This crispy and tender easy thick-crust pizza dough recipe is made using our favorite 00 flour pizza dough recipe and it makes the best thick-crust pizza! We're surrounded by delicious pizza here in Italy, but we also make homemade pizza at least once a month (sometimes more often) because it's really delicious. As with all of my pizza dough recipes, this one is a super easy pizza recipe that even your kids can help make.
In fact, if you're new to making homemade pizza or working with yeast pizza dough, this is one of the best pizza recipes to start with. Because not only can you use this pizza dough recipe to make this thicker chewy pizza dough recipe, but you can also make our favorite thin-crust pizza too (see photos below).
If you really want to get into pizza making, I recommend first checking out this ultimate guide before you get started!
Jump to:
- Watch This Quick 00 Flour Thick Crust Pizza Dough Video Below
- What to Expect When You Make This 00 Thick Crust Pizza
- This Is Not A Deep Dish Pizza
- What's the Difference Between Pan and Hand-Tossed Pizza?
- Why You Should Use Italian 00 Flour to Make Thick-Crust Pizza Dough
- Can I Substitute All-Purpose Flour for 00 Flour?
- What Temperature Should I Bake Thick-Crust Pizza?
- 00-Flour Thick-Crust Pizza Dough Ingredients
- Understanding Pizza Dough Point Helps You Make Better Homemade Pizza
- How to Make Thick-Crust Pizza Dough Step-by-Step (Using 00 Flour)
- How Thick Should Pizza Crust Be?
- Pizza Pro Tip (Money-Saver): Best Pizza Stone & Pizza Peel Substitutes
- An Easy Pizza Recipe For Kids
- Pizza Toppings
- FAQ
- FAQ: How Do You Temper Refrigerated Pizza Dough?
- FAQ: Can You Freeze Homemade Pizza Dough?
- FAQ: How Do You Thaw Frozen Pizza Dough?
- FAQ: What Is The Best Way to Reheat Leftover Pizza?
- Other uses for Homemade Thick Crust Pizza Dough
- Looking For More Easy Pizza Recipes?
- 📖 Recipe
Watch This Quick 00 Flour Thick Crust Pizza Dough Video Below
If you're at work or the kids are trying to sleep, turn off the volume on your phone or computer before you hit play!
What to Expect When You Make This 00 Thick Crust Pizza
This is the best homemade thick crust pizza dough! This easy recipe includes 5 ingredients (plus water): flour, yeast, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and sugar. We've all eaten bad pizza dough before.
You know the kind -- bad bready texture (stodgy), overpowering yeasty taste, so dry it feels like you can't swallow it, and once you do, it feels like it's just sitting there in your throat.
This pizza dough is not that! But you'll need to plan on at least 2 ½ hours to make a great homemade pizza from start to finish. And it tastes even better if you plan ahead and make the dough the night before and allow it to cold ferment.
This super quick pizza dough recipe only takes 15 minutes to measure and fully knead! If you use a stand mixer, it's only about 5 minutes of actual hands-on time needed to prep this dough.
But for any good yeast pizza dough to be digestible, flavorful (and not taste like yeast), it needs ample time to proof (ferment) and rise. This is yet another secret to getting the best-tasting and best-textured pizza dough. You can read all the science'y reasons why proofing is necessary for making good pizza dough over here.
Thick crust pizza dough timeline at a glance:
- 5 minutes to measure and mix the ingredients
- 10 to 12 minutes of kneading the pizza dough (by hand or in a stand mixer)
- 1 ½ hours for the first rise
- ½ hour for the second rise
- 5-8 minutes to stretch, sauce, and top each pizza
- 10-12 minutes to bake
For anyone just learning how to make homemade pizza (or who really wants to up their homemade pizza game), you'll find all my best pizza-making tips and techniques below so you can make the best thick-crust pizza dough and ditch the pizza dough mix forever!
This Is Not A Deep Dish Pizza
This pizza recipe is not like Pizza Hut's pan pizza, but rather it's a hand-tossed (aka hand-stretched), chewy, crispy, and tender pizza. It's also not dense or heavy like many homemade pizza dough recipes tend to be. Instead, it's a highly digestible, light, and airy pizza dough made just the way Italians intended it.
