Homemade pizza dough is so much fun to get the whole family involved! You’ll never believe how easy it is to make your own pizza dough at home!!!
Homemade Pizza Dough
If you’ve never made your own pizza dough before, you won’t believe how easy it is to make! Pizzas for an entire family can be so expensive, but did you know you can make your own for pennies on the dollar?
That’s right! Homemade pizza dough doesn’t require eggs, milk, sugar, honey, or any special ingredients! With just flour, yeast, and a little olive oil – you’ll have your own homemade pizza dough in no time! In fact, if you don’t have olive oil, you really don’t have to add it to the dough, I just like to add it for flavor!
Making your Own Pizza Sauce
I also love making my own sauce for homemade pizzas – homemade simply just tastes better! Homemade tomato sauce is incredibly easy to make with just a can of crushed tomatoes, garlic, and herbs! While I love a traditional tomato sauce for pizza, I also love homemade Basil Pesto. It’s easy and adds such aromatic and exciting flavors!
What sauce is best for homemade pizzas?
I like to make my own homemade pizza sauce with this dough, but you can get creative and use any type of base that you’d like, some ideas are:
- Alfredo Sauce
- Pesto Sauce
- BBQ Sauce
- Olive Oil & Herbs
- Tomato Sauce
What toppings are best for homemade pizzas?
While you’d typically think to reach for the pre-shredded mozzarella or “pizza blend”, homemade pizzas taste infinitely better with freshly shredded and artisan cheese! Here are some of the best pizza topping combinations:
- Pear + Arugula + Pecorino Ramano + Bacon Bits + Honey Drizzle
- Sausage + Chili Flakes + Fresh Mozzarella + Olive Oil Drizzle
- BBQ Sauce + Chicken + Avocado + Roasted Corn + Mozarella
- Fresh Burrata + Heirloom Tomatoes + Olive Oil Drizzle
- Mushrooms + Onion + Tomato + Parmesan + Pecorino
- Fig + Brussels Sprouts Goat Cheese Pizza
Homemade Pizza Dough Ingredients
- Flour – 00 Flour makes a smoother and lighter dough, but all-purpose flour works great!
- Dry activated yeast – Yeast is an essential ingredient to help the dough rise.
- Warm water – To dissolve the yeast.
- Olive oil – Olive oil adds a subtle flavor to the dough
- Coarse salt – Salt brings the flavor of the dough forward.
How to make homemade Pizza Dough
- Combine yeast and warm water – add the ingredients to the bowl of the electric mixer to dissolve and let stand for 1 minute.
- Add flour, salt, and olive oil and knead until silky.
- Divide and smooth the dough, then brush with olive oil.
- Let dough rise for 1 hour.
- Stretch dough out and place on to cooking surface
- Add desired sauce and toppings
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the crust is a nice golden brown.
I think you’re going to love this homemade pizza dough without sugar or milk – it’s just so simple to make!! If you don’t have a mixer, just use your hands to knead. Get the kiddos involved and have them give a helping hand ;).
This recipe is really best when made a day ahead of time, although it’s not necessary, the flavor will be much better on day 2 or 3!
Homemade Pizza Dough FAQs
00 Flour is best for making your own pizza dough; 00 Flour is simply more refined flour than all-purpose and is a finer consistency resulting in slightly smoother, light, and crisp Italian breads, crusts, and pastas. Most people don’t have that type of flour as a staple in their pantry. Instead, you can simply use all-purpose flour and still achieve great results!
Pizza dough actually tastes better if it’s been stored for a day or two in the fridge! The gluten rests and the yeast fully reacts / rises! Store in a ziplock baggie or airtight container for up to 1 week!!
To prevent the dough from drying out, wrap the dough balls loosely in plastic wrap or seal in a ziplock baggie. Don’t wrap too tightly within the first 2 days because the dough will still be rising in the refrigerator.
Personally, I do not wrap my dough, I simply store it in an airtight container.
Totally!! You can freeze homemade pizza dough for up to three months. To do so: make the dough as you normally would allowing it to fully rise. Once it has fully risen, place each dough ball into a small ziplock bag (or saran wrap). Ideally, you’d use a vacuum seal, but if you do not have a vacuum seal, simply squeeze allllll the air out of the bags and store in the freezer.
