom. Thank you for sharing this!!!
Thanks for the tips! I can’t wait to give this a try! I’m new to the whole soaking thing and was wondering if you could explain how to convert this to a soaked recipe? I think I should just add a couple of tbsp of ACV with the water and flour and let it soak overnight but I’m not sure if I should add more water bc it may become too dry? Also do you have a pizza sauce recipe that you prefer? Thank you!
I tried this tonight, but used Namaste Perfect Flour which is gluten free. I have a gluten sensitivity. I used everything else the same, tho I only did half the recipe to see how it would taste…dont want to waste that flour. Anyway, it didnt rise at all, but was really good! I left it in for about 16 min or so. I used Pacific Roasted Red Pepper Soup instead of sauce, mini Hormel pepperoni, & cheese….I would say that if your doing GF flour dont use the full amount of oil. Next time I’m going to half it because it just doesnt soak in.
You rock! I’ve been making homemade pizza for several years and never was happy with my wheat crust. As others said, too hard and dense. I read all the comments and tried your recipe ….they’re right! Very light and the taste was amazing. I precooked the crust for a few minutes before adding my favorite toppings. Can I freeze the second dough?
Appreciate you sharing and helping me create the “perfect pizza”
Awesome!
I’m back…because this recipe is SO good it deserves a second comment. It’s still blowing my mind. Haven’t been to Papa John’s since we found this recipe! Definitely helped in the transition to real food. Over the holidays I made this pizza for my family and my single brother who frequents Papa John’s gave me the best compliment. He said my pizza was better. =) So, AGAIN, thanks!
Debbey, if you don’t have a pizza stone you can use an baking sheet, but you have to turn it upside down so the pizza rests on what is usually the bottom. Put the sheet in to preheat just like you would the stone and transfer the pizza into the oven on parchment. Works for me. Good luck!
Awesome!!
can I use active dry yeast ? instead of rapidrise yest ?
Yes:)
I did, but I added a teaspoon of sugar to help it bloom. Also, I let it bubble for five minutes before I added it to the other ingredients…turned out great!
THANK YOU for this tip! I’ve been making pizza at home for years now and I’ve always struggled to get my dough to be light and fluffy. It always comes out dense and hard as a rock. Who knew it could be so simple? I didn’t even have to alter my recipe that much. So again, thank you!!! So glad I stumbled across this entry. 🙂
hello, i am from India. i followed your recipe step by step . pizza was light and soft but it was not airy or i can say there was no air bubbles in my pizza , what could be the reason?i baked in pan as i dont have pizza stone. i really want to make pizza like yours shown in picture , please help.
If you put some oil in the bowl while rising, it should help create nice air bubbles for it. And be sure to touch it gently.
You are my favorite person in the whole world.
Made my pizza recipe using YOUR methods. PERFECT!
Light fluffy WHOLE GRAIN AND ORGANIC PIZZA!!
No more tough thickness that my husband hates!
I was about to give up on homemade pizza night and now IT’S BACK!
THANK YOU!
Always thought it was the switch to whole grain that did me in but its NOT! Silly kneading! Who needs it! pun intended!
I just love your site, thanks for always sharing your awesome recipes.
I love Papa John’s too.. something about the sweetness of their sauce and crust is addictive. Yeah, the sweetness is probably what’s addictive. I see you have an entire quarter cup of honey… looks like you got it right!
This is the BEST most HELPFUL information I have ever received and used in my entire computer literate life!
I used my dough recipe but didn’t put oil in the dough, used my pizza stone with the parchment, (I had been utilizing parchment on cookie sheets), and most important just dump the dough and spread with your fingers leaving as much air as possible!
I used 1/3 whole wheat in my dough and 2/3 bread flour and my pizza came out just like the pizzaria!!!
Awesome! Thank you for these 3 tips!
Karen
I just love your book and your site!! I’m just wondering if there is a reason you use wheat instead of spelt? Isn’t all wheat altered and not good anymore, or does the soaking and sprouting change that? thanks!
