Flaky Puff-Crust Pizza

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🟡 Intermediate⏱ ~3 hrs (mostly chilling)🍕 2 pizzas

A pizza with a shatteringly flaky, buttery crust — somewhere between a classic pizza and puff pastry. We laminate cold butter into a yeasted dough, croissant-style, so it bakes up in crisp golden layers instead of a chewy base. The trick is keeping everything cold and the toppings light, so the crust can shine.

Ingredients

Dough

  • 300g strong white bread flour (we love Shipton Mill No. 4)
  • 6g fine salt
  • 5g instant yeast
  • 1 tsp caster sugar
  • 175g cold water
  • 15g olive oil

For laminating

  • 120g cold unsalted butter (one block)

Topping (per pizza — keep it light)

  • 4–5 tbsp passata or crushed tomatoes, well seasoned
  • 80g low-moisture mozzarella, grated
  • A little grated parmesan, dried oregano, olive oil and fresh basil

Method

  1. Make the dough: Mix the flour, salt, yeast and sugar. Add the cold water and oil and mix to a shaggy dough, then knead just 2–3 minutes until it comes together — it doesn't need to be smooth. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
  2. Prep the butter: Place the cold butter between two sheets of baking paper and bash, then roll, into a neat square about 12 × 12 cm. Keep it cold.
  3. Lock it in: Roll the dough into a roughly 20 × 20 cm square. Sit the butter square in the centre at 45° (like a diamond) and fold the four dough corners over to enclose it completely. Pinch the seams shut.
  4. First fold: Roll into a long rectangle, about 20 × 45 cm. Fold it into thirds like a letter. Wrap and chill 20 minutes.
  5. Two more folds: Repeat the roll-and-letter-fold twice more (three folds in total), chilling 20 minutes between each. If the butter ever softens or breaks through, stop and chill longer.
  6. Final chill: Wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes, or overnight.
  7. Shape: Cut the dough in two. Roll each piece to a 25–28 cm round or oval, about 4–5 mm thick. Prick the centre all over with a fork (dock it), leaving a 2 cm border undocked for the rim. Lift onto a lined tray.
  8. Top lightly: Spread a thin layer of seasoned passata inside the border, then mozzarella, a little parmesan, oregano and a drizzle of oil. Resist piling it on — too much topping steams the layers and you lose the flake.
  9. Bake hot: Bake on a preheated tray or stone at 230–240°C (fan 210–220°C) for 14–18 minutes, until the crust is deep golden, puffed and crisp underneath.
  10. Finish: Scatter with fresh basil and a final drizzle of oil. Eat hot, while it still shatters.
The secret is temperature: flaky layers come from cold butter trapped between sheets of dough. Keep the butter cold and chill between every fold. If the dough turns greasy or the butter pokes through, stop and chill for 20 minutes. Cold dough, hot oven — every time.
Make it sourdough: swap the instant yeast for 60g of active starter and drop the water to about 140g. Laminate as above, then give the shaped, topped bases a 1–2 hour proof before baking. Slower — but a deeper, tangy flavour that pairs beautifully with the buttery crust.

Notes

  • Make ahead: the laminated dough keeps wrapped in the fridge for 2 days, or freezes well — defrost in the fridge before shaping.
  • Keep it dry: pat wet toppings (fresh tomato, mozzarella balls) dry first; excess moisture is the enemy of a crisp, flaky base.
  • Flour: a strong white gives the structure to hold the layers — see our Flour Guide for more.

Bake this with our shelf-stable sourdough starter — activates in 2 hours, so you can bake your first loaf the same day.

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