No Yeast Pizza Dough

This is THE pizza dough recipe for when:

you don’t have 3 hours for dough to rise; don’t have yeast; or you’ve got hungry people giving you the evil eye because you promised pizza for dinner only to find the flatbreads you were going to use are mouldy (true story).

Basically, everyone falls into one of those 3 categories, which means this pizza crust recipe is for everyone in this entire world. 😂 You just mix it up in a bowl then knead for 3 minutes by hand, or blitz for 40 seconds in a food processor then it’s ready to use! Top with a pizza sauce and toppings of choice, bake for 12 minutes and voila! Piping hot pizza, fresh out of the oven in 20 minutes flat. That’s faster than home delivery!!

Pizza without yeast – what it tastes like

This no yeast pizza dough isn’t just ok. It’s mind-blowingly good!

Has enough structure so you can pick up slices, but the base isn’t thin and dry like a cracker; Flavourful and tender crust with as much chew as you’ll ever get from a pizza crust without yeast; Gets nice colour on the crust (something that other recipes deem as impossible unless you overcook the crust. We refused to give in!); and Tastes extraordinarily similar to traditional yeast pizza crust – though we don’t get the puffy bubbly edges of yeast pizza (and we never will – that’s just plain science!).

Note: The base recipe is made with bread flour which has higher protein and yields a better chew like you get with yeast pizza crusts. If you make this with plain / all purpose flour, you won’t get the same chewy crumb but it is still a seriously good pizza crust. Here’s a close up comparison of yeast vs no yeast pizza – pretty similar!

What you need for pizza crust without yeast

Here’s what you need to make no yeast pizza dough:

flour – use bread flour if you can. The crust will have a better chew and will tear as you bite into it, like traditional yeast pizza crust., because it’s got higher protein in it which makes a better crumb for breads. But don’t make a special trip out for bread flour, it’s still exceptional made with just plain / all purpose flour! The Sausage and Kale pizza pictured below is made with all purpose / plain flour – looks exactly the same! baking powder – this is what gives the pizza crust rise, instead of using yeast; sugar – just a touch, to bring out flavour and also helps the crust brown; olive oil – this keeps the crumb nice and moist. Without it, it’s terribly dry! salt – essential for flavour.

How to make pizza crust without yeast

Either mix it all up in a bowl then knead by hand for 3 minutes, or just blitz it all together in a food processor for 40 seconds. Then it’s ready to go!

Notice in Step 5 above how the dough after kneading is not completely smooth, unlike yeast pizza dough which is completely smooth after it rises. That’s totally ok. There’s no benefit to kneading for longer until it’s super smooth – as I found out first hand (and I really wish I discovered it sooner!!) This pizza crust without yeast is easy to work with – soft, supple, not sticky and very forgiving too.

Topping and baking no yeast pizza dough

After rolling it out, just top as you do any pizza! Spread with sauce, then toppings of choice.

PRO TIP: Brush the edge of the crust with oil. This will make the crust nice and brown without having to bake so long that it dries out. Inherent problem with no yeast pizza crusts!

Here are photos of a couple more pizzas made using this no yeast dough – Sausage and Kale Pizza, and Garlic Pizza (both topping recipes here).  

RecipeTin Family Challenge

This no yeast pizza dough is an original recipe created by the RecipeTin Family, whom I called upon pursuant to pitiful wails for a no yeast pizza after sharing the RecipeTin pizza dough several weeks ago. I never could resist pitiful wails for recipe requests!! So we took on the challenge. Though truthfully, we approached it skeptically, not believing it was possible. We poo-pooed crusts we’ve previously tried. “It’s like dry cardboard!” “Meh…. bland.” And the worst – “It was so bad, I scraped the topping off and ate it with chopsticks! “(true story) We are a tough crowd. (But really, we’re nice people – I promise! 😂) I am so very glad we have proven ourselves wrong. We’re all still shaking our heads over how good no yeast pizza can be – as are fellow foodie friends we shared the recipe with to try it out. And I’m thrilled (and actually quite proud) to be sharing it with the world. I hope it brings you as much joy as it has to us! – Nagi x PS But hopefully not girth expansion – as it has to us. 😩

Watch how to make it

Life of Dozer

One for the pizza, one for Dozer, one for the pizza, one for Dozer….

 

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