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. P.S. This overnight pizza dough is also great for homemade Stromboli or even Calzones (i.e. pizza pockets).
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.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Hello! I made the dough today and it worked just as predicted, but I do have a concern. I put it in the refrigerator this afternoon, and it has continued to rise. I’m worried that by the time I’m ready to use it (the day after tomorrow) it will have risen so much that it will take over the refrigerator and/or will collapse when I try to roll it out. What did I do wrong? How do I handle dough that won’t stop rising?!?
Hi Anita, the dough should rise pretty minimally in the fridge – did you use the same amount of yeast? Are you possible using self-rising flour, but that could be a culprit since it has extra leavening in it?
Hi. No, I used the correct amount of yeast, and just regular all-purpose flour. They rose so much overnight that I had to punch them down this afternoon so that they didn’t overflow. Now they’ve started rising again! I’m thinking I’ll just punch them down again in the morning, then see what happens (the plan is to have them for dinner tomorrow night). I’m just concerned it will affect the quality. Not sure what else to do, though. Somehow I’ve created some kind of Frankendough! (Just in time for Halloween!)
Okay, just wanted to give an update. The dough rose again after I’d punched it down yesterday, but we pulled it out tonight and made it for dinner. We don’t have a pizza stone, so we cooked it on the grill. It was the *best pizza we’ve ever made*. Still don’t know why it kept rising even while refrigerated, but I’m guessing the extra rise didn’t affect the quality. We’ll be making this again soon (possibly later this week). Thank you!
Super! Thanks for sharing that with us, I’m so glad you loved the end result.
how does this compare to your CPK recipe with large quantities of yeast?
Thanks,
Doug
I definitely prefer this crust both the texture and flavor. It takes longer for this crust but it is worth the wait.
Hi Natasha
I tried your crust pizza but when i wanted to cut it, it becomes so hard.
Hi Sandra, I’m more than happy to troubleshoot. I recommend reading our post on measuring to make sure the dry ingredients were accurate but also was anything altered in the recipe from processes to ingredients?
The only yeast I was able to find is Fleischman’s Rapidrise Instant Yeast (fast acting) Do you think this would be okay?
Hi Sandra, I haven’t tested that to advise. If you do an experiment, please share it with us if it worked well.
Hi Natasha, love all your recipes
Can you use pizza yeast for this dough, if so how much should I use.
Hi Anna, I am not familiar with that product and haven’t experimented with it.
Hi Natasha, Love all your recipes, they are amazing.
Can I use pizza yeast for this dough, if so how much should I use.
Hi Anna, I haven’t tested that to advise, I would follow package instructions to see if they compare.
Hi I was wondering if you can par bake your crust so it is firm and (easy to transport) and then top it with sauce and cheese and bake it later. I want to bring it to a friend’s house. If so how long would you bake it the first time?
Hi Mindy, I haven’t tested with baking this ahead of time to advise. If you happen to experiment I would love to know how you like that.
As a kid my dad made pizza every Friday night as long as I could remember but somehow his recipe fell short of ‘something’ (dad, we loved your pizza pies). As an adult I’ve tried several pizza crust recipes for years and gave up for a period of time. I was always disappointed…..until now!!!! Eureka!!!! This is it!!! How do I upload a pic!?!? The light crispy crust is unbelievable!! Make this!!
I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe, Michelle! Thank you for sharing this with me! We can upload the image to any social media site and type #natashaskitchen so we can see it.
I’ve made this recipe a couple of times..very good! A couple questions/comments. After I fold the dough and place it in fridge for a day, the top gets very dry and seems to not want to do well when stretching out to make crust, with knuckles. Should I put a little oil on top when fermenting in fridge. I put them in Tupperware for that process. Also, I made the mistake of after rolling dough out on knuckles, placing side that had olive oil on it in Tupperware, on pizza peal. Would not slide off and was a complete mess trying to get it on my pizza stone. I even put flour on peal before putting dough down.
HI Cassie, make sure the bowl isn’t too large where you are placing the dough and also place a sheet of plastic wrap or lid tightly over the container so a film doesn’t form.
