BAKE: Quick Pizza Dough (for deep dish, pan, or thin crust pizza)
- Quick Pizza Dough Ingredients
- Equipment & Tools Needed to Make Pizza Dough
- How to Make Quick Pizza Dough (step-by-step instructions)
- Make-Ahead Tips for Pizza Dough
There’s no one perfect recipe for pizza dough, but this is my go-to crust when we want pizza for dinner in a hurry. It’s a quick-rising thirty minute dough that you can shape and bake in well under an hour. It’s easy to handle, stretch, or roll out, and pretty-much foolproof!
Will it give you big, bubbly, chewy, Neapolitan-style crusts with the depth of flavor that can only come from long fermentation? Nope. But, if you’re like me, you don’t always plan ahead, and sometimes you get a pizza craving and don’t want to wait a day or three for a cold-fermented, high-hydration pizza dough.
Is it better and less expensive than cheap takeout, frozen pizza, or grocery store dough? Absolutely. You can customize it with all or a portion of whole wheat flour for an even heartier pie!
You can also make this quick pizza dough ahead of time for an even better dough, letting it cold-ferment in the fridge for a day or three. You can even make a big batch, portion it out, and freeze it. It keeps best frozen in an oiled bag or air-tight container, but you can even freeze rolled out crusts on parchment or pizza pans for up to a month. Wrap them after they freeze with some cling film, or gallon-size zip lock bags for smaller or individual size crusts.
I use this for deep dish and pan-style pizzas baked in cast iron pans, roll it out onto pizza pans or sheet pans for regular crust or thinner tavern-style, or even use a pizza peel and bake it directly on my large baking stone if I’m feeling a bit more adventurous.
Quick Pizza Dough Ingredients
Flour:
Regular all-purpose flour works fine for this dough. I prefer using King Arthur AP flour if I can get it, since it has a slightly higher protein content than many other AP flours. The protein in wheat is mostly gluten, which forms the stringy, stretchy stuff that gives dough its structure and springiness.
You can also substitute all or part of the all purpose flour with whole wheat for a heartier whole grain pizza crust. I like to swap out a half-cup or so with home-milled spent grain flour. I make this from spent brewing grain (mostly malted barley) that I dehydrate, run through my hand grain mill, and sift to remove the coarser chaff. A fun project if you’re a home-brewer or otherwise have access to spent grain!
Water:
Use lukewarm water. If you have filtered water, that’s even better, but I haven’t noticed much of a difference in this quick dough. Some people like to boil their water first and cool it. This removes chlorine from the water, which can help make your yeast happier. Apparently it might also remove microplastics, as long as you discard the dregs? Can’t hurt, I guess… (the only plastic I want on my pizza is occasionally some Provel… that’s a joke for the Missourians out there).
Olive Oil:
I like to use a good quality extra virgin olive oil. This adds flavor & richness to the dough, helps keep it moist, and gets a nice crispy crust. It also makes it nice to handle.
Sugar (or Honey):
Just a hint of sweetness, which mostly feeds the yeast to get to work quickly on this fast-rising pizza dough recipe. You can use honey, white sugar, or brown sugar.
Yeast:
I use Red Star Active Dry Yeast, but any fresh, good quality dry or instant yeast can work here. You can buy the big brick packs at Costco for less than a regular jar or several individual packets of yeast. Keep a small jar in your fridge for convenience, and store the rest in an airtight container in the freezer. It keeps a very, very long time if you store it well.
Salt:
Don’t skip this… it adds flavor to the dough, and also helps regulate the yeast. Mostly, it’s for flavor, and your dough will taste flat without it.
Equipment & Tools Needed to Make Pizza Dough
stand mixer or mixing bowl:
A stand mixer with a dough hook makes this dough an absolute breeze to throw together, but you can also mix this by hand with minimal fuss and just a little bit of kneading.
pans:
Your pan choice will vary, depending on the style of pizza you’re making. Or you might eschew a pan altogether if you have a large baking stone and a pizza peel.
I like patting and stretching this dough out onto an oiled cast iron pan to make deep dish or chewy pan-style pizza. Or, spread it thinner and make a half-sheet pan sized party pizza.
How to Make Quick Pizza Dough (step-by-step instructions)
step one:
- In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, dissolve sugar or honey and yeast in warm water.
- Add two cups of the flour, the salt, and the olive oil. Mix with the dough hook, a dough whisk, or wooden spoon.
- Mix until a wet, shaggy dough comes together. Add more flour as needed to make a soft dough. Mix or knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.
step two:
- Turn out dough into an oiled bowl.
- Cover with an airtight lid or plastic wrap.
