Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe For Beginners Recipe | Sip Bite Go
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!
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time20 minutesmins
Rise Time1 hourhr
Total Time1 hourhr40 minutesmins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American, Italian
Keyword: best pizza dough recipe, homemade pizza dough recipe, homemade pizza dough recipe with yeast
2 ¼ tsp instant dry yeastabout 1 packet instant yeast or active dry yeast
1 ½tsp sugar, white
1 ⅛cup warm wateraround 100°F / 38°C
3tbsp olive oil divided
1tsp salt
Sheet pan pizza crust and toppings ingredients
1ball pizza dough
2tbsp flour
1 tsp olive oil
¾ tsp saltdivided
1cuppizza sauce
½tsp dried Italian herbs optional
¼tsp pepperoptional
1cupmozzarella cheese
1tomato sliced, optional
½cup toppings any, optional
1tsp basilfresh, 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.
Video
Notes
Shapes of pizza crust you can make with this recipe:
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
Ways to flavor pizza dough:
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.
Tips for refrigerating pizza dough for later: After kneading the dough and letting it rise for 30-60 minutes, move it to the refrigerator overnight. Remove it from the fridge to rise for at least 2 hours (ideally, because it will stretch easier) before making pizza.Jenna’s trick for stretching cold pizza dough: 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.Tips for freezing pizza dough: After kneading pizza dough and letting the dough rise for 30-60 minutes, 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.Tips for thawing frozen pizza dough: Transfer the pizza 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).