You mentioned that it turns out great with gluten free flours. I can’t wait to try this! What was your flour mix that you used? Thanks!
I use wheat, but the method works the same for any flour.
Would you use yeast with gluten/grain free flours? And/or xantham gum and how much?
Thanks for giving out your secret 🙂
DaNelle, I recently purchased sprouted spelt and sprouted whole wheat flour. When it came to me, it said berries. Spelt Berries and Wheat Berries. You mentioned in an earlier Blog that you ground your own flour. Is this what you used to ground your own flour? How do you ground your flour? Thank you!
You can use a Blendtec or a Wondermill grinder. If you can’t get one of those, I would call the company, because if it says flour, it should be flour not berries.
Do you think this would work mixing by hand or in a food processor? I have no mixer.
I did it by hand lastnight…came out fine. I used DaNelle’s mixer times to gauge how long to mix…used a folding motion instead of kneeding.
Sure, Colleen!
I soaked about 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour along with the honey, garlic powder, onion powder in 1 1/2 cups of water (does not need to be warm) and 2 tbls of apple cider vinegar. Just mix it all together until all the four is moist and then cover for 12-24 hours.
The next day I proofed the yeast in another 1/2 cup of water (does need to be warm) and a tsp or so of honey. I added the yeast water, salt and 2+ cups of refined flour to the overnight mixture until it was the right consistency.
Then proceed with the rest of the recipe as outlined above.
Hope that helps!
Michelle, will you share your soaked recipe and how you adapted it?
DaNelle…you are heaven sent. I made this last night and it was like Papa John’s in my kitchen, but BETTER!! Flavorful, light and chewy. Seriously the best homemade pizza I’ve ever had. I adapted your quick recipe into a soaked recipe because I’m just getting into proper grain preparation and don’t have sourdough starter yet. It worked great.
Great recipes!
Just wondering, how would be the best way to save the other half of the dough for another meal? Pre-bake and freeze? Or is there another way that would be best. This is my first foray into homemade pizza crust from scratch instead of Bisquick.
Actually, you can totally freeze dough right after adding the yeast, but before it rises. Just place it in a ziploc bag, and when you need to use it, remove it about 6 hours before dinner time. Works perfect!
I tried this recipe. I do really like it. I love not having to fight the dough with a rolling pin to get it to spread out. With this recipe and the ease of working with the dough, I get perfectly round pizza every time. The dough is very easy to work with and it tastes very good too. I will definitely keep this recipe! Thanks so much for this recipe. I have been searching the internet on how to make dough like this for years. Thanks again. Vikki
I forgot to mention. The next time I do this recipe I will probably split the dough into 3 sections just so I get a thinner crust. I split it into 2 and one dough was ok and the other was a little thicker.
You are my hero! I have had little success making whole wheat pizza crust until I found this recipe. This is seriously the best pizza I have ever eaten! Thank you! Thank you!
HELP! I’m a little confused. You mentioned having 2 pizza recipes. Is the longer bread version the main one you use? I have been working on my sourdough starter (which would appear not to be used in your quicker version). So I prepare it just as if I’m making bread (except use 1 tsp of baking soda instead of 2) including sticking it in the warm oven for a period of time, etc., and then roll it out instead of putting it in the loaves? I’m planning to make both the pizza dough and bread tomorrow and am starting to confuse myself! Thanks!
Yes, my 45 min. recipes doesn’t use sourdough or baking soda. Rise your dough in an oiled bowl and then shape it just like I say above. Hope that helps!
Tried this tonight and the kids declared it the best crust I’ve ever made them, score! I doubled the recipe and even had to mess with the flours a bit. I was running out of all purpose and whole wheat so I used those up and made up the difference with some bread flour and spelt flour. I added some dried oregano to it also. This will be the method I use from now on. I might try it with sourdough next time. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I was SO excited to see this when you first posted it! I prefer to only use whole wheat flour and pizza dough just never turns out well. I tried you method tonight and it is the best dough I’ve ever made!!! I made a few changes. I used whole wheat only and chopped garlic instead of powder b/c those were all I had. And I mixed the honey, water and yeast together to activate the yeast before adding the other dry ingredients. I noticed that not all of the oil was absorbed and I was curious if that’s how your’s is as well? I love EVOO and with the price of the organic I don’t want to waste a drop! 😉 Thanks for all you do. You are hands down my favorite healthy food blogger.
