Basic Pizza Dough
22
A quick to make, beautifully textured pizza dough recipe by Jamie Oliver. The dough encrusted with semolina makes a gorgeous crispy crust.
Ingredients
- 800g strong white bread flour
- 200g fine semolina or semolina flour
- 1 tablespoon fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast
- 650ml lukewarm water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- extra flour for dusting
Instructions
- Pile the flour and salt on to a clean surface (or inside a large bowl) and make an 18cm/7inch well in the centre. add your yeast and sugar to the tepid water, mix up with a fork and leave for a few minutes. Then pour into the well. Using a fork and a circular movement, slowly bring in the flour from the inner edge of the well and mix with the water. The flour will look like stodgy porridge at this point of time. Continue mixing the dry flour with the water till it comes together into a roughly formed dough ball. Now use your flour dusted hands to knead the dough. Roll the dough backwards and forwards, using your left hand to stretch the dough towards you and your right hand to push it away from you. Repeat this for 10 minutes until you have a smooth springy soft dough. (I rubbed oil on to my palms and the insides of my bowl in the last few minutes of kneading to ensure the dough didn't stick).
- Place in a bowl. Flour the top of your dough, cover with a tea towel and let it rest for at least 15 to 30 minutes at room temperature. This will make it easier to roll it thinly. Divide the dough into as many balls as you want to make pizzas. (I made 6 with this quantity). It is a good idea to roll out the pizzas 15 to 30 minutes before you want to bake them. If you are preparing the dough way in advance, store the dough covered with clingfilm in the fridge. To roll out the dough, take a dough ball and place on a surface dusted with flour or semolina. Roll out thinly to about 0.5cm/1/4 inch thickness. Tear off a piece of aluminium foil large enoug to hold the pizza base, rub it with olive oil and dust it with flour. Place you base on top. Do this with the remaining dough balls, stacking the bases in the foil one on top of the other. You can cling wrap this stack till ready to use or bake straightaway with toppings of your choice.
- To cook the bases, preheat oven to 250C/500F. If possible, cook pizzas on a pizza stone or slab of granite. (Since I had neither, I oiled an aluminium pizza plate and half baked the pizzas on it. Then I transferred the half baked pizzas to a round wire rack and baked them on it. Another great pizza baking dish is a round pizza crisper available from baking and departmental stores. This metal dish has lots of holes in it to enable circulation and ensure a crisp base). Cook only for 7 to 8 minutes until golden and crispy.
Notes
Apply as few toppings as you can. Smear pizza sauce very lightly on the pizza base. 3 tablespoons of pizza sauce is enough cover the surface evenly. You want the pizza base to be able to breathe in order to be crisp. I usually have a jar of homemade tomato based pizza sauce on hand in the fridge. When I don't have that, any pasta sauce will do. I usde the pasta sauce in tandem with plain old barbecue sauce sometimes. After putting the toppings on the base, always drizzle some olive oil lightly over and around the pizza.
Variation 1 - Tomato sauce for the base. Top with slices of pancetta, fresh red chili and cheese.
Variaion 2 - Mix of tomato and barbecue sauce for the base. Top with thinly sliced mushroom and cheese.
Variation 3 - Mix of tomato and barbecue sauce for the base. Top with slivers of onion, 1 lightly beaten egg and cheese.
Variation 4 - Mix of tomato and barbecue sauce for the base. Top with wedges of fresh fig and bocconcini cheese. Garnish with rocket leaves after baking.
Variation 5 - Tomato sauce for the base. Top with olives, slices of potatoes and cheese.
I love making pizza dough… A lovely recipe.
cheers,
Rosa
I like to eat pizza…great recipe!!!
Looking good! You said you included some variations in the notes but I’ve looked a few times and I ain’t seeing any?
Benthe´s last [type] ..Historisch Openluchtmuseum Eindhoven
Fixed it
What perfect pizza dough – can’t wait to try this!
Laura (Tutti Dolci)´s last [type] ..williams-sonoma gift card giveaway
Such a beautiful blog! Recipe duly bookmarked for the toddler pizza making session I bravely volunteered to host this Friday *panic*
You will rock it! xx
No comparison to homemade pizza dough and store bought dough! I have never tried adding sooji to it…will try it next time
Thanks Sneh!
