How Do I Make A Papa John’s Style Pizza Crust?
I love love love Papa John’s pizza. The texture of their crust is just perfect. I’ve tried just about any pizza crust recipe I could find, but still have not come up with anything that is even close to the same. I just can’t get it to be as airy and chewy while still keeping that nice crust.
My pizza dough always ends up either being too dense or to crispy and dry. Do you have a pizza crust recipe you’d care to share? I’d love to be able to just whip one of these up at home whenever a bad Papa John’s Pizza craving hits.
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July 24th, 2008 at 12:38 am
I too love Pizza indeed! I have got a wonderful recipe for you and here it is:
Ingredients
* 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
* 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
* 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
DIRECTIONS
1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
3. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
5. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.
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August 9th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
It’s not the recipe that you use, but the technique. I have found that if you do a slow fermentation overnight in the fridge (at least 18 hours), instead of rising quickly on the counter, the texture of the crust is much lighter yet still chewy. The dough is much easier to work too. My kids and husband gave it a big thumbs up.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:35 am
There are some really good pizza dough recipes. You have to just keep trying them. But one trick I’ve learned, no matter what recipe you decide on, roll the crust out on corn meal. Whenever I’ve really liked a pizza crust, I check out the bottom of the crust and, sure enough, there’s corn meal!
November 18th, 2008 at 10:55 am
crust is one of the most important thing to a pizza.
i like their dough better than pizza hut’s also
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Informative post and very nice recipe thank you Parrot Bluetooth for sharing this recipe.
March 5th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Have you ever tried the pizza a la Mexicana? That is also delicious and the ingredients are not hard to find in any store.
April 14th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
mmm I have been looking for this recipe to try and make their crust.
April 15th, 2009 at 2:42 am
I just started out with my very own pizza blog and I was looking for other blogs pursuing the same interest, although I know that my niche is very limited in the amount of blogs. Anyways, good job and keep it up.
May 5th, 2009 at 9:32 am
I found this recipe online for Papa Johns Pizza Crust. I hope it’s what you’re looking for.
Ingredients
2 1/2-3 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons fast rising yeast (or fast rise, 1 envelope)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup very warm water (120 to 130 degrees)
2 tablespoons oil
Directions
In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt; blend well.
Gradually add water and oil to mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened, then beat for 2 minutes at medium speed. By hand, add 1 1/2 to 2 cups flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl.
On floured surface, knead in 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic. Cover loosely with plastic and let rest in a warm place for about 15 minutes.
Press out dough onto (2) 12-inch pizza pans. Prick randomly with a fork. Let rest again in a warm place for 10-15 minutes.
Brush crusts lightly with oil then prebake them in a 450 degree oven for 5 minutes.
Top as desired, then bake again in 450 degree oven for 4-5 minutes, or until desired doneness.
September 26th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I tried the recipe above and the crust turned out gross. I’m not sure why the dough did not seem to rise. I suppose I will try giving it 18 hours like suggested by Bee O’Brien. Although I used to work at Pizza Hut and they never let it rise for that long, and they made fresh pan crust dough everyday. I suppose it just takes practice to get it right. Any other suggestions?
February 9th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
This is a direct source I work at papa johns. U must let the dough proof for until about three inches thick. That u most roll it it with a roller with studs on. That will give u the texture of the pizza. that u must slap the pizza for the desired thickness or length which ever one u prefer. I like my pizza nice golden thick crust. When making the crust u use all ur fingers except pointers and thumbs and press into the border of the dough about 1/4 inche for the thickness of the pizza crust: U MUST DO THIS BEFORE SLAPPING THE PIZZA. then flip then use ur middle fingers to bring the crust up a little the more curve on the pizza the better it is. Slapping procedures take the pizza between ur palms and slap it from one hand to the other over the other. bring ur hand back just alittle back not to much, or u will put a hole in the pizza. do this until desired thickness. I will be hard the first time u try this. It takes me a while to make the pizza. Spread the tomatto sauce to one inch from the border of the pizza, put ur toppings, then chesse it with the desired amount of cheese or no cheese at all . Use terris pizza recipe it is the correct papa johns recipe.
February 26th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
I also tried this recipe. The crust wasn’t horrble….but a far cry from PJ’s
April 6th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Adam,
If the dough did not rise your yeast might have been bad, you can test it by mixing the yeast with warm water and sugar and if it is still good it should bubble and increase in size.
May 9th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
I second the post from Ann about working out the dough on cornmeal instead of flour. I used to work for Papa Johns and this was the way we did it; actually we did not roll it out with a pin but rather slapped it out by hand which takes some practice and is a bit messy but it works the dough out just right