Well crud. I tried this last night and it came out dense and chewy, not light and fluffy. I’m not sure what went wrong 🙁 I will try again, though!
Dang it! Is your yeast good? To check, you can mix a couple teaspoons of yeast with some warm water and sugar. If it hasn’t bubbled in 15 minutes, then it’s not good.
1/2 cup of olive oil? Just want to make sure. Seems like a lot. Going to try this weekend.
The 1/2 c. olive oil is divided two ways if you’re making 2 deep dish pizzas, or 3 ways if you are making 3 thin crusts. It’s not that much when you break it down, plus fat is good for you;)
Isnt olive oil not supposed to be heated to a high temp?
Wow, that was really good! I might tweak the recipe a bit to my liking, but overall, the method is definitely a winner! Thanks for this!!!!
Also, do you prebake your crust before you top it?
I normally don’t prebake the crust, but I’ve considered it. Try it and tell us how it works!
I’ve made it twice now – but I used 3 TBS of yeast both times LOL. I’ll try it again not pre-baking it w/the 1 TBS instead and see how that goes. The flavor is just amazing!!!
Did you by chance mean 3tsp of yeast? I make dough with similar amounts of everything else but only 2 tsp of yeast. 3 TBS is 9 tsp which seems like a crazy amount for only 4-5 cups of flour. But I guess that’s why the dough is so fluffy is all that yeast.
GAH! Yes, I mean 3 tsp. So sorry for the confusion!
It said tsp. It said TBSP of HONEY.
This is actually about twice the size of my recipe and I use 2 1/4 tsp for mine so yours seems a little scant.
I am going to try not punching it down after the rise though because I intentionally was looking for a recipe with softer crust. Wish I had a stone but will have to make do.
I’m hoping I can try this with my gluten free dough, it can be pretty dense. Thanks for the pointers!
how does this work with gluten free flour or grain free flours???
Great!
Thanks. I’ve been searching for ages for a seriously light preferably non toxic pizza dough recipe. I haven’t tried it yet but I am chock full of confidence, inasmuch as your tweaks are based on the science of the process. You are (probably) MIGHTY.
Thanks Dear! I’m gonna make some pizza! Hope it turns our good 🙂
Your pizza pictures look great!! Love the way u write 🙂 thanks a lot for the tips! 🙂
Thank you!
A cast iron pan works as well as a pizza stone. I use both, love them both. Whichever you use, you get the best results by preheating the stone/cast pan while the oven is heating, then adding you pizza/bread. That way the bottom begins cooking before the top starts browning.
Excellent! I’m making it now but can you clarify the step with the oil in the bowl? I think there’s something extra there?
Just put the oil in the bottom of the bowl and place your dough in there. Cover and let rise
It came out perfectly! I made a chicken ceasar salad pizza, came out delicious. Thanks!
Yep, I do all whole wheat crust and it works great. I definitely agree with your recommendation for using a pizza stone. Have you ever tried it on a charcoal grill? Amazing… closest thing to wood-fired pizza you can get at home.
I just bought a stone yesterday…can you explain how to use it on a grill? Does the lid have to be down? Im not sure my stone would fit in my grill completely (with the lid down).
Don’t be hesitant to use all whole wheat flour in your crust. I always do and it turns out light and fluffy. Although, i am going to try thr oil trick next time. One more secret, add 1/2 tsp of vitamin C powder. It will get those bubbles going! I like to get pizza from a small gas station down the street. Mostly because fo the lazy factor. But the family prefers mine…i do too actually, but wish the pizza fairy would come in and make it for me!
I can’t wait to try this!
Best pizza dough I ever made! Thanks,,,,,,
Thanks! Wondered why it was so unfluffy!