My Favorite Homemade Pizza: The Best Easy Pizza Dough {Step-by-Step}

This is THE BEST easy pizza dough, my friends. I’m walking you through the recipe step-by-step to help you be successful.

Today we’re going to deep dive into one of my favorite topics: homemade pizza.

I’ve been waiting for months to share my homemade pizza recipe with you. I wanted to make sure it was absolutely the best homemade pizza recipe ever. There are many recipes that will claim to be the best pizza recipe. But this recipe truly deserves that title.

I don’t know how many pizzas I have made in my lifetime. But we eat pizza every Friday night (and have for probably 15+ years). Now that my family is made up of two BIG eaters (a.k.a. teenage boys), 2 REGULAR eaters (us parents) and 1 mini eater (who can down pizza like nobody’s business I might add), I make 4 large pizzas every Friday night.

Do the math. That is a LOT of pizzas.

There is so much to talk about with pizzas. SOOO much. So I decided I needed to do it in baby bite sized pieces or else we’ll be left with a novel on our hands when I am done.

So today’s post is the first in a 2-part pizza series. And it’s probably the most important of the two. That’s because:

A really good pizza is all about the dough, my friends.

I’ve experimented with TONS of pizza dough recipes over the years.

Some good. Some better.

But it wasn’t until I discovered this one (actually by accident) that I found my dream pizza dough. I’ve been using it exclusively for several months now and loving it.

In fact I’ve stopped trying new recipes because this one satisfies everything I’ve been looking for. It is so good.

Why I love this pizza dough

In a nutshell it’s easy, adaptable, and make-aheadable.

First, easy.

Thanks to the Bosch mixer, kneading the dough is quick and effortless. Of course you can always knead the dough by hand too (see my tips on yeast for more about that).

Next, adaptable.

My family prefers all-purpose flour for this pizza dough. It is perfect that way – light and delicious. But sometimes (when I determine that we need a bit more fiber in our diet), I’ll use part white wheat flour and it works great. I haven’t tried it with 100% whole wheat flour yet.

Finally, make-aheadable (yes, I realize that is probably a word I just made up, but it works).

One of the things that I like about this recipe is that you can make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze it.

It makes things really easy to pull it out when you need it, let it rise and then use.

Let’s talk rising time for a minute

There are a lot of recipes that claim only a 10 minute rising time for pizza dough. And believe me, I have made a lot of pizzas that way.

And when I’m tight on time, I will skimp on the rising time for this recipe too (with good results). So it’s totally doable to do that.

Having said that, if you’re looking for the BEST homemade pizza try the full rising time. It really adds to the flavor and texture to let it rise just a bit longer. 50-60 minutes is just about right.

Steps for success

This recipe follows my quick rise bread method. I went into a lot of detail about this method on my guide to baking with yeast. So head on over there if you are new to breadmaking or just want a refresher course.

Today I’ll walk you through the steps for making this pizza dough.

The first thing you will do is heat up the water in the microwave. I talked about why heating the water is important in my guide to baking with yeast. To give you a quick recap, it helps the yeast activate quicker.

You don’t want the water too hot or it will kill the yeast. Between 110 and 130 degrees F is perfect. If you are new to breadmaking I highly recommend using an instant read thermometer (aff. link) to measure the water temperature. It will help take the guesswork out of this recipe.

I use a Bosch mixer (aff. link) for making this pizza dough. You can make it by hand as well but the instructions are beyond the scope of this post. Again, you can head on over to my guide to baking with yeast for some tips on that.

Add the hot water, sugar, oil and salt to the mixer.

Then add the gluten flour, half of all-purpose flour that the recipe calls for and the yeast on the top. Make sure the yeast does not touch the salt or the hot water.

Turn on the mixer, and mix. Add flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and starts to pull away from the center.

It is very important to stop adding flour when it just starts to pull away from the center. The amount of flour you use will vary depending on your environment and may even be more or less than the amount listed in the recipe.

At this point let the dough continue to mix for 6 minutes.

When done pizza dough should be stretchy and elastic, leaving little to no residue on your fingers

Remove from mixer and divide dough into sections. A bench scraper (aff. link) makes this really easy.

Roll each section into a ball, cover with a light dishcloth and let rise for 50-60 minutes (I double the recipe in these pictures, making 4 large pizzas–I told you we eat A LOT of pizza).

Dough should be puffy when risen.

Roll each dough ball into a circle and then add toppings and bake.

One more tip before I go

I like to poke the pizza dough all over with a fork before adding toppings. It keeps the dough from getting those giant bubbles in the middle that make the toppings all slide off.

Okay, my friends. That’s all for today. Stay tuned for the next segment in this two part series where I’ll go into more detail on toppings and tips for baking the pizza.

5 from 1 vote

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The Best Homemade Pizza Dough

This is THE BEST easy pizza dough, my friends. I'm walking you through the recipe step-by-step to help you be successful.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Pizza

Keyword Pizza, Pizza Dough

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 6 minutes

Rising Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 31 minutes

Servings 2 Large Pizzas

Author Heather @ thecookstreat.com

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons gluten flour see note
• 3 ½ to 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Instructions

1. Heat water in the microwave on high for 1 to 2 minutes or on the stove until it is between 110 and 130 degrees F.

2. Meanwhile in the bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook attachment add the oil, salt, and sugar. Add the heated water to the stand mixer. Then add gluten flour (if using) and 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour. Put the yeast on top of the flour, making sure that it does not directly touch the salt or the hot water.

3. Turn on mixer and mix, adding additional flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and starts to pull away from the center. Stop adding flour at this point even if it is more or less than amount listed in the recipe. Then let the mixer mix for an additional six minutes.
4. On a lightly floured counter, divide dough in half and form into a ball. Cover with a light dishcloth and let rise for 1 hour (or see note for making ahead of time).
5. While dough is rising, place pizza stone or overturned baking sheet in center of the oven. Preheat oven to 525 degrees F (or 500 degrees F convection bake).
6. When dough has risen, coat dough ball on all sides with flour and roll into a large circle (as thin as desired). You can use just flour or a mixture of flour + semolina flour for a different texture. Place rolled dough on parchment paper, if desired.
7. Poke crust all over with a fork. Then add sauce, cheese & desired toppings and bake on pizza stone (or overturned baking sheet) in preheated oven for 6 to 7 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly.

Recipe Notes

1. I normally double this recipe for my family of 5 (which includes 2 teenage boys) —see doubled recipe here.

2. Vital wheat gluten (often called gluten flour) may be found in the baking aisle at many grocery stores (near the flour). Or you can buy gluten flour on amazon (aff. link). It is not necessary to use in this recipe but it does help the crumb stick together in a slightly chewier texture.

3. My family prefers all-purpose flour for this pizza dough. Sometimes (when I determine that we need a bit more fiber in our diet), I’ll use part white wheat flour and it works great. I haven’t tried it with 100% whole wheat flour yet.

4. This pizza dough can be made and refrigerated before baking, up to 24 hours in advance (or possibly longer). Make the dough as directed (only don’t heat the water). Then place dough in a large covered dough container (dough will rise in the refrigerator). Pull out about 3 hours before baking. Dough can also be frozen in gallon ziplock bags and pulled out 6 hours before baking.

Heather @ The Cook’s Treat

All images and text ©The Cook’s Treat

Disclaimer: post contains affiliate links for items on Amazon.