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
I am not sure about the flour quantity, 3 1/3 cups is the equivalent of how much in kg?
If you scroll down to our printable recipe card, most of our recipes have a metric conversion option on the printable recipe card. We are currently working on adding metric measurements to all of our recipes, but it is taking some time to add them one at a time. Thank you so much for being patient! In the meantime, check out our post on measuring which should help.
Made this crust first time and im amazed. I have nevever had the pizza maker in me but the text you wrote spoke to me and i took my self together and started step by step. When it said it had to be in the fridge over night i was a bit sad bc i primised my daughter that we will be having pizza at home tonight for dinner but when i pulled first pizza out of the oven the disappointment disappeared 😳 it was pizza heaven, thank you for the best pizza crust recipe ever. My daughter said it is better than our pizzeria down the street and i was in love with her words, proud and happy mom.
I’m so glad you gave this a go! That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review Anna-Mari!
I love this recipe…but in your video for adding flour into the bowl with the active yeast mixture, you say 3 and 1/4 cups of flour…but in the instructions on the page you mentioned 3 1/2.
Hi Tiffany, I recommend following the recipe always because that can be updated but the video cannot be updated anymore once posted. Please share with us how it goes!
What is your favorite brand of pizza stone?
Hi Nanc, we have our favorite one linked to our Amazon Shop Here.
Thank you! ❤️❤️
Hi Natasha, I love this pizza dough recipe. So easy and so tasty. I personally like a whole wheat crust, I substitute 1 cup white flour with whole wheat and it tastes amazing. I also use he left over doughty make calzones. My husband loves them.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I’m happy you enjoyed this recipe.
No oil in this recipe? Wouldn’t it be like a cracker?
Hi Adrienne, it’s definitely nothing like a cracker (see above for the texture description). We do oil the bowls that we put the dough into but it isn’t necessary to put it into the dough itself.
Hi Natasha can we use normal table salt for as we do not have sea salt in our area??
Hi Ashi, that should work.
Literally the best! I am glad we found you and your recipes Natasha 🙂
Jenny, how much protein does the flour that you use have per 100 grams?
Hmm icalled you Jenny and it is Natasha, sorryyyy.
have another question, can i use the balls of Mozzerella and cut it myself insteed of grated Mozzerella or is that to wet?
Hi Peter, no worries! Also, some fresh mozzarella would work fine, but be careful not to go overboard since they do release more moisture.
Hi Peter, I’m not sure what the protein content is, but this is the Organic all-purpose flour we buy (we get ours at Costco)
Hi Natasha hope you are doing great .. wanted to ask that what music do you use . it is too good and suits the food presentation
Hi, we get our music from app.soundstripe. com
I have tried SOOOO many different pizza dough recipes over the years, and then I found this one and my search ended. It comes out perfect every time and it’s so much easier to make than any other dough I’ve tried. This is perfection!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Jen!
Just made this red sauce but the only thing I’ll be able to use it for will be Bloody Marys 🙂 Way too watery! Time to give the white sauce a try!
Sounds like a good plan, Nic. Please share with us how that goes!
made your pizza crust the last couple of times. The family will not order in pizza any more. The recipe is beautiful and easy to make.
Homemade is always best! Thank you for sharing that wonderful feedback with me.
This is by far the best pizza dough recipe. I see myself making this every week.
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
Do you have to put pizza dough in fridge over night ? Could you use the dough right away or it needs to refrigerate over night ?
Hi Janice, this dough really does need the overnight cold fermentation process to rise properly since it doesn’t have a ton of yeast in it. This is what differentiates it from a quick dough, but it’s well worth the wait.
Can you use this dough for cinnamon rolls?
Hi Raf, I haven’t tested this for cinnamon rolls but I suspect it wouldn’t be as fluffy as our Cinnamon Roll Recipe dough.
How would you suggest I increase the ingredients to make two 15” pizzas!
Thanks very much
Hi Farrah, I would increase the recipe proportionally and probably do 1 1/2 times the recipe. You can click on the number of servings in the recipe card and it will help you scale up the ingredient list.
Thank you very much❤️
Thank you so much for the suggestions on how to increase the ingredients to mage 15” pizza. I translated to metric, increased the recipe to 1 1/2 the original and made the dough. It turned out absolutely terrific. This will be my go to recipe from now on. 😊❤️
I am so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review.
Hey Natasha. Just wondering, is it possible to use this dough to make breadsticks?
Hi Jason, I haven’t tested that, but I imagine that may work. If you experiment, I would love to know how you like that. `
I put the dough in the fridge instead of letting it sit out because I had to leave my house. When I came home I put it out and it doubled its size. Is it still good or should I remake it ?
Hi, you don’t have to re-make it, I would refrigerate at that point to stop the rise and slow down the fermentation process.
Hi Natasha, I just made your pizza crust and it was amazing! I have been trying different pizza crusts searching for a cracker crust, one that is nice and crispy throughout and this one is the closest one I have found. The middle was nice and thin but still a little soft. I know this wasn’t intended to be a cracker crust pizza but If I wanted it to be crisp in the middle, would you suggest pre-baking it with or without the sauce? If I put the cheese on and bake it longer the cheese would brown too much. Thanks again for another great recipe!
Hi, sometimes if you overload the pizza with toppings and sauce it can cause the center to soften. I don’t pre-bake the crust, otherwise it may burn by the time the toppings are done.
I was put very little toppings and sauce on the pizza so that shouldn’t have caused it to be soft. What I really meant was to try par-baking the crust not pre-baking it. Any thoughts? Thanks
I Dec, I haven’t tested it that way, but it could work. Let me know if you experiment
Love this recipe! I put the dough in small glass bowls and put on a lid instead of plastic wrap to refrigerate… was surprised to see the dough had doubled in size causing the lid to pop off and then the dough was a bit dry on top but was glad that it was still a great pizza!! Also love the white sauce! I added chicken and pineapple to create the best tropical chicken pizza ever! I never doubt your recipes Natasha!!
I’m glad you liked it! Thanks for sharing that with us, maria. I’m sure it will be perfect on your next try.