Quick Pizza Dough
Same-day pizza dough you can mix after lunch and bake for dinner. Two hours from mixing to the oven, no fridge, and four dough balls for 13-inch pizzas.
- Ready in2 hours
- Hands-onabout 25 minutes
- Makes4 balls, 275 g each
- Pizza sizeabout 13 inches
- Ovenpizza oven or home oven
The calculator rescales it for any number of pizzas, any time from 2 to 11¾ hours, your kitchen temperature and your elevation, and times every step.
Ingredients
For 4 dough balls of 275 g. A kitchen scale that reads grams gives the most reliable dough; the cup and spoon amounts are close equivalents.
| Ingredient | Weight | By volume |
|---|---|---|
| 00 flour | 176 g | about 1½ cups |
| All-purpose flour | 477 g | about 4 cups |
| Warm water, 85–90°F | 424 g | 1¾ cups + 2 tsp |
| Kosher salt | 17 g | 3½ tsp Morton or 6 tsp Diamond Crystal |
| Instant dry yeast | 6.3 g | about 2 tsp |
| Total dough | 1,100 g | 4 balls |
- Swaps
- No 00 flour? Use 653 g of all-purpose flour on its own, with the same water.
- Active dry yeast. Use 7.9 g (about 2½ tsp) and dissolve it in the warm water before adding the flour.
- Table salt or fine sea salt. Still 17 g; that's about 2¾ teaspoons of table salt.
- Baking in a home oven? Add 13 g (1 tablespoon) olive oil and 10 g (2½ teaspoons) sugar when you start kneading. They help the crust brown and stay tender in the longer bake.
Steps
Times are from when you start mixing. Go by the dough, not the clock: a warm kitchen moves faster and a cool one slower.
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Mix 0:00
Whisk the yeast into the warm water. Add both flours and mix until no dry flour is left, then add the salt. Let it sit 10 minutes.
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Knead 0:15
Knead on low with the dough hook for 6–8 minutes, or by hand for 8–10 minutes, until smooth and springy.
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Bulk rise 0:20
Cover the bowl and let it rise about 45 minutes in total, until the dough has grown about 1.5 times. Do one stretch and fold during this time (next step).
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Stretch and fold 0:40
With a wet hand, lift one edge of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over the middle. Turn the bowl a quarter and repeat, 4 folds in all. This builds strength without more kneading. Cover it again for the rest of the bulk rise.
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Divide and ball 1:05
Cut the dough into 4 pieces of 275 g. Shape each into a tight ball, set them on a floured tray or in a dough box and cover. They rest about 55 minutes, until puffy and a fingertip dent springs back slowly.
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Preheat 1:00–1:15
Light a pizza oven at about 1:15 so the stone reaches 750–850°F. A home oven needs a full hour: turn it on at about 1:00.
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Stretch, top and bake 2:00
Stretch each ball to about 13 inches, top it and bake.
Bake
Pizza oven
Preheat 30–45 minutes until the stone reads 750–850°F. Bake 60–90 seconds, turning every 15–20 seconds.
Home oven
Put a steel or stone on the top-third rack and preheat 1 hour at the oven's maximum (500–550°F). Bake 6–8 minutes, switching to the broiler for the last 1–2 minutes. Use the oil and sugar from the swaps above.
Have more time? Use less yeast
The same dough gets better with a few more hours on the counter: easier to stretch, with more flavor. Everything else stays the same; only the yeast and water temperature change.
| Mix to bake | Instant yeast | Water |
|---|---|---|
| 2 hours | 6.3 g | warm, 85–90°F |
| 3 hours | 4.0 g | warm, 85–90°F |
| 4 hours | 3.0 g | room temperature, about 70°F |
| 6 hours | 1.9 g | room temperature, about 70°F |
| 8 hours | 1.3 g | room temperature, about 70°F |
For 4 balls in a 72°F kitchen near sea level. Longer rises get two sets of stretch and folds and a longer rest for the balls; the calculator lays out the full schedule for any time up to 11¾ hours.
Common questions
Can I make pizza dough in one hour?
You can, but under 2 hours the dough usually comes out dense and fights back when you stretch it. Two hours is the shortest time this recipe recommends, and 3 or more is noticeably better.
Do I need a stand mixer?
No. Knead by hand for 8–10 minutes instead of 6–8 in the mixer. The stretch and fold during the rise does the rest.
How do I adjust for high altitude?
Dough rises faster up high, so it needs less yeast: about 15% less at 4,500 feet, or 5.3 g instead of 6.3 g for this batch. Set your elevation under Kitchen settings in the calculator and it adjusts the yeast for you.
How do I make fewer or more pizzas?
Each ball is 275 g of dough. Set the number of dough balls in the calculator and it scales every ingredient, including yeast amounts too small to measure by the spoon.
Can I make this dough the day before?
This recipe is built for the counter, up to about 12 hours. For a dough that waits in the fridge for a day or more, use the New York or Neapolitan recipe in the calculator.
Make it your way
Change the number of pizzas, the time until baking, your oven or your elevation, and the calculator works out the amounts and a step-by-step schedule.