Want to make the best homemade pizza dough? This recipe will turn any beginner into an expert on the very first try. It uses yeast (instant or active) to make chewy, crispy pizza crust from scratch. Let’s cook!
Why this is the best pizza dough recipe for beginners
- Fool-proof. Make homemade pizza dough with yeast on your very first try with this recipe.
- Use either active yeast or instant yeast. There are directions for both ingredients.
- It’s a complete guide. The step by step pizza dough making video walks you through each detail (scroll to bottom of the post to see it)
- It’s light, but chewy, and a bit crispy. This pizza crust recipe hits all the notes!
- Includes a pizza recipe! Learn to parbake the crust so it becomes super light and fluffy.
Ingredients
Pizza dough
Here’s what you need to make homemade pizza.
- All purpose flour (or bread flour)
- Instant dry yeast (or active dry yeast)
- Sugar
- Warm water (around 100°F / 38°C)
- Olive oil (divided)
- Salt
Sheet pan pizza crust ingredients
Once you make it, I’ll show you how to use it!
Included in this pizza dough guide for beginners is a step by step video on how to make sheet pan pizza crust using fresh dough. Here are ingredients used in the demonstration. You can always swap them out for pizza toppings of your choice.
For the crust:
- 1 ball pizza dough (the fresh pizza dough recipe will make about 2 balls of dough)
- Flour
- Olive oil
- Salt
Toppings:
- Pizza sauce (I’ll show you how to season it with Italian herbs and pepper)
- Mozzarella cheese (or any Italian cheese blend you like)
- 1 tomato (or ½ cup pizza toppings of your choice)
- Fresh basil to garnish
Want pizza topping ideas? Try this pulled pork pizza or chicken spinach pizza.
How to make pizza dough by hand
Don’t miss the video below with the printable pizza dough recipe for complete visuals on kneading pizza dough so it’s light and fluffy.
Overview of steps
- Proof the yeast – activate the yeast so it is ready to make dough
- Mix the homemade pizza crust ingredients
- Knead the dough
- Let it rise
- Make pizza with freshly made dough
Details and examples of pizza dough making steps
Step 1. Sift flour. This is optional, but I find it makes a really smooth pizza dough.Use a large sieve into a large bowl and set aside.
Step 2. Activate yeast for pizza dough. To proof the yeast, add yeast, 2 tbsp warm water (⅛ cup), and sugar to a small bowl. Whisk to combine. If using instant yeast to make pizza crust, there is no “activation time”, so move on to the next step without waiting.
For active yeast pizza dough – If using active dry yeast, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside (by a warm sunny window is ideal) for 15 minutes or until small bubbles appear.
Step 3. (Option 1 for mixing crust) Mix together pizza dough ingredients by hand. Add yeast mixture, warm water (1 cup), 2 tbsp olive oil, and salt to the large bowl of flour.
Use a large spatula or spoon to loosely combine the ingredients. The dough will be a bit shaggy and not a perfect dough at this time. See the Sip Bite Go video tutorial for visuals. If pizza dough is “too wet”, then add additional flour, ½ tbsp at a time.
Step 4. (Option 2 for mixing dough) Mix together pizza dough with a stand mixer or food processor. Use a KitchenAid stand mixer with dough attachment or a food processor with a plastic blade.
Adding the wet ingredients to the bowl and gradually pouring in the wet ingredients (yeast mixture and water). Mix with the machine for 1-2 minutes until ingredients combine into a loose ball. Add additional flour if needed, as mentioned in the step above.
Step 5. Gently knead pizza dough by hand so it rises properly. Add 2 tbsp flour to a large cutting board or work surface, divided in placement, with 1 tbsp in the corner to use as needed, and the other lightly spread out on the work surface.
How do you knead pizza dough by hand? Add the unkneaded pizza dough to the center of the dusted surface and knead it by pushing it together in a ball. Then, alternate for 2-3 minutes between pushing the heel of your hand into the center of the dough, and folding in each corner of the dough one by one.
Go back and forth, turning the dough as you push the heel of your hand and fold it over. As needed, add a little flour from the reserved pile to your hands if the dough sticks to your hands. To be sure it’s done kneading, poke the dough with a finger and if it bounces back, it’s done.
Step 6. Allow homemade pizza dough to rise. Add remaining 1 tbsp olive oil to a clean large bowl and spread it around so the bottom is covered in oil. Add the dough ball of kneaded pizza dough to the oil bowl. Turn it once to completely cover in oil.
Cover the bowl of dough with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel on top to insulate it. Place the covered bowl in a sunny window (if available). Alternatively, leave the dough on the counter to rise.
