If you’re wondering if bread dough and pizza dough are the same thing then this article goes into the details. Often people ask if their go-to bread dough can be used for pizza. Here are the differences between bread dough and pizza dough.
The main differences are found in the proofing and shaping of the dough as both doughs have the same key ingredients of flour, yeast, water, and salt. Sometimes pizza dough will use less water and use specialist pizza flour.
There are many different types of bread out there. Pizza is essentially just another type of bread. There are also lots of different types of pizza styles – from thin and crispy or thick and more “bready”.
As there are so many types of bread, I’m mainly going to refer to basic white bread vs basic white pizza crust which is very similar. If you start getting more advanced then the recipe and ingredients can vary.
Differences Between Bread Dough And Pizza Dough
Basic pizza dough and basic bread dough are identical in their key ingredients but here are some differences that can occur:
- Pizza dough sometimes contains specialist pizza flour
- Bread dough can sometimes be enriched with butter, eggs, or milk
- Bread dough often contains more water to help it rise better
- Bread dough is usually kneaded for longer to build gluten
- Bread dough is risen taller
- Bread dough is baked fully risen while pizza dough is flattened before baking
- Pizza dough is cooked as hot as possible in a pizza oven or on a pizza stone
In short, if your using a basic white bread dough then it can be used for pizza with the right preparation and vice versa (see how below).
Ingredients In The Dough
The essential ingredients for pizza and bread dough are flour, water, salt, and yeast – but there can be some variation.
Flour – you can use high-protein bread flour or all-purpose flour to make both pizza and bread. There are specialist pizza flours like Italian “00” flour which is very soft and used to make puffy Neapolitan pizza.
Enriched dough – bread dough can be enriched with butter, eggs, and milk to resemble more of a cake-like brioche bread. These are not usually found in pizza dough.
Both doughs can have oil which helps to tenderize the crust and make it a little more chewy. Both doughs can use standard yeast or sourdough starter.
Check out my pizza dough recipewhich has all the instructions to produce perfect dough.
Hydration Levels Of The Dough
The amount of water in bread dough is usually higher (called hydration which is the percentage of water compared to flour).
Because wet dough is more fluid and flexible, it can rise faster and easier than dense dough. It allows for larger holes in the crumb as you would get in rustic bread or ciabatta.
More water usually means a crispier, lighter pizza too – but too much makes it impossible to shape into a pizza base.
Bread can handle higher hydration as it can be folded to be mixed and shaped. Pizza is usually 50-70% hydration, but some bread dough can be 90%.
The hotter the oven, the less hydration you need as it spends less time dehydrating in the oven.
A wood-fired pizza that might take 60 seconds to cook only needs 55% hydration, whereas an oven-baked pizza that takes 8 minutes to cook would dry out too much at this percentage.
Bread is cooked at lower temperatures so that is another reason for more hydration in bread.
Mixing and Kneading The Dough
Usually, pizza dough is mixed for less time, as more mixing means denser crumb – pizzas are better nice, and light. Pizza only needs 1-5 minutes of kneading, just enough to become a smooth ball.
Bread dough is usually kneaded for longer to build up a stronger structure and denser interior.
By vigorously mixing dough for longer periods, it strengthens and organizes gluten to be lined up in layers. This makes a very uniform and tight crumb which is good for denser bread.
If less mixing is done then the dough has larger, irregular holes. This is good for ciabattas, sourdough, and pizza crusts.
Both can be mixed by using an electric mixer or by hand. Personally, I like to feel the dough when kneading so you can tell when it’s just right.
Dough Strength And Stretchiness
Both pizza and bread dough aim to be strong and stretchy. Both doughs need to be strong so that they can trap the gas released from the yeast.
Too strong and the dough won’t be able to rise. Too weak and the dough won’t be able to hold the gas, and it could deflate.
Extensible dough allows it to be stretched more without tearing. Pizza needs to be stretched much thinner to make a large thin base, so this is very important.
Fermentation Of The Dough
Both doughs have a bulk fermentation where the whole piece is allowed to rise before dividing. This adds flavor and pockets of gas from yeast fermentation.
Pizza dough is then shaped into balls and allowed 1 more rise before flattening into a base.
Bread dough can have 1 or 2 more rises. The degassing of the dough pushes the larger bubbles out and evens the bubble size. Two rises create more even distribution of bubbles in the dough.
Shaping And Final Proofing
Bread is shaped and placed into a loaf tin for the final rise before baking. Other containers might be used such as bannetons or floured cloths to help keep its shape.
Pizza is formed into a ball for its final rise. But before baking it is rolled out or stretched so it is very thin.
This preparation just before the baking is crucial as it means the pizza remains a thin crust pizza when cooked. Toppings are added and baked straight away with no time for it to rise again.
Some pizzas have the air knocked out after the first rise and are then placed in a sheet pan. These are then allowed to rise in the sheet and fill it out to the corners.