Once you learn how to make a really good thick-crust pizza, all you have to think about is which pizza sauce and pizza toppings you want to use. If you love more cheese than I've added to the pizza photographed in this post, go for it (this pizza crust can handle it)!
Or, if you're in the mood for pizza Margherita, this is the perfect easy dough for that. You also have the option to make it a veggie pizza, or a meat-lover's pizza, so you can enjoy Pizza Night more often for a lot less money.
*If you're looking for the best Pizza Hut-style pan pizza recipe, I'll be posting that recipe soon, so stay tuned.
What's the Difference Between Pan and Hand-Tossed Pizza?
The main differences between pan pizza and hand-tossed pizza come down to crust thickness, crust texture/level of crispiness, toppings that can be accommodated, and even sometimes the pizza dough ingredients.
You'll often find recipes online that confuse these two types of pizza crust, but they are very different (and each delicious for its own reasons). Besides hand-tossed pizza making a healthier pizza as compared to classic pan pizza, here are the other main differences between these two styles of pizza:
Crust thickness: Pan pizzas have a thicker, fluffier, chewier crust compared to Hand-tossed pizzas, which have a thinner crust that's floppier and delightfully chewy. Hand-tossing pizza dough deflates some of the air in the risen dough rounds, which means at least the bottom crust will not be thick or have a lot of air bubbles like pan pizza (which is similar to focaccia dough).
Crust texture/crispiness: Both pizzas have a super crispy crust but they're very different. Pan pizza dough is essentially fried in oil that's been added to the baking pan (or cast iron skillet) before the dough is stretched out, topped, and baked.
This extra oil renders a super golden brown, crunchy, delicious pizza crust (like we're familiar with in Pizza Hut pan pizzas). A well-made hand-tossed pizza should also have a crispy bottom and crust, but it's much thinner, drier, and softer than pan pizza.
Pizza toppings: The crust on a pan pizza is thicker and more bread-like so it usually holds more pizza sauce and toppings in order to balance the dough-to-toppings ratio.
Pizza dough ingredients: Both doughs use the standard ingredients of flour, salt, yeast, oil, water, and sometimes sugar. However, pan pizza dough often contains a lot more oil than hand-tossed.
And often it also includes the addition of milk (powdered or regular) in the dough to make it soft and fluffy. Whereas hand-tossed pizza does not.
Why You Should Use Italian 00 Flour to Make Thick-Crust Pizza Dough
If you haven't already, I encourage you to check out my 00 flour thin-crust pizza post, to learn everything you ever wanted to know about Italian 00 flour and why it's so highly prized for making excellent pizza. I also go into detail about the 3 most common types of 00 flour found in grocery stores here in Italy.
The gist of 00 flour's pizza-making benefits lies mostly in the type of soft wheat used to make it (grano tenero), how refined it is (contains no germ or bran), and the way it's milled (almost powdery in texture).
It makes a softer pizza dough that's still crispy on the outside and super tender and chewy. I've used a basic Barilla 00 Flour (tipo 00) with 11% protein for this thick-crust pizza dough.
Can I Substitute All-Purpose Flour for 00 Flour?
As discussed in my thin-crust 00 pizza dough post, you can substitute a high-quality all-purpose flour (like King Arthur's or Hecker's unbleached with 11.5-11.7% protein) for 00 flour.
In fact, both of those brands make a really good substitute, especially if you're planning on making a thin pizza crust (see photo on the right just below). However, when making thick-crust pizza, all-purpose flour only makes a so-so pizza. In other words, it'll do the trick, but it's not optimal.
This is because all-purpose flour doesn't give you the same soft chewy texture with a golden crispy crust that 00 flour gives you (or even bread flour). Not to mention, 00 flour is more elastic and is easier to stretch and shape. You can read all about the benefits of using 00 flour versus AP and bread flour in the link I mentioned above.
If you have to make a substitution for 00 flour when making homemade pizza, I recommend using high-quality bread flour instead of all-purpose flour.
But don't be afraid to use what's available to you and what you can afford. We also eat a lot of 100% whole wheat pizza because it's more delicious than you might imagine and makes a healthy pizza.
What Temperature Should I Bake Thick-Crust Pizza?
The higher the temperature your oven gets, the more oven-spring your pizza dough will have. This results in a lighter and more airy pizza dough which equals delicious softness.
