Ready to transform your pizza nights? Learn how to make the perfect homemade pizza dough with our easy-to-follow recipe. Say goodbye to store-bought dough and hello to delicious homemade pizza!
I feel like there’s this common illusion that making homemade pizza dough is complicated and hard to get right. You have to have the temperature just right, you don’t want to handle the dough too much, you have to bake it a specific way. And honestly, I feel like that is so far from the truth. Either the conditions in my kitchen are just so spectacularly perfect for pizza dough to come out well, or hear me out…..making pizza dough at home is *actually* incredibly simple, and you can do it too. Plus, I think once you try it, you’ll agree that it tastes better, and is SO much cheaper than buying it!
Recommended Equipment
- Stand Mixer with dough hook attachment OR a large mixing bowl and whisk
- Dry measuring cup to measure dry ingredients
- Liquid measuring cup to measure liquid ingredients
- Plastic wrap or tea towel to cover dough while rising
- Pizza pan or pizza stone
Ingredients for homemade pizza dough
- Warm water
- Sugar – I prefer raw cane sugar
- Instant active dry yeast
- Olive oil – extra virgin or any other variety
- Salt
- Flour – I prefer unbleached all-purpose
- Cornmeal – for lightly dusting the pizza pan
- Seasoning of choice – optional but makes for an even more delicious crust! (I like to use Kinder’s Buttery Steakhouse or Italian)
Instructions to make homemade pizza dough
1. Mix warm water, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Then let it rest for 5-10 minutes until it’s nice and frothy.
2. Add the oil, salt, flour and seasoning and mix on low speed with the dough hook for 8-10 minutes.
3. Let the dough rise for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size. I do this by placing the dough in a greased bowl covered with plastic wrap and placed into my oven with the light on. This creates an ideal warm environment for the dough to rise in.
4. Roll out the dough. Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and roll out on a lightly floured surface to your desired size. Sprinkle some cornmeal onto the pizza pan before placing your rolled out pizza dough onto it.
5. Preheat your oven and pizza pan to 450°F and finish prepping your pizza dough. Add sauce if desired and your toppings of choice.
6. Bake for 15-25 minutes at 450°F or until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is lightly browned.
7. Cool for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Pizza topping ideas
- Cheese
- Pepperoni
- Chicken Bacon Ranch
- BBQ chicken and red onion
- Hawaiian (ham and pineapple)
- Veggie (pepper, onion, tomato, olive)
- White pizza (spinach, ricotta and mozzarella)
- Meat lovers (ham, bacon, sausage, pepperoni)
- Chicken Alfredo (alfredo sauce, chicken, broccoli and mozzarella)
- Spinach, tomato and Feta
- Cheeseburger (hamburger, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, thousand island dressing)
Storage recommendations
Cooked Pizza: I always insist on storing pizza in the fridge because it generally contains cheeses, meats, vegetables. All of which needs to be kept cool in order to be sagely consumed. I know there are plenty of rebels out there leaving pizza in a pizza box and eating it the next day though. Lol, I see you. But for freshness, store pizza in the fridge and reheat it in the oven for approximately 8-10 minutes at 350℉. You’ll be happy you did.
Uncooked Pizza Dough: Alternatively, you could make the pizza dough ahead of time and after it’s rise, wrap it well and place it in the fridge until you’re ready to roll it out and bake it. However, if you choose this method, use it within three days for best results.
Freezing Pizza Dough: Prepare the dough through step 4. Let it rise until doubled in size, then punch the dough down to release the air bubbles, gently form it into a dough ball and place it in an airtight container. You can freeze the pizza dough for up to 3 months. Then just thaw overnight in the fridge and bake as directed.
Common Questions
What is the trick to making good pizza dough?
The trick to good pizza dough is to use room temperature ingredients and keeping the dough warm, around 70℉ is ideal. This will result in a nice stretchy dough that will produce an airy and chewy crust.
What temperature to bake pizza crust at?
This depends mainly on the thickness of the dough and how hot your oven runs. I’d found that the sweet spot for cooking a regular crust pizza (not thin crust or deep dish style) in my oven is 450℉.
Is pizza dough better the longer you let it rise?
In most cases. yes. But this would be best done by letting the dough rise until doubled in size overnight in the fridge instead of for a shorter period of time in a warm environment. Similar to Sourdough, if you left the pizza dough to rise in a warm place for too long, it would over ferment, become hard to work with and result in a less than ideal pizza crust.
Should you roll or stretch pizza dough?
I believe this really boils down to personal preference. I prefer to gently roll the pizza dough out because I find that it results in a more even thickness throughout the crust. But I encourage you to try each method and see which you prefer!
Should you roll out pizza dough cold or at room temperature?
Room temperature. Cold pizza dough is going to be hard to stretch or roll out and you’ll find that it tries to shrink back up as much as possible. If you’re pulling your dough out from the fridge, allow it to come to room temperature before trying to shape it.
Tried and liked this recipe? Give it a rating and leave a comment below! Then snap a photo and tag us over on IG @ _jchandelle
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- Stand mixer with attachments
- Large mixing bowl
- Pizza pan or stone
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Homemade Pizza Dough
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer with dough hook or large mixing bowl and hand knead the dough
- 1 pizza pan or stone
- dry measuring cups for dry ingredients
- liquid measuring cup for liquid ingredients
Ingredients
- 2 and ¼ tsp active dry yeast
- 1 and ⅓ cups warm water
- 2 tbsp. olive oil or another neutral oil like vegetable or canola
- 1 tbsp. sugar I recommend raw cane sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 cups all purpose flour I recommend unbleached all purpose
- 2 tbsp seasoning of choice optional but highly recommended (any brand Italian or Kinders Buttery Steakhouse are some of our favorites)
- pinch of cornmeal for dusting the pizza pan
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Instructions
- Add active dry yeast, warm water, oil, and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl. Whisk briskly to combine and then let rest for 10 minutes for it to bloom.2 and 1/4 tsp active dry yeast, 1 and 1/3 cups warm water, 2 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. sugar
- Then add the salt, flour, and seasoning.1 tsp salt1 tsp salt, 4 cups all purpose flour, 2 tbsp seasoning of choice
- Mix the dough on low (2-3) speed with a stand mixer for 8-10 minutes, until the dough has mostly pulled away from the sides of the bowl. Or knead by hand for 10-13 minutes.
- Grease the inside of the bowl and cover it loosely. Place in a warm environment to rise until doubled in size. I prefer to do this in my oven with the light on. It provides just enough heat to help the dough rise.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, preheat your oven and pizza pan to 450℉ and flour your counter surface. Drop the dough onto your floured surface and roll it out to your desired size. Keep in mind that it will shrink up a tiny bit as it cooks.
- Lightly dust your pizza pan with cornmeal. This isn't totally necessary, but it gives that classic crispy bottom pizza crust!pinch of cornmeal
- Add your sauce and toppings of choice to the dough. Bake for 10-15 at 450℉ and enjoy!
We make pizza every Wednesday for dinner with this pizza crust recipe and it never fails! Everyone in our family loves it, including our picky eaters! It’s got such a soft and light texture, no take out place can even compete!