This is hands down the best pizza dough! It makes a New York-style pizza with a thin crust in the center and beautifully puffed on the edges. You will love this crust – it’s crisp, chewy and so satisfying. Make this and you will never want a store-bought crust again. And, you’ll be known for your pizza!
Unlike our Quick and Easy Pizza Dough (which is great if you’re in a hurry), this is an Overnight pizza dough. You can only get this kind of pizzeria-quality crust by letting it rest in the refrigerator and slowly rise overnight. It’s also easier than you think. Watch the video tutorial, and you’ll be a pro in no time!
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The Best Pizza Dough
This is a make-ahead pizza dough recipe that just gets better with time and it keeps really well refrigerated for at least a week. Here’s more good news: our classic red pizza sauce and creamy white pizza sauce also keep really well in the fridge so you can fire up a pizza whenever the craving strikes. An overnight pizza dough also makes throwing a pizza party stress-free and everyone will be super impressed by your pizza-making skills.
Pizza Dough Video Tutorial
Watch the pizza dough video tutorial once and you will be a pro in no time.
The Secret to the Best Pizza Crust
Since most pizza dough recipes have the same ingredients: flour, salt, water, yeast – it’s the process that makes all the difference. This pizza dough seriously tastes like it came out of a high-end pizzeria and in fact, most New York pizza doughs are fermented for at least 24 hours.
The pizza bosses of the world know the secret to an incredible dough is to let it rest and give it time to rise in the slow/ cold fermentation step. This process makes the dough much easier to work with and forms the coveted texture, rise, and bubbles at the edges.
What is the Best Flour for Pizza Dough?
You don’t need any fancy flours to develop a gorgeous crust. We used organic all-purpose flour for making pizza. Bread flour will work equally well if that is what you have on hand and it will give you a slightly chewier crust. You can substitute bread flour for all-purpose flour in equal parts.
If you want to make a more Neopolitan-style pizza, a “00” Flour is a great choice as well.
You can dust the pizza peel with the flour you are using to make the dough, or dust with semolina flour if you have it on hand. It’s what the pros use for easier transfer from the pizza peel to the oven.
Pro Tip:
Do not use too much yeast! Most ‘quick’ pizza doughs use way too much yeast which makes the crust doughy and causes the center of the pizza rise while baking. If you use too much yeast, you will never achieve that thin crisp crust in the center.
How to Make Overnight Pizza Dough
- Mix together water, salt and honey. Sprinkle with yeast and set aside 5 min then stir.
- Pour the water mixture over your flour and stir to combine with a spatula, then knead by hand for 2 minutes. Cover and let rise 4-5 hours at room temperature.
- Transfer dough onto a floured surface and divide in half. Fold each piece of dough 8 times (rotating book fold) and form a ball. Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover, and refrigerate overnight or up to 7 days. Your dough is done.
Why Fold the Pizza Dough?
Folding the dough balls 8 times with the ‘book fold’ and turning the dough between each fold strengthens the gluten threads and traps carbon dioxide created by the yeast, which helps form those beautiful bubbles in the dough.
How to Form and Bake Pizza Crust
- Remove the dough from the fridge 1 hour before using then preheat the oven with a pizza stone in the center to 550˚F.
- When the oven is preheated, place room-temperature dough onto a floured surface and dust lightly with flour.
- Gently press the dough down in the center with your fingertips, then place the dough over the back of your knuckles with both hands together and roll over your knuckles, rotating around the dough as you go, keeping a 1″ thicker border. Place 10-12″ diameter crust onto a floured pizza peel.
- Add white pizza sauce or red pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings. Give the pizza a shake over your pizza peel to make sure it’s not sticking then immediately slide it from your pizza peel onto the preheated pizza stone and bake at 550˚F for 8-10 minutes.
Tools for Homemade Pizza
The right tools will make the pizza dough making the process even easier. It will also make you look like a pizza ninja to transfer your pizza from a pizza peel onto your hot pizza stone.
- Pizza Peels (a set of 2 makes the process easier).
