Pizza Crust
What a treat—hot homemade pizza, with exactly the toppings you like. And this crust adapts to YOUR schedule: make the dough now, and serve fresh pizza up to 2 days later. Please read this recipe all the way through before starting. It gives you a lot of baking options, and you want to choose the one that best fits your schedule.
Our guarantee: This flavorful pizza crust is crisp when rolled ultra-thin, and chewy when made thick.
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast or instant yeast
- 7/8 to 1 1/8 cups lukewarm water*
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- *Use the lesser amount in summer (or in a humid environment), the greater amount in winter (or in a dry climate), and somewhere in between the rest of the year, or if your house is climate controlled.
Directions
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1) If you're using active dry yeast, dissolve it, with a pinch of sugar, in 2 tablespoons of the lukewarm water. Let the yeast and water sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, until the mixture has bubbled and expanded. If you're using instant yeast, you can skip this step. |
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2) Combine the dissolved yeast (or the instant yeast) with the remainder of the ingredients. Mix and knead everything together—by hand, mixer or bread machine set on the dough cycle—till you've made a soft, smooth dough. If you're kneading in a stand mixer, it should take 4 to 5 minutes at second speed, and the dough should barely clean the sides of the bowl, perhaps sticking a bit at the bottom. Don't over-knead the dough; it should hold together, but can still look fairly rough on the surface. |
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4) To make pizza now: Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl, and allow it to rise till it's very puffy. This will take about an hour using instant yeast, or 90 minutes using active dry. If it takes longer, that's OK; just give it some extra time. |
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5) To make pizza later: Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 45 minutes at room temperature. Refrigerate the dough for 4 hours (or for up to 24 hours); it will rise slowly as it chills. This step allows you more schedule flexibility; it also develops the crust's flavor. About 2 to 3 hours before you want to serve pizza, remove the dough from the refrigerator. |
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7) Divide the dough in half, for two pizzas; or leave it whole for one pizza. |
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8) If you're making a rectangular pizza, shape the dough into a rough oval. For a round pizza, shape it into a rough circle. In either case, don't pat it flat; just stretch it briefly into shape. Allow the dough to rest, covered with an overturned bowl or lightly greased plastic wrap, for 15 minutes. |
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9) Use vegetable oil pan spray to lightly grease the pan(s) of your choice. Drizzle olive oil into the bottom of the pan(s). The pan spray keeps the pizza from sticking; the olive oil gives the crust great flavor and crunch. |
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12) Allow the dough to rise, covered, till it's noticeably puffy, about 90 minutes (if it hasn't been refrigerated); or 2 to 2 1/2 hours (if it's been refrigerated). Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 450°F. |
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15) To serve pizza up to 2 days later: Remove the untopped, partially baked crust from the oven, cool completely on a rack, wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature. When ready to serve, top and bake in a preheated 450°F oven, adding a couple of minutes to the baking times noted above. Your goal is a pizza whose crust is browned, and whose toppings are hot/melted. |
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16) Remove the pizza from the oven, and transfer it from the pan to a rack to cool slightly before serving. For easiest serving, cut with a pair of scissors. |
Recipe summary
- Hands-on time:
- 20 mins.
- Baking time:
- 18 mins. to 30 mins.
- Total time:
- 3 hrs 8 mins.
- Yield:
- 1 or 2 standard round pizzas, or 1 large rectangular pizza, about 12 servings
- Recipe comments (47) »
Tips from our bakers
- Make pizza any shape or size or thickness you like; the above guidelines are simply suggestions. Understand that the thickest-crust pizza will need to bake longer than the thinnest-crust version.
- To freeze partially baked pizza crust: Bake crust as directed in step 13. Remove from the oven, cool to room temperature, wrap well, and freeze for up to 3 months. When you're ready to serve pizza, remove the crust from the freezer, and allow it to thaw, loosely wrapped, at room temperature. Once it's completely thawed, complete pizza by starting at step 15 above.
| Nutrition Facts | |
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| Serving Size 1/12 crust
Servings Per Batch 12 |
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| Amount Per Serving | |
| Calories 130 | Calories from Fat 25 |
| Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat | 2.5g |
| Saturated Fat | 0g |
| Trans Fat | 0g |
| Cholesterol | 0mg |
| Sodium | 240mg |
| Total Carbohydrate | 22g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1g |
| Sugars | 0g |
| Protein | 4g |
| * The nutrition information provided for each recipe is determined by the ESHA Genesis R&D software program. Substituting any ingredients may change the posted nutrition information. | |
Reviews
11/16/2009
While I was making this recipe I could tell just by the feel of the dough it would be excellent. It felt so silky and smooth. And it tasted great. I am finding that KAF recipes all seem to turn out good!
