5 Minute Pizza Dough Recipe (No Rise, No Knead Dough) (2024)

FAQs

What happens to pizza dough if not kneaded enough? ›

Under kneading causes a lack of strength and stretchiness in the pizza dough. The dough will tear easily when stretched and will not hold it's shape as well as a fully kneaded dough. A sure-fire way to tell if your dough is under kneaded is if it's lumpy, because the ingredients won't have been mixed properly.

This no-rise pizza dough recipe is quick and merely involves mixing a few basic ingredients and patting the dough into the pan — no need to wait for the dough to rise with this approach.

Fortunately, this is a problem that's relatively easy to diagnose and solve. If your bread dough doesn't rise, you can still use it and fix it by changing up the temperature or mixing in more yeast.

But almost as good as a proofing box is taking a Mason jar filled halfway up with water, microwaving it for two minutes, then putting your bowl of dough into the microwave with the jar to rise. The other thing you can do is place your lidded container or bowl of dough into a second, larger bowl of warm water.

What Does Under-Kneaded Dough Look Like? Dough that has not been kneaded, or hasn't been kneaded long enough, appears lumpy, doesn't stretch very well, and tears easily. If your dough is like this, it needs more kneading. Keep kneading it until it's smooth, stretchy, and more pliable.

Never fear if your pizza dough isn't rising. Perhaps you accidentally destroyed your yeast, or it simply died. Fix it with some fresh yeast while the dough is still warm. You must knead the dough for at least 15 minutes, and you must knead it well.

Pizza dough loves warmth, so if you can find a way to add some extra heat, your dough will rise faster. One way to do this is to preheat your oven to the lowest setting (usually around 200 degrees Fahrenheit) and then turn it off. Place your pizza dough in the warm oven for 10-15 minutes until it begins to rise.

Pizza dough that has been left to rise for too long, or has been over-proofed, can potentially collapse. The gluten becomes overly relaxed, and the end product will be gummy or crumbly instead of crisp and fluffy.

Testing your yeast

Step 1: Dissolve sugar in water. Add yeast and stir to dissolve. Step 2: Leave your yeast for 10 minutes. If the mixture rises to double or triple in size, then your yeast is active!

A vacuum-sealed bag of yeast stored at high temperatures, however—e.g., in a hot kitchen over the summer, or in a hot warehouse before delivery—will fairly quickly lose its effectiveness. After awhile, if stored improperly, yeast cells will die. And if you use dead (or dying) yeast in your bread, it won't rise.

What temperature kills yeast? ›

Too Hot to Survive

Regardless of the type of yeast you use, if your water reaches temperatures of 120°F or more, the yeast will begin to die off. Once water temps reach 140°F or higher, that is the point where the yeast will be completely killed off.

To fix this, ensure you're using fresh yeast and the proper amount, knead the dough for up to 20 minutes, and maintain ideal proofing temperatures (73-75°F). If the dough still doesn't rise, place it in a warmer location, add more yeast, or knead it more thoroughly.

If your crusts aren't puffing up in the oven, this usually means that there's not enough air in your dough. Finely ground flour = airy dough. 00 flour or strong white bread flour works best.

One of the tests bakers swear by is the windowpane test. To do this, break off a small piece of dough, pinch it between your fingers and gently stretch it. If it stretches into a paper-thin film without breaking, your dough is done and it's ready to be rolled out and put into the oven.

Though it's important to knead your dough thoroughly, it's not necessary to knead your dough for long. We recommended kneading your dough for about 4 to 6 minutes! Over-kneading your dough will create a fine, crumb-like texture, giving your dough a bready texture rather than a light and airy pizza crust.

The culprits of this doughy push-and-pull are the tight and stubborn gluten strands within the dough. Actions like kneading, folding, and shaping all strengthen the gluten network, but sometimes they make it so strong that the dough becomes resistant to stretching.

In broad strokes, if a recipe calls for you to stir or knead the dough then let it rise undisturbed, go ahead and stir or knead but only to the point where ingredients are hom*ogeneous and you have a “shaggy mass.” At that point you can step away, returning to fold three to four times in the first hour of fermentation.