Best-Ever Pizza Dough Recipe (No Knead) - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (2024)

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Learn how to make my best-ever Pizza Dough recipe using the no-knead technique to make some of the best Homemade Pizza you'll ever enjoy.

By Gemma Stafford | | 1357

Last updated on January 29, 2024

Best-Ever Pizza Dough Recipe (No Knead) - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (1)

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Any professional baker worth their salt has their own tried and tested Pizza Dough recipe that they carry with them from kitchen to kitchen. I am no different and I held my precious recipes close to my chest. You already know that I am passionate about bread baking, and now I and delighted to share my Best Ever Pizza Dough recipe with you.

So how can I call this Pizza Dough the Best Ever? It’s simple: this dough is mixed by hand without the need for a machine. It ferments overnight to give great flavor and texture and best of all the dough lasts up to 4 days in the fridge. In the end you get restaurant quality professional pizza. The results will be the BEST-EVER Pizza you make at home, I promise you that.

Now, even though I normally would be on the sweeter side of baking I do know a thing or twoabout making pizza. When I lived in San Francisco I turned the sitting room of the old Georgian townhouse I rented into an underground restaurant and fed my friends, friends of friends, and hungry strangers fresh pizzas from my rickety old gas oven! I called it “Knead to Know.” I only invited my friends so you would “knead to know” one of my friends to find out about it.(Get it?)

Those of you who follow my recipes will know that I swear by the “No Knead” technique for bread making. This method uses time to develop a dough, and time is equal to a deeply developed flavor and bubbly texture.

You can pretty much makeany type of bread or yeasted dough using this method. Ever want to make soft Pretzels but are intimidated by the method? Here is myNo-Knead Pretzel Recipe. They are incredibly easy to make and the results are some of the best soft Pretzels you will taste. I also have madeNo-Knead Brioche,No-Knead Cinnamon Raisin Breadand even No-Knead Cinnamon Rolls.

My recommendation for successful No-Knead Pizza Dough is read through mymethod and all of my tips. Print off the recipe and take notes, what temperature you used, how long you bake, etc. Basically what works for you and what doesn’t. This helps you perfect your dough and your skills.

Make sure to check out a few of my other favorite pizza flavors including , and along with my 5-minute pizza sauce below.

And be sure to sign up HERE for my FREE Newsletter to get the latest Bigger Bolder Baking news including exclusive recipes!

Get All Of My Pizza Recipes

I know a thing or two about homemade pizza!

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Watch The Recipe Video!

No-Knead Pizza Dough

4.72 from 601 votes

Print Recipe

Learn how to make my best-ever Pizza Dough recipe using the no-knead technique to make some of the best Homemade Pizza you'll ever enjoy.

Author: adapted from americanfood.com

Servings: 4 pizzas

  • Dinner
  • Cheese
  • Baking Pans

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Learn how to make my best-ever Pizza Dough recipe using the no-knead technique to make some of the best Homemade Pizza you'll ever enjoy.

Author: adapted from americanfood.com

Servings: 4 pizzas

Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cups (18oz/497g) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried yeast (I use instant)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/3 cups (10 1/2floz/ 298g) water ( at blood temperature)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

  • In a large bowl or a plastic container with a lid, add in the flour, salt and yeast. Do not add the yeast and salt directly on each other as this can deactivate the yeast.

  • Mix all of your dry ingredients together well

  • Mix the oil into the water.

  • Pour the blood temperature water/oil mixture in all at once and stir with a wooden spoon or your hand, which is what I prefer so you can tell by the feel of the dough if you need more water early on. Adjust the water to your flour, do not over-wet it.

  • Mix it until all of the flour is incorporated into the dough and is hydrated. You don’t want any lumps of flour left dry. You can see it will be a wet, saggy dough.

  • With a spatula scrape the dough off the sides of the container to join the dough. Put the lid on the container tightly or cover your bowl with plastic wrap ensuring that no air gets into your dough as it rests. Air can cause the dough to form a skin which is not good for a dough.

  • Allow the dough to sit at room temperature and ferment for about 12-18 hours at cool room temperature. Or you can proof it for about one hour to get it moving and refrigerate it until you wish to use it.

  • After18 hours in a cool place, if you are not planning on baking off the dough you can refrigerate it. The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days at this stage and baked off any time. While in the fridge the flavor will deepen over that time, developing sourdough characteristics.

  • The next day the dough will have more than doubled in size with lots of the bubbles on top. Also it will smell boozy and fermented. This is exactly what you want.

  • Dust your hands and the surface of the dough with a little flour, just enough to prevent it from sticking to your hands. Gently turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Don’t knock out the air from the dough.

  • Cut the dough into 4 pieces and using extra flour to handle if needed. If you are using it from the fridge this action will wake up the dough for you.

