Simple, 4-Ingredient Homemade Pizza Dough

Made with 4 ingredients — flour, water, salt, and yeast — this simple, no-knead pizza dough recipe can be ready start to finish in 3 hours. It produces a pizza with a ballooned edge and crisp but pliable crust. You can use the dough the same day you mix it or store it in the fridge for up to 5 days (or freeze it

let’s get straight to it. This is a 4-ingredient, high-hydration, no-knead dough. It is the simplest of the simple homemade pizza recipes and, in my opinion, the tastiest, too. If you have time to prep your dough a few days in advance, you’ll be setting yourself up for serious pizza bliss (read on to learn why) but know that you can make excellent pizza, start to finish, in 3 hours.

Why High-Hydration Pizza Dough is Best For a Home Oven

High-hydration doughs, such as this overnight focaccia, are doughs made with a high proportion of water relative to the flour. This high proportion of water creates a pizza crust that stays crisp but moist during the cooking process with beautiful air pockets throughout.

Those bubbles become these ballooned textures throughout the dough

4 Tips for Making Excellent Pizza at Home

  • Use good, unbleached, and unbromated flour=King Arthur bread or all-purpose flour is my favorite. What is the difference between bread and all-purpose flour? Mostly the protein content. KAF bread flour has a higher protein content (12.7% protein) than the all-purpose flour (11.7% protein). A dough made with bread flour as opposed to all-purpose flour will absorb slightly more liquid and will therefore be slightly stiffer. If you live in a humid environment and often find your dough to be too wet, using bread flour may help. What about Tipo 00 Flour? Tipo 00 flour is the flour required in the production of D.O.C. Neapolitan pizza. Contrary to popular belief, the “00” is not an indicator of protein content. It refers, rather, to the fineness of the milling, “00” being the finest grade in the Italian classification system. It is known for the extensible gluten structure it creates in pizza dough.
  • Don’t be afraid of salt.
  • Salt is important in pizza dough not only for flavor but also for strengthening gluten and controlling fermentation. My preference is Diamond Crystal kosher salt or Baleine fine sea salt, both of which dissolve quickly.
  • Invest in a Baking Steel.

 

The single best and easiest/most affordable step you can take to make better pizza at home is to invest in a Baking Steel. In short, steel is a more conductive cooking surface than stone. This means heat transfers more quickly from steel to food than it does from stone to food.

 

If time permits, make your dough several days in advance.

  • Why? Because: during a long, slow, cold fermentation, enzymes in both the flour and the yeast will break down the starches in the flour into simple sugars, which will contribute both to flavor and to browning. Moreover, during this time in the fridge, the dough will relax, making it easier to stretch into rounds on baking day.

How to Make Pizza Dough, Step by Step

  • Add water, and …

  • Mix to form a sticky dough ball

  • Let rise in a warm spot till nearly doubled, about 1.5 hours.

 

  • Turn out onto a floured work surface.

  • Divide into four portions and.

  • Ball up, using as much flour as needed.

If you are baking pizza immediately, let the dough rest for another hour before shaping. Otherwise, transfer the balls to storage containers and stick them in the fridge

When it’s time to bake, transfer the dough rounds to a lidded vessel such as a DoughMate or a 9×13-inch baking dish covered with plastic wrap (to prevent the dough from drying out), and let the rounds sit for about an hour at room temperature.

When the dough has proofed, gently stretch it into an 11-inch round, using lightly floured hands:

Get your toppings ready. For a classic Margherita pizza, you’ll need tomato sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil.

Spread about 2 ounces of tomato sauce over your dough.Top with about 3 ounces of mozzarella. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake on a preheated baking steel at 550ºF for 5 to 6 minutes. Shower with fresh basil out of the oven.The beauty of the baking Steel + high hydration dough: oven spring.

Recipe adapted from Alexandra Stafford.