Homemade Pizza Dough, Light and Easy to Digest
Homemade pizza dough with flour, water, and yeast and a long rise: light, easy to digest, and simple to stretch. The base for pan and round pizza.
Want pizza dough that’s light and easy to digest, the kind that makes a base soft inside and crisp outside, without weighing you down? Then follow this recipe: little attention and lots of patience, because time does the work.
Pizza dough is the base of one of the most loved preparations, and making it at home changes everything. All you need is flour, water, yeast, and salt, but the difference between an ordinary pizza and a genuinely good one comes down to one factor: the rise.
It has at least three real advantages: it’s made with very few ingredients, it’s cheap and versatile (pan pizza, round, focaccia), and with a long rise it’s far more digestible than industrial pizza.
The most important tip is to use little yeast and give it plenty of time: a long rise, even 24 hours in the fridge, makes the dough light, fragrant, and digestible. Here, rushing is the real enemy.
When you stretch the risen dough, handle it gently so you don’t fully deflate it: the air bubbles are what give the base its proper open crumb.
Ready? Let’s make pizza dough.
To make this recipe
A small selection of handy tools to keep within reach. Some links may be affiliate links.
Digital kitchen scale
In leavened recipes and baked goods, it lets you accurately weigh flour, liquids, and yeast.
Steps
- Dissolve the yeast in the room-temperature water and stir for a few seconds.
- Pour the water onto the flour a little at a time and start kneading; once the dough begins to form, add the salt and oil.
- Knead for about 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Shape it into a ball and place it in an oiled bowl.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 4 to 6 hours at room temperature, or 24 hours in the fridge, until doubled in volume.
- Gently deflate the dough, stretch it into a pan or round, top it, and bake in a very hot oven (250°C / 480°F) until golden and crisp.
Helpful tips
The long rise is the secret: it makes the pizza light, digestible, and tastier. Less yeast and more time gives a better result.
If you use the fridge rise, take the dough out an hour before stretching so it returns to room temperature.
The oven must be very hot: the higher the temperature, the better the base bakes.
Handle the risen dough gently so you don't fully deflate it: the air bubbles give the right open crumb.
Average nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 320 kcal
- Carbohydrates
- 62.0 g
- Sugars
- 2.0 g
- Protein
- 10.0 g
- Fat
- 4.0 g
- Saturated fat
- 1.0 g
- Fiber
- 3.0 g
- Sodium
- 480 mg
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