Easy Basic Pizza Dough is simple to make with a food processor and is super easy to work with. This amazing recipe makes awesome pizza crust and garlic knots as well. Once you try this recipe, you’ll never go back to the store-bought pizza dough.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- No Kneading: The food processor mixes and kneads the dough in this easy recipe, making the preparation effortless.
- Basic Ingredients: This recipe uses a handful of simple ingredients that most people already have on hand.
- Amazing Texture and Taste: The food processor creates a smooth, elastic dough that is a dream to work with and produces a perfect chew and crisp crust with minimal effort.
- Beyond Pizza: While this dough makes amazing pizza, it can also be used for calzones, stromboli, focaccia bread, garlic knots, and more.
Ingredients – Here’s What You’ll Need
This food processor recipe uses the following ingredients:
- The Flour: For this recipe, I used king arthur bread flour.
- The Flavorings: Kosher salt and granulated sugar are typical ingredients in yeast bread recipes. Both add flavor, and both interact positively with the yeast.
- The Liquids: The liquids included filtered water and olive oil.
- The Magic Ingredient – Yeast: To me, yeast is magical. I used instant yeast in this recipe. You can also use bread machine yeast.
Making the Pizza Dough: Step-by-Step
As previously indicated, the food processor does most of the work in making this pizza dough.
- Start by adding the bread flour, sugar, and yeast to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse the ingredients 5 to 6 times to thoroughly combine them.
- Next, remove the feed tube from the cover of the food processor. With the food processor running, slowly add water through the feed tube. Process until the dough is just combined and no dry flour remains. This takes about 10 seconds.
- Let the dough stand for 10 minutes to allow the dry ingredients to hydrate.
- After 10 minutes, add the salt and olive oil to the dough through the feed tube with the food processor running. Process the dough until it forms a satiny, sticky ball that clears the sides of the food processor. This takes about 30 seconds.
- Next, transfer the dough to a floured piece of parchment paper or a floured piece of wax paper and form it into a ball. This recipe makes around a pound of pizza dough. I like to work with 8-ounce portions, producing the perfect size of pizza crust for my recipes. Therefore, I cut the dough in half. If you prefer, you can keep the dough whole.
- After that, roll each portion of the dough into a rough ball and coat the surface of the dough with a bit of olive oil. Place the dough in a quart ziploc bag. Secure the bag and refrigerate the dough overnight or for up to three days.
That’s it. After the dough has been refrigerated, this homemade pizza dough is ready for your favorite pizza recipe. Yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
The yeast in the pizza dough naturally ferments, causing it to rise. The cold temperature in the refrigerator significantly slows down the fermentation process, providing more control over the rise and preventing over-fermentation. The slow dough rise in the refrigerator allows the breakdown of starches and sugars by the yeast and enzymes. This results in a richer, more complex flavor in the final crust.
Generally, refrigerating the dough for 1-3 days yields the best balance of flavor and texture. Beyond that, the fermentation can become sluggish, impacting the rise and potentially leading to off flavors.
You don’t need to knead the dough by hand after processing it in the food processor. However, you may want to give it a few quick folds to help it come together.
It’s best not to use the dough immediately after processing it in the food processor. However, you can transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and place it in a warm location until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Then, the dough can be used.
Instant yeast can be added directly to the other ingredients. On the other hand, active dry yeast must be proofed before adding it to the ingredients. I always use instant yeast in my recipes.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
If you’re going to make this recipe, make sure to follow these tips!
- I include ingredient weights in the recipe. The best way to ensure consistent results every time is to weigh the ingredients. This is especially true for the flour. The reason is that the ultimate quantity of flour depends on how it is measured, which can lead to variability in quantity.
- If you don’t have a kitchen scale, do yourself a favor and purchase one. They are inexpensive (mine cost around $10) and are an invaluable kitchen tool, in my opinion.
- It’s best to use filtered water when making pizza dough and any yeast breads. The reason is that chlorine in tap water can retard the yeast fermentation and even kill the yeast if the concentration is too high. Also, because of the friction caused by the food processor, it’s best not to use warm water.
- Before using the dough that has been refrigerated, it’s easier to work with if you allow it to come to room temperature first.
- Sometimes, I will use club soda for the water in this recipe. The carbon dioxide in the club soda provides an extra punch for the yeast fermentation.
- One of the best things about this recipe is that you can make the dough ahead of time and even freeze the dough.
Pizza Recipes
Now that you have this my best pizza dough recipe, what can you do with it? Below are some of my favorite pizza recipes. The recipes may not use this specific pizza dough but can be easily altered to use this dough.
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Easy Basic Pizza Dough
Equipment
- Food Processor fitted with steel blade
Ingredients
- 2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons (11 ounces, 316 grams) bread flour
- 1 Tablespoon (0.44 ounces, 12 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 ⅛ teaspoons instant yeast (See Tip 1)
- ¾ cup (6 ounces, 177 ml) filtered water (See Tip 2)
- ¾ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons more to coat the finished pizza dough
Instructions
- Add bread flour, sugar, and yeast to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse 5 times to combine.
- Remove the feed tube. With the food processor running, slowly add the water through the feed tube; process until the dough is just combined and no dry flour remains for about 10 seconds. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
- With the food processor running, add the salt and one tablespoon of olive oil through the feed tube. Process until the dough forms a satiny, sticky ball that clears the sides of the food processor, about 30 seconds.
- Transfer the dough to a floured surface. Cut in half. Roll each half into a rough ball and coat in olive oil—place in a quart Ziploc bag. Secure the bag and refrigerate the dough overnight or for up to three days.
- Yield: Two 8-ounce pieces of pizza dough.
Video
Tips/Notes
- Use either instant or bread machine yeast in this recipe because either can be added directly to the ingredients. Active dry yeast must be proofed before adding it to the other ingredients.
- Use filtered water in this recipe. The reason is that tap water contains chlorine that can retard the growth of the yeast and even kill the yeast if the concentration is too high.
Terri in Texas says
Can this pizza dough be frozen? Thanks!
Chula King says
Terri,
You can definitely freeze the pizza dough. After the dough has been processed in the food processor, you can leave it whole or cut it in half, depending on hou you intend to use the pizza dough. Roll the dough in olive oil and wrap it in plastic wrap. Place the wrapped pizza dough into a freezer safe bag, i.e., Ziploc bag. Squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag, and freeze the dough for up to three months. The best way to thaw the frozen pizza dough is to place it in the refrigerator overnight.
Chula