There is no reason to order out! Just keep shredded mozzarella and pepperoni in your freezer, a jar of sauce in your pantry, and, of course, some dough in your fridge. It’s easy and it only takes 5 minutes of hands-on work to put the dough together. Forget about it for an hour or two while it rises, and then toss it in the fridge.
Need pizza dough for tonight? Try our easy pizza dough. For an authentic experience, you have to try our Italian-style pizza dough.
Why Our Recipe
- Dough comes together in 5 minutes, no mixer required! Mix it right in the container.
- Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks so you can have dough ready to go anytime!
- Makes enough for four large pizzas, but can easily be doubled or tripled.
It’s a rare day that you won’t find pizza dough in our fridge. Sometimes we need a last-minute meal, and pizza is our favorite go-to. You can put almost anything on a pizza and make it good. This dough is great because you can make a batch (or double batch), toss it in the fridge, and then know that you’re covered for dinner emergencies for the next two weeks. You can pull it out of the fridge and have dinner ready within 15 minutes. We showed this trick once for a group cooking lesson, and everyone was amazed.
Ingredient Notes
- Water: Use lukewarm water (100-110℉) to help activate the yeast. We like to say it should be warm to the touch, like a baby’s bath water.
- Olive Oil: Extra virgin olive oil is preferred for better taste, but any olive oil will work.
- Brown Sugar: Light or dark brown sugar can be used. You could even use granulated sugar in a pinch.
- Salt: Use regular table salt or kosher salt.
- Instant Dry Yeast: Make sure your yeast is fresh for the best results. Active dry yeast can also be used interchangeably in this recipe.
- All-Purpose Flour: You can substitute with bread flour for a slightly different texture if desired.
The Container
For this refrigerator pizza dough, you’ll want a large Tupperware-type container, also known as a food storage container or food prep container. You can see examples using our affiliate link on Amazon, but you can find these types of containers at many stores. They come in various shapes like circular, square and tall, or rectangular and shorter. Ideally, you’ll need a 6 to 8-quart container to give your dough plenty of room to rise. Pick one that fits best in your fridge.
Vent Your Dough
It’s important to vent your container because the dough produces gases as it rises. Yes, your dough continues to rise in the fridge, albeit slowly. These gases need to escape otherwise the lid pops off. Use a container with a lid that fits securely but isn’t airtight, or leave the lid slightly ajar. You can also cover the container with plastic wrap, poking a small hole for ventilation.
when you take some of the dough out refrig to use do you let come to room temp befoere using it and do you let it rise again
No need to let it come to room temp or let it rise again. It’s ready to use straight from the fridge!
I’ve been making my own dough and sauce for years..there was always a little something missing, not quite right.
I saw this recipe and turned it into a sheet pan pizza and OH MY DOG!!!!
This is IT!!! The PERFECT CRUST!!!! The taste is amazing, the crumb is perfectly balanced between chewy and crispy. Just perfect! No need to search anymire, this is THE ONE!! thanks so much ⚜️🇨🇦
Super easy full proof, i cut recipe in half makes a great dough. Thank you!
Looking forward to trying this over the holidays. How much air is needed to let gases out? Do I seal the container tight but just leave room or have a lid with a valve? It looked like your container was full & tight. Thank you. Sorry for all the questions.
I leave the lid cracked slightly. You do need some level of small ventilation to allow the gases to escape.
I love this recipe. I use whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose and am very happy with the result.
During this quarantine we tried many dough recipes, but this is the best!
We could finally enjoy a delicious pizza!
Thank you for the recipe.
The ingredients are so similar to the no knead bread recipes that I have found. Could your recipe also be used for a loaf of bread?
It can, but it’s not my favorite loaf.
Try the natural way of forming your crust. Get a good idea of the size you want to make. Place the dough in the center of a cookie skeet. Start in the center, and with your fingers spread, gently but quickly push the dough evenly outward. Push it to form a circle about 6″ across. Then, starting from the center, pushing the dough out to the size circle you want. Push the dough up to form a free-form rim. If there’s a part you don’t like, let it sit for 5-6 mintues. The dough will be relaxed and you can guide it as you wish. You will have a lovely round which is more alive than one that has been stretched by a rolling pin. The dough will help you do what it wants and shaping gets to be easier. If you like, lightly sprinkle with a little olive oil as you go for a richer flavor.
This is a great basic dough to work with!
Reviving an old post again, but I found this online and want to try it! I’m also a huge fan of the Bread in 5 book, and bake that simple bread often. So my question is, do you need to let the dough warm up when you want to use it, either before or after rolling it out? I’m guessing not, but other materials have said that pizza dough does much better when it warms up so it makes me think. Looking forward to it though 🙂 Maybe we’d actually have pizza more often if it was ready to go!
I don’t necessarily let it warm up. Yes, it makes it easier to work with, but to me the whole point of having refrigerator pizza dough is to make things fast.
This may be a dumb question, but how do you get the pizza onto the pizza stone without it completely falling apart? With all the toppings on it, its hard to handle, especially since the pizza stone is so hot. A frozen pizza is easy, but what do you do with a fresh one?
By the way, I love your videos and your approach to cooking!
You use a pizza peel! Dust it generously with cornmeal and the pizza should roll right off and onto the stone with a few flicks of the wrist. It’s an art.
can also use parchment paper works well