Pizza Dough Recipe By Hand (2024)

Published: Jun 18, 2020 · Modified: Sep 9, 2020 by Meymi. This post may contain affiliate links.

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You’ll love this easy pizza dough recipe by hand that requires no kneading. It takes almost 1 hour to make your pizza from start to finish with this homemade dough!

I am very happy to share my delicious pizza dough recipe that I make for so many years. It is a very easy recipe. You can let your kids involved. I made it many times with my niece.

It makes 9.5 inches (24cm) 3 regular pizza crust. If you are a thin crust lover, you can use this recipe as it works very well.

Making pizza dough by hand couldn’t be easier. Let’s see why you’ll enjoy this simple recipe.

Why you’ll love this recipe

It is a delicious crust; slightly crisp at the edges, soft and chewy in the middle.
No machine; no kneading required. This recipe couldn’t be easier. You’ll make this pizza dough by hand. You need a bowl and a spoon to stir the ingredients and use your hands at the end to bring the dough together. Seriously it is as simple as it sounds!
Your active time is very little; it takes only 5 minutes to prepare the dough. It’ll rise for almost 45 minutes and there is no second rise. After the first rise, it is ready to bake. In 12-14 minutes, your pizza is ready!

Ingredients You’ll Need

Flour-I use all-purpose flour. You may have heard before that bread flour is used for a chewy result but I am happy with all-purpose flour.
Water-We need warm water to activate the yeast. You can simply mix ⅓ of the boiling water with ⅔ of room temperature water that the recipe states to make warm water. The water shouldn’t be hot as it will kill the yeast and the dough won’t rise.
Salt-Controls the activation of the yeast and adds flavor to the dough.
Yeast-You can either use fresh yeast or instant yeast. I show both ways in this post. Usually, I see yeast recipes with instant yeast but using fresh yeast is also simple and also it doesn’t have additives. You’ll find how to replace these two with each other in the recipe card.
Olive oil-I just use a little for flavor.

How to make pizza dough at home

Mixing

Instant yeast version:

First place the flour, salt and instant yeast into a large bowl, stir with a wooden spoon.

Next, add olive oil and water. Start to stir with a spoon and then use your hands to bring the dough together. You can flour your hands or/and add a little extra flour if the dough is sticky while making a ball.

Fresh yeast version:

Place the fresh yeast in a small bowl and crumble. Then add almost ¼ of the warm water that the recipe states and mix it with a wooden spoon until it is completely dissolved.

Place flour and salt in a large bowl and stir. Next add the dissolved yeast, olive oil and water.

Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon and then use your hands to bring the dough together. You can flour your hands or/and add just a little extra flour while making a ball if the dough is sticky.

Next steps are same for both version.

Proving

Place the dough on a floured work surface and cut into 3 pieces. This recipe makes 9.5 inches(24 cm) 3 pizza crust. If you want a very large pizza, cut the dough into 2 pieces. Then form a ball out of each piece by folding the dough over itself a couple of times until you have a smooth dough. Then reverse the dough and tuck the edges towards the middle.

Cover the top with stretch film and let it rise for almost 45 minutes. During this time you can prepare your toppings. Preheat the oven in the last 10 minutes.

Deflating and shaping the dough

When the dough almost doubles, deflate the dough. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle flour or cornmeal( to have something similar to a pizza texture). Place the dough on the baking sheet. It will already be a soft and round dough which will be easy to give a circle shape with your hands.

I simply press to the dough with my fingertips to stretch it out and keep its circular shape. Each dough makes around 9,5 inch (24 cm )round regular pizza crust. Don’t press too much to the edges as we will create a rim. I pinch the edges by placing my hands inside and outside of the dough’s edge.

You can make it even larger if you want a thin crust. You may need to use a rolling pin after some point, at least this is the case when I make a paper-thin crust.

Then top with your favorite sauce and toppings.

Pizza dough faqs

How to stretch out the dough

You can press the dough with your fingertips to stretch it out. Don’t press too much to the edges so you can create a rim. Pinch the edges by placing your hands inside and outside of the dough’s edge to create a rim.

You don’t need a rolling pin; you can use your hands to roll out the dough as long as you don’t want to make a paper-thin crust.

