artisan pizza dough- crispy, chewy, bubbly crust

This artisan pizza dough will give you a billowy soft crust, blistered bubbles and a crispy bottom. It uses a high hydration and long fermentation time for maximum flavor and the perfect crackly, chewy texture.

I think it’s safe to say that pizza dough is one of the most important parts of a good pizza. The crust is the foundation (literally) of flavor and texture– you should make it as delicious as you can.

So what exactly does it mean to have the best pizza crust? For me, a great artisan pizza has a complex flavor, big bubbles, a creamy crumb and crispy edges. Believe it or not, you can achieve all of these qualities in your home oven with stunning results. 

There are 3 big factors that contribute to high quality artisan pizza dough: 

1. High hydration dough: I prefer to use a dough that is around 75% hydration (the percent of water relative to the amount of flour). This will encourage a lot of gas bubbles, a chewy crust and a complex flavor. But the dough won’t be so sticky that it feels impossible to work with. The dough will also have enough structure to be shaped into a pizza and slid off the peel.
2. Long bulk fermentation: a small amount of yeast and a slow fermentation will help develop flavor and strength. This pizza dough ferments for about 6 hours at room temperature. For maximum flavor, you can let it slowly ferment in the fridge for up to 2 days.
3. A surface that can get really hot: This could be a baking steel, pizza stone, inverted baking sheet or cast iron pan, or even an unglazed tile. These surfaces are preheated in your oven to absorb as much heat as possible. The result is a gorgeous artisan pizza with a crackly crisp crust and spots of char.

Note on flour: Yes, high quality 00 flour will give you delicate flavor, chew, and delicious results. I’m a huge proponent of using the best ingredients I can find. But in the case of great artisan pizza dough, flour type is second to the key techniques outlined above. If you can’t find 00 flour, any good all purpose flour will work just fine!

advice for making artisan pizza dough by hand:

The high hydration dough is a huge part of what makes this crust so chewy, crispy and delicious– but it takes some getting used to. It’s a wet, slack, sticky dough that may be a far cry from what you usually work with.

Once you learn how to handle it (and taste the finished pizza), I promise you won’t look back to the denser doughs you’ve made in the past. Here’s what I’ve found to be the most helpful:

• Lightly wet your hand when you’re initially mixing the dough and performing the fold. This will minimize sticking and make the process much easier.
• Use a kitchen scale! This is the best way to guarantee consistency and great results. Everyone scoops flour differently, and flour itself varies enough to throw off volume measurement quite a bit. I’ve approximated volume measurements, but it’s really just an estimate when it comes to bread baking.
• The dough is “folded” one time, about an hour after mixing, to develop the gluten and give the dough some structure. No kneading in the traditional sense is performed.
• Lightly grease the bulk fermentation container to prevent sticking. Also make sure to lightly grease the shaped dough balls and the plate they’re stored on. This prevents a dry, tough skin from forming on the dough as it proofs, and it also minimizes sticking (especially if you plan on refrigerating the dough for a day or two).
• Water temperature and ambient temperature play a very important role in the timing of the bulk fermentation. Cooler temperatures cause a slower fermentation and a longer rise time, while the opposite is true for warm temperatures. In general, it’s best to watch the dough rather than the clock. Follow the loose timing guideline in the recipe, but make decisions based on how the dough is rising in your specific environment. To learn more about manipulating temperatures and to hone your bread skills, I highly suggest reading Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. I’ve adapted his bread techniques here and in a number of my favorite bread recipes– he’s the king of artisan baking.
• Here’s a great video on how to shape the dough into a ball. You want to create enough tension that the ball holds its own shape, but you don’t want to overwork it and lose much of the gas that has built up. 

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how to make this artisan pizza dough ahead of time

This pizza dough can be made, shaped into a ball and refrigerated for up to 2 days. It couldn’t be easier to make pizza for a crowd when you have your dough all ready to go.

Here’s an example timeline:

9:00 AM: mix flour and water, hydrate yeast

9:30 AM: mix in yeast and salt

10:30 AM: fold dough and transfer to lightly oiled container

3:30 PM: divide and shape dough into balls, let rest 30 minutes

4:00 PM: cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. It could be later that evening for dinner, or anytime in the 2 days that follow. As a bonus, I find the chilled dough is easier to work with!

how to make this pizza dough for a crowd

This artisan pizza dough can be halved, doubled, tripled– you name it. The recipe scales very easily, as long as you have a container that can accommodate the mass of dough.

We have big eaters around here, so I typically assume 1 dough recipe will feed 2 people with some leftovers for the next day. That’s 1 pizza/ person.

For smaller appetites, or if you’re serving the pizza with a salad and other dishes, you can get away with 1 dough recipe (2 pizzas) for 3- 4 people.

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