  • Lightly knead each portion of dough just to form a ball. Allow the dough to rest on a floured board covered for 30 minutes. Your pizza dough is ready to use!

  • On a flat baking tray or pizza peel, dust it with flour or semolina. With floured hands gently stretch your pizza dough to 10 inches. You can also use a rolling pin to stretch it out. If you find the dough is springing back and is hard to stretch then let it rest for 10 minutes on the board.

  • Once you have gotten your desired thickness spread on your sauce and add your topping.

  • Important note: Less is more. You don’t want to add too many heavy topping on your pizza otherwise you won’t be able to slide it off the baking tray onto the cast iron tray.

  • Bake at 450oF (225oC) for roughly 10 minutes or until the base is crisp and golden brown

  • Any dough that does not get used can be refrigerated or even frozen

  • NOTE: As with all dough recipes, the amount of flour will vary depending on weather, brand of flour, etc. Use as much flour as you need to handle the dough, but keep in mind that the stickier the dough, the better the texture of your pizza crust will be.

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Best-Ever Pizza Dough Recipe (No Knead) - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (11)

Anjalee

4 years ago

I prepared this today for Christmas lunch and it was awesome! Thank you so much for the recipe. I brushed olive oil in the edges of the crust and used a parchment paper to transfer the pizza into the heated pan. It was really very easy to transfer with that! Turned out amazing!

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Anna Lee

4 years ago

Posted a photo of the first pizza my husband ever made. You challenged him to make a pizza and he accepted the challenge. He made the dough late last night. Made your 5 minute pizza sauce and two pizza’s for dinner. Dough for two more in our frig. Great crust and sauce. Thanks for challenging him! Now he is challenging our six married children. Fun family thing to do together even living in different states.

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Best-Ever Pizza Dough Recipe (No Knead) - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (13)

Erin Malone-Ferguson

3 years ago

Hi Gemma,

The no knead pizza crust is fantastic. 4 out of 5 Ferguson’s agree (the 5th Ferguson didn’t get to have any). It was gobbled up to quick. Just curious if this recipe could be doubled in the same bowl or would it be more preferable to just make two batches?

Many Thanks for sharing,
Erin Malone-Ferguson

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Best-Ever Pizza Dough Recipe (No Knead) - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (14)

david

4 years ago

Using Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking pizza dough recipe which is the gold standard, I tried a new flour that has taken my pizza to new heights. The flour is Central Milling 00 pizza flour. It’s hard to find in stores but available on their website. I followed their recommendation to let the dough ferment in the fridge for about 3 days. The result was restaurant quality in texture (great crunch), flavor and appearance. My next adventure is to experiment with sour dough. Thank you again Gemma for a great go to pizza dough recipe.

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Best-Ever Pizza Dough Recipe (No Knead) - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (15)

Jo Good

3 years ago

Thank you for this recipe Genmma. We are a family of only two, can these doughs be frozen?

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Best-Ever Pizza Dough Recipe (No Knead) - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (16)

Rosie

3 years ago

Hi Gemma! I just love your recipes. They’re always amazing. I have tried this pizza recipe once and they’re gorgeous. However, on my second try, I the dough was too wet and saggy. I don’t know what went wrong. Despite adding flour one too many times, it still wouldn’t improve. Can I still salvage them? Thanks for the help.

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Kim Armstrong Sina

4 years ago

Hi Gemma,
We love this recipe! Our pizza turned out great.
One question we have is whether this can be prepared in a bread maker as is or if we would have to change the quantities of the ingredients.
Thanks,
Kim

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Best-Ever Pizza Dough Recipe (No Knead) - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (18)

Kriszta Cs

3 years ago

Hi Gemma,

thank you for this pizza dough recipe. I’ve made it for launch today and it was awsome. My family loved it. Best dough recipe so far.
Greetings from Hungary

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Best-Ever Pizza Dough Recipe (No Knead) - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (19)

Stephanie

2 years ago

Can you tell what blood temperature water means ? Lukewarm ? Thanks

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Meina Teo

3 years ago

Thanks for the great receipt! Today I have done 4 pizza for my families 😍

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About Us

Meet Gemma

Hi Bold Bakers! I’m Gemma Stafford, a professional chef originally from Ireland, a cookbook author, and the creator of Bigger Bolder Baking. I want to help you bake with confidence anytime, anywhere with my trusted and tested recipes and baking tips. You may have seen one of my 500+ videos on YouTube & TikTok or as a guest judge on Nailed It! on Netflix or the Best Baker in America on Food Network. No matter your skills, my Bold Baking Team & I want to be your #1 go-to baking authority.

