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
Excellent! My new go to pizza dough. Please tell me if. This dough may be frozen after the refrigerator rise?
Hi Karen, 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.
Can I use regular all purpose flour? Also, do you have a thin crust pizza dough that is crispy? My husband does not like a lot of bread, and it has to be crispy. He is a very picky person.
Hi Lesa, yes this one has a good crispy texture at the edge and is also chewy and all-around great. I hope you are both very impressed.
I was wondering. Can i freeze the other pizza dough for later. And what is the pest way?
Hi Steve, yes you can freeze the dough but I haven’t tried freezing the entire pizza. 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! Amazing recipe! It came out so good. One question though, I divided the dough as you said and cooked one, then left the other in the fridge for a few days. It continued to proof. Is this bad? What should I do differently to prevent it from over proofing, pushing off the lid of the container, and drying out in certain spots due to exposure to the air in the fridge? Thanks in advance! 😊🧡
Hi Kristen, it can continue to proof very slowly in the refrigerator, but should not rise too much unless too much yeast was used. I keep the dough covered without opening the lid to ensure there are no dry spots. Also, make sure to oil the bowl. You can even turn the dough in the oiled boil to get it coated on all sides which can help a little.
Okay thank you!
Hi Natasha,
We absolutely love everything you make! My 12 year old and I have made lots of your recipes and all are winners in our house. We’ve made this pizza dough recipe a few times and its delicious. We want to get a little fancy and make calzones. Do you think we can use this dough recipe to make our calzones? 😃
Hi Jacqueline, yes, that will work. You can also use my Calzones Recipe here.
Great!! Thanks you Natasha!
The very best pizza dough I have yet to use! This will be my go to from now on.
First, I did follow recipe exactly except, I let the dough rise for 2 hours on top of my heated stove to allow the dough to rise quickly and then kneaded each roll per recipe. I used A pizza stone for one pizza and a cast iron skillet for the other, baked stone on top rack and cast iron on bottom at 450 20 minutes. Pulled both out and added cast iron to top rack for 5 minutes. My husband and 15 year old son absolutely LOVED this pizza dough.
Again, this will be my go to pizza dough recipe for now on.
Fantastic! I’m glad you enjoyed this pizza dough – this is also one of our favorites at home. We always make pizza at home everysince we came up with this recipe!
Hi Natasha, I was wondering if you can freeze your pizza dough and if so at what point would you place them in the freezer? Thanks so much!!This recipe is super easy and wonderdful!!!!
Hi Nichole, 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.
We have a honey allergy. Is there a substitution?
Hi, Both honey and sugar work well; it feeds the yeast. I would use sugar in its place.
Again I tried and it is not sticky at all and still seems like too much flour. Help
Hi Susan, make sure to use the same kind of flour (all-purpose). Also, when you measure, make sure to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then scrape off the top. if you push the measuring cup into the container, you can get 25% too much flour.
This dough is great! The video definitely helps. I probably would have failed without it. I’m usually too impatient for good pizza dough but then I hate the results of quick pizza dough. This recipe was easy. It just requires patience. Makes awesome breadsticks too! I shaped them and let them rest for a few minutes. Then brushed them with olive oil and sprinkled with a bit of garlic powder and parmesan cheese. Yum!
Thank you so much for sharing that awesome feedback with me, Melinda! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
I did 2 batches and both were not sticky at all. I used correct measurements for all. I’m so confused. What did I do wrong?
3.3 cups flour
1 1/4 cups of water
Hi Susan, I recommend watching our post on measuring dry ingredients just in case. Quick tip – make sure you are not scooping the flour straight into the measuring cup as it will give you 25% more flour than needed.
By far the best pizza dough this side of Italy🤗. We found it was not bitter like others for some reason and it was amazing that it grew so much with half the yeast. We did have one issue. The centre of the pizza was very soggy and not cooked whilst closer to the edge it was perfect. I’m thinking that the dough in the centre was too thin and not substantial enough to hold the liquids from the ingredients. Any tips on how to make a more uniform pizza.
Hi Orysia, that is possible! I do recommend an even bottom layer and not making it too thin. I also recommend reading through our tips and tricks and other reader comments.
The dough is soft and yummy the dough is like pizzahut pizza but I didn’t love the alferdo sauce but the dough was so nice
I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Totally amazing recipe…have made it twice. I have 2 queries –
– If I need to double the recipe Would the amount of yeast be also doubled?
– Can I mix both all purpose flour & bread flour in equal portions for my dough. How would it change the texture?
Thanks
Hi Ritu, yes, doubling everything should work great. 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.
Made this pizza with the red sauce she posted, mozzarella, and Romano cheese and HOLY COW! It’s phenomenal, inexpensive, and so easy to make. I don’t think I’ve ever had a pizza this good before, including the $30 ones from specialty pizza shops. This will be a regular dinner in our house for sure now and I can’t wait to try it with the white sauce.
Thank you for sharing that wonderful review with me Kris! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Oh my gosh, I left it out on the counter overnight! It was out for 13 hours. Do I have to toss it now?? Gahhh, I can’t believe I did that!
Hi Mindy, that is totally fine. I would continue with the recipe and just refrigerate it now.
Thank natasha for helping me😄😄😄
You’re welcome!
Okay natasha how can I stretch the dough in the pizza pan and if I stretch the in the pizza pan it might kill the bubbles on the pizza
Hi Malak, I highly recommend watching the video to see our process for gently stretching the dough without disturbing the bubbles.
Hi natasha I am going to use a pizza pan not pizza stone can you tell me how to stretch it in a pizza pan because I am worried that the bubbles might be killed in the pizza so any advice
Hi Malak. a pizza pan will still work great! Others used a pizza pan and had reported some great results. I would follow the same steps!
Hi natasha how can I stretch the pizza in a pizza pan not pizza stone because I am worried that I can kill the bubbles in the pizza any advice
Hi Malak, that should work too. Others used a pizza pan and had reported some great results.
Hi natasha I have a question when we are using instant yeast do we but it in the flour or in the water another question do we but the yeast in the fridge or in a warm place thanks natasha
Hi Malak, I have only tested this with regular yeast and not instant so I can’t speak to the process changes if you are substituting that ingredient without testing it through myself. My guess would be to keep the process the same.
I made the dough by following the directions perfectly, put in the fridge covered and today I’ve noticed they haven’t risen at all. Any tips?
Hello Jessie, sorry to hear that didn’t work. I have never experienced this before so I’m not sure what could have caused that. It could be the kind of flour you’re using. You may try to knead in additional flour until smooth and silky to the touch and dough no longer sticks to your hand. Let rest and rise in a warm wet environment. Repeat if needed. You may then let the dough rest overnight before shaping and baking.