The John Dough Story

Great pizza starts with great dough. The key to great dough is the water. At John Dough, we recreate the mineral content of the local water found in some of the world’s most famous pizza producing regions.

We use only the finest ingredients, including double-zero flour, kosher salt, and heirloom yeast.

Resurrect your taste buds with a pizza made from John Dough.

How To Prepare John Dough

John Dough is delivered frozen in two formats: Balled and pre-rolled. Our dough is frozen after it has undergone its fermentation rise. You will allow the dough to complete a secondary rise in your refrigerator.

If you have a stand-alone pizza oven, you may have tried making pizza using store-bought dough. The dough was likely coated in oil, and probably caught on fire in your ultra-hot oven. You may have pulled your pizza out of the oven, only to discover that, despite being burned on the edges, the crust wasn't fully cooked.

Because we do not use oil in our recipe, our dough will thrive in the high temperatures of a stand-alone pizza oven. If you don't have a pizza oven, fear not: You can cook our dough in a home oven and still achieve excellent results! You'll just have to let it cook a bit longer.

If you are using a pizza stone, you'll need a pizza peel to transfer your pizza into and out of the oven. You can also prepare your pizza on a cookie sheet or pizza pan. If you are using a pizza peel, you'll want to dust your peel with fine cornmeal, semolina flour, or regular flour to prevent the pizza from sticking to your peel. We like to give our crust a "shake test" before placing our toppings and again before transferring the uncooked pizza to our preheated pizza stone. Wiggle the pizza peel, and make sure that the entire pizza slides. If your pizza doesn't slide, or if it sticks in one or two spots, you'll want to gently lift your pizza from the peel and add additional cornmeal or flour.

Using a pizza pan is even easier; we recommend you spray the top side of your pan with cooking spray, then apply a light dusting of fine cornmeal or flour to ensure your finished pizza will slide off the pan after cooking.

Preparing a Pre-Rolled Crust

If you have a pre-rolled crust, remove it from the freezer and place on a well-floured work surface one hour before you plan to cook your pizza. After one hour, skip to the Topping Your Pizza section below.

Preparing a Dough Ball

Place the package of dough in your refrigerator for 24-48 hours to allow it to develop maximum flavor. One and a half to two hours before you plan to cook your pizza, dust a smooth clean surface with flour and place the dough ball on top of the flour. After the dough ball has warmed up, gently press the center of the dough ball with your fingertips and begin to shape it into a flat disk. Slide your hands under the disk, palm side down, and lift the dough. Gravity is your friend here; you'll find the dough will naturally stretch as you lift it. Continue stretching the dough until you achieve your desired thickness. We recommend keeping your disk a bit thicker if you are using a pizza peel and stone. If you are using a pizza pan you can make the crust much thinner.

Topping your Pizza

Once your crust is ready and sitting on the pizza peel or pizza pan, drizzle a bit of olive oil on the crust, then add sauce along with your choice of toppings. You can use a homemade pizza sauce, a store-bought sauce, or even just a can of tomato sauce. Tip: Don't overload your pizza with toppings. This is truly a case where less is more. To avoid a greasy pizza, you may want to place pepperoni under the cheese.

Cooking your Pizza

If using a pizza oven, cook your pizza according to the manufacturer' instructions. This will typically take about 2 minutes, with one 180° rotation halfway through the cooking time. If using a home oven, preheat your oven to 550°F. When hot, place the pizza in your oven for 6-9 minutes.