Oven-spring is what happens during the first 10 minutes or so after adding the pizza (or any yeast bread dough) to the oven. During this initial stage of baking, the yeast feels the burst of heat and reacts by speeding up its fermentation process.
This is expressed by the yeast letting out as much carbon dioxide (C02) as it can before the yeast dies. The higher the oven temperature, the more oven-spring your pizza will have, giving it a softer, lighter texture.
Therefore, I highly recommend baking your pizza at the highest temperature your home oven will go, or even higher in an outdoor pizza oven, Ooni, Weber Pizza converter kit, etc.
- For this post, I've used my European Whirlpool conventional home oven to bake this pizza at 482°F/250°C for 10-12 minutes.
- If your oven reaches 500°F-550°F (260°/288°C), bake it at this temperature for 7 to 10 minutes and you'll get an even better oven-spring.
- You can even bake this pizza in a 450°F-475°F preheated oven (or even a toaster oven) for 12-14 minutes with great results if this is as high as your oven will go.
Another secret to getting the best pizza crust is making sure you preheat the oven and pizza stone (or use my DIY pizza stone substitutes) for at least 30 minutes prior to baking the pizza. It makes all the difference in how good the crust is, trust me!
00-Flour Thick-Crust Pizza Dough Ingredients
This is an instant yeast pizza dough recipe that cuts out about 10 minutes of prep time because you don't have to bloom the yeast first. But you can just as easily substitute active dry yeast. And you can find those instructions in the recipe card notes.
Here are the pizza ingredients you'll need to make this dough :
Yeast: SAF Instant Yeast and Red Star Instant Yeast are my go-to yeasts for making pizza. They're both high quality and save you at least 10 minutes because it's added directly to the dry ingredients without any need to bloom it first. Plus, it's one less bowl to have to wash.
Flour: 00 Italian flour with 11 to 11.5% protein (or in a pinch substitute King Arthur's Bread flour, or KA's or Hecker's unbleached all-purpose flour with 11.7% protein). Better flour equals a better-quality pizza crust.
Water: Use gently heated warm water between 110°F-115°F (43°C-46°C). Yeast dies at temperatures of 130ºF (54°C) or higher so if you don't have a thermometer, think of the temperature as needing to be just slightly warmer than the milk you'd feed to a baby.
Salt: Every good pizza dough contains salt because, without it, it won't taste great That said, I started making healthy low-sodium pizza dough for my Mom after her cancer diagnosis and I just used much less salt and it was still delicious. Use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt as I have, or sea salt.
Sugar (sub honey or maple syrup): I've used 2 teaspoons of sugar in this pizza dough to add better color to the finished crust without affecting the flavor. If you have dietary restrictions, simply omit it or substitute with honey or maple syrup. Sugar helps with browning (see photo comparison below), but it's not a necessary ingredient.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil: We add 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to this pizza dough, which adds the fat needed when baking in a conventional home oven. Because homemade pizza bakes longer than in a brick or commercial pizza oven, it needs fat to render a soft, chewy dough.
Olive oil isn't added for flavor here (you won't taste it), so any vegetable oil works-just don't leave it out. For extra flavor, drizzle extra virgin olive oil over assembled pizzas just before baking.
Understanding Pizza Dough Point Helps You Make Better Homemade Pizza
The dough point is the time when you decide three things with regard to pizza dough (or any yeast bread dough): elasticity, softness, and hydration. Being able to identify the dough point gives you the ability to make better yeast bread without relying so heavily on the recipe itself.
Why this matters: I go into detail over here for why the dough point matters for making the best pizza, including a short video showing you how to know when your dough is ready!
How to Make Thick-Crust Pizza Dough Step-by-Step (Using 00 Flour)
Here's a quick recap of how to make easy thick-crust pizza using Italian 00 flour. Full recipe instructions, plus the video pizza recipe, can be found in the recipe card.
Step 1. Make the dough: Mix the dough ingredients together by hand or using a stand mixer. Do this in the order described in the recipe card.
Step 2. Knead the dough: Knead by hand or in the bowl of a stand mixer. I like doing this by hand for 10 to 12 minutes, but the stand mixer takes all the work out of it for you.
