I think everyone loves a pizza, and with the prices of takeaways soaring to new heights, it's so much cheaper to make your own pizza at home. This recipe shows you how to make pizza dough that never fails, and you can top it with a variety of different fillings so everyone gets their own favourite!
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The best easy pizza dough
With this simple and foolproof pizza dough recipe, you can have homemade pizzas in next to no time! The dough only takes 10 minutes to mix, and then you leave it to rise for 90 minutes before adding your favourite toppings. Once assembled, a pizza only takes 20 minutes to cook in the oven. Not only is it quicker than ordering takeout, but it's also more affordable, making a pizza the perfect meal for a busy weeknight.
Now I know you can buy ready-made pizza bases in the supermarket, but they can be quite thin and hard once baked. Making pizza dough is easier than you might think, and this foolproof recipe for homemade pizza dough delivers perfect results every time.
This pizza dough is soft and chewy on the inside with a deliciously crispy exterior. It's the perfect canvas for any topping combination you desire, and its homemade goodness will make you never want to order pizza delivery again.
Also, when you make your own dough you can customise the thickness of the crust to your personal preference.
Do remember though that the pizza dough takes 90 minutes to rise so if you intend to make pizzas for supper I would suggest you factor this in. Alternatively, you could mix the dough the day before and leave it in a covered container in the refrigerator to rise overnight.
My favourite pizza is Hawaiian, with lots of pineapples. I know this is a bit of a controversial statement - there seems to be quite a difference of opinion about Hawaiian pizza - you either love it or hate it. But you know what? It doesn't matter. When you make your own pizzas at home you can add whatever you like! And everyone can have their favourite!
I made pizzas the other night, Hawaiian for me (of course), and sausage, caramelised onions and lots of cheese for hubby. I have to say, there wasn't much left over!
My Hawaiian pizza - with LOADS of my favourite topping!
Let me show you how to make the dough so you can make your own pizzas at home too!
What you will need
Equipment
For making the dough you will need a large mixing bowl or if you have one, a stand-mixer takes all the hard work out of kneading the dough. To roll the dough out you will need a rolling pin.
For baking the pizzas you will need baking trays. You can get special round ones with holes in them to help the base of the pizza crisp up. If you don't have those, a normal baking tray is perfectly adequate.
Ingredients
This recipe will make sufficient dough for 2 x 12-inch pizzas.
**You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making pizza dough on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**
Flour – this is strong white bread flour. You can get away with using all-purpose flour, but the gluten content will be lower, so your dough will not have the ‘chewiness’ that comes with using bread flour.
Salt – optional, but a small amount of salt does improve the flavour of the dough.
Yeast and sugar – I always use instant yeast granules because they are convenient and have a longer shelf-life than fresh yeast. I’ve included instructions below to test that your yeast is fresh – there’s nothing worse than spending time making bread dough only to find it doesn’t rise because your yeast was out-of-date! The small amount of sugar (half a teaspoon) helps to activate the yeast.
Olive oil – adds a little softness to the finished product!
What to do
Make the pizza dough
The first step is optional – if you are unsure that your yeast is fresh and still active, this is how you check it. Mix the yeast and sugar with 2 tablespoons of lukewarm water and leave for 5 minutes. If it becomes foamy then the yeast is fine. (If not, go out and buy some more 🙂 )
Optional – check the yeast as described above. This is what it should look like.
Place the flour into a mixing bowl along with the salt, sugar and yeast (or sugar, yeast and water mixture). Add most of the water.
Mix the ingredients together with a spatula, then knead the dough for 10 to 15 minutes by hand, adding the remaining water if necessary, or use the dough hook on a stand mixer and knead for 5 minutes on speed 4.
The texture of the dough should be smooth and elastic.
Leave the dough in the mixing bowl and cover the bowl with a clean towel. Place the bowl of dough in a warm place (draught-free) to rise for 90 minutes until doubled in size.
Punch down the dough to release the air (I love this bit 🙂 )
Divide the dough in half and form it into two balls. Rub each ball lightly with a few drops of olive oil, cover the dough with a clean cloth or plastic wrap until you are ready to make your pizzas.
Each ball will make one 12-inch pizza.
Roll the dough and add toppings
I've given instructions for my favourite Hawaiian pizza, but you can add whatever toppings you like.
Using a rolling pin, roll one of the balls of dough into a circle roughly 12" in diameter and transfer the rolled dough to your baking sheet. I like to line my baking sheet with baking parchment to make cleaning up easier.
Spread the pizza dough with 3 tablespoons of tomato passata. Or you can use any tomato-based pizza sauce from your local supermarket.
Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese.
Add a generous helping of chopped ham, sliced mushrooms and pineapple cubes. Optionally sprinkle with some dried Italian herbs.
Finally, sprinkle with grated mozzarella cheese.
Hubby's pizza was made in a similar fashion, but the tomato passata was topped with a helping of caramelised onions and his favourite sausages (which I fried separately and cut in half length-wise), before being covered with a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella.
Bake
Bake the pizzas in a preheated oven (200C / 400F) for 20 minutes until the edges of the dough are golden brown and the cheese has melted.
Serve hot.
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To my mind, the main advantage of making your own pizza at home is that you can pile on as many topping as you like!
Homemade pizza dough FAQ
Yes, you can freeze the dough once it has risen and been divided into two balls. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and then place the dough balls in a large plastic bag. Freeze for up to 3 months.
To use, remove the dough from the freezer and leave it to defrost in the refrigerator. You will find it takes quite a while to defrost so it's probably best to take it out of the freezer the day before.
Pizza dough is very versatile and there are various other things you can use it for. Here are some of my favourite ways to use pizza dough:
Naan bread - take golfball-sized pieces of dough, form them into flat, thin circles (use your hand or a rolling pin) and fry them in sunflower oil for 2 or 3 minutes per side until they are golden brown. For buttery garlic-flavoured naan bread, fry the dough in garlic butter instead.
Roosterkoek - (pronounced roos-stir-cook) is a favourite South African barbeque bread. Take balls of dough, slightly smaller than a tennis ball, and flatten them to about one inch in thickness. Arrange them around the edges of a barbeque (away from the direct heat) until they are golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Split and spread with butter before serving.
Pide - (pronounced pea-day) is a Turkish or Moroccan flatbread formed into a boat shape and stuffed with a savoury filling of lamb, onions, tomatoes, red peppers and spices.
Cheesy garlic pizza - roll the dough out as for a pizza, spread with garlic butter and top with your favourite cheese. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. This is delicious served with chicken wings or dipped into a bowl of my favourite beef vegetable soup.
Save for later
If you would like to make this pizza dough why not save the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily? Just click on the image below.
Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.
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📋The recipe
How to make pizza dough
(Click the stars to rate this recipe)
Equipment
- Stand mixer OR
- Large mixing bowl
- Rolling Pin
- Baking trays OR
- Pizza baking tray
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups / 315 grams strong white bread flour
- 2 teaspoons / 7 grams instant yeast granules
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup / 160 ml warm water
- 2 tablespoons warm water for testing the yeast
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
Instructions
- Place the flour into a mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) along with the salt, sugar, olive oil and yeast. Add most of the water.2¼ cups / 315 grams strong white bread flour, 2 teaspoons / 7 grams instant yeast granules, ½ teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, ⅔ cup / 160 ml warm water, 2 teaspoons olive oil
- Mix the ingredients together with a spatula, then knead the dough for 10 to 15 minutes by hand, adding the remaining water if necessary, or use the dough hook on a stand mixer and knead for 5 minutes on speed 4.The texture of the dough should be smooth and elastic.2 tablespoons warm water
- Leave the dough in the mixing bowl and cover the bowl with a clean towel. Place the bowl of dough in a warm place (draught-free) to rise for 90 minutes until doubled in size.
- Punch down the dough to release the air.
- Divide the dough in half and form it into two balls. Rub each ball lightly with a few drops of olive oil, cover the dough with a clean cloth or plastic wrap until you are ready to make your pizzas.
- Preheat the oven to 200℃ / 400℉
- Using a rolling pin, roll one of the balls of dough into a circle roughly 12" in diameter and transfer the rolled dough to your baking sheet. I like to line my baking sheet with baking parchment to make cleaning up easier.
- Cover the dough with your favourite pizza topping and bake in the preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes until the edges of the dough have turned golden brown and the cheese has melted.
- Serve hot.
Notes
To use, remove the dough from the freezer and leave it to defrost in the refrigerator. You will find it takes quite a while to defrost so it's probably best to take it out of the freezer the day before. You can also make the dough a day in advance and leave it to rise overnight in the refrigerator. Nutrition has been calculated for the pizza dough only, excludes any toppings you may add and is for one 12" pizza base.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.
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Alla
Hi VJ,
I’ve been making pizza for over 30 years, I’ve made both from yeast dough and yeast-free. It always turned out delicious, and your dough is something incomparable! Yesterday I cooked Hawaiian and
Classico, super! Thank you very much for the recipe))
VJ
Wow - praise indeed!!!! Thank you very much - I'm so glad you enjoyed it 🙂