Our Favorite Homemade Pizza Dough (Thin Crust)

Chewy, flavorful, perfect. This thin-crust pizza dough recipe lets you enjoy New York-style pizza at home.

This recipe is budget-friendly, flexible, and easy to make. It’s a great way to start working with yeast dough if you aren’t quite ready for bread baking.

What You’ll Need

You’ll need bread flour to get that classic chewy texture. You can use all-purpose flour in a pinch, but it won’t have the same consistency. If you do, reduce the water by a bit when you’re mixing up the ingredients. Everything else is pretty basic!

A stand mixer or food processor is very helpful for kneading the dough, but it’s unnecessary. You’ll want parchment paper and a pizza stone when it comes time to actually bake this into a pizza.

This makes two 12-inch pizzas. If you’d like to double or triple this recipe, you can make adjustments in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Equipment

• Stand mixer or mixing bowl

Ingredients

• 2¾ cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ¾ teaspoons instant yeast (I like SAF instant yeast)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoons olive oil vegetable is fine too
• 1½ teaspoons salt

How to Make

Depending on the flour brand and your environment’s humidity, you might need to tweak the amount of water. If the dough feels crumbly, add water in small increments. Conversely, if it’s too sticky, sprinkle in more flour.

Step One: Mix It Up

Throw everything in your food processor, stand mixer, or just a regular bowl if you’re doing it by hand. If it looks crumbly and won’t come together, add water one teaspoon at a time. If it’s super sticky and won’t let go of the bowl, add flour one teaspoon at a time. It should stick a little but still make a ball.

Step Two: Knead It

Work it until it’s smooth and stretchy – about 1 minute in the food processor, 5 minutes with the mixer, or 10 minutes by hand. Yep, it’s a workout if you go the hand route.

Step Three: Let It Rise

Shape it into a ball, put it in an oiled bowl, and cover it tight. Let it double in size – about an hour somewhere warm, or stick it in the fridge overnight. The cold rise makes it WAY easier to stretch later, but an hour works if you’re in a hurry.

Step Four: Divide and Rest

Cut the dough in half and make two rough balls. Let them sit covered for 30 minutes.

Step Five: Stretch It Out

Get two pieces of parchment paper ready (sprinkle with cornmeal if you want). Stretch each ball into a 12-inch circle. If the dough keeps snapping back like a rubber band, cover it and wait 10 more minutes. It’ll behave better after a little rest.

Stretching Out Dough Tips

First of all, a long cold rise is better than a short warm rise because it allows the dough to be very stretchable and easy to work with. But a short rise is still okay. I do it all the time.

The key to stretching out your dough is: don’t fight with it; let it rest. If you have trouble getting it thin, just lightly cover it, let it rest on the counter for ten minutes, and try again.

Storage Instructions

If you won’t use the dough right away, you can keep it wrapped in the fridge for up to 3 days. When you’re ready to use it, let it come to room temperature for about 30 minutes before you try to stretch it.

You can also freeze the dough balls. Wrap them really well in plastic wrap, then put them in freezer bags. They’ll keep for up to 3 months. To use, move them to the fridge the night before you want pizza, then let them sit on the counter for 30 minutes before stretching.

How to Use Homemade Pizza Dough

I like this dough recipe for pizza (duh), pizza rolls, and breadsticks.

To make a thin-crust pizza: Lay out two sheets of parchment paper, sprinkle them with cornmeal, then stretch your pizza dough into your desired shape. Continue with your favorite sauce and toppings. (I bake at 500 degrees for 11 minutes on a pizza stone preheated for 1 hour. I usually make my favorite wing recipe while the stone is heating up.)

To make a pizza roll: Stretch some of the dough into a rectangle, top with cheese and a topping or two, and roll up. Brush with egg wash and bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

To make breadsticks: Divide it into small balls and let them rest on the counter for 30 minutes. Then, pull them into the desired shape and brush them with melted butter and minced garlic. (2 tablespoons of butter to 1 clove of garlic.)

More Recipes for Pizza Lovers

• Pepperoni bread uses dough from scratch and simple toppings for an appetizer everyone will love.
• Sourdough pizza dough takes longer but has great flavor.
• Homemade deep dish pizza has an amazing crust and sauce from scratch.

Printable Recipe