Same-Day Pizza Dough
This same-day pizza dough recipe produces a perfectly chewy and airy pizza crust compatible with all different cooking methods! I love being able to throw together a pizza for a delicious weeknight dinner without tons of time and fuss. Great pizza doesn’t have to take days and this fool-proof recipe will prove it!
How to Make Same-Day Pizza Dough
This recipe is so easy to make AND freeze for future use! Using a stand mixer makes easy work of kneading the dough, but you can knead by hand too.
Tools Needed
Ingredients you’ll Need
- Flour. Both all-purpose and ’00’ flour make this crust perfectly crisp and chewy.
- Active dry yeast. Active dry yeast is my go-to, but you could swap instant if necessary.
- Olive oil. Use a good-quality olive oil here.
- Fine sea salt. When I make dough, I prefer fine sea salt over kosher salt because it’s much easier to dissolve.
- Water. Optimal water temperature is about 100 F.
Weighing vs. Measuring Pizza Dough Ingredients
You may be wondering why this recipe is in grams vs. volume measurements and the answer is simple: when it comes to baking, weight is the most accurate measurement.
Most of my baking recipes, especially breads and doughs, will turn out better if you take the time to weigh the ingredients for more accuracy. The exception to this rule is yeast because it’s so light that it’s hard to register unless you have a special scale.
I do have volume measurements here for ease, but I highly recommend investing the small amount of money in a kitchen scale for future baking projects.
The Best Flour for Pizza Dough
If you haven’t heard of ’00’ (literally double zero) flour, it’s the gold standard for pizza crust and pasta. ’00’ flour is a super-finely ground Italian flour. 00 refers to the coarseness of the milling (the finest).
The combination of ’00’ and all-purpose flour yields the perfect crust–crispy and chewy with lots of airiness. You can easily find ’00’ flour at most well-stocked grocery stores like Central Market, Whole Foods, Sprouts, etc. as well as on amazon HERE.
Making Same-Day Pizza Dough
I love that you can make this same-day pizza dough and a couple of hours later have pizza on the table! You’ll still get tons of flavor in the dough and this recipe makes enough to have a pizza party while still having some leftover dough to freeze for next time.
- Mix the dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, whisk together the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the warm water and the olive oil and mix on medium-low for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth.
- 1st rise. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise for about 2 hours or until it’s doubled in size.
- Shape. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. I like to use a scale here and dough balls that weigh 220g make about 11-12″ pizzas, perfect for a pizza stone or pizza oven. You want to create balls of dough that are smooth and tight (see video below).
- Proof. After you’ve shaped your dough balls, transfer them to a well-greased dough proofing box and lightly spray the tops of the dough with non-stick spray so they don’t dry out. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours before using. The dough will also last for at least 2 days in the fridge in this state and the flavors will only develop more over time.
How to shape pizza dough balls
One of the most important parts about getting the perfect crust is the shaping of the dough. You want to create smooth and tight dough balls because the surface tension makes them better for shaping. You will end up with a perfectly round pizza crust.
After you’ve gone through the work of shaping these dough balls, don’t you dare roll out that pizza dough and deflate all the beautiful bubbles. Press down on the dough ball on a well-floured surface to deflate it a little, then gently stretch the dough into an 11-12″ circle. If the dough springs back, wait 5 minutes and keep stretching. From here, you can top and bake it.
How to Freeze Pizza Dough
The best part of this same-day pizza dough is that you can freeze the dough balls for future use! After you shape your dough balls, lay them out on a parchment lined baking sheet. Transfer to the freezer for 2 hours. At this point, you can transfer the frozen dough balls to an airtight container or freezer-safe ziplock bag.
To defrost: transfer the frozen dough to a greased dough proofing container and lightly spray the tops of the dough balls with non-stick spray. Cover and defrost in the fridge overnight. Bring to room temperature for 1 hour before shaping into crust.
Pizza Cooking Methods
Now that you have the dough, what’s the best way to cook a pizza? There are so many ways, but here are some of my favorites!
- Pizza oven. Obviously not everyone has a pizza oven, but my husband got me one for our anniversary and I am OBSESSED. We have the Gozney Roccbox and it truly makes the most superior pizza. It’s an investment for sure, but if you love pizza it’s a great one!
- Pizza stone. If you don’t have a pizza oven, the next best option is a pizza stone or steel! Make sure to preheat the stone in the oven for at least an hour before baking.
- Cast iron skillet. If you don’t mind a slightly thicker crust, baking a pizza in a cast iron skillet is one of my favorite methods that’s super cost effective. I’ve got a whole recipe dedicated to skillet pizza here.
- Baking sheet. Stretch your dough out onto a greased baking sheet, top, and bake at high temperature for a rustic and delicious pizza.
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Same-Day Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 300 g (about 2 1/3 cups) '00' flour
- 300 g (about 2 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 12 g fine sea salt
- 350 g (about 1 1/2 cups) warm water, no warmer than 100 F
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, whisk together the flour, yeast, and salt. Pour in the water and olive oil and mix on medium-low for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth.
- Transfer the dough to a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise for 2 hours or until doubled inside.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface. The dough should be tacky, but not sticky. If it's a little sticky, lightly dust the dough with flour. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and shape into smooth, tight balls. See the above video tutorial on shaping dough balls.
- Transfer the dough to a greased pizza dough box. Cover and transfer to the fridge for at least 2 hours, up to 72 hours.
- On a well-floured surface, stretch the dough into an 11-12" circle and top as desired.
Rate & Review This Recipe
I don’t have a proofing box – is it ok to just lay out the balls of dough on a sheet pan and then put that in the fridge?
Yes! just make sure to grease the tray and the tops of the dough balls before covering well in plastic wrap.
Just to make sure , one needs to use both kinds of flour together not either or ?
