Homemade pizza dough is way easier to make than you might think. Give this recipe a go and have the confidence to make any night a pizza night.
The go-to staple for us is this amazing flatbread pizza, so perfect for individual portions!
Having a batch of homemade pizza dough on had is one of my superpowers as a mom. My sons love making their own customized pizza and I love skipping any arguments we might have over what to have for dinner!
Sometimes, I even freeze a couple of their favorite pies for a healthier alternative to frozen and packaged pizza. This has been quite a lifesaver on a busy weeknight!
I am listing this as a dough recipe because the toppings are really up to your preference. Once you get the dough down, you can make any combination your heart desires!
What to Use Pizza Dough For?
Pizza dough can be used in so many different ways! Don’t limit yourself to just the perfect pizza. Here are some of my favorites:
- Costco Chicken Bake: Maybe you have had this, maybe you haven’t. But, this treat served at the Costco food court is so devilish. It’s packed with mozzarella, ranch dressing, bacon bits and chicken — YUM!
- Easy Garlic Knots: These garlicky bread twists are the perfect companion to a caesar salad or big bowl of Russian borscht!
- Pizza Rolls: My kids always try to get me into buy them frozen Totino’s Pizza Rolls. I get it, they are delicious. But, homemade is always the best!
Ingredients for Homemade Pizza Dough
- Flour
- Dry Yeast
- Lukewarm Water
- Salt
- Sugar
- Olive oil
What Is The Best Flour to Use in Pizza Dough?
You can use all-purpose flour for pizza dough and it will turn out great. However, most pizza chefs tend to use bread flour for pie making. Why? Bread flour has a higher gluten content, meaning it is more springy and easier to work with. It also gives the pizza a nice, crispy crust.
How to Make Homemade Pizza Dough
First, pre-measure and prepare your ingredients for easy access. Use a standing mixer to make the dough if possible — this will make your life much easier. Once your dough is mixed, you can skip the kneading! This recipe doesn’t require it! Instead, cover your dough in a bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 2 hours.
Building Your Pizza
Once it has risen, remove it from the bowl and roll it out to your desired thickness. Add your toppings and bake! I love using my marinara or alfredo sauce for my pie sauce. Bonus: Both of these sauces only take 5 minutes to make!
If you can’t think of a pie to whip up my favorite is chicken, alfredo sauce, mozzarella and bacon bits. I also love a classic pepperoni pizza with red sauce and mushrooms. Sometimes, I crack an egg on top for a breakfast style pizza (YUM!). Dipping pizza in egg yolk should be illegal…
How to Store Pizza Dough
Depending on your meal prepping plans, you might want to refrigerate raw dough or freeze it for later use. Here’s how to do it:
Refrigerate: Wrap your dough in plastic wrap tightly (or store in an airtight container) and store in the fridge. Use the dough within a week.
Freeze: If you are going to freeze your dough, first allow it to adequately rise. Then, wrap it in plastic wrap and pop it in the freezer. When you are ready to use it, allow it to completely thaw in the fridge. Cook as directed.
More Dough-y Recipes to Try:
- No Knead Bread Buns
- Easy Brioche Bread
- 5 Minute Flax Wheat Bread
- Easy Bread Recipe
- Danish Pastry Recipe
Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
Dough
- In a large (6 quart) bowl, using a wooden spoon or a stand up mixer, mix yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil and water.
- To the ingredients, mix in flour. There is no need to knead the dough, just be sure that all flour is mixed in.
- Cover the bowl with plastic and let the dough rise for about two hours.
Hi! I like to bake using metric weight, so I used your metric formula as calculated above. The dough came out very wet, as happened to a previous poster. So I googled, “2.75 cups water to grams” and the result consistently came up as 650 grams, not the 687 grams your conversion states. I ended up adding more flour and the dough is currently rising. I just wanted to let you know about this discrepancy. Thanks for the recipe. I am looking forward to making flatbread and garlic knots with my dough!
