We love pizza night at our house. When my kids were younger, we often would have Friday night pizza night using this easy recipe. Nowadays we don’t stick to the same schedule, but we still make pizza a couple times a month – at least. When I plan ahead I’ll use my favorite sourdough pizza recipe but sometimes I don’t plan ahead and we are craving pizza…right NOW! This quick pizza oven pizza dough is perfect for those nights that you don’t plan ahead. It can be ready start-to-finish in about 2 hours, with the bulk of that time going to the dough’s first rise.

Two Hour Neapolitan-Style Pizza

This Quick Pizza Oven Pizza Dough is a recipe for Neapolitan-style pizza. It is perfect for baking in an outdoor pizza oven. I use an Ooni Koda 16. Neapolitan pizza comes from Italy and is known for its thin and chewy crust. It bakes at a very high temperature (think 700-800 degrees Fahrenheit) for a short period of time (60-90 seconds). Many Neapolitan pizza oven recipes call for a small amount of yeast and a long rise in the refrigerator before baking in your pizza oven. This long rise time makes for a very flavorful pizza crust and if you have the time, it’s worth it! However, I love this quick and easy pizza recipe that only requires about an hour rise time for when you haven’t planned far enough ahead. This is my go-to quick and easy pizza recipe and I hope you love it as much as we do!

Type 00 Flour in Pizza Dough

I love using my Ooni pizza oven to bake pizza. Ooni’s instructions for the best Neapolitan-style pizza say to use Type 00 flour. Type 00 flour is known for making traditional Neapolitan-style pizza and it gives a crispy, thin crust while being chewy at the same time. In Europe, flour is categorized by how finely ground it is, not by protein content (which is what we use in America to categorize our flour). You can buy Type 00 flour used in Italian pizza crust in some stores (our local Kroger carries it now!) or on Amazon. For this pizza recipe, I highly recommend using Type 00 flour. It’s worth keeping a bag of flour on hand for quick, delicious pizza. If you want to make pizza using regular all purpose or bread flour, I would recommend making this sourdough version instead.

Knead the Quick Pizza Dough

This pizza dough comes together really quickly. Add the warm milk and water to the bowl of a stand mixer (my two favorites linked here and here). Pour in the sugar and yeast. You will smell the yeast start to activate pretty quickly. Add the olive oil and salt. Then turn your mixer on and start adding flour gradually. You are looking for the dough to be tacky but tender and for the dough to move to one side of the mixing bowl. Knead the dough for about 7-8 minutes, adding little bits of flour as necessary. Or you can knead by hand for about 10 minutes. Cover the dough with a dishtowel and let rise for about an hour, or until doubled in size. Waiting for the dough to rise is going to be the longest part of the pizza-making process. If you want to speed up the rise, put the dough in a warm place (I like to turn my oven light on and stick the dough inside the oven–but don’t turn the oven on).

Shaping Pizza Dough Balls

Before you turn the dough out onto a countertop, go ahead and turn your pizza oven on. The pizza oven will take a little while to heat up to 700-800 degrees. I like to turn my pizza oven on before I shape the dough balls. Once the dough has doubled in size, spread a little cornmeal on a baking dish or baking sheet. Dump out the risen dough and separate into equal portions. I like to make smaller, personal-sized pizzas, so I use about about 175 grams per dough ball (it makes an 8-10 inch personal sized pizza). To shape a ball of dough, pick the dough up in your hand and gently pull the dough together as you turn it in your hand, forming a ball. Then take the ball and tightly move it in a circular motion on the countertop to seal the ball. You should be left with a taught, round ball of dough. Put the ball onto the prepared baking sheet to rest.

Watch the video below to see how I pre-shape pizza dough balls

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Short Second Pizza Dough Rise

I’m not sure that I can actually call this a “rise,” because it is really more of a rest. Cover the shaped dough balls with a kitchen towel for about 15-20 minutes while you prepare the pizza toppings. This gives the gluten just enough time to rest and relax, which will make the dough much easier to stretch and shape into a circular pizza. The dough balls will puff up just a bit but won’t fully rise. Once the balls have rested for about 15 minutes, begin shaping the pizzas.

Stretching and Assembling Pizza Dough

I use a wooden cutting board to assemble my pizza. Spread a little cornmeal on the bottom of the board. The cornmeal gives just a little friction to the base of the dough to keep it from sticking and helps it “launch” into a pizza oven. Stretch the dough into a circle with your hands and place the stretched dough on top of the cornmeal. Press the pizza into a circular shape and top with pizza sauce, chunks of fresh mozzarella and any other toppings you’d like. It’s best not to overload the pizza with toppings – let the simplicity of the ingredients speak for themselves. Mozzarella, tomato sauce and basil with a bit of olive oil–perfection!

Tips for Baking in an Ooni Pizza Oven (How NOT to burn the pizza dough)

The more you make pizza in a pizza oven, the easier this will become. Before putting your pizza in the pizza oven, double check that your pizza is not sticking to the board (if it is, lightly lift it off and add a little more cornmeal to the bottom), and scoot the pizza toward the end of the board. Launch the pizza with a quick thrust of the board into the pizza oven. Do not stick your fingers into the oven! Have a pizza peel and a fork nearby. Once the pizza has cooked about 45 seconds and starts to look crispy, pull it out with the pizza peel, rotate it 180 degrees (one half turn) with the fork and bake for another 30-45 seconds until the crust is perfect. If your crust starts to burn, turn the oven down a bit AND pull the pizza toward the front of the pizza oven instead of in the back of the oven (back=closer to the flame).

Can I use this dough in a Conventional Oven?

This pizza recipe works best in a pizza oven. I’ve made it many times in an Ooni Koda 16 pizza oven. You will get the best texture, taste and crispness using the high heat and baking stone of a pizza oven. If you don’t have a pizza oven, you can still make good pizza from this recipe, though you may want to check out this one instead. Move a pizza stone to the highest rack in the oven. Crank your home oven up to the highest temperature it will go (550 is the temperature I tested it at). Preheat the pizza stone in the oven and let it preheat for at least 30-40 minutes. This long preheat is crucial to the texture of the pizza dough. Turn the oven to broil and launch the pizza on top of the pizza stone. Bake right under the broiling elements for 2-3 minutes until baked through.

Frequently Asked Questions

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