- Flexible Food Scraper – to scrape the dough out of bowls and cut the dough in half
- Round Pizza Stone – to bake your pizza in the oven
- Pizza Cutter – the easiest way to slice a pizza
- Instant Read Thermometer – to check water temperature
Pro Tip:
If you are looking for fresh pizza topping inspiration, you’ll love the Tuscan Pizza we shared in Natasha’s Kitchen Cookbook (it uses this same overnight pizza dough recipe)!
Can I Freeze Pizza Dough?
Yes! It’s very easy to freeze this dough, and once it’s thawed, it tastes just as good as freshly made. See our tutorial for How to Freeze Pizza Dough.
What to Serve with Pizza
Once you have mastered your pizza-making skills, you will want to throw a pizza party. Once you throw a pizza party, you’ll need sides to go with it. These are all great options:
- Avocado Ranch or Homemade Ranch Dressing
- Caesar Salad – a fresh and crisp green salad
- Avocado Corn Salad – so vibrant and satisfying
- Cobb Salad – beautiful and delicious
- Garden Salad – A restaurant-style side salad
- Instant Pot Corn on the Cob – the juiciest way to cook corn
Overnight Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups warm water, 105-110˚F
- 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 tsp honey
- 1/2 Tbsp fine sea salt
- 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, (measured correctly) plus more to dust*
Instructions
How to Make Pizza Dough:
- In a small bowl, stir together water, honey, and salt then sprinkle the top with 1/2 tsp yeast and let sit 5 minutes then stir.
- Measure 3 1/3 cups flour in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Pour yeast mixture into the center then stir with a firm spatula until the dough comes together. Knead by hand 2 minutes (dough will be sticky). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature 4-5 hours or until doubled in size.
- Transfer dough to a floured surface, turn to coat lightly in flour so it isn’t sticky then divide in half. Fold each piece of dough in half 8 times, gently pulling the sides over the center like closing a book, turning the dough each time and repeating for 8 folds. Form a ball in your hands and transfer each piece of dough to a lightly oiled bowl seam-side-down, cover and refrigerate overnight (18 hours) or up to 1 week.
How to Form a Pizza Crust:
- PREP: Remove the dough 1 hour before using to let it relax and come to room temperature. Before forming the pizza crust, fully preheat your oven so pizza can be baked right away. Place a pizza stone or inverted baking sheet onto the center rack of the oven and preheat to 550˚F. Also, lightly flour a pizza peel and prep toppings.
- When dough is about room temperature and oven is preheated, transfer 1 piece of dough to a floured surface, turning to lightly coat in flour. Pat the center of the dough gently with fingertips. DO NOT pop any bubbles present.
- Lift the dough over both knuckles and roll your knuckles under the center of the dough, working outward as you rotate the dough along your knuckles and leaving a thicker crust at the edge. Continue working the dough until a 10-12” pizza has formed. It will shrink slightly so make it a little bigger than you think. Place the dough down on a lightly floured pizza peel. Give the pizza peel a little shake to make sure the pizza slides over it and is not sticking.
- Spread on desired pizza sauce and toppings. Give the pizza another jolt to make sure it slides on the pizza peel (you don’t want it to stick while transferring it into the oven). Slide pizza onto the preheated pizza stone and bake at 550˚F for 8-10 minutes or until crust is golden brown and some of the larger bubbles on the crust are lightly scorched to ensure a crisp crust.
Looking at the comments and your directions, everyone is cooking it in the oven. Is this dough suitable in a pizza oven?
Hi Tara, I bet it would be amazing in a pizza oven! If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe. One of my readers wrote this “My husband and I have a Halo pizza oven and have been experimenting with lots of different pizza doughs. We made this and had it yesterday and it is the winner after about 5-6 mediocre tries. Easy to make, I used 00 flour, and boy the crust was both crispy and puffy. Winner!” I hope this helps!
This is my “go to” pizza dough recipe & delivers delicious, reliable results every time, with minimal effort. I made it tonight with 00 pizza flour, but kept everything else the same in the recipe. The pizza flour version also turned out great!
I love it this pizza!!! Thanks Natasha!!! I se d a sweet hug since the beautiful Amazon!!!
Hi! I’ve been using your personal pizza recipe for the last few years. My kids and I love it. We are going on a family trip in a few days and I had hoped to make personal pizza size dough balls today, in preparation. I’m feeling 12 people. Would this recipe work for this? If so, how much should I increase the recipe ingredients by and should I separate the dough by 12 before refrigerating?