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FAQs

What makes pizza dough more fluffy? ›

  1. AP flour - pizza requires a high protein (gluten) content to allow for a good stretch and oven spring. ...
  2. No oil, no sugar - both oil and sugar encourage browning and should be used, just sparingly, especially in a home oven.
Jan 21, 2020

What is the secret of pizza dough? ›

There are many tricks to achieving a tasty, homemade pizza dough that rises into a beautiful pizza crust, such as making sure your ingredients are at right temperature, using half bread flour for a stronger dough and half all-purpose flour for a nice rise, substituting honey for sugar to help caramelize the crust and ...

What are the three ingredients in Jamie Oliver's pizza base? ›

Homemade deep-pan pizza: Jamie Oliver

We're talking crispy on the outside, spongy in the middle, with just three ingredients for the base – flour, salt, water. For your toppings, be creative, and embrace what's in your fridge and store cupboard – the possibilities are endless.

How to get light and airy pizza dough? ›

The secret to a crispy pizza with a light and fluffy interior? Start with the right dough: one that has both yeast and baking powder for rise and puff. Then, bake the whole thing on a pre-heated baking stone or steel to create an unbelievably light, crunchy crust.

What is the best flour for fluffy pizza dough? ›

00 flour is finely ground Italian flour that contains about 12% protein, or 12% gluten. It's the traditional flour used to make Neapolitan-style pizza. Since its gluten content is similar to bread flour, it also produces a pizza crust with chew.

What is the key to great pizza dough? ›

The five key ingredients for making the best pizza dough are flour, yeast, salt, water, and olive oil. These ingredients work together to create a dough that is perfectly textured, flavorful, and easy to work with. When making pizza dough, it's important to use high-quality ingredients and not overwork the dough.

What not to do when making pizza dough? ›

The Most Common Mistakes When Making Pizza
  1. Not Letting the Dough Rest. ...
  2. Not Kneading the Dough for Long Enough. ...
  3. Using a Rolling Pin to Form the Dough. ...
  4. Overloading Pizza Toppings. ...
  5. Not Letting the Pizza Cook for Long Enough.

What is Grandma's pizza made of? ›

Notable for its distinctly thin crust, Grandma pizza is cooked in an olive oil-coated rectangular pan and topped with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. (The sauce is typically layered over the cheese—not the other way around.) It's cut into square pieces for serving.

What herb is put on the base of pizza? ›

Several homemade pizza recipes call for 'Italian herbs' or 'Italian seasoning', a combination of dried basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, thyme, chilli flakes and garlic powder, which work perfectly well if you're making pizzas with the family.

What is the difference between pizza dough and pizza base? ›

They aren't exactly the same, but very similar. Pizza base is made from the same sort of dough as bread, but with slightly different ratios of flour, yeast and water to ensure it doesn't rise quite so much plus olive oil. Pizza base usually uses the same high protein flour as bread dough.

How long should pizza dough sit before stretching? ›

If your pizza dough is quickly snapping back or difficult to stretch, your dough is too tight. Cover your dough with plastic wrap and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. After a bit of rest, the gluten in the dough will relax, making the process of stretching much easier.

Should pizza dough be room temperature before using? ›

Bring your dough to room temperature.

Before you begin stretching, warm up your cold dough for at least 30 minutes at room temperature. Gluten, the protein that makes pizza dough chewy, is tighter in cold conditions like the fridge, which is why cold pizza dough will stretch out and snap back just like a rubber band.

Should pizza dough be rolled or stretched? ›

And you may seem silly stretching it out by hand, or giving it a toss or two, but stretching the dough by hand can get you the best results when making a homemade pizza.

How do you make pizza dough rise better? ›

Pizza dough loves warmth, so if you can find a way to add some extra heat, your dough will rise faster. One way to do this is to preheat your oven to the lowest setting (usually around 200 degrees Fahrenheit) and then turn it off. Place your pizza dough in the warm oven for 10-15 minutes until it begins to rise.

How to make pizza dough less dense? ›

If you have accidentally added too much flour, you can salvage the dough by incorporating more water or fat into the dough. Start by adding a few drops of olive it, knead it nicely, and see if it works. If not, add a splash of water and knead again. After around 8-10 minutes of kneading, poke the dough.

How can I make my pizza dough better? ›

Salt: Salt adds necessary flavor. Sugar: 1 Tablespoon of sugar increases the yeast's activity and tenderizes the dough, especially when paired with a little olive oil. Cornmeal: Cornmeal isn't in the dough, but it's used to dust the pizza pan. Cornmeal gives the pizza crust a little extra flavor and crisp.

What makes a Crispier pizza dough? ›

Hydrate the dough

While it may seem counterintuitive, adding more water can actually make your pizza dough crispier. Pizza Media says that a dough that contains more water has the ability to expand in the oven readily.

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