Easy to make No Knead Pizza Dough that requires no kneading and expensive kitchen gadget. The pizza will turn out crispy on the edges and chewy, delicate crumb. This dough recipe is a game changer and will make your Friday pizza night effortless.
What makes a good Pizza? Is it the toppings or the crust? In my book, both plays a very important role. The foundation is the pizza crust which should have that bite, and crisp texture. The recipe needs no gadget and even if you don't bake at all, you can make this effortlessly.
This is the same technique I use to make my no knead bread, Focaccia with tomato and rosemary. I actually learned this method when I started making sourdough bread and since then I don't use any stand mixer to make pizza dough or bread dough.
Ingredients for No Knead Pizza
All-purpose flour - Since we don't eat pizza every day, I don't mind indulging on all-purpose flour once a week. You can definitely mix it up with whole wheat flour and other grain flours too.
Sugar and Salt - Sugar helps to activate the yeast, and you must add salt for flavor.
Active Dry Yeast - I personally prefer using active dry yeast. I like to activate the yeast first before adding the flour. Always activate yeast with warm water and sugar.
Most days I like to keep the dough plain, but you can enhance the flavor by adding garlic powder and dry herbs to the dough.
Steps to prepare NO Knead Pizza
1 - Activate the yeast my add it to a mixing bowl with sugar and warm water. Cover the bowl and leave aside for 5 minutes. If you see foam on top, the yeast is activated.
2- Then add flour and salt and start mixing with a wooden spoon.
3- Using your hand, make sure all the dry flour is incorporated. You don't have to knead the dough. Cover the bowl and keep aside for 15 minutes.
4- Use the stretch and fold technique to strengthen the dough.
What is stretch and fold technique ?
This technique is commonly used when working with sourdough recipe since the dough is more hydrated. More hydrated soft dough creates beautiful airy pockets to the dough which in result creates a gorgeous bite too.
You just stretch the dough from one side and fold in over and repeat it on all the side by rotating the bowl. You can also do the same on a table or kitchen counter.
WATCH THE DETAILED VIDEO of the recipe to understand the step better.
5- Let the dough rest until it doubles in size.
6- Do the windowpane test. A windowpane test is the best way to find out if your dough has developed enough gluten. After doing a couple stretch and fold and letting the dough rest for a while in between, take a small ball of the dough and stretch it gently into a rectangular form.
It should stretch thin without breaking apart and when you face it towards light, light should pass through like a windowpane. Hence, the name window pane test.
7 - Divide the dough into four or 2 portions, depending on how big you want your pizza. Shape the smaller portions into balls and cover for 30 minutes.
8- Shape the pizza by stretching it gently. Don't use a rolling pin. Rolling in will take away all the air pockets that were created in the dough. Add some semolina on the board and that will help the dough from not sticking to the board.
9- To bake the pizza, you can either use a preheated pizza stone or use a cast iron pan. I sometime find it difficult to transfer the pizza to a hot pizza stone. So, instead, I shape it on a cold cast iron skillet with semolina in the bottom of the pan.
CAN YOU MAKE THE DOUGH IN ADVANCE ?
YES! You can make the dough in advance. You can set the dough rise overnight in the fridge. The dough can stay in the fridge for 2 days max. If you need to keep it longer, I would suggest you freeze the dough.
Avyan loves pizza, and we have pizza night at least once a week. For a very long time, I made flatbread in the name of pizza.
Once I got the hang of this easy pizza dough recipe with a lot of trial and error, homemade pizza has become a regular Friday activity now.
He helps me to shape the dough and tried to flatten the dough and even if it's not the perfect circle, we don't really care.
You can say we like this rustic pizza!
Also try this mushroom pizza, a great vegetarian version!
EASY Pizza Dough - NO KNEAD
Ingredients
- 1 and ¼ cups Luke warm water
- 1 teaspoon sugar (it helps to activate yeast)
- 1 and ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 and ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable/olive oil
- Handful of semolina or corn meal (optional)
Instructions
- In a big mixing bowl add the luke warm water with sugar and yeast. Give a quick mix and leave aside for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes you will see form on top which means yeast is activated. If yeast doesn't activate, discard and make again.
- Once the yeast is activated, add the flour and using a wooden spoon mix it around for few seconds tp roughly bring it together.
- Sprinkle the salt and drizzle the oil. Now using your clean hand mix everything. We are not kneading here, just making sure no dry flours are there. It will feel sticky but DO NOT add more flour.
- Cover the bowl with a clear wrap and leave aside for 10 minutes
- After 10 minutes, dust little flour to the counter top or table and transfer the dough.
- Lift the dough and fold in half then rotate 90 degree and repeat the process. (watch the video to understand the technique better). Do this step a few times. You can do this step even in the mixing bowl.
- Once done, place the dough back to the mixing bowl, cover and leave aside for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, you will notice the dough already started to look quite soft. Wet your hand with little water as it will be easier to handle sticky dough and perform the stretch and fold technique. Pull the dough from one egde of the bowl and fold it over to the other side. Rotate the bowl to 90 degree and repeat the process. Repeat this process on all the four sides and then lift the dough to form a round ball. Cover the bowl and leave aside for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes try the window pane test to see if gluten has developed enough. Take a little amount of the dough and gently stretch the dough to see if it stretches without tearing apart. If you face the stretch dough towards light (window) you should see light reflecting through.
- This shows that dough has developed enough gluten and ready for rise.
- I like to transfer the dough to a flour dusted table and tug the edges to form a round ball. Cover the dough call by inverting the mixing bowl and leave aside for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, the dough will double in size. Using a knife or a bench scraper, divide the dough into 4 equal portions. The pizza dough will feel extremely soft and pillowy and you will see air pockets too.
- If you are making just one pizza, then save the rest in the refrigerator or freeze it for later usage.
- Shape the small doughs into tiny round balls, by tugging the edges to the center and then folding over. (watch the video to understand the step better)
- While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 500 F and place the pizza stone on the middle rack. You can use cast iron skillet or cookie sheet too. Preheat the cookie sheet/ cast iron skillet too.
- To shape the dough for pizza, DO NOT use a rolling pin.
- First dust some semolina or corn meal on the table and using your fingers gently press down the dough and then stretch the dough gently on all the side by rotating with your hand.
- You can either transfer the flat pizza dough to a parchment paper or pizza peel. If you are using a pizza peel make sure to layer little flour or semolina on the pizza peel.
- Spread the sauce and cheese and what ever toppings you like. Drizzle little oil on the edges of the pizza dough and transfer the pizza to the preheated hot pizza stone, VERY CAREFULLY. If you are using the parchment paper, then place the parchment paper directly on the pizza stone.
- Bake for 13 to 15 minutes.
- Once done, let the pizza cool down for 3 to 5 minutes before you slice and enjoy.
mjskitchen
Love this process! So much easier than what I do. Thanks!