This pizza crust was absolutely too wet and sticky to work with. I will not be using this recipe again.

Hi Seth,

The conditions that your flour is stored in, the brand and protein content, how old it is, when it was harvested, weather and humidity; these are a few of the factors that influence how much liquid needs to be added to hydrate your flour to the proper consistency. Whole wheat doughs also have a tendency to be slightly stickier.

I always adjust the consistency of the dough when making bread to accommodate this inherent variability. Adjusting consistency as you work will give you the best results.

Once you are able to just adjust the consistency according to your own conditions, your bread will improve because you won't slavishly add a predetermined quantity of flour or liquid, causing a too-heavy or too-flat bread, but will be able to tell by the dough what needs to be adjusted so that it's just right.

If your dough is too sticky, simply knead in a little extra flour as you go along; if your dough is too crumbly, dry or difficult to knead, work in, very gradually, a small amount of extra liquid, melted butter or oil. After you have the experience of making the first batch, using the same recipe a second time is useful because you already know what needs to be adjusted. In this using this recipe, next time you could start with 3 or 4 cups flour, for example. Tip: I usually add an equal amount of white flour, especially for a recipe like pizza that requires gluten development.

Sometimes, the dough just needs to rest for 30 minutes to help make kneading easier.

Keep in mind that the less flour you add, the lighter the final product will be. Slightly sticky dough is OK.

-- CM

This is my go to recipe for crusts, I have it memorized but it's been a while so I wanted a refresher. Thanks for posting this and including the helpful tips regarding stickiness - quite thoughtful. Off to go punch some dough! Thanks again, Kate

This is a filling crust! We loved it. My 8 year old had two slices, the 6 year old ... 1 1/2 and my two 3 year olds 1 each! the praises just kept on coming. I made this with my 6 year old and it was not hard at all! Thanks for adding this!

This recipe was very easy. I had to add more flour because my dough kept breaking up. It was probably the temperature in my house. Once the dough was ready, I couldn't get it to spread out on the pizza pan. Most likely my fault. I put it in a deep dish. The pizza came out very thick, but no one complained. My little brother had two big slices of it. I had one big and one small. We were both full. So I'll make this again and see how it turns out.

Easy and fast for fresh dough when time is short. Everyone loved the crust.