The Best Homemade Pizza Dough is not easy to come by. In the past, I struggled with finding the perfect homemade pizza dough recipe let alone developing one on my own. I had purchased store bought pizza dough for a long time. Although it worked for the time being, I never found a brand that I truly liked. I really didn't like the texture of the store brand in either the regular pizza dough or the whole wheat, but I worked with what I had. Then one day, I was watching 'Dinner at Tiffany's' on the 'Cooking Channel', and she made homemade grilled pizza dough. She made it look so easy. I couldn't believe it. Homemade pizza dough especially using yeast can sound a bit intimidating, but Tiffany made it look effortless. The following Friday night, I decided to to give it a try, and my homemade pizza dough came out perfect and tasted amazing. Hence the name, the Best Homemade Pizza Dough. Since then, I haven't gone back to store bought pizza dough. So, my friends, that's how my love for homemade pizza dough evolved. I give total credit to Tiffany Thiessen.
How To Make The Best Homemade Pizza Dough
Yeast: This homemade pizza dough calls for active dry yeast. Yeast is a living organism that remains dormant until it's dissolved in a small amount of lukewarm water. This mixture is added to ingredients such as flour where it will allow the dough to rise.
Flour: My favorite kind of flour to use for this Best Homemade Pizza Dough recipe is Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Unbleached Flour or Bob's Red Mill Fine Pastry Flour. These are my favorite flours to use as the texture of both flours are fine although the pastry flour feels much more fine which creates a more tender dough. Regular all purpose unbleached four works well too.
Salt: The flour is seasoned with salt as salt enhances the flavor of the flour.
Rise: This step is crucial. The dough must rise in a large mixing bowl for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.
- TIP: Rub the entire inner surface of the mixing bowl with olive oil. This will prevent the dough from sticking to the inside of the mixing bowl.
- TIP: Cover the mixing bowl lightly with either a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Either will work fine.
I would say that the Best Homemade Pizza Dough is an easy 4-Step process.
Part 1 - Add yeast mixture to flour.
Part 2 - Add ball of dough to an oiled mixing bowl and cover.
Part 3 - Remove plastic wrap and give dough a slight punch (seriously punch it). Remove dough from bowl and place on a cutting board that has been dusted with flour and roll dough onto the floured surface.
TIP: The dough will be sticky, so I like to dust my hands with flour as well. I do this before I give the dough a slight punch.
Part 4 - Lightly coat pizza pan with cooking spray and place ball of dough in center of pan and use your hands to work dough into a circular shape (working from the center outward).
I hope you find that the Best Homemade Pizza Dough can be made in the comfort of your own kitchen. Remember this recipe is not intimating. It only requires a few key ingredients. Although this homemade pizza dough takes an hour to rise, you can use that time to get caught up on other things or prep the toppings for your pizza.
So, are you making Friday night Pizza Night with your own homemade pizza?
I hope you love this recipe just as much as I do.
Thanks for visiting.
By the way, you can follow me on Pinterest or Instagram. I'd really appreciate it :).
📖 Recipe
Best Homemade Pizza Dough
Ingredients
Yeast Mixture
- 1 pack dry active yeast
- ¾ to 1 cup lukewarm water
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (plus an additional pinch)
Instructions
- Oil the inside of a mixing bowl with olive oil. Set aside.
- In a measuring cup, add ¾ to 1 cup lukewarm water. (If by chance, you use filtered water from your fridge, measure the water & warm it in the microwave for a few seconds to knock the chill off the water).
- Add the entire pack of dry active yeast to the lukewarm water and stir until dissolved. (It may not all dissolve initially and that's okay). Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Add extra virgin olive oil and stir. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, add flour and salt and whisk. Create a well in the center of the flour and add yeast mixture.
- With a medium-sized spoon, mix quickly until a ball of dough forms. Similarly, you can use a mixer with a paddle. (I never use a mixer as a spoon works just fine.
- Flour the surface of a chopping board so the dough will not stick. Add the ball of dough and create a nice smooth ball. This should only take a few seconds to do. (DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH)
- Add ball of dough inside the oiled mixing bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel or loosely cover with plastic wrap. Set aside and allow dough to rise for at least 1 hour or until it has doubled in size. (I've allowed the dough to rise between 1.5 hours to 2 hours).
- After dough has risen, lightly spray your pizza pan with cooking spray and place dough in center of pan and gently move your hands from the center of the dough outward to create the shape that you'd like. The dough is very easy to work with and can easily form into a perfect circle, an oblong shape or a rustic shape.
- Set oven to 475 degrees and blind bake for a few minutes. Watch closely. This step is not required but is an extra step that I always do as I like my dough to firm up a bit before adding my toppings.
- Remove dough from oven. Top with your favorite pizza sauce, cheese and other favorite pizza toppings. If topping with ingredients such as arugula, herbs, spinach, add these toppings after the pizza has been removed from the oven as these are delicate ingredients and can burn quickly in the oven.
- Return pizza to oven and bake until cheese has melted.
Thanks for visiting! Please feel free to leave a comment