Roberta’s Pizza Dough – The Ultimate guide

You don’t need to be a home cook to make your own pizza.

In fact, the Robertas Pizza Dough recipe I’m going to teach you is far easier than you think, and making pizza at home is not only super fun, but it can be extremely delicious too.

Roberta’s Pizza from Brooklyn is extremely well known for some of the best-tasting pizza on earth and this is my go-to pizza dough recipe.

Roberta’s pizza will take some of you back to some good old Italian traditions. Either way, this thin crust pizza is world-famous for a reason.

Get ready to make the best-tasting crispy pizza crust straight from your own kitchen!

This is a resource in our ultimate pizza dough guide.

Kneading pizza dough

Pizza tools and special items to have handy

You will be surprised at how easy it is to make your own Robertas Pizza Dough! 

Keep the following items handy while making your dough:

  • floured surface
  • dampened cloth
  • mozzarella (chewy is amazing)
  • large mixing bowl
  • plastic wrap
  • lukewarm tap water (or warm water)
  • Your choice of beverage for hydration

How to Make Roberta’s Pizza Dough

Makes 2 pizzas (or 4 minis)

Ingredients

  • 153 grams 00 flour (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
  • 153 grams all-purpose flour (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons)
  • 8 grams fine sea salt (1 teaspoon)
  • 2 grams active dry yeast (3/4 teaspoon)
  • 4 grams extra-virgin olive oil (1 teaspoon)
  • 200 grams lukewarm water (1 cup)
  • Extra flour

Pizza hack – if you find you do not have 00 flour, then king Arthur bread flour will do fine.

how to make pizza dough - close up pizza dough

METHOD

  • Mix the lukewarm water, yeast, and olive oil in a small bowl. Set aside.
  • Mix the two flours and the salt in a larger bowl.
  • Pour the water and yeast mixture (from step 1) into the flour mixture and mix by hand (or with a wooden spoon) until well incorporated (i.e. no more dry flour).
  • Knead the dough for 3 minutes. Then let rest for 15 minutes. PRO TIP – Watch our pizza kneading video
  • Knead the dough for another 3 minutes. It should now feel like the texture of your earlobe. (Weird, I know, but accurate.)
  • Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Shape into dough balls.
  • Heavily flour a dish for the rise. Place the dough balls in your dish with some room between them (because they’ll grow) and cover with cling wrap or a damp tea towel.
  • Let the dough rise for 8-24 hours in the fridge (or until the dough has about doubled in size). If you can’t wait that long, let it rise at room temperature for 3-4 hours.

Tips for Cooking Your Pizza

TIP 1:
Pizza stones are good, but cast irons pans are better. Pizza stones are the typical go-to for your cooking surface, but I actually prefer using a cast iron pan.

Bonus tip: Want to really step it up? Try using baking steel for your cooking surface.

Whatever you decide to use, it should be fully pre-heated in advance typically to 500F. Pre-heating the oven and pan is the first thing I do when cooking pizza. Learn how to reheat your pizza in the oven properly here

TIP 2:

Be sure to work on a floured surface. When shaping your dough balls into pizzas, a lot of people reach for the rolling pin but this is a mistake!

Our dough just spent 3-24 hours working hard to make nice little air bubbles and a rolling pin will do nothing but squish them. Instead, we’re going to use the tips of our fingers.

Starting in the center, gently press down so the dough pushes outwards. Work your way in a circle getting wider and wider with each rotation.

You’ll actually feel some of the air bubbles pop as you go, but that’s ok because there’s plenty more.

TIP 3:

Hot electric coils are your friend.If using an electric oven, there’s an extra trick or 2 we can use to match the high heats of commercial pizza ovens (they often get to 800+F, which can’t be done in a normal home oven).

Preheat and use the top rack of your oven. This puts the pizza closer to the heat source (assuming your electric oven has a top burner).

The second trick, which has worked wonders for me, is to wait until the oven needs to “pre-heat” again.

What I mean by this is that when your oven needs to “kick on” again to keep the heat up at 500F, that’s when you should put your pizza in the oven.

I often crack open the oven door so it loses a little heat, triggering the electric coils to kick on.

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