How to freeze the pizza dough
After you make balls out of the dough, cover each dough with parchment paper and place them in a ziplock bag. Thaw overnight in the fridge before using them. Roll out and top as you like.

If you’ll use the dough in 2 days, instead of freezing, you can keep the pizza dough in the fridge as well.

You may also want to check my deliciously crunchy Pizza Crackers!

Other recipes with yeast!

No Knead Bread without Dutch Oven
No Knead Whole Wheat Bread
No Knead Soft Dinner Rolls

I love hearing from you! If you try this recipe or my other recipes please leave a comment and give a star rating!

Pizza Dough Recipe by Hand

This pizza dough recipe by hand requires no kneading. You can make delicious pizza from start to finish in almost an hour!

4.50 from 2 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes minutes

Proving Time: 40 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 2 minutes minutes

Ingredients

▢ 490 grams (3 and ½ cup) all purpose flour, dip and sweep
▢ 12 grams (2 teaspoons) salt
▢ 20 grams (0.70 ounce) fresh yeast or 6,6 grams(2 and ¼ teaspoons) instant yeast
▢ 310 grams (1 and ½ cup) warm water*
▢ 15 grams (1 tablespoon and ¼ teaspoon) olive oil
▢ cornmeal(optional)**

Instructions

Fresh yeast version: Put the fresh yeast in a small bowl and crumble into small pieces. Add approxinaletly ¼ of the warm water that the recipe states and mix it with a wooden spoon until it is completely dissolved. Place the flour and salt in a large bowl and stir. Add the dissolved yeast, olive oil, water and stir with a spoon. Use your hands to bring the dough together. You can flour your hands or/and add extra flour while making a ball if the dough is sticky. Continue wth step 3.
Instant yeast version: Put the flour, salt and instant yeast into a large bowl, stir with a wooden spoon. Add the olive oil and water. Stir with a wooden spoon and use your hands to bring the dough together. You can flour your hands or/and add extra flour while making a ball if you find the dough sticky.
Place the dough on a floured work surface and cut into 3 pieces (this recipe makes 9.5 inch(24 cm) round dough. If you want a large pizza, you can cut into 2 pieces.) Form a ball out of each piece by folding the dough over itself a couple of times until you have a smooth dough. Reverse the dough and tuck the edges towards the middle.
Sprinkle a little flour over the dough balls and cover them loosely with a stretch film. Let them rise for almost 40-45 minutes until the dough doubles in size. You can prepare your toppings while the dough is proving. Preheat the oven to 480°F(250°C) in the last 10 minutes.
Deflate the dough gently with your hand. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle flour or cornmeal(to have some crisp texture and flavor). Place the dough on to the parchment paper. Press the dough with your fingertips to stretch it out. Don’t press too much to the edges; pinch the edges by placing your hands inside and outside of the dough’s edge to create a rim.
Top the pizza with your favorite toppings and bake for almost 12-14 minutes.

Notes

*You can boil ⅓ of the water amount and add ⅔ of room temperature water to make warm water.

**If you like you can use cornmeal while stretching out the dough to give some crisp to the crust.

You can keep the pizza dough in the fridge for up to 2 days. You can freeze the dough if you’ll need it later.

How to freeze the pizza dough: After you make balls out of the dough, cover each dough with parchment paper and place them in a ziplock bag. Thaw overnight in the fridge before using them. Continue with step 5.

The calorie information above is an estimate that is provided by an online nutrition calculator. It calculates only the dough.

Nutrition

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Comments

Hannah B
March 31, 2024 at 1:27 am

The end result was pretty tasty but the part about the yeast was very confusing. How much water to add? Use the water from the recipe on the yeast packet or from the dough recipe? Add sugar like the yeast packet indicates? I also needed to bake more like 16 minutes- was because I only did 2 pizzas? How thick should the dough be before baking?
Reply
- Meymi
  March 31, 2024 at 3:16 pm
  Hi Hannah, You should only use the amount you see in the recipe card. This recipe makes 3 crusts- 9.5 inch(24 cm). If you made 2 pizzas, as your dough was thicker, it probably took longer to bake which is normal. I’m glad you enjoyed the end result. 1/2 inch(1.25cm) thickness is fine. I hope this helps.
  Reply

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