10/08/2009
Used AP flour & instant yeast. Baked after shortest amount of rising time possible and it turned out great! Sprinkled corn meal on the bottom of the baking pans to give it a little x-tra crunch. This one is a definite keeper!
09/12/2009
I've made pizza at home, over the past 30 years, but only recently tried this recipe, and it's now our favorite. I add 4 tsp. of KAF Pizza Dough Flavor. So far, I've used A-P flour, but intend to try bread flour next time, as I like a slightly thick and very chewy crust. Will also try White WW Flour, Italian Flour, and/or a mixture. I divide the dough for two pizzas. I've done the pre-bake and freeze, and have also frozen raw dough, after the first rising. Either way works. When my schedule allows, I make the dough the day before and refrigerate it about 24 hours--it does improve the flavor. I use instant yeast and the dough puffs nicely. I bake the pizzas on a stone. Worth the effort for pizza aficionados!
08/29/2009
This was my first time ever making my own pizza crust that wasn't instant, and it sure was a success. I ended up using KAF Bread flower instead of the all-purpose flour. The outer crust was crispy and delicious. The bottom crust was crispy too. I made two pizzas and one bottom was crispy while the other one was just a tad more chewy. I think it was because of the amount of olive oil used at the bottom of the pan before cooking. This was so much fun to do. I like that I did my first research here on the web. I already feel like a pro and want to try some additional ingredients like corn meal. You should give this a try for the family. It rocks.
08/23/2009
Used this for grilled pizza. Because of time I let it rise 15 minutes after the first rise (around step 9) and then started grilling. The flavor was great and texture of the crust was perfect. I also used some of the pizza flavor in the dough and it really enhanced the taste. (I had used the pizza flavor in another dough recipe and did not notice the flavor at all). This is our new staple for pizza.
08/20/2009
Very good recipe. I tried the "for today" recipe today for my first attempt at homemade pizza. I made one pizza from this recipe on my large Pampered Chef pizza stone, but next time would probably cut the recipe in half or try and press it out more because it was a little thicker than I would prefer. The exposed edges of the pizza came out "biscuit-y". I'm still new to bread-baking so I'm not sure if it's the flour I used (store bought all-purpose), something I did/didn't do or just how this crust is supposed to turn out. I added 3 tsp. of KAF's pizza flavoring to the dough while it was mixing and this definitely enhanced the smell/taste of the crust. Also, after spraying and greasing my stone I put some KAF semolina flour on the bottom to keep it from sticking and give it some more texture. Looking forward to trying this again in the future!
08/16/2009
My first homemade pizza ever and my son said it was the best pizza he's had (he's only ten). I am my worst critic and I even thought it was my best work first time around thanks to KAF. I opted to use a 9" x 13" pan because I wanted a pan style pizza like Pizza Hut. I added 1/4 tsp. each garlic and onion powder to the dough. If I had cheese powder I'd add that too, maybe next time. Second time around, I would increase the amount of onion and garlic powder to about 1/2 tsp, but that's me... I might even add a tsp. of my homemade Italian seasoning too. The dough was golden crispy on the outside and tender soft with nice even air pockets inside. The 24 hour ripening brought out great flavor. I read searching on the internet that if you drizzle a ridiculous amount of olive oil on the pan so your dough is swimming in it, your pizza will be pretty close to Pizza Hut's pan pizza. I did not have the stomach to drown my dough, but I did pour a generous amount of olive oil beneath and atop the dough, it turned out gosh darn similar to a point where I will not be ordering out again. Thanks KAF for saving me money and for being such a wonderful teacher. You help me be a hero in the kitchen for my family.
08/14/2009
I have tried to make pizza dough with other recipes and I never could figure out why it wasn't coming out right. But KAF put all my worries behind me, when I read this recipe I knew exactly what I had been doing wrong. The instructions couldn't be more clear! I will be making this pizza dough for many years to come.
08/13/2009
Really good and easy to make pizza dough!
08/10/2009
This was an awesome pizza recipe. So easy to follow and not to time consuming. Me and hubby were very pleased, thank you for allowing free access to your golden recipes.
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