Thank you, in advance!
Hi Samantha, this recipe (makes 2, 10-12 inch crusts). You can click serving to adjust the number of servings and ingredients.
This did not turn out for me. The middle of the pizza stayed raw and the outside was hard chewy. I’ve made several different pizza doughs that turned out perfect. This is a no for me.
Hi Stacy, this is either due to having an oven that is not preheated fully or not preheating your pizza stone enough, or overloading with toppings.
Looking at the nutrition label for overnight pizza, how muck is 1 serving?
The serving size can be found at the beginning of the print-friendly recipe card (located at the bottom of the recipe post). The nutrition label shows counts “per serving.” Hope that helps!
Hello! I just noticed there is no oil within the dough, does that serve a specific purpose?
Hi Vanessa, this recipe does not require oil.
Best crust ever! I return again and again!
I take the easy way out and drop everything in my bread maker on the dough setting. Comes out perfect!
Thank you for sharing that awesome feedback with us!
This recipe did not disappoint! I am sure that it will take a while to perfect the technique so I anticipate that as that happens my family will enjoy this recipe even more. I made a double batch and got 5, 9-10” pizzas out of it. Thank you for the detailed tutorial.
Thank you for your awesome feedback!
Amazing! Even though I didn’t have time to wait for 1 hour and used it directly out of the fridge! So much better than the store bought Pizza. Love that I can make it ahead and then just use it – makes making dinner so fast.
I’m so happy you gave this a try and it all worked out, Zhenya! Thank you for your great review!
My dough was dry and could not be stretched out even with a rolling pin. It actually had cracks. We are at 5700 feet, if that matters. We made it twice with the same results. We tossed it out 🥺. Back to Trader Joe’s. 🤷♀️
Hi Christine, it sounds like you might be adding too much flour based on your description of the dough. Check out our post on how to measure ingredients for baking. it will help tremendously with all baking projects including pizza dough.
I love this dough. Are there adjustments if I use a gluten free flour?
Hi Rachel! I’m so glad you love it. I have not tried this with gluten free to advise. I really don’t have much experience with GF flour. Please let us know how it turns out if you try.
Great flavor! Even my picky kids loved the pizza with this crust! Will definitely make this again
That is the best when kids love what we moms make, especially the picky ones. That’s so great!
Hello Natasha,
I really want to try this Pizza recipe, but I don’t have a Pizza Stone. Can I use a round Pizza pan instead? By the way, I did just get your cookbook, but I really love getting your emails and watching your videos. Thank you so much for your awesome recipes!
HI Robie, yes you could do that and it will work great. Before I had a pizza stone, I used an upside down baking sheet.
Hi dear natasha i’m unable to do hand kneading could a use a dough hook for that part?
i rely on my breadmaker a lot..so would like to try this recipe..as something different ty ahead for your reply..huggzz
Hi Gail, you could definitely knead the dough in the bowl of a stand mixer but the folding is best done by hand since there isn’t a way to replicate that step in a mixer – thankfully that is not a labor intensive step – the dough is very soft and easy to fold at that point.
Love this pizza dough recipe, I tried it this weekend for the first time and it was a hit with the family!
That’s nice to know! Thanks a lot for sharing, I’m glad that this is a huge hit!
I made the dough as the recipe states and the dough was very thick, not light and airy. I would like to give it a second try to correct this outcome. So. any thoughts on what went wrong would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Hi Rene, I”m sorry to hear that. The first thing that comes to mind with a thick dough is either too much flour or the yeast may be expired. Check out our post on how to measure flour which will help with consistent results.
I have not made this yet however, it looks delicious. Would it be possible to use 1/2 white flour and 1/2 wheat?
Hi Brenda, I have not tested that. You could experiment with it. Whole wheat tends to absorb more moisture so you may need to make adjustments as needed.
This is my go-to pizza dough recipe! I make it every Friday and everyone is happy!
I’m so glad you found a favorite on my blog, Gina! That’s so awesome!
This dough is incredible! The crust is thin in the center and perfectly puffed on the edges. Crisp and chewy.. I’ll never buy store-bought crust again!
Hi Lara, great to hear that you love this better than storebought. It’s healthier too!