Easy Pizza Dough – Two Peas & Their Pod

This pizza dough recipe is easy to make at home, you only need 5 ingredients! The pizza crust is soft, chewy, crisp with a delicious flavor. This easy pizza dough delivers perfect pizza every single time!

Homemade Pizza Dough

We make homemade pizza every week, usually on Friday night or Sunday evening. Our boys LOVE pizza night. They love helping make pizza and of course eating pizza! Josh takes the lead and makes the pizza dough, but the boys help stretch out the dough and top the pizzas with pizza sauce and their favorite toppings. At the end of the night, the kitchen is dusted with flour, but it is always worth it! Pizza night is always so fun and so delicious!

Easy Pizza Dough Recipe

I love our easy whole wheat pizza dough recipe, but we make this easy traditional pizza dough recipe all of the time because the boys love it. I promise pizza dough isn’t hard to make at home, it just takes a little time because the dough has to rise. Yes, yeast is involved, but don’t be scared. You can do this:) Pizza dough from scratch is so much better than frozen pizza or delivery pizza. You will become a pizza master in no time!

Pizza Dough Ingredients

You only need 5 basic ingredients to make pizza dough from scratch.

• Yeast-We use instant yeast for this recipe, which is also called rapid-rise or quick-rise yeast. Instant yeast is milled into finer particles than active dry yeast and dissolves faster. It doesn’t have to be proofed before using, it can be mixed straight into the dry ingredients. This recipe calls for 1 1/2 teaspoons of yeast. If you buy yeast in packets, note that you won’t need a full packet. A packet of yeast has 2 1/4 teaspoons. If you want to use active dry yeast, you can but make sure you proof it in warm water first and the dough might take a little longer to rise.
• Water-Make sure you don’t use hot water. If the water is too hot it will kill the yeast.
• Flour-You can use unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour for this recipe. Bread flour contains more protein and will make your crust crispy on the outside and chewy and textured on the inside. If you use bread flour, your pizza dough won’t tear easily when you stretch it out. It can be a little harder to shape though because it will keep springing back because of the higher gluten content. You can find bread flour in the flour aisle at any grocery store. Try them both and see which flour you like best, both work great for this easy pizza dough recipe.
• Salt-Don’t forget the salt, it gives the pizza crust flavor. If you leave it out the pizza crust will be bland.
• Olive Oil-Olive oil is an important pizza dough ingredient. It not only gives the pizza dough a nice flavor, but it also affects how well the dough stretches. There is olive oil in the pizza dough and we brush a little on top of the dough before adding the pizza sauce and toppings. Olive oil prevents moisture from the sauce and toppings from getting into the dough, resulting in a crispier crust. Use a high quality olive oil for best results.

How to Make Pizza Dough

This recipe makes two pizzas, 10 to 12-inches in size, depending on how thick or thin you like your crust.

• We like to use our stand mixer to make pizza dough, but if you don’t have one, you can make pizza dough by hand. We use the mixer to mix the flour, yeast, water, salt, and olive oil together, but then we like to knead the dough by hand. You can use the dough hook, but we prefer kneading by hand.
• To knead the pizza dough, turn the dough a quarter turn after each motion. You will need to knead for about 5 minutes. You will know when the dough is ready when the dough is smooth and springs back immediately when lightly pressed, and doesn’t tear when you pull it.
• Divide the dough in half and form into 2 balls BEFORE you let the dough rise. Most recipes have you divide the dough after the dough rises, but we like to split the balls before because they rise better when divided.
• Lightly grease 2 medium bowls with olive oil or nonstick cooking spray and place a dough ball inside of each bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 60 to 90 minutes. You can also place the covered dough in the refrigerator at this point and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Bring the dough to room temperature, for about 30 minutes, before stretching.
• Use two lightly floured hands to press and stretch out the dough. We don’t like to use a rolling pin because it takes the air bubbles out of the outside crust. Press before you stretch: flatten the dough into a large disc with the palm of your hand. Once pressed, a little shrinkage is normal. If it snaps back really quickly, it needs to rest longer. If you are feeling ambitious or are a skilled pizza maker, you can toss the dough into the air to spin and stretch it.
• After the dough has been stretched, use a fork to poke tiny holes in the dough to prevent overly large bubbles when baking.
• Brush the pizza dough with olive oil before adding pizza sauce and toppings.
• Bake the pizza in a very hot oven for about 15 minutes.

How to Freeze Pizza Dough

After the pizza dough rises, you can freeze the pizza dough to use later on. Lightly coat all sides of the pizza dough balls with olive oil. Gently place the dough balls into a freezer bag, one ball per bag, and seal, pushing out all of the air.

You can freeze the pizza dough for up to 3 months. To defrost, remove the pizza dough from the freezer and place it in the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours to thaw. When ready to make pizza, remove the dough from the fridge and place the pizza dough ball on a lightly floured countertop. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes so it can come to room temperature before stretching.

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