- Let rise for 15-30 minutes in a warm place.
step three:
- Punch down or fold over the dough and divide it into portions. A single batch makes one large pizza (or half-sheet pan), two medium, or three small pizzas. If you made a double or triple batch of dough, divide accordingly.
- If you are shaping your pizzas immediately, let the dough balls rest for a few minutes to let the gluten relax. Then, stretch or roll them out on an oiled pan or sheet of parchment paper (or sheet pan with a baking liner or oil). If you want a puffy pan style crust, let the crusts rise until puffy before topping and baking. If you are using a lot of toppings, you may want to par-bake the crusts slightly so they don’t get soggy.
step four:
- If you are shaping your pizzas immediately, let the dough balls rest for a few minutes to let the gluten relax. Then, stretch or roll them out on an oiled pan or sheet of parchment paper (or sheet pan with a baking liner or oil). If you want a puffy pan style crust, let the crusts rise until puffy before topping and baking. If you are using a lot of toppings, you may want to par-bake the crusts slightly so they don’t get soggy.
- Follow your favorite pizza recipe, or top with pre-heated sauce and your favorite toppings, and bake in a hot oven (475 ℉ or hotter for thin crispy crust styles). For the crispiest crust, use heavy cast iron pans or use a pizza peel to bake directly on a preheated pizza stone.
- Baking time depends on the oven temperature, pizza size, and thickness of toppings. Thin crust will cook in a few minutes, while thicker pan style or deep dish pizzas can take up to an hour (use a lower temperature oven for deep dish pizzas so the toppings don’t burn before the crust is done).
Make-Ahead Tips for Pizza Dough
This crust is quick enough to whip up when you have a pizza craving, but for even more convenience, make a big batch and chill or freeze it. You can keep the dough in the fridge in a well-covered container or oiled zip-seal bags (leave room for some cold rise) for several days. An overnight cold-ferment will only improve your dough’s flavor and texture.
Or, portion out your dough and freeze it! I use quart size freezer bags, with a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Add the oil first and squish it around to coat the inside of the bag. Then, add your dough and press the bag flat, seal, and freeze. I like to freeze these flat on a sheet pan, then they stack neatly in the freezer and thaw quickly.
Thaw all day in the fridge, or pull them out and let them thaw on the counter top when you get home from work… they should be ready to shape in time for dinner (unless you eat really, really early)! The olive oil keeps the dough from sticking to the bag. I usually just put them right back in the freezer and re-use them for my next batch of dough!
Quick Pizza Dough (for deep dish, pan, or thin crust pizza)
Ingredients
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 1 tbsp sugar or honey
- 2 ¼ tsp yeast (one standard packet)
- 2-3 cups all purpose flour (can substitute half or all whole wheat flour)
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Add the warm water to the bowl of your stand mixer or a medium-large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar or honey and stir until dissolved. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and let rest for a few minutes.
- Add two cups of the flour, the salt, and olive oil and mix with the dough hook on low speed (or stir by hand with a sturdy spoon or dough whisk).
- Mix until the dough begins to come together. Add an additional half cup of flour, and continue mixing until the dough cleans the side of the bowl and is smooth and elastic.
- If you are using white flour, you can add additional flour by spoonfuls while mixing until the dough is smooth and workable. If you are using whole wheat flour, you won't need the full three cups but use additional flour as needed to make a smooth, slightly wet dough (the bran in the flour will soak up additional liquid as it rises so you want a slightly wetter dough, or you'll end up with a dry or tough crust).
- Drizzle a bit of oil in the bowl and cover the dough. Let it rest and rise in a warm place for 15-30 minutes.
- Punch down or fold over the dough and divide it into portions. A single batch makes one large pizza (or half-sheet pan), two medium, or three small pizzas. If you made a double or triple batch of dough, divide accordingly.
- If you are shaping your pizzas immediately, let the dough balls rest for a few minutes to let the gluten relax. Then, stretch or roll them out on an oiled pan or sheet of parchment paper (or sheet pan with a baking liner or oil). If you want a puffy pan style crust, let the crusts rise until puffy before topping and baking. If you are using a lot of toppings, you may want to par-bake the crusts slightly so they don't get soggy.
- Follow your favorite pizza recipe, or top with pre-heated sauce and your favorite toppings, and bake in a hot oven (475 ℉ or hotter for thin crispy crust styles). For the crispiest crust, use heavy cast iron pans or use a pizza peel to bake directly on a preheated pizza stone.
- Baking time depends on the oven temperature, pizza size, and thickness of toppings. Thin crust will cook in a few minutes, while thicker pan style or deep dish pizzas can take up to an hour (use a lower temperature for deep dish pizzas so the toppings don't burn before the crust is done).