Step 3. Let the dough rise (1st rise): Place dough into a lightly oiled mixing bowl, cover tightly, and set aside to rise for about 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Step 4. Punch down the dough and form the dough balls: Punch down the dough to remove air bubbles and divide into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a uniform ball, and place them onto a lightly oiled baking pan, then brush them lightly with a little oil, and cover the dough with sustainable cling film, OR place them onto a lightly floured baking pan, dust them with a little more flour, and cover them with a clean lint-free kitchen towel.
Step 5. Let the dough rise (2nd rise): Allow the covered dough balls to rise for about 30 minutes in a warm environment (like the oven with the light turned on).
Step 6. Stretch and shape the dough: Place a dough ball onto a lightly floured surface. Using your lightly floured fingers, create a 1-inch border around the pizza dough (which will be your pizza corniche or actual crust around the perimeter).
Then press down on the middle of the pizza (which will become the bottom of the pizza), being careful not to deflate the outer crust ring. Stretch the pizza dough, turning it to stretch each side evenly until it's 11 to 12 inches in diameter. Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment paper or onto a pizza peel dusted with semolina flour or cornmeal.
Step 7. Top the pizza and bake the pizza: Top the pizza with your favorite homemade pizza sauce, add grated Parmesan, Parmigiano-Reggiano, or Grana Padano, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, and add your favorite pizza toppings. Drizzle the pizza with a little extra virgin olive oil and bake in a preheated 475°F/250°C oven (or as high as your oven will go) for about 10-12 minutes.
How Thick Should Pizza Crust Be?
How thick you want this pizza dough to be is really up to you. The smaller the diameter that you stretch the pizza dough, the thicker the pizza will be and the puffier the corniche (or pizza crust perimeter) will be.
Below are 3 photos showing you how small or large you can make this thick crust pizza. We went for the full 12-inch pizza dough (stretching the dough just one inch more than what's shown in the middle photo.
But one of our Italian friends (who makes really delicious pizza) typically keeps her pizzas on the smaller side so her corniche is always puffy and very pronounced. This is really up to you.
Pizza Pro Tip (Money-Saver): Best Pizza Stone & Pizza Peel Substitutes
You can make homemade pizza very easily without a pizza peel (I do it all the time, because like most people I know, kitchen storage is limited). I go into detail in this link (including photos) about my two favorite baking stone substitutes and how to make the best pizza crust using them:
These include a 12 to 14-inch cast iron skillet turned upside down or a heavy-duty grill pan that came with your oven, or a heavy-gauge ½ sheet baking pan.
An Easy Pizza Recipe For Kids
This pizza crust recipe is so versatile that you can make it a one-bowl pizza dough and mix and knead it by hand, or use your stand mixer and save yourself 12 minutes of hands-on time. You can even use your bread machine or food processor to make this easy yeast pizza dough.
And if you have kids, they love to help measure, mix, and knead pizza dough, but their favorite part is topping the pizza! Kids can make mini-pizzas, or just add the sauce and pizza toppings if they're really small.
In fact, this dough was a favorite recipe used in my kids' pizza-making classes at my cooking school in Chengdu. They loved making self-portrait pizzas using all kinds of veggies and/or meats to make hair, eyes, noses, eyebrows, and mouths. They had SO much fun!
An important reminder for parents: It doesn't matter what your child's pizza looks like as long as they had FUN making it because this pizza is delicious!
Pizza Toppings
It's important not to overload your pizza with too many toppings (even if it's really hard to resist the temptation)! You can easily make a thick-crust pizza soggy by adding too much sauce because it won't cook properly. Add just about ¼ to ⅓ cup of sauce or crushed fresh peeled whole tomatoes per 12-inch thick-crust pizza.
Pro Tip: Slice all the veg pizza toppings paper-thin and pat them dry which allows them to cook more quickly and evenly and removes excess moisture.
If you're wondering what the best pizza topping combinations are or what pizza toppings go well together, head over to this Ultimate Pizza Toppings & Doughs post for all of our favorite pizzas (photos included!).
FAQ
No, you don't! The only real difference you'll notice is that adding sugar creates a nicer golden brown color to your finished pizza instead of it looking pale or "dry". To make this a no-sugar pizza dough, simply omit the 2 teaspoons called for in the recipe. Head over to this link to see my photos of what baked pizza with sugar added to the dough looks like versus what baked pizza dough without added sugar looks like.