Make sure it’s wrapped well to prevent it from drying out. When you’re ready to use, thaw it completely (allowing it to come to room temperature) and prepare the pizzas as you normally would!
I personally am not gluten intolerant, so I don’t have much experience with gluten free flour; however, you should be totally fine to use the one:one gluten free flour in this recipe.
Since this is a simple flour+water+yeast recipe, you’re not relying on much science here except for the yeast. If you give it a try, let me know how it goes!
I received some questions asking if this recipe can be made with a food processor. It’s best to use your kitchenaid electric mixer for this recipe with the kneading attachment. If you don’t have a kitchenaid, don’t worry! Just use your good ol’ fashion kneaders: your hands! Knead with your hands for 8 minutes.
Yes, yeast is an important ingredient for this dough! Without yeast, the dough won’t rise, and you’ll be left with little hockey pucks. Make sure to use 100-110 degree F water, and use dry active yeast. If the dough doesn’t visibly rise, it could mean your yeast has past its prime. Read more about yeast & pizza.
Just like pasta, pizza dough is made primarily of flour, thus it’s really not all that flavorful. The flavor truly comes from the sauce and toppings! I like to add a splash of high quality olive oil and really good salt (Maldon is my favorite).
However, if you’d like to add more flavor, you can absolutely add garlic powder, herbs, or other spices to the mixture at the same time you add the salt.
Nope, a handheld mixer WILL NOT work for this recipe. You need the kneading attachment for the kitchenaid mixer which kneads the dough for you. If you don’t have one, don’t worry – just use your hands to knead the dough. Here’s a great video demonstrating how to knead dough.
If you’re refrigerating the dough, allow it to fully rise after kneading. Then without punching it down, store in a ziplock baggie or airtight container. It will continue to rise for another day or two! So if you wrap it, wrap it loosely so that it has some room to expand.
If you do not wrap it, the edges will dry out a bit, but it will be totally fine once you start stretching it! Personally, I do not wrap my dough – I simply store in an airtight container.
TIP: use a piece of parchment paper to keep the dough from sticking to the container.
If you’re looking for more easy dinners for the whole family, see more of my favorite recipes below:
Easy Prime Rib with Garlic Herb Butter
Greek Yogurt Chicken
Grilled Beef Kabobs with Chimichurri Sauce
The Recipe
Homemade Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 4.5 cups all-purpose flour or if you have it, use 00 Flour
- 2.5 teaspoons 1 packet dry activated yeast
- 1.5 cups warm water 105-110 degrees F
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1-2 teaspoons coarse salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric mixing stand, combine yeast and warm water. Stir to dissolve, let rest one minute.
- Add flour, salt, and olive oil.
- Fit the mixer with the kneading attachment, and knead for 8-10 minutes. The dough will become soft and silky. If it is sticky, add a little more flour.
- Divide the dough into 4 softball size balls. Place each into a small bowl or on a cookie sheet.
- Smooth the top of each dough, and brush with a touch of olive oil.
- Cover with a kitchen towel, in a warm place, and let the dough rise for 1-2 hours, it should double in size. If it does not rise at all, your yeast is probably dead :(. You’ll need to start over.
- Meanwhile, prepare your sauce if making homemade pizza sauce.
- After the rise, use floured hands to carefully stretch each pizza dough out to 1/4" thick discs about 10" in diameter. Place the dough onto the cooking surface. I like using Silpat baking mats, but you could use parchment paper too! Now, spread your sauce evenly over the homemade pizza dough, and sprinkle cheese and other desired toppings over, leaving 1/2" crust around the edges.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the crust is a nice golden brown.
Notes
Tried it! I had to use all purpose flour
because that is all I could get. It is easy and delicious! Will for sure be on our weekend rotation!
This was so easy and well worth the waiting time. The effort is pretty minimal and you get a delicious dough. I will be making this again and again.
Is it possible to make this without a stand mixer? I left mine at my parents and am unable to grab it with the quarantine.
Whoops, just saw the answer in the post.
i like this