Want to refrigerate pizza dough for the next day? If you’re not going to use the pizza dough immediately, refrigerate it overnight. It will continue rising as it chills in the fridge.
Want to use pizza dough right after making it? See below for a quick and easy pizza recipe using homemade dough. Check out all the delicious pizza recipes on Sip Bite Go for more creative pizza topping ideas.
How to make pizza with homemade dough
You can make stone crust pizza on a baking stone or bake pizza directly on the rack, but today I’m going to show you how to par bake pizza crust using a sheet pan. It’s foolproof – I’ve made this recipe hundreds of times! Then you’ll see how to top it and bake it until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.
Step 1. Prep for baking the pizza. Preheat oven to 450°F. Set out a large rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Step 2. Stretch the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface. Spread half the flour on a large flat work surface or butcher block. Add the rest of the flour to the corner of your work space. (See the full Sip Bite Go guide on how to stretch pizza dough)
Add the raw homemade pizza dough to the center of the floured surface. Add a pinch of reserved flour to lightly coat the pizza dough. Stretch homemade pizza dough by pinching the outside 1” in a circular motion to create a thin crust.
Then, alternate between pinching the center of the dough with your fingers, pressing it out on the work surface, and using the back of your knuckles to stretch the dough out from underneath. You’ll find your rhythm as you alternate between techniques.
Pick up a little extra flour here and there as the dough stretches. This will help it retain the growing size as it stretches out. Stretch until you get a loose circle shaped pizza crust about ½” to ¾” thick and about 14” in diameter.
Step 3. Par bake pizza dough. Brush half the olive oil on the parchment paper/pizza stone. Add stretched homemade dough on top. Brush the remaining olive oil around 1” of crust. Sprinkle the crust with half the salt. Bake the pizza dough without toppings and bake for 7 minutes at 450°F.
Step 4. Prep for baking homemade pizza dough in the oven. Once the dough par-bakes, remove it from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 500°F.
Step 5. Add pizza toppings to homemade pizza crust. Add the sauce, dried Italian herbs, remaining salt and pepper. Then add mozzarella cheese and any other toppings as desired.
Step 6. Bake fresh pizza dough with toppings. Add the assembled pizza to the oven to bake at 500°F for 7-10 minutes, until the cheese has completely melted.
Step 7. Sprinkle oven baked pizza with fresh basil and serve.
What’s the difference between pizza dough flours?
The type of flour that you choose will affect the texture of your pizza dough because of the amount of gluten in the flour. Here are the most common types of flour for pizza dough…
Bread flour for pizza dough
If you want a pizza crust that is fluffy, chewy, and soft, use bread flour to make your pizza dough. Bread flour has a high amount of gluten. But if you don’t have bread flour, all purpose is a great substitute.
All purpose flour for homemade pizza dough
This type of flour is often used for a thin crust pizza dough recipe. Because all-purpose flour does not have as much gluten, the crust will not rise as much as dough with bread flour.
Using almond flour to make gluten free pizza dough
Almond flour is one of the best choices for someone that cannot eat gluten. Almond flour is easy to use for beginners and you can use it for a quick pizza dough recipe.
The only thing to note is that you can’t equally swap almond flour for all purpose because it requires a binding agent (like an egg) so you need a specific almond flour pizza dough recipe to make it.
If you’re into keto friendly meals, check out this spinach lasagna with almond flour noodles.
FAQs
Self satisfaction and that “made by hand” quality top my reasons for making homemade dough for pizza. I’ve been a longtime fan of making homemade pizza using store bought dough, especially Trader Joe’s pizza dough and Whole Foods pizza dough. But making pizza dough from scratch taps into using cooking and baking as a form of creativity and self care. Plus, it’s fun!
You have many options. This pizza crust will make about 2 round personal pizzas (10-12” in diameter). Or 1 large circle pizza on a pizza stone (about 14”). Or 1 large rectangle pizza you can cut in squares (a sheet pan pizza about 12×19”)
Try adding an infused oil to pizza crust in place of regular olive oil. Garlic oil or truffle oil are delicious substitutions. You can also add dried herbs (dried basil and oregano or parsley are great choices) and dried spices (a pinch of garlic powder is perfect). You can also use fresh herbs and garlic.
Yes, after kneading the dough and letting it rise for 30 minutes – 60 minutes, move it to the refrigerator overnight. Remove it from the fridge so dough rises for at least 2 hours (ideally, because it will stretch easier) before making pizza.
If I have forgotten to take pizza dough out of the fridge to rise, I hack it by turning on the oven so the top of the stove heats up. Then I toss a little olive oil in a gallon size ziplock bag, and add the pizza dough to the bag. I leave the bag open so the dough can rise.
