How to Make Pizza Dough: A Complete Guide

Every great pizza starts as four ordinary ingredients mixed in the right proportions and given the right amount of time. Master that ratio and that patience, and the rest of pizza-making gets much easier.

Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast: The Basics

Pizza dough is one of the simplest doughs in baking — which is exactly why the details matter so much. You need flour with enough protein to build a strong gluten network (11–13% protein for most home ovens), cool water, fine sea salt, and a small amount of yeast, either fresh, active dry, or instant. Nothing else is required. Oil is optional and style-dependent; sugar is unnecessary for a properly fermented dough.

A reliable starting formula, expressed in baker’s percentages against 100% flour, is:

• Flour: 100%
• Water: 62–65% (hydration)
• Salt: 2.5–3%
• Yeast: 0.2% fresh yeast for a long cold ferment, or up to 1% instant yeast for a same-day dough

For a batch of four 250g dough balls, that’s roughly 620g flour, 390g water, 17g salt, and a pinch to a teaspoon of yeast depending on your timeline.

Hydration Explained

Hydration is simply the weight of water divided by the weight of flour, expressed as a percentage. Low hydration (58–62%) produces a firmer, easier-to-handle dough well suited to New York-style pies and beginners. Higher hydration (65–75%) produces a wetter, stickier dough that yields a more open, airy crumb — the kind you see in Neapolitan and Roman al taglio doughs — but it demands more practice to shape.

A wetter dough isn’t a better dough. It’s a different dough, suited to a different oven and a different result.

If you’re new to dough-making, start at 62% hydration. It’s forgiving enough to knead by hand, holds its shape during proofing, and still bakes into a tender crust. Increase hydration in 2–3% increments as your handling skills improve.

Kneading and Building Gluten

Kneading develops gluten — the elastic protein network that traps fermentation gas and gives dough its structure and chew. Combine flour and most of the water first, let it rest 20–30 minutes (a step called autolyse), then add salt and the remaining water and knead.

By hand, this takes about 10–15 minutes of steady folding and pressing. By stand mixer with a dough hook, 6–8 minutes on low-medium speed is usually enough. You’ll know the dough is ready with the windowpane test: pull off a small piece and stretch it gently between your fingers. If it stretches into a thin, translucent sheet without tearing, the gluten is sufficiently developed. If it tears quickly, keep kneading.

Avoid over-kneading with a machine — an overworked dough turns tough and tears when you try to stretch it later.

Cold Fermentation

Fermentation is where flavor is actually built. A quick same-day rise gives you a serviceable dough, but a slow, cold fermentation of 24 to 72 hours in the refrigerator (39–41°F) develops far more complex flavor and improves digestibility, because enzymes have time to break down starches and gluten relaxes into an easier-to-stretch dough.

After kneading, let the dough bulk-ferment at room temperature for 1–2 hours until it noticeably expands, then move it to the refrigerator. For best results, ball the dough (see below) before refrigerating, since individual balls are easier to bring to room temperature and shape later. Pull the dough out 1.5–2 hours before you plan to bake so it can come back up to room temperature — cold dough is stiff, tears easily, and won’t stretch properly.

Balling and Proofing

Once bulk fermentation is complete, divide the dough into portions — 220–280g per ball for a 10–12 inch pizza — and shape each into a tight ball by folding the edges underneath and rolling it against the counter until the surface is smooth and taut. A tight skin traps gas evenly and makes for easier stretching later.

Place balls in individually oiled containers or a lightly floured tray with enough space to expand, cover tightly, and either proof at room temperature for 4–8 hours (same-day method) or refrigerate for the cold ferment described above. A properly proofed ball should feel airy and slightly domed, springing back slowly when poked — if it springs back instantly, it needs more time; if it collapses, it’s over-proofed.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

Dough won’t stretch, keeps snapping back: Gluten is too tight — let it rest, covered, for 15–20 minutes and try again. This usually means it’s still too cold or under-rested.

Dough tears as you stretch it: Either under-kneaded (gluten not developed enough) or over-fermented (gluten structure has broken down). Check your timeline against your yeast quantity and room temperature.

Dough is too sticky to handle: Hydration may be too high for your skill level, or you need more bench flour and a lighter touch. Resist the urge to add flour into the dough itself — dust the work surface instead.

Crust bakes dense and gummy: Usually under-fermentation. Give the dough more time, especially if you’re using a same-day method with minimal yeast.

Crust bakes tough and crackery instead of tender: Likely over-kneaded, or hydration is too low for the oven temperature you’re using.

Dough smells sour or boozy, or feels slack and weak: This is a sign of over-fermentation — the yeast has run out of sugars to consume and started breaking down gluten structure instead. If you’re cold-fermenting, don’t push much past 72 hours, and if a dough has clearly over-fermented, use it soon rather than letting it go further; it will still bake, just with a flatter rise and a more open, sometimes ragged crumb.

Keep a simple log of your flour, hydration, yeast amount, and fermentation time for each batch, along with notes on how the dough handled and how the crust turned out. Pizza dough has few variables, but they interact — and a log turns trial and error into a repeatable process much faster than guessing from scratch each time.

Once you’re comfortable with this base method, the flour you choose becomes the next lever to pull — see our guide to flour for how protein content and milling style change the outcome. And to put this dough to work in a home oven, read Neapolitan Pizza at Home.