Hi Dayzee, I am looking into it a little more, we use the conversion provided for us but it can be wrong at times. I am checking it over with the conversion calculator team. I did google for the measurement as well.
The brand of flour can also affect the dough texture. Can you tell me what you used?
Thank you so much for your time.
Hi so if I am making this the night before I would mix, let rise for 2 hrs then put in a bowl, cover and refrigerate? Or do I skip the 2 hour rise and put straight into the fridge? Also next day do I just roll out and bake or is there any waiting?
Hi There, the dough needs the two hour rise period. You can keep it in the fridge, in an airtight container, for up to a week. When you are ready to use it, you would go ahead and roll it out and bake. I hope this makes sense. Thank you for reaching out!
I'm so happy to have found your recipe site! It is really great since I was looking for flatbread and your pizza crust recipe is fantastic. I do have a question - are the calorie and carb amounts per serving or total? I ask because they seem quite high for 1 piece of pizza crust, so I might have to indulge only once a year.☹️
I look forward to your response and trying more recipes.
Thank you, Nancy
Hi Nancy, welcome to Momsdish family! This recipe makes smaller/medium size 4 pizzas. The calories are for one of the four pizza crusts.
I always refrigerate overnight (24hrs) or (48hrs) for best flavor....as do all non-chain pizza restaurants.
Do you refrigerate before or after it's risen?
Hi Rick, That's a great tip! Thanks so much! Have a great day!
I couldn't get my pizza dough to quit rising. What went wrong?
Hi, Mary! Is it a really warm and humid day where you live today? Heat and humidity really affects the dough! For a slower rise, I would refrigerate the dough. If you keep it out of the fridge, the rising time may be faster than 2 hours. Hope this helps!
Yes, very hot and humid...thanks!
This one I know is very good. Simple ingredients, yet so tasty!
Glad you loved it, thanks for the feedback! 🙂
I was trying to keep the second batch of pizza dough either in fridge or freezer. But no matter, the dough absorbs the moisture, and the second batch never comes out as good as the first one
Hey, you are probably right. Fresh food is always the best but freezer pizza dough worked well for us before. Thanks for your feedback.
so I did every step but the pizza turned yellow have a clue?
Hi Kristina- I'm not sure, I haven't had my dough turn out yellow before. Is it the dough itself that's yellow or after you bake it? When baking the pizza it's normal for it to turn a nice golden color. Hope this helps!
I used the metric measurements and the dough was sloppy. I assume these measurements are incorrect?
Hey Billy, we use an automated program to convert measuments. If you think they are incorrect, I would suggest googling for conversions.
Is the nutritional facts her pizza? Since it makes 4 pizzas?
Jeannette, the nutrition facts are only for the dough because it would depend on the topping you plan to use.
Hi there,
Your description says to pop it in the fridge for 2 hours whereas your recipe directions says to just “let the dough rise for about 2 hours”. Which is it? With or without fridge? Thanks!
Leave it to rise at room temperature. If you decide to make it the night before, you can refrigerate the dough.
Hi, I stumbled upon your site and absolutely love it. I saw the mushroom and spinach flatbread and just had to make it!! Made it and the family loved it! Thanks! Also, I’ve been searching for an easy pizza dough recipe - easy to follow and yours truly wins the trophy for that. Love the way you explain every step of the process. Thanks so much .
Regards
Harsha
OH wow Harsha, you definitely made my day with that review! Thank you and I am so happy that you loved the recipe!
How come no one really adds eggs to pizza dough?
Hey Rose, I guess it comes out great without eggs! 🙂
I love the pizza dough!! The best one I ever made! For sure will make it again! Thank you for the recipe
Oh Vicky, I am so happy you loved this recipe. We like this recipe a lot as well 🙂
How many pizzas can you make from this dough?
About 4 pizzas.
I made it and froze the other half and it was soo good!!
