Homemade Pizza Dough

When you’re in the mood for a fresh pizza, who says you have to order it from a restaurant? Discover how to easily prepare Homemade Pizza Dough from scratch and add your favorite toppings to it for a delicious meal!

This is a foolproof recipe that works so well, it’s so simple and easy, it will become your go-to pizza dough recipe that you’ll use every time!

Is pizza one of your favorite foods? If you normally find yourself ordering it from a takeout restaurant, you can learn to make it at home pretty quickly. Instead of buying premade dough, follow this Easy Pizza Dough Recipe.

The instructions are easy and will leave you with the perfect dough to use when you want to create a crispy, flavorful pizza slice. Plus, you can save money by making it from scratch instead of ordering out! Making your own pizza at home is so much fun, I promise.

In our house, every Friday is a pizza night. Making pizza is fun, it really feels like a treat when you make your own pizza dough and it turns out even better than getting pizza delivered! Perfect for movie nights, family get togethers, and parties!

Plus, you can make it ahead and keep it in the fridge for a day, or freeze it for up to 3 months! Make classic pizzas, or turn this dough into a delicious Stromboli.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

1. Simple. Making pizza dough from scratch is as simple as it gets with this recipe. You only need a few simple ingredients, and a stand mixer (or knead the dough with your hands, and consider it your arm workout of the day!).
2. Convenient. You won’t ever have to worry about ordering pizza from a restaurant because you can make it right at home. It will save you a lot of money and you will know what exactly goes into your pizza. After I learned how to make the perfect pizza a few years ago, we stopped ordering it from restaurants.
3. Customizable. It’s easy to customize the dough by adding extra ingredients to it if you’d like and you will have a lot of fun with toppings! It’s also a great way to use up some ingredients that need saving in your kitchen. Have some mushrooms that need to be used up? Or bell peppers that are becoming wrinkly? Put them on your pizza!
4. Portable. This easy pizza dough recipe makes it easy to grab a slice and go! It’s the perfect portable dinner. I usually make more pizza than we can eat on the day, so we have leftovers for the next day. Pizza for breakfast? Yes, please!

Ingredients Used

If you’re going to follow this Best Recipe for Pizza Dough, there are a few ingredients you need to have (and I’m sure that you already have them all in your kitchen!):

• Instant Dry Yeast – You will need half a packet of yeast for this pizza dough recipe. I don’t like adding a lot of yeast, as adding less and allowing the pizza to rise for longer (and slower) will result in a better flavor.
• Sugar, maple, or Honey – Feel free to use either here. The purpose of the sweetener is for the yeast to feed off and become active.
• Flour – I like to use a mixture of all-purpose flour and 00 flour, but you can use your favorite! I’m out of 00 flour, I just use all-purpose flour.
• Salt – Don’t forget the salt! It brings out the flavors, skipping it will result in a very bland pizza base.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Or any olive oil you have on hand. You can skip it if you prefer, but olive oil adds the best flavor to any pizza dough!
• Semolina – This is used to prevent the dough from sticking. It’s great to have on hand for baking yeast breads! If you don’t have semolina, just use flour. I sometimes use a mix of the two.

Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.

How to Make the Homemade Pizza Dough

1. To make Homemade Pizza Crust, start by adding yeast to a stand mixer, followed by water, sugar, flour, olive oil, and salt.
2. Use medium-high heat while kneading the dough (about 5 minutes) and you’ll end up with a loose sticky dough. Let it rest for 10 minutes before kneading it again with the mixer. If the dough is way too sticky, add a tablespoon of flour and knead at low-medium speed and check again. You don’t want very dry/tough dough, it should be tender but not very sticky.
3. Add oil to the bowl, and swirl the dough ball so it’s covered with oil. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and give it at least an hour to rise until it doubles in size, if not a bit longer than that. Oil a flat surface and place your dough on the surface. Divide it into four equal parts and using your hands, form four or six balls. Allow to rest covered for 30 more minutes.
4. For a slow fermentation, after kneading the dough: divide the dough to form four or six balls, place on a flat oiled surface, spray oil over the dough balls, and cover the dough with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge to rise for up to 24 hours.

To Bake the Pizza

1. Preheat your oven to the highest heat possible. Mine goes up to 550°F/280°C, and I let it preheat with a pizza stone or pizza steel (or cast iron) for 30-40 minutes.
2. Sprinkle semolina and a bit of flour on your pizza peel, and shape the dough into a flat circle with your hands (don’t use a rolling pin). Gently stretch your dough leaving the edges a bit thicker than the rest of the circle (you want bubbles when it’s baked!).
3. Ladle pizza sauce in the center of the dough, make sure not to add too much as you can end up with a soggy pizza crust.
4. Add your favorite toppings, place the pizza on a pizza stone, and bake it for about five minutes. Adjust the oven to broil and cook for an additional three to five minutes.

Recipe Success Tips

• Be sure to add a bit of oil to your hands to keep the dough from getting stuck to your fingers. You might be tempted to add more flour, but I generally avoid that as adding too much flour will result in a dry and tough pizza base.
• When stretching the dough ball, do it very gently with your hands. If it’s ripping, it means that you didn’t knead it for long enough to form strong gluten strands.
• Do not roll the pizza dough unless you’re prepping it for the grill to make grilled pizza.
• You need the correct ratio of crust to toppings. Do not top your pizza crust with too much sauce (a thin layer is enough) or too many toppings, as that can make your pizza crust soggy/floppy.
• Make sure your oven is HOT before baking the pizza.
• It’s also important to check on the pizza while it’s broiling in the oven because you don’t want to overcook it.

Variations of Pizza Dough

You can add extra ingredients to the pizza dough to create unique variations. You might want to add shredded cheddar cheese, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, and other flavorful seasonings to create different types of crusts. You can even add fresh herbs like rosemary or basil pesto to infuse your pizza crust with flavor!

Recipe FAQs

Other Pizza Night Recipes to Try

Pizza night is all about easy, convenient food that everyone loves. Want to add more to your pizza night menu? Check out these portable recipes: 

• Air Fryer Chicken Wings
• Chicken Fajita Quesadillas
• Oven Baked Chicken Tenders
• Fruit Pizza