Then I stick the bag of dough in a kitchen towel, and leave it on the top of the stove for about 20 minutes. This adds gentle warmth to get the dough to start expanding.
In moments of last minute pizza nights and desperation, I’ve also gently pulled apart dough over a hot pan of boiling water or other food I was cooking. The rise of the steam helps the dough become more malleable and ready to stretch.
Wondering: can homemade pizza dough be frozen? Yes, this is great for meal prepping in batches. To do this, after kneading dough and letting it rise for 30-60 minutes (to give it time to double in size at room temperature), transfer it to a ziplock bag with a little olive oil in it (so the dough doesn’t stick). Then freeze it for up to 3 months.
When you want to make a pizza, move the dough to the refrigerator to thaw overnight. Then in the morning, move the dough to the counter (leave the bag open so it has room to grow in size).
The photo above is from a “pizza and wings” happy hour on my back patio with fresh herbs from my Aerogarden setup. See these tasty recipes for air fryer chicken wings, sous vide chicken wings, and oven baked chicken wings to make them yourself.
Are you a foodie, too?
I want to know what you think and see photos of your food! Find me on Instagram @sipbitego to tag me and connect.
Want to make restaurant-style food at home? I teach you how here on Sip Bite Go and with in-depth video guides on the Sip Bite Go channel.
The Perfect Pizza Setup
Want to make restaurant style pizza at home? I’ve got you covered! Here are some of my top tips, tricks, secret ingredients and tools for a pizza night everyone will look forward to, again and again.
- NEVER do this… Contrary to what most people believe, when baking pizza on a sheet pan, never add toppings to raw pizza dough. Instead, follow my recipe for making homemade pizza with ready made dough, which will teach you how to par bake pizza dough first.
- Get help from secret ingredients…
– This dough seasoning is the secret to real Italian-tasting homemade pizza dough.
– Add pizza seasoning to store bought pizza sauce. This makes the pizza taste really fresh! - Herbs are for after… In my weekly pizza making practice, I’ve found that fresh herbs, like basil, need to be added to pizza after the pizza is done baking (so the herbs don’t wilt).
- Buy fresh dough and get amazing results. Yup, fresh dough from grocery stores is one of my favorite short-cuts. Learn how to use fresh Trader Joe’s pizza dough and Whole Foods pizza dough with my tutorials.
- Frozen pizza can taste amazing, too!! Learn how to spruce it up with this recipe for pizza using frozen crust.
- Slice pizza pies like a chef with just a few swipes, using big ol’ pizza cutters.
- Want to grill pizza? Here are some pizza grilling tools to check out.
- Do you really need to cook pizza on the rack? Nope! I basically never do. Here are tools you see me using in my tutorials on cooking pizza in the oven…
– Bake pizza on a rimmed baking pan set to get a beautiful golden brown crust.
– Love crispy crust? Let the air flow with this dishwasher safe pizza pan.
– Get personal – let your fam / friends top their own pies with this set of personal pizza pans.
More pizza recipes from Sip Bite Go
Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe For Beginners Recipe | Sip Bite Go
Video
Ingredients
Pizza dough ingredients
- 3 ⅛ cups all purpose flour or bread flour, divided
- 2 ¼ tsp instant dry yeast about 1 packet instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 1 ½ tsp sugar, white
- 1 ⅛ cup warm water around 100°F / 38°C
- 3 tbsp olive oil divided
- 1 tsp salt
Sheet pan pizza crust and toppings ingredients
- 1 ball pizza dough
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 tsp olive oil
- ¾ tsp salt divided
- 1 cup pizza sauce
- ½ tsp dried Italian herbs optional
- ¼ tsp pepper optional
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1 tomato sliced, optional
- ½ cup toppings any, optional
- 1 tsp basil fresh, optional
Instructions
Make homemade pizza dough that’s light and fluffy
- Sift flour. Sift 3 leveled cups of all purpose flour with a sieve into a large bowl and set aside. (optional step, yields a more smooth dough)
- Activate instant yeast for pizza dough. Add yeast, 2 tbsp warm water (⅛ cup), and sugar to a small bowl. Whisk to combine. If using active dry yeast, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside (by a warm sunny window is ideal) for 15 minutes or until small bubbles appear. If using instant yeast, move on to the next step without waiting.
- Mix together pizza dough ingredients by hand. Add yeast mixture, warm water (1 cup), 2 tbsp olive oil, and salt to the large bowl of flour. To mix pizza dough by hand, use a large spatula or spoon to loosely combine the ingredients. The dough will be a bit shaggy and not a perfect dough at this time. You’ll notice it is a bit clumpy, however, if pizza dough is very wet and sticky and hasn’t come together like in the Sip Bite Go video tutorial or photos in the recipe steps of the post, then add additional flour, ½ tbsp at a time. How the dough comes together can vary based on time of year and the humidity and heat in your kitchen. It can be a bit of an experiment!