This makes for a thicker pizza resembling bread, much like a Focaccia.
Baking The Dough
Bread is typically cooked at a lower temperature than pizza. Especially in a wood-fired pizza oven, where the idea is to get the temperature to a maximum. Here the pizza can cook in 60 seconds.
In a home oven, temperatures are lower, but you are still cooking pizza at a much higher temperature – usually with a preheated pizza stone.
You want the thin pizza to hit the hot surface and instantly rise to form a crust. As it is thin, you can fully cook the crust with a crisp exterior and chewy interior. Cooking for longer times dries out the crust.
Bread being thicker can’t handle the high temperatures because you need to allow the center to cook before the crust burns.
Bread sometimes has steam or a water bath added to the oven, which allows the surface to stay moist as it rises. This gives a good oven spring meaning the bread is lighter.
Using Bread Dough For Pizza
You can use bread dough to make pizza as it has the same core ingredients. To do so you need to shape it into balls to be able to stretch it into a pizza.
Roll or stretch it thinly for a thin-crust pizza, or press dough into a sheet pan for a thicker, more bread-like base (recipes included below).
But will it rise too much? Bread dough is designed to rise more than pizza dough to make large loaves.
You can combat this by stretching the dough very thinly, so it has less chance of being too thick. Then avoid a second rise – aim for pretty much as thin as you can without the dough tearing.
Or alternatively, embrace the “breadiness” of the dough and press it into a sheet pan or cast iron skillet. Allow it to rest to fill out the whole pan, then top and bake for a thicker crust.
You might call this a pan pizza or, Sicilian style.
Be realistic – if you are using a basic white bread recipe or store-bought dough, then you will be able to make a basic white pizza crust recipe.
There are a lot of types of pizza and a lot of types of bread. From thin crust to sheet pan pizza, there is quite a spectrum of pizza crusts that range in their likeness to bread.
In the end, I would consider pizza to be a type of bread. Sandwich bread, pitta bread, focaccia, baguettes, and ciabatta all use pretty much the same dough but it’s the shaping and rising that make them unique.
How To Make Pizza With Bread Dough
1. Make Thin Crust Pizza
For a thin-crust pizza: take 200-250g (7-9 oz) of dough for a 10/12″ pizza. Fold the edges underneath itself and roll it into a tight ball on the worktop.
Cover, or turn a mixing bowl upside down and allow it to proof for an hour or two. Roll the dough out with some flour, or stretch it with your hands until it is as thin as you can go.
Now top the pizza and cook it on a pizza stone, in a preheated oven at the highest temperature, until golden. This should be around 7-8 minutes, and remember to turn it once throughout the cooking.
2. Make Sheet Pan Pizza
For a thicker sheet pan pizza (12 x 18 inches): take 1kg (35 oz) of dough. Oil the rimmed baking sheet and add the dough.
Flatten and push into the sheet and leave the dough to relax and reach the edges for 2-3 hours. Give it one last stretch before topping.
Cook on your oven’s hottest temperature, preheated, for around 10 minutes.
For more thorough instructions, see my guide for making pan pizza.
How To Make Bread With Pizza Dough
Here are two simple ways to take your leftover pizza dough to make some artisan bread. Bread needs a long final proof so that it rises up before baking, so ensure you give it enough time so it is nice and airy.
See my best pizza dough recipe for detailed instructions on making pizza dough.
1. Make It Into A Long Loaf
Take two dough balls on top of each other and roll them together into a long sausage shape. Let them proof until risen fully, which will depend on how much yeast is in the dough, and then bake.
Watch this video for full instructions.
2. Make Focaccia
Focaccia is probably the closest dough to a pizza dough with olive oil included. You simply push the dough into a high-rimmed baking sheet much like a sheet pan pizza.
Then cover with olive oil and rosemary and bake at 450F/230C for 20 minutes until golden. This is good for large quantities, but can also be done for mini focaccias.
More Uses For Leftover Pizza Dough
With leftover pizza dough, you can make most things that are bread-like as they all contain the key ingredients of flour, water, yeast, and salt.
You won’t be able to mix any new ingredients into it like sugar as the dough is in a different state than when it started out. New ingredients don’t mix into the dough itself but you can incorporate things on the surface like herbs.
Here are some ideas to use up pizza dough:
- Garlic knots
- Dinner rolls
- Flatbread
- Doughballs with garlic butter
- Pitta bread
- Breadsticks
Conclusion
So as you can see, the differences between bread dough vs pizza dough are pretty minimal. Especially when you compare the likes of Focaccia and pan pizza where you might even consider pizza a bread.
But pizza dough is not quite the same as bread dough for a few reasons.
Bread loaves have a crucial final rise before baking to give them volume, while pizzas are compressed right before baking to give them a thin crust that doesn’t rise when cooked.
But pizza dough and bread dough can still be swapped interchangeably if you follow some preparation to get the outcome you are looking for. Give some of the recipes in this post a try!