Grishma´s last [type] ..Mother’s day wishes!
Hi Sneh,
.
I just discovered your blog, but I am already in love. You have amazing recipes and photos! Like this pizza dough, it’s something I just must try! I can’t believe a pizza dough can be ready in 30 minutes – this is fantastic
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I hope you get a chance to visit and to share some of your delicious posts with our viewers. It would be a pleasure to have you on board
I recently made a “green pizza” (next entry on my blog) and I mixed whole wheat flour with some pureed greens (a mixture of spinach + mustard greens + basil)to make the dough. I will try adding semolina to the dough next time. I love a pizza dough that has some texture to it. Thanks for sharing…love your blog!
Pallavi´s last [type] ..Patatas Bravas and Fruity Sangria
Pallavi, that sounds amazing. Might have to try that out myself, I can just imagine the gorgeous green colour of the crust!
Lovely! I’ve made pizzas at home a few times lately and the results were really tasty. But I can never get the crust to roll out in a nice circle or rectangle. I always end up with wonky shaped pizzas… but they taste nice!
SarahKate (Mi Casa-Su Casa)´s last [type] ..A Sunday in Manly
am a huge fan of jamie and his recipes like u say needs no tinkering whatsoever- good one and great presentation !
Priya Sreeram´s last [type] ..Eggless Chocolate Cake with a Crusty Walnut Layer – Mom this is for you
I use Jamie’s pizza dough recipe too! It’s so simple and works every time. Your photos of the process are beautiful
thelittleloaf´s last [type] ..Chocolate & Honeycomb Semifreddo
Oh, I do love a homemade pizza crust! I’ve found recently that all of my once favorite pizza places just aren’t doing the trick for me, so it might be about time I make it myself again.
I have a crust recipe that’s tried and true, but Oliver’s sounds just perfect – will definitely try this next time! I love your variations, as well.
Willow´s last [type] ..Tiramisu, for two
Oh wow, that is perfect.
love2dine´s last [type] ..Fuwawa Baumkuchen
You’re right – Jamie O’s recipes are so eminently practical and usable there is no need to +/-
! I have never made pizza dough from the beginning: since I’m not much into fast food, don’t buy ‘em either, BUT I am going to try your/Jamie’s version 
! Love the way you mix tomato and barbecue sauces for base; I think it’s variations 2 and 4 for me!! Thanks!
I was TOTALLY thinking today about how I’m dying to make some pizza and that I need a solid dough recipe. And, look, i now have one. You must have been listening to my thoughts!
Brian @ A Thought For Food´s last [type] ..Food + Travel: The Palace of Venaria + Dolce Stil Novo (Italy)
[...] Pizza (Preparation time is based on the assumption that you have Pizza Dough and Pizza Sauce on hand) Preparation Time – 10 minutes Cooking Time – 12 minutes Makes [...]
[...] When it comes to pizza dough, I have my simple and easy basic recipe that I shared I while ago. But there’s nothing that can’t be improved, right? So I included two inspirations that I got from a friend and from my father: increased time for the dough to proof and the addition of semolina. While you get a more fluffy and fragrant pizza by giving the yeast more time to do its job, the semolina gives your pizza a more crispy crust. Both together: Sensational combination! For a similar pizza dough have a look at Snehs adaption of a Jamie Oliver recipe. [...]
Hi Sneh..i recently used your recipe and made the pizza dough. It came out really well after baking, but it was really difficult to work with. The dough was too sticky and no matter how much I kneaded it or how much flour I put in, it remained sticky. So I thought I ll ask you. when I add the yeast and sugar mixed water to the flour, do I add all the water at once or keep adding as I need it? As I understand, the dough needs to be really soft. I would love to try out the recipe again as I was really happy with the end result, but I want to make it right the next time.
Yes, the dough is meant to be sticky and adding more flour will only dry it out. Make sure your hands and work surface are dusted. Maybe leave out 50ml water from the quantity given here if you would like a slightly stiffer dough to play around with otherwise the entire volume of water is required. When you are at the last stages of kneading, brush ball of dough and palms with olive oil instead of adding more flour, the olive oil helps reduce the stickiness. Hope that helps!