Should the all purpose be bleached or unbleached ?
300 g (about 2 1/3 cups) ’00’ flour
300 g (about 2 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour
Mark,
Yes–I like the combination of both which is why I wrote the recipe as such. If absolutely necessary, you could use one or the other, but it’ll be a bit different. I always use King Arthur brand unbleached all-purpose flour. Hope that helps!
I did not have enough 00 flour in the pantry so I searched for a recipe using both 00 and AP flour and came across this recipe/site. I have been making pizza dough for years using different recipes. My search for the perfect pizza dough is over. I did measure the ingredients using my kitchen scale set on the grams setting. The portions are spot on. This is the first time that I did not have to add water because it was too dry or add flour because the dough was too wet. I literally added the ingredients, turned the KitchenAid mixer on medium low, set my timer for 10 minutes and walked away. The dough was a perfect consistency. It also is easy to spread, just using my fingers. I only had 3 hours to let rise, it was not a problem. I did add a little sugar to activate the yeast since I was running short on the rising time. Thanks Jenny.
Thank you so much Gina! Always makes me feel good when readers are able to execute the recipes easily!
Question – do you add the yeast directly from the packet or do you follow the instructions on the yeast packet first…letting it sit in warm water for 10 minutes?
I add it directly to the flour. It’ll hydrate as you mix in the water. Hope that helps!
You didn’t say oven temperature or how long to cook
Correct, this is a dough recipe, not a pizza recipe. People are likely to cook this dough recipe using different methods (oven, pizza oven, grill, etc) so I don’t put a temperature here. However, I have several pizza recipes on my website that you could use this dough for that all have cooking times and temperatures. Hope that helps.
Oh. My. God. I’ve spent 9 months trying to perfect pizza dough… And here it is. This recipe is the bomb!!! Thankyou. Thankyou. Thankyou. Just when I was ready to give up, wow!!!
So happy you loved it!
I am a cup short of the “00” flour. Can I substitute with all-purpose flour?
Hi Ingrid,
Yes you can. Happy cooking!
Hi,
Is quick yeast the same as active dry yeast? If not, would you be able to recommend the proper quantity required by teaspoons? Also, I only have strong bread flour at the moment….any variation in recipe required?
Thanks
Hi George,
Quick or instant yeast will work fine. However, strong bread flour has a completely different structure than AP and 00, I don’t recommend using it interchangeably. I have a recipe for skillet pan pizza that uses bread flour that I would recommend instead. Hope that helps!
After so many failures, was thrilled to try this recipe that resulted in easy to work dough that yielded beautiful, round pizzas! Question: I have a regular-sized kitchen aid mixer – do you think there would be any issues with doubling the recipe? Or am I better to make two separate batches? We’re big eaters. 😉
So happy you loved the recipe! Yes, you should be able to double it no problem!
I use your recipe all the time. It never disappoints.
Hey Jenny, it did work out. It took about 2.5 extra hours of rising. Thank you!
glad to hear it!
Just made the dough and have it set out to rise. I measured by weight, not spoon/cups as you recommended. The 2 grams of yeast was more like 1/3 of a teaspoon, not 3/4. Does it normally vary that much brand to brand? I’m nervous now on how it will turn out since it differs so much from what you called out for. Thanks!
Hi Julie!
the weight of yeast usually doesn’t vary as much brand to brand, but some scales are more sensitive than others. For future reference, I almost always measure my yeast by volume and not by weight for this reason and I’ll make a new note in the post annotating as much. That being said, I think the dough will still be fine it just may take a little bit longer to rise so I would give it some extra time at room temp before shaping and moving to the fridge. Let me know how things work out!
Was looking for a quick pizza dough recipe the prep time on this one is not 10 minutes, 4 hours and 10 minutes is what I call prep time. it’s 2 hours of waiting for the dough to rise and then 2 hours to let it sit in the fridge before you can use it to make pizza.
The active prep time (time when you’re actually working) IS 10 minutes. No pizza dough that’s yeasted is ever “quick”, but this is a same-day recipe. You’ll be hard pressed to find a quality dough recipe that comes together more quickly.
We’ve had a Gozney pizza oven for about a year and have struggled to find a recipe that reliably makes the thin crust my husband prefers. Our best option to date has been the Delillo packaged mix, but we found this recipe to be better! Note, we did not cook this the same day, but rather two days after I prepared the dough. But the flavor was good, the pliability of the dough was great, and we were able to make our thinnest crust yet while still getting those lovely bubbles in the pie. This will be our new Go To recipe. Thank you.
Love to hear that!
Made this last Friday and it was my favorite pizza dough recipe to date. The texture is perfect to work with and we all loved the taste.
Thank you so much for the comment! So happy you loved it and I hope you’re enjoying your new pizza oven!
hi! We recently got a GOZNEY pizza oven – my husband also purchased ours and is super excited about it. I’m wondering what temp you cook your pizzas at? We’ve experimented over the last month with different temps (using gas in the Gozney right now vs wood) and trying to find that sweet spot where the pizza doesn’t burn on top. Trying out this dough recipe for tonight and pretty excited about it!
Liz,
Love that! You’re going to love the Gozney. I have found that the 6-700 F range works great! You still get a nice light char on the crust without burning the top. I rotate my pizza every 15 seconds or so once in the oven and cook for about 3-4 minutes, depending on toppings. Hope that helps!
Super recipe for same day dough. Any pizza enthusiast knows this is a hard thing to pull off. Of course, letting it cold rise in the fridge for another 2-3 days will only enhance the flavors. But I made this today, had it in the fridge for 3 hours and let it come to temp on my counter 1 hour before cooking in my wood fired pizza oven and it was pure magic! Dough was super easy to handle.
Pat,
So happy you loved the recipe! Thank you for your kind comment!