The best tools for making homemade pizza are simple and straightforward. Head over to this link to see the basics so you don't go crazy buying things you don't need.
My favorite way to bake thin-crust and thick crust hand-tossed pizza in the home oven is directly on a pizza stone with parchment paper underneath it. But I go into detail (including photos) in this link that talks about the best pizza pans to use, depending on what style of pizza you're making. For instance, for deep dish pan pizza (Pizza Hut style), I prefer blue carbon steel, cast iron, and regular carbon steel.
Yes! You can make thick crust pizza dough 1 to 3 days in advance and refrigerate it, or after the dough balls have risen for the last time, pop them into an oiled bag and into the freezer for up to 3 months. Again, head over to this original post to get the various ways you can refrigerate pizza dough and learn all the different stages at which the dough can be refrigerated. These tips help if you get interrupted in the middle of making pizza dough, or your schedule changes. You have many options for how to prepare pizza dough in advance.
FAQ: How Do You Temper Refrigerated Pizza Dough?
When you're ready to use refrigerated pizza dough, allow it to come to room temperature first by letting it rest on the counter for 30 to 40 minutes, or until room temperature. If you try to stretch pizza dough that's cold, it won't stretch properly.
FAQ: Can You Freeze Homemade Pizza Dough?
Yes, you can freeze pizza dough so go ahead and double this recipe so you have pizza dough ready to go any night of the week or to make weekend dinners even easier.
As described in my previous post, lightly oil the inside of a large freezer bag covering the entire inside surface area. Place the dough balls an equal distance apart leaving room in between them. Squeeze out all the air, seal them, and place pizza dough into the freezer for up to 3 months. There are no negative effects of freezing pizza dough whatsoever (head over here for photo proof!).
FAQ: How Do You Thaw Frozen Pizza Dough?
There are 3 easy ways to thaw frozen pizza dough:
- The quickest way is to place the bag with frozen pizza dough in it, into a bowl with hot tap water. After 20 minutes on one side, flip the bag over to let the other side have direct contact with the water and leave for another 20 minutes. After a total of 40 minutes, the dough will be thawed, but still too cool to stretch. Let it rest for another 30 to 45 minutes on the counter before stretching. If you want to see photos of this process, head over here
- Remove the pizza dough from the freezer and place it into the refrigerator overnight to thaw. Allow it to rest on the counter at room temp for 45 minutes to 1 hour in the sealed bag before you want to make the pizza.
- The slowest way is to place frozen pizza in the bag on the counter at room temperature for about 8 hours until it's room temperature and can be stretched easily.
FAQ: What Is The Best Way to Reheat Leftover Pizza?
Head over here to learn about the 4 easiest ways to reheat leftover pizza and how to use each of them:
- Emergency (microwave)
- Oven Broiler
- Regular Oven
- Skillet
Other uses for Homemade Thick Crust Pizza Dough
You can use this homemade thick-crust pizza dough for so many recipes that aren't pizza: calzone, stromboli, garlic breadsticks, garlic knots, homemade pepperoni hot pockets, homemade sausage pizza rolls, and so much more.
Looking For More Easy Pizza Recipes?
Below are a few of our favorite pizza recipes including a regional Italian fried pizza, thick crust pizza, bread flour pizza, no-yeast St. Louis-Style pizza (aka magic pizza with whole wheat option), pumpkin focaccia pizza, and naan pizza. Plus, all the best sides to serve with pizza!
- Best Pizza Toppings & Pizza Dough Ultimate Guide w/Real Photos
- Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe (With Video)
- Best Thin-Crust 00 Flour Pizza Dough Recipe (+Video)
- Best Thin-Crust Pizza Dough Recipe (Using Bread Flour)
- Best Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipe (For Thin Crust Pizza)
- Best 20-Minute Thin and Crispy St. Louis-Style Pizza (No-Yeast )
- Easy 20-Minute Thin & Crispy St. Louis-Style Whole Wheat Pizza
- 20-Minute Valentine's Day Heart-Shaped Pizza
Let's get started!
