For Valentine’s Day, we decided to have a family fun night with homemade pizza. I wanted them to be heart-shaped so that meant I needed to make the crust… gasp! from scratch. Not that I am opposed to baking from scratch. No, I do almost everything that way. I just have a problem with yeast.
It hates me. The stuff never seems to work. I’ve thrown more homemade bread in the trash that could have been used as the foundation of my house…
So, I had to gather up my courage and go on a search for the perfect pizza dough and looked at so many recipes that my eyes felt crossed. But, eventually I decided to combine several and get to work. The end result was a light and delicious pizza that had my oldest son raving that my pizza was better than the kind the delivery guy brings.
Wow. That is quite a compliment since the pizza man knows his way to our home blindfolded.
Tips for using this easy homemade pizza dough
This easy pizza dough will work with thick or thin crust, although it will impact the amount of time it takes to cook. If you have a ton of toppings, you will need more time for the pizza to cook too. However, you can expect this pizza dough to taste like magic.
- Place your baking stone inside the oven as it preheats.
- Get your oven screaming hot… preheat it to 500 degrees.
- Mix the pizza dough as instructed below and then divide it into as many pizzas as you want to make.
- Flatten, stretch, or roll your dough to as thin (or leave it thicker) as you want and place it on a piece of parchment paper before adding the toppings.
- Once your toppings are on, pick up the pizza ON the parchment paper and put the entire thing – paper and all – on your hot pizza stone.
- Bake until the edges are lightly browned.
Easy Pizza Dough Recipe
- 2 cups warm water
- 5 teaspoons (about two packets) active dry yeast
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 cups all purpose flour, divided
- 1/3 cup olive oil
Heat a baking stone in an oven at 500 degrees.
In your stand mixer, add the yeast to the warm water and mix on the lowest speed.
Add in sugar, salt and 2 cups of flour, mixing on medium speed until blended (about a minute) and then turn off the mixer. Let the mixture rest in the bowl for ten minutes in a warm place.
Return the bowl to the mixer and add the olive oil and remaining flour. Turn mixer to medium and allow to beat for about two minutes.
Remove from bowl and place on floured surface. Cut into as many pieces as you need and then roll into circles.
Place dough on a piece of parchment paper, add toppings, and then place on the hot stone.
Cooking time varies by thickness of the crust and amount of toppings but will cook in between 8 and 15 minutes.
[…] homemade pizza. I love to make individual-size pizzas with an easy pizza dough recipe and set up a buffet of toppings so the children can mix and match their own […]