Thank you Vika! We freeze the dough also. It comes in handy when I am busy.
will the dough be kinda runny? and if ill add more flour to help roll the dough will it affect on the outcome? thanks
If it is runny, you should add more flour and outcome should turn out great! Sometimes the flour you use can make a difference.
If ill heat up my oven to 150° will dough rise faster then sitting in room temp? And how long should it stand in oven? Thanks
It should be until its doubles in volume, about 30 minutes.
Hi Nataliya, do you use the RapidRise yeast of active dry yeast for the recipe?
-Thanks.
I use Active dry yeast from Costco.
Natal ya
What temp do you bake the pizza at and how long? You didn't put the time and temp into the recipe
I bake at 450F preheated oven, hot oven makes the best pizza. Depending on the size, for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
spell check changed dough to sought, sorry!!
Lol, happens to me all the time 🙂
I made the sought twice, love it! I froze three doughs for a later time, how long does it take to defrost at room temperature? This time we cooked the pizza crust for 4 minutes on a hot pizza stone before adding the toppings, nice crispy crust!!!!!!
I never timed defrosting time, just left the dough the night before.
Made pizza and breadsticks today. I used a 5qt bowl and it worked great.
Thank you for a very easy and tasty pizza dough. My husband said "it was very good"
Will try your poppy seed recipies next.
Hey Estera, pizza night sounds really nice! If husband is happy that's is all that matters, right?!
Keep me posted on how you like other recipes 😉
Hi, Natasha. I know it might be silly question, but how should I know if the water is warm enough for the yeast? I had bad experience with lukewarm water lol wanted to make pirozhki and I think the water was too hot, so my yeast just died I guess . We want to make pizza tomorrow but I'm afraid to make same mistake that my dough would be not soft. Ohh and I don't have kitchen thermometer.
Thank you.
If you were to run the water on the inner part of the wrist it should be comfortable. Very warm/hot water will kill the yeast 🙁 I hope this weird explanation would help. lol..
Comfortable for a baby’s bath!
Thank you so much for the unique tip!
can you use a bread machine for this?
Yes you can use a bread machine. But for this dough its not necessary to knead it, only if the bread machine would make it easier for you.
Hi, is there anything I can do to not have to let the dough rise for 2hrs?
The best results are after a few hours but last weekend we just waited an hour and pizza turned out great.
awesome!! Thanks. I'm trying this tonight after work. It's my daughters 2nd birthday and instead of going to Chuck-E-Cheese or something like that, we are baking cupcakes and making homemade pizza together. I know she's still little but will have a blast helping. Her party is Saturday and she loves pizza.
That sounds way more fun than Chuck-E-Cheese 🙂 they say that you got to train them young, lol. But my boys were more interested in cooking at two than five.
Happy Birthday to your little princess 🙂
So pizza night was a success! Love love love the crust and will use this recipe from now on. Thanks again. Oh, I was able to let it rise for just about 2hrs. We made cupcakes before pizza 🙂
Oh, so glad it worked out perfect for you 🙂
What temperature do I bake it on?
Pizza taste the best at the highest temperature possible. But it depends on how thick the trust is. 450F is the temperature I usually use. Bake until the crust is golden brown.
How many inches in diameter are your pizzas? Also, how did you measure your flour? Did you spoon it into the measuring cup and then level it with a knife of did you just scoop the flour up with the measuring cup?
My pizzas are about 10 inches. I scooped flour.
i love this dough recipe. made it today and it turned out great.
Thank you for sharing feedback 🙂 I am glad you liked it. Its our go to recipe for pizza dough.
Hi:) i'm pretty new to this freezing thing...but I love it! Do you just unfreeze it in the fridge? Thank you for all you do I love so many of your recipes:)
did you get an answer to this question?
Usually I unfreeze it on a counter top.
How much yeast do I need?
Thanks for catching that, seemed like I was missing an ingredient 🙂 1.5 Tbsp