I would like to try and add a 1/2 cup of sourdough starter to this pizza dough recipe. Would I need to change the amount of flour I put in your original recipe?
Hi Kathleen, I haven’t tried this with a sourdough starter so I can’t advise on that but it sounds like a great idea. Let me know if you test that out.
Can you go ahead and bake this crust the day of making it?
Hi Lisa, it won’t be enough time for the dough to rise and ferment. You would have to add more yeast and that would completely change the texture and flavor of the crust.
I made the dough today and rested 2 1/2 hrs to rise then baked it. It turned out great very crispy and taste was unbelievable the best pizza I have ever had.
This recipe looks delicious, but I am a thick crust fan…
Do you have a recipe for us rare people?
Hi Shawn, you can have a thicker crust with this dough by not stretching the center as much when you roll it over your knuckles, but a true thick crust would need to be a different recipe.
After making this pizza, I will never buy a store bought pizza again! The last time we made it we substituted one cup of whole wheat flour and it made the dough less sticky and easier to handle but the texture of the crust was still awesome.
That’s just awesome! Sounds like you found a new favorite recipe!
Great recipe. I had been experimenting with lots of diff ones past few months and so far this one is the best..
Ive been using about 2/3 AP flour and 1/3 Bread flour for your measurement and it works great..
only problem ive had each time is with your measurements the dough hasn’t been very sticky and a tad dry after kneeding- and ive added a lil bit extra water.. is that normal?
Hi Tez, we haven’t had that experiment, I would recommend checking out our post on measuring to make sure you are measuring your dry ingredients correctly. If you are scooping your flour with your measuring cup you may end up with 25% more flour.
Can I double the recipe
Hi Par! I bet that could work!
Altitude And humidity can affect that. I live in a dry environment at high elevation and always have to add a little extra water to my dough recipes.
This is the best pizza recipe I have ever cooked and the steps were explained very clearly. I have tried making pizza several times from other recipes but could never get the quality that this pizza recipe had. It just feels so light in the middle and thoroughly cooked with no effort. My family loved it and I am going to make it every week. Thankyou Natasha.
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you and your family enjoyed that!
I haven’t tried your recipe yet. I wanted to say I enjoyed watching your video. Your kiddos are adorable. You make all recipes seem so easy.
Thank you for watching my videos, I’m happy to hear that you’re enjoying them. I hope you can try my recipes soon!
How about pizza pans? I have a couple from dollar tree that I normally form the pizza on then I go the oven? So, how would I preheat The pan and get the pizza on it?
Hi Nisreen, a friend of ours uses those small aluminum pizza pans to put the pizza on after it comes out of the oven but he does not preheat them.
This pizza crust is as advertised! The best pizza crust we’ve ever had. We always used a whole packet of yeast as per other recipe directions. Using a 1/2 tsp of yeast is the way to go! We made it on the BBQ. It was fantastic!
Love it! Thanks for your excellent review, Heather. I hope you love each recipe that you will try!
Can the pizza dough be frozen for much later use, and if so , at which stage ?
Hi Patti, yes you can freeze the dough. Freezing will work fine. To Freeze Pizza Dough: 1. Let the dough do it’s cold ferment overnight before freezing. 2. Lightly coat the dough with oil and transfer to a resealable freezer-safe zip bag and squeeze out the excess air then freeze up to 3 months. 3. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator then transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter and come to room temperature 1 hour before shaping.
Hi Natasha!
Can I replace active dry yeast with instant yeast?
Hi April, I always make this with active dry yeast because it seems to keep better for longer, but that should work fine and there would be no need to wait 5 minutes. You could mix the instant yeast right into the flour before adding the liquids. Please let me know if you experiment with instant yeast.
Yes I try it and it worked
Omg Natasha your pizza recipe is the best. I usually don’t write reviews, but I have to do it for this recipe. I made it in the past using store pizza sauce. Today I decided to make the pizza with your pizza sauce recipe. It is beyond good. I will never buy store pizza sauce and I will never order pizza again. Thanks for another amazing and simple recipe. I have to tell you I have tried lots of your recipes and they all have turned out great. Thanks again
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing that with me!