You need this Ooni pizza dough recipe in your life if you have any type of outdoor pizza oven. It’s our family’s tried-and-true recipe for a crispy, chewy, and pillowy crust whenever we’re craving a Neapolitan-style pizza.
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I’ve tried more than a few pizza crusts over the years, and this one makes truly delicious pizza in an outdoor pizza oven. (One day, I’ll share the perfect pizza dough for a home oven. And possibly even my favorite sourdough pizza recipe.)
But why can’t I share a single recipe and be done with it? Great question. Let’s dive in.
What type of dough is best for a pizza oven vs a home oven?
Whether you’ve got an Ooni Karu, an Ooni Koda, or a completely different brand altogether, you’ll want to use lower hydration dough for outdoor pizza ovens designed to to heat to extreme temperatures of more than 900 degrees F. This particular recipe has 60% hydration. Because pizza ovens get so hot and cook so fast, using low hydration dough ensures the moisture will evaporate. It also helps the dough expand during its short cooking time. This is known as oven spring.
Low hydration has another benefit. It’s often less sticky. This means it’s easier to work with and is less likely to stick to your pizza peel as you transfer it to the oven.
In a home oven, you should look for a recipe with dough hydration between 65-70%. This is because, in a home oven, cooking a pizza requires more time. More time equals more evaporation. Using a properly hydrated dough is the difference between a crispy crust with soft chewy edges or a hard, dry crust you might mistake for cardboard. (Nobody wants that.)
Simple Ingredients Yield the Perfect Crust
- Warm Water: When you use active dry yeast, it’s a good thing to give your yeast extra warmth to activate and dissolve. I rarely take the temperature of the water, but if you do, it should be between 105*-110*. Otherwise, I test the water on my wrist, looking for something that feels like it’s the same temperature as my skin.
- Active Dry Yeast: Really you can use instant yeast, active dry yeast or fresh yeast when making pizza. I used to buy fresh yeast from local bakeries in France, who would sometimes part ways with a small chunk upon request, but fresh yeast is hard to come by in the US. Instant yeast can be replaced in a 1:1 ratio, but you don’t need to activate the yeast first. I keep both in my refrigerator, but the instructions in this recipe are specifically for active dry yeast.
- Salt: I used regular iodized table salt for this recipe. If you want to substitute for another kind of salt, just know that different types of salt require adjusting the quantity used.
- Bread Flour: Although a true Neapolitan-style pizza crust would use Tipo 00 flour, I tend to use King Arthur Bread Flour, which is a substitute that you can easily find at your local grocery story. Like Tipo 00 flour, it has a high protein content, clocking in at 12.7%. The more protein flour has, the more gluten it can develop. This gives doughs strength, elasticity and chewiness. All-purpose flour has a lower protein content. You can use it, but your dough won’t be as good.
- Time: This particular recipe can be done in approximately 2 hours vs the recommended 4 to 6 hours. But gaining time means sacrificing flour and stretchability. The longer you let your dough rise, the thinner the crust, which is desirable when you give a pizza such a quick cook time. In fact, you can store pizza in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Time will make it easier to stretch the pizza so you have a nice thin base. In our house, if we have extra dough, we’ll often wait a couple of days and THEN do a leftover pizza night.
Pizza Topping Ideas for This Ooni Pizza Dough Recipe
The best part about making homemade pizza is getting creative with your pizza toppings! When making pizza in your pizza oven, it’s important not to go overboard on your pizza toppings. If you add too many ingredients, you’ll likely end up with a soggy, undercooked crust as the ingredients will either steam the dough or release liquid onto the pizza. I usually stick to 2 or 3 and then I use them in moderation.
Here are a few easy pizza topping ideas as well as a guide to which ones need to be pre-cooked vs those that don’t.
- Goat Cheese & Honey: Add goat cheese to the pizza as you would mozzarella. Cook pizza. Drizzle honey over the top.
- Four Cheese: Add grated mozzarella, provolone, aged gouda and parmesan. Cook pizza. Top with fresh basil.
- Spicy Pepperoni: Top pizza with pepperoni and pickled jalapenos.
- Prosciutto & Fig Jam: add small dollops of fig jam under your cheese. If you want crispy prosciutto add on top of cheese. But, honestly, I also like prosciutto in its natural state, so sometimes I add it after baking and it creates a nice contrast with the piping hot pizza!
- Ingredients that should be precooked: mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, squash, sweet potato, roasted red pepper, eggplant, cauliflower, meats; when you use precooked ingredients, let them come to room temperature before you add to the dough. This will keep the dough from sticking to the pizza peel.
- Ingredients you can add without precooking: thinly sliced onions, thinly sliced red pepper, pepperoni and egg (if you want it to cook through and maintain it’s runny yolk, add to pizza 2.5 minutes before it’s ready).
- Ingredients you can add after cooking: honey, balsamic glaze, roasted pine nuts, capers, hot sauce, jalapenos, fresh herbs, arugula, almonds, walnuts, etc.
A Few Extra Ooni Pizza Dough Tips & Tricks
- You can freeze extra dough. Let it rise. Portion it out and put each individual ball of dough into the freezer bag and freeze. To thaw, just pull it out the night before and set it in the fridge. Take the dough out of the fridge 30 minutes before stretching.
- Just like your kitchen oven, pizza ovens all heat differently. Keep an eye on your pizza and adjust cooking times and heat accordingly.
- If you don’t have an Ooni oven, you can also use a pizza stone.
- Leftover pizza dough makes excellent breadsticks.
There’s definitely a small learning curve in the art of making tasty pizza with a portable pizza oven like the Ooni, but with a great dough recipe and a little bit of practice, you’ll be throwing pies like a pizzaiolo in no time!
📖 Recipe
Ooni Pizza Dough Recipe
Equipment
- Ooni Pizza Oven Compare Ooni Pizza Ovens
Ingredients
- 12.8 oz 364g warm water approx. 1 ¾ cup
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 9.2 g active dried yeast approx. 2.5 tsp
- 21.4 oz 607g “00” flour, plus extra for dusting approx. 4 cups
- drizzle of olive oil to coat dough in first proof and keep from drying out
Instructions
- Heat 1 cup of water for 30 seconds, add it, along with the rest of the water in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Add salt, yeast and 1 cup of the flour to the same bowl and stir until the flour is wet.
- Let rest for 5 minutes or until the mixture becomes bubbly and frothy.
- Add another cup of the flour to the bowl and stir with a spatula. Adding the flour gradually will keep flour from going everywhere when you turn on the mixer.
- Add the last 2 cups of flour, give it a gentle stir to bring the dough to a rough mixture and then place the bowl in the mixer with a dough hook attached.
- Knead the dough on low speed for 6 to 8 minutes until the dough comes together in a smooth ball that springs back if you gently poke it. If the mixture is too sticky, slowly add a small amount of flour. (2 Tablespoons is a good place to start)
- Shape into a ball and drizzle a little olive oil over the top to keep the dough from drying out. Cover with cling film and set the bowl in a warm place for 4 to 6 hours.*
- Punch down the dough, turn out onto your work surface and portion this into 3 or 4 equal pieces. Set each ball on a lightly floured surface and cover again to let rest at least 20 minutes to an hour before stretching and shaping.
- At this point, your dough is ready to use!
