Homemade basic pizza dough recipe

Homemade basic pizza dough recipe. Our go-to pizza dough recipe always delivers and never disappoints. It makes three thin crust pizzas or two thick ones. With our homemade basic pizza dough recipe your pizza night will be delightful!

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Pizza Night

As a matter of fact, we celebrate pizza night once a week. Friday -or Saturday- night is usually the dedicated day. When we want to make homemade pizza, this is the basic pizza dough recipe we have been following for a long time.

Homemade basic pizza dough recipe

What we like about this recipe is that it is not too complicated to achieve, and it always delivers incredible pizzas. The crust is crispy on the border, and soft and airy in the middle. I know you can find pre-made pizza doughs fresh, frozen, pre-cooked, but pizza crust made from-scratch has unbeatable flavor and texture. Plus, the satisfaction you've made it yourself!

What you will need for this Homemade basic pizza dough recipe

Flour, yeast, water, salt, and olive oil are the basic ingredients. This recipe makes three 12-inch thin crust pizzas (the plural for pizza is pizze, in Italian), or 2 thick crust ones. I prefer weighing the ingredients as it is more precise. I normally have all ingredients measured in ramekins, ready to go in the order of the recipe. Sometimes I use just a bowl and knead by hand, other times I use a food processor, or a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.

These are the ingredients (full printable recipe is below):

• 500 g 'farina 00' (or unbleached all-purpose, or a mix of the two)
• 300 ml water, at room temperature
• 2 g active dry yeast (or 5 g fresh "baker's" yeast)
• a pinch of sugar, optional
• 10 g fine sea salt
• 35 g extra virgin olive oil

Bowl, food processor, or stand mixer

In order to make the dough, you can use a large bowl, a food processor, or a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. I've tried all three methods multiple times and they all work beautifully. It mostly depends on how much time I have. This is how to do it:

1. In a small bowl, add some of the water, the dry yeast or crumbled fresh yeast (you can add a pinch of sugar, too). Stir, and let dissolve, about 5 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, or the bowl of a food processor or stand mixer, add the flour, the water/yeast mixture and start mixing on low. In the case of a food processor, pulse the ingredients. Add the salt, the rest of the water, and keep mixing, or pulsing. Lastly, slowly, (we say "a filo") add the oil and mix, or pulse, until the dough starts to form (or it starts to pull away from the sides of the food processor or stand mixer bowl).
3. Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it for a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Form it into a ball, cover it with a bowl placed upside down, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

The fold

Once rested, give the dough a small fold: stretch the ends to form a rectangle and fold into the center, turn it 90 degrees and do the same. Then, form it back into a ball. Transfer the ball of dough into a lightly oiled bowl, and cover with cling wrap. KITCHEN TIP: oil the plastic wrap or the top of the pizza dough so the plastic won't stick to the dough when it rises.

Let it rise

Transfer the bowl to a warm place, away from air draughts. Let the dough rest for 3 hours, or until doubled in size. KITCHEN TIP: I normally put the bowl in the oven, turned off, with the light on.

Divide the dough

Then, divide the dough into 3 more or less even pieces for a thin crust, or 2 for a thick crust. KITCHEN TIP: I use a scale to weigh the pieces. (Each should be about 270-280 grams for a thin crust). Take each piece and shape it again into a ball. At this point, you can freeze one or two dough balls.

Can you freeze the dough ball?

Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I always make the full recipe and freeze the one/s we are going to use at a later day. Simply wrap each ball in plastic wrap and place into a ziplock bag and into the freezer.

When you want to use the dough, take it out of the freezer, unwrap, and place into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and also place a tea towel on top, the place into the oven with only the oven light on. Usually we take the frozen dough out in the morning and by evening it is proofed and ready to stretch.

Let rise again

The dough ball/s you are going to use, need to rise once more before being used. Place it on a semolina floured surface and cover it with plastic wrap or a towel so it does not dry out. In the meantime, turn your oven on, it has to be super hot.

When ready, you can stretch the dough and top it with your favorite toppings.

How to stretch it

We often stretch it right in the pizza pan. Lightly oil a pizza pan, then place the dough on and spread it with your fingertips from the center outward until it reaches the desired width. You can stretch it as thin or thick as you want (we like ours pretty thin).

You can also stretch it on a fair amount of semolina flour and place onto a pizza paddle before dressing with your toppings. Don't forget to add abundant cornmeal or semolina flour on the pizza paddle or it will stick and won't slide onto the pizza stone.

Our favorite Italian pizzas

Once you have your Homemade basic pizza dough ready, you can choose among plenty of pizza toppings. Our most favorite ones are:

• Capricciosa Pizza
• Pizza with mortadella, burrata, and pistachios
• Pizza Funghi e Salsiccia (Mushroom and Sausage Pizza)
• Pizza Radicchio, Fontina and Walnuts
• Taleggio Mushroom & Fresh Herb Pizza
• Zucchini blossom and anchovy Pizza (fiori di zucca e alici)
• Pizza Patate e Rosmarino

Have fun making pizza and enjoy your pizza night!

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