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Print📖 Recipe
Ultimate Thick-Crust Pizza Dough Recipe (Using 00 Flour)
- Total Time: 2 hours 25 minutes
- Yield: Four 12-inch Thick Crust Pizzas
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This thick-crust pizza dough recipe is tender, digestible, and super crispy! This is not the kind of thick crust pizza that gets stuck in your throat (you know the kind I'm talking about:). It's made using our favorite 00 flour pizza dough recipe and it makes a really great thick-crust pizza! And it's so easy, your kids can help make it. Watch the quick video in the main post to see just how easy this recipe is!
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 480g 00 Italian flour (about 4 cups)*
- 300g warm water (between 110°F-115°F) (10 ⅝ fluid ounces)
- 2 teaspoons Red Star Platinum instant yeast (9g) (sub active dry yeast)*
- 2 teaspoons sugar (9g) (sub honey or pure maple syrup)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (8g)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (30g) (sub other vegetable oil)*
For Working the Dough
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil (for oiling the dough bowl and dough balls)
- 1 tablespoon of 00 flour (for incorporating into the dough while kneading it)
Toppings
- ¼ to ⅓ cup pizza sauce per pizza
- 1 cup to 1 ⅓ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 tablespoons grated Grana Padano (sub Parmesan or Parmigiano-Reggiano)
- toppings of your choice
- 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil (for drizzling over the top of assembled pizza before baking)
Get Recipe Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven and pizza stone/grill pan. Turn the oven on to its highest setting (in my case this is 482°F/250°C) and allow it to preheat with the pizza stone or baking pan in (it in the hottest part of your oven) for at least 30 minutes (and up to 45 minutes or 1hr).
- Make the pizza dough. In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook) combine the 00 flour, instant yeast, and sugar and whisk well to combine. *If using active dry yeast, see recipe notes for instructions. Add the olive oil and salt and slowly start adding the warm water just until the dough starts to come together and you can form a ball that's not wet and sticking to your fingers. *I rarely use all of the water - depending on the humidity of your environment and the absorption potential of the flour you're using, you may not need all of the water, or you may need just a teaspoon or two more if the mixture is too dry. See the video below for what the dough should look like at this stage.
- Knead the pizza dough and let it rise (1st rise). Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead it for 10 to 12 minutes until it's soft, smooth, and pliable. Add a sprinkle of flour every now and again if needed to keep the dough from sticking to the countertop as you knead, but be careful not to add too much. Place the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise for 2 hours in the oven with the light turned on, or at room temperature (70°F/21°C) until doubled in size.
- Portion and shape the dough. Punch down the risen dough to remove air bubbles and divide it into 4 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and roll them on the countertop to seal the bottom and create a uniform dough round.
- Let the dough balls rise (2nd rise). Place the dough balls onto a lightly oiled baking pan, brush them lightly with oil, and cover the dough with sustainable cling film, OR place them onto a lightly floured baking pan, dust them with a little more flour, and cover them with a clean lint-free kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise for 30 minutes, or until they become puffy and hydrated looking.
- Stretch and shape the pizza dough: Place a dough ball onto a lightly floured surface and sprinkle it with a little flour. Using your lightly floured fingers, create a 1-inch border around the pizza dough (which will be your pizza corniche or actual crust around the perimeter). Then press down on the center of the pizza (which will become the bottom of the pizza) being careful not to deflate the outer crust ring too much. Stretch the pizza dough turning it to stretch each side evenly until it's 11 to 12 inches in diameter. Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment paper or onto a pizza peel dusted with semolina flour or cornmeal.
- Top pizza and bake: Top the pizza with ¼ to ½ cups of sauce, sprinkle with grated Grana Padano (or parm), and top it with grated mozzarella and pizza toppings of your choice. Drizzle the pizza with one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and transfer it to the oven to bake for about 10-12 minutes. Bake a few minutes longer if you're baking pizza at a lower temperature like 450°F/232°C., and bake it a couple of minutes less if your oven is at 500°F-550°F, and Enjoy!
Notes
Watch the how to make thick crust pizza video in the main post to see just how easy this recipe is!
If you want to make puffier more pronounced pizza crusts with a slightly thicker crust, only stretch the dough to 9.5 inches or 11 inches instead of 12 inches.
Scale the recipe down if you want to make less pizza, or scale up to freeze dough balls for easy weeknight pizza dinners.
