If you’ve ever wanted a pizza with a billowy soft crust, blistered bubbles, and a perfectly crispy bottom, this artisan pizza dough is your ticket. By using a high hydration dough and long fermentation, you’ll get that crackly, chewy texture that tastes like it came straight from a pizzeria.
Why This Pizza Dough Works
The foundation of a great pizza is, of course, the crust. A perfect artisan crust has:
- High hydration: About 75% water relative to flour creates a chewy, airy crust with lots of bubbles without being impossible to handle.
- Long bulk fermentation: A slow, low-yeast rise (around 6 hours at room temperature, or up to 2 days in the fridge) develops flavor and strengthens the dough.
- A hot surface for baking: Baking steel, pizza stone, cast iron, or even an inverted baking sheet preheated to absorb maximum heat results in a crispy, crackly bottom.
Flour tip: While 00 flour is ideal for delicate texture and flavor, good all-purpose flour works beautifully too.
Tips for Handling High Hydration Dough
- Wet your hands lightly while mixing and folding to prevent sticking.
- Fold the dough once about an hour after mixing—no traditional kneading is needed.
- Grease your fermentation container and dough balls lightly to prevent dry skin from forming.
- Monitor water and ambient temperatures; cooler environments slow fermentation, while warmth speeds it up.
Making Ahead and Storage
- Refrigerate: Shape the dough into balls, coat lightly with olive oil, and cover. Store up to 2 days. Shape straight from the fridge.
- Freeze: Freeze dough balls for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge or for a few hours at room temperature.
Scaling the Recipe
This dough is easy to multiply or halve. For hungry pizza lovers, assume one recipe makes one pizza per person, plus leftovers. For smaller appetites, one batch can make two pizzas for 3–4 people.
Essential Tools for Perfect Pizza
- Digital scale: Ensures consistency.
- 6-quart polycarbonate tub: Perfect for bulk fermentation.
- Pizza peel: Thin, wide paddle makes transferring pizzas easy.
- Baking steel: Absorbs maximum heat for a crispy crust, better than most pizza stones.
With this artisan pizza dough, you can confidently make restaurant-quality pizza at home—chewy, blistered, and utterly delicious. Pair with your favorite sauces and toppings for the ultimate homemade pizza experience!
Popular Pizza Recipes to Try Next:
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artisan pizza dough- crispy, chewy, bubbly crust
5
servings20
minutes8
minutesThis artisan pizza dough produces a billowy, chewy crust with blistered bubbles and a perfectly crispy bottom. With high hydration and long fermentation, you’ll get maximum flavor and a professional pizzeria-quality texture in your home oven.
Ingredients
500g (3 ¾ cups + 2 tbsp) all-purpose flour
375g (1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp) warm water, divided
1g (¼ tsp) active dry yeast
10g (1 ½ tsp) fine salt
Directions
- Initial Dough Mixing
- In a large bowl, mix the flour with all but 1 tablespoon of the water until just combined. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
- Dissolve the yeast in the remaining warm water.
- Incorporate Yeast and Salt
- Sprinkle salt over the dough’s surface. Pour the yeast mixture over it.
- Using lightly wet hands, stretch and fold sections of the dough over the center. Pinch off 5–6 small portions, fold, and repeat until the dough is shaggy and fully mixed. Cover and rest for 1 hour.
- Bulk Fermentation and Gluten Development
- Fold the dough once to strengthen gluten: stretch a section of dough up and fold it over the center. Rotate the bowl and repeat 4–5 times until the dough forms a tight ball.
- Invert the ball into a lightly greased bowl, seam down, and cover. Let rise 5–6 hours, or until doubled.
- Shaping the Dough
- Turn dough onto a floured surface and cut in half.
- Shape each piece into a tight ball by stretching each edge toward the center, turning it seam down, and gently dragging along the counter to create tension.
- Place balls on a lightly greased plate, lightly oil the tops, cover, and let rest 1 hour at room temperature. If not baking immediately, refrigerate for up to 2 days.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Pizza
- Place a pizza steel, stone, or inverted baking sheet in the middle rack and preheat to 500°F for at least 45 minutes.
- Generously flour a pizza peel or lightly grease a cast iron pan.
- Shape and Top Pizza
- Flatten dough into a disk, leaving a 1-inch thick edge. Shape gently into a 12-inch circle, adjusting on the peel.
- Add sauce and toppings, leaving the perimeter empty.
- Bake Pizza
- Slide pizza onto the hot steel and bake 5 minutes. Turn on broiler for 2–4 minutes until cheese melts and crust is golden with blistered spots.
- For cast iron pan, bake 15–20 minutes and broil briefly at the end for charred spots.
- Repeat with remaining dough and toppings.
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