Mark Bittman's Basic Pizza Dough Recipe (2024)

If you're looking for the perfect crispy crust, I suggest cooking the dough by itself on a pizza stone for just a few minutes. This keeps the dough from soaking up the sauce and toppings, reducing any potential sogginess. Three to four minutes should do the trick. Use a peel to remove the dough, add sauce and toppings, and return it to the oven for another 8-9 minutes. You'll be pleased to find the crust will taste as if it were cooked in a wood fired oven.

"wrap ball in plastic" and wait till doubled in size?1.How on Earth could that ball ever double if wrapped in plastic???2.What's wrong with an oiled bowl, covered with an oiled plate?3. and why not replace food processor with bowl and wooden spoon??4. . . . and those stone tiles need much much less than an hour to heat up.Remember the Environment!

I like to lightly coat the bare, rolled dough with olive oil before adding toppings, as the oil barrier will resist the water in a tomato sauce, for instance, keeping the dough from becoming soggy.

I use parchment paper to cook it on and it's wonderful, the bottom is done and the top is perfect . Less hassle than a peel and better than a stone

I made the mistake of making pizza using this dough. Why was it a mistake? Because my family loved it so much that instead of wanting to order out for pizza, they now ask me to make it. I've learned my lesson. Will be making it again tonight :)

A tip for the yeast.
Warm water, yes, but try 105-110 F. for an exact temp. to really activate the yeast!
Works great with basic bread recipes, too.....

Roll out the dough on parchment paper, which you can then place right on the pizza stone in the oven without having to unstick and transfer the dough.

Try this variation, called Flamm Kuchen. Thin pizza dough, topped with thick rich sour cream, add chopped onions, and raw bacon. That is the traditional flamm kuchen.
Add mushrooms, delete the bacon if you wish, and add other toppings as well. It's French and German, very common, a very hot oven 475-500 F. Stand by, it cook very rapidly! 3-5 min. is not uncommon. In France and Germany sometimes it's baked in a wood fired oven! Ask for it just about anywhere in Europe!

I stirred the yeast in to the 1 cup of water for a few seconds to hydrate it. It doesn’t have to be warm water and you don’t have to let it sit. When I first tried the recipe and had the same problem as you, I just gave it a second round of kneading and resting to let the yeast distribute once hydrated. It blended right in. Pizza dough is very forgiving.

My go-to pizza dough. I sub 2.5 tsp active dry yeast for the instant, and let it sit in 1 cup warm water + 1/2 tsp sugar for about 15 minutes before starting. I used my stand mixer with the dough hook and let it do its thing for about 6-7 min. Would recommend making the dough the night before if you can.

This is my go-to pizza crust. I've used it within an hour of making it (which is OK), or kept it for 2-3 days (better!). I especially like making it in m 30 year old food processor - its easy and works perfectly.
I always worry about how salty the crust is, but once the pizza is prepared, the saltiness is perfect.

Substituted locally-milled whole wheat flour for the flour and used a stand-mixer with a dough hook to combine the ingredients until they held together. An excellent, basic pizza dough.

I add the toppings and cook all at the same time. It has always come out just fine (and yummy).

Plan ahead--we let it rest the first time for 2 hours and then 20 minutes for the second. We made without oil using a pizza peel covered with plenty of polenta and a tiny bit of salt vs flour. We also preheated the oven for almost an hour at 500-a great tip from another cookbook all about pizza. We make a lot of pizza at home and this crust was so easy and one of the best-just took some time. Ours was done in about 8 minutes at that high heat. Very crisp!

Cook for 15 minutes!

I thought this was a good pizza dough, however I made it in my kitchen aid instead of cuisinart,and put dough in a bowl covered with plastic, so it could rise. It was a little salty for us so would cut back on the salt, probably only 1 tsp.otherwise, easy and good.

I have tossed my other pizza dough recipes. This is the best and simplest.

Is a food processer necessary? Can you combine by hand if you don't have an FP?

Baked on a perforated pizza pan in the BBQ about 8 minutes and was perfect. Mushrooms, bacon, parmesan and fresh mozzarella - dipped slices in chili oil yum.

for the flour I prefer to use weight over volume. 3 cups of bread flour should be 390 grams in my estimation

I've now made this twice (I usually make David Tanis's NYT recipe, but can't knead dough right now). The first time it came out perfectly, did a slow rise in the fridge. Today I made it planning on a 1-2 hour rise for calzones, it barely rose at all and definitely had undissolved instant yeast in it. Luckily it still worked well for calzones! Would have been too bread-like for pizza. I do like the ease of the cuisinart.

For those that want to weigh their ingredients3C Flour = 360G2T Yeast = 6GSalt2 t Diamond Crystal = 2.6G2t Mortons = 5.3G2t Table = 6G

For those with issues, note that Instant yeast and active dry yeast are activated differently. The recipe calls for instant yeast.

I substituted half the water with beer and it made the taste even nicer, a good malty taste.

I use a 16" cast-iron griddle, sprinkle it with a little corn meal (keeps anything from sticking), bake it in my Weber grill, full heat, this thing gets up over 600 degrees, 8 minutes and it's done. Sometimes it doesn't brown the cheese to my liking, so I cut it in half, put one half in the toaster oven on broil, about one minute, perfect. Repeat with the other half. It comes out perfect every time. Also, I weigh everything,, every time, no variations that way.

I’m new to baking. When do I put this in the fridge to “rest”? Before it doubles in size (let rest at room temperature until the dough doubles in size) or after? Thanks.

This recipe makes a lot of pizza dough. I also had to add a bit more water. For us, it made enough for each person (3) to have their own pizza. The Robertas pizza dough within the app seems to make a more reasonable amount (2 medium sized pizzas—plenty for a family of 4)

Perfect for sheet pan pizza! I took advice from other commenters and upped active dry yeast (all I had) to 2.5 tsp in cup of water + 1/2 tsp sugar. Drizzle into food processor with flour, salt, olive oil. Rest covered in bowl for 2 hours, put it on well-oiled sheet pan. Pad it out a bit, rest for 20 minutes or so, stretch it into corners, top with sauce, cheese, fixings. Baked at 500 for 15 minutes, lower to 450 and 8-10 more. Puffy, crispy, perfect every time.

Easy to make. Used lukewarm water but still dough didn't rise much. Worked fine as a thin, non-tender, sort of tough crust. Will try again mixing by hand, or try traditional method by letting the yeast bloom. Still, a great easy option and no need to order out!