- Mix together pizza dough with stand mixer or food processor. Alternatively, mix together pizza dough ingredients with a KitchenAid stand mixer with dough attachment or with a food processor with a plastic blade by adding the wet ingredients to the bowl and gradually pouring in the wet ingredients (yeast mixture and water). Mix with the machine for 1-2 minutes until ingredients combine into a ball. Add additional flour if needed, as mentioned in the step above.
- Gently knead pizza dough by hand so it rises properly. Add 2 tbsp flour to a large cutting board or work surface, divided in placement, with 1 tbsp in the corner to use as needed, and the other lightly spread out on the work surface. How do you knead pizza dough by hand? Add the unkneaded pizza dough to the center of the dusted surface and knead it by pushing it together in a ball. Then, alternate for 2-3 minutes between pushing the heel of your hand into the center of the dough, and folding in each corner of the dough one by one. Go back and forth, turning the dough as you push the heel of your hand and fold it over. As needed, add a little flour from the reserved pile to your hands if the dough sticks to your hands. As time goes on, the dough will form more of a ball shape as the gluten binds together. To be sure it’s done kneading, poke the dough with a finger and if it bounces back, it’s done.
- Allow homemade pizza dough to rise. Add remaining 1 tbsp olive oil to a clean large bowl and spread it around so the bottom is covered in oil. Add ball of kneaded pizza dough to the oil bowl. Turn it once to completely cover in oil. Cover the bowl of dough with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel on top to insulate it. Place the covered bowl in a sunny window (if available) or in the oven with the oven turned off and just the oven light on, for 30-60 minutes, or until dough doubles in size. Alternatively, leave the dough on the counter to rise. The step of adding just a slight amount of warmth to the dough rising process is optional, but highly suggested for perfectly light but chewy pizza crust.
- Refrigerate pizza dough for the next day. If you’re not going to use the pizza dough immediately, refrigerate it overnight. It will continue rising as it chills in the fridge. Before making pizza, ideally allow the dough to rise on the counter (in a sunny window is ideal) the morning of, or at least 2 hours in advance of baking pizza.
- Use pizza dough now. See the plentiful pizza recipes on Sip Bite Go to make various pizzas with different toppings and in different sizes. See below for a quick and easy pizza recipe using homemade dough.
To make the sheet pan pizza with fresh dough
- Prep for baking the pizza. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Set out a large rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper or add a pizza stone to the oven to preheat while the oven warms up
- Stretch the pizza dough. Spread half the flour on a large flat work surface or butchers block. Add the rest of the flour to the corner of your work space. Add the raw homemade pizza dough to the center of the floured surface. Add a pinch of reserved flour to lightly coat the pizza dough. Stretch homemade pizza dough by pinching the outside 1” in a circular motion to create a thin crust. Then, alternate between pinching the center of the dough with your fingers, pressing it out on the work surface, and using the back of your knuckles to stretch the dough out from underneath. You’ll find your rhythm as you alternate between techniques. Pick up a little extra flour here and there as the dough stretches. This will help it retain the growing size as it stretches out. Stretch until you get a loose circle shaped pizza crust about ½” to ¾” thick and about 14” in diameter.
- Par bake pizza dough. Brush half the olive oil on the parchment paper/pizza stone. Add stretched homemade dough on top. Brush the remaining olive oil around 1” of crust. Sprinkle crust with half the salt. Bake the pizza dough without toppings in the oven for 7 minutes at 450°F.
- Prep for baking homemade pizza dough in oven. Once the dough par-bakes, remove it from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 500°F.
- Add pizza toppings to homemade pizza crust. Add the sauce, dried Italian herbs, remaining salt and pepper. Then add mozzarella cheese and any other toppings as desired.
- Bake fresh pizza dough with toppings. Add the assembled pizza to the oven to bake at 500°F for 7-10 minutes, until the cheese has completely melted.
- Sprinkle oven baked pizza with fresh herbs and serve.
Notes
- 2 round personal pizzas (10-12” in diameter)
- 1 large circle pizza on a pizza stone (about 14”)
- 1 large rectangle pizza you can cut in squares (a sheet pan pizza)
- You may have enough pizza dough left for an additional pizza
- Use infused oil to pizza dough in place of regular olive oil (try garlic oil or truffle oil).
- Dried herbs (try dried basil and oregano or parsley)
- Dried spices (try garlic powder).
- Fresh herbs and garlic.
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