If substituting instant yeast with active dry yeast, bloom the yeast first. To do this, add the sugar and about ½ of the warm water called for in the recipe to a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer if using). Sprinkle the yeast over the top and allow it to bloom for about 10 minutes to make sure the yeast is working.
If you don't have extra virgin olive oil, substitute any vegetable oil for the pizza dough instead (grape seed oil, canola oil, etc.), but DO NOT drizzle anything but extra virgin olive oil on the top of the pizza before baking because this is solely for adding extra flavor.
2 teaspoons of yeast is equal to 1 packet of yeast minus ¼ teaspoon. A regular packet of yeast contains 2 ¼ teaspoons of yeast. If you want, you can simply add the whole packet but it's not necessary and the pizza in this post only uses 2 tsp. I use bulk yeast, so I never have to worry about what to do with leftover yeast from individual packets.
I highly recommend using a scale to measure the pizza dough in grams vs using measuring cups because it's more accurate and it's consistent every time.
Less is more when it comes to toppings, even if it's really hard to hold yourself back (believe me, I know!). Too much sauce, cheese, and toppings make for a soggy (and often undercooked pizza dough).
Slice vegetables as thinly as possible and pat them dry to help remove excess moisture (a mandoline is one of my all-time favorite pizza tools to slice pizza toppings super thin like onions, mushrooms, etc.).
To achieve the crispiest thin-crust pizza, always preheat the pizza stone or grill pan or ½ sheep pan for at least 30 minutes (or even up to 45 minutes or 1 hr) before baking the pizza. Check out the main post for why you shouldn't skip this step!
If you're cooking this pizza in a wood-fired brick oven, Ooni pizza oven, or Kettle Weber converter grill kit, you can omit the sugar in this recipe. These ovens bake pizza at much higher temperatures than a standard home oven, so you won't need to add sugar for extra color.
HOW TO KNOW WHEN YOU REACH THE DOUGH POINT FOR THIS OO THIN CRUST PIZZA DOUGH
Check out this post here that has the video to show you what the dough point should look like.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Rise or Proofing Time: 120 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Pizza
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 (12-inch) Pizza
- Calories: 505
- Sugar: 2g
- Sodium: 485mg
- Fat: 9g
- Saturated Fat: 1.5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 7,5g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 92g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 14g
- Cholesterol: 0g
Adrienne P. says
I've tested plenty of pizza doughs over the years and this is the one I'm keeping! I had no idea that the 'digestibility of pizza dough' was even a thing. I just knew some of my doughs weren't good (or easy to swallow sometimes🤣). Your pizza dough guide helped a lot, and now I'm making the best pizza of my life🍕. My husband and kids thank you🙏.
Kelly says
Thanks, Adrienne! Before moving to Italy, I had no idea about pizza dough digestibility thing either😉. But it matters more than just about any other single thing in pizza-making along with oven temps. Glad you're enjoying it! Be on the lookout for my Neapolitan pizza dough🤗.
Zippy_do-Dah says
Made this using a scale and did everything by the book and it's the best thick crust pizza we've ever made!💪🔥😻 I'm curious to try your whole wheat pizza dough next. If it's half as good as this one, we'll take turns with the doughs.
Kelly says
That's awesome to hear, Zippy_do_Dah🤗! Definitely try out my whole wheat crust (for thick or thin pizza). It has maybe even a better flavor than 00-flour and slightly different texture of course (slightly less chewy), but super delicious all the same. We enjoy it because it really does taste great and we know it's a little healthier for us too. If you try it, let me know what you think about it❤️.
Ember says
This is hands-down the best pizza crust I've ever made! The 00 flour investment pays off in amazing texture and flavor. I got my oven as hot as it would go (500f) but I imagine the rise would be even better if I had a pizza oven with higher temps. Thanks for taking the guesswork out of making homemade pizza 🍕!
Heathco says
This is the dough I make when we want a chewy, thick-crust pizza with crispy edges. Italian 00 flour made all the difference. It gives you perfect texture you can't get with regular all-purpose. Friday night pizza has become a lot more affordable. Thank you for your recipe.
Kelly says
Heathco, it's comments like yours that make me the happiest. First, because you all enjoyed it, but also because it's saving your family money while also being healthier than ordering out❤️. A win-win-win!