The Best Homemade Pizza Dough is made with a simple yeast, flour & salt. It's SOOOOO easy. With only 1 hour of your time, you're well on your way to making the most delicious homemade pizza dough in the comfort of your own kitchen. Move over store bought pizza dough.
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.
Notes
**Please note: Nutritional values serve as a guide only as values may vary.Blind Bake: Blind baking (pre-baking) is the process of baking the dough without the filling or toppings. I only do this for a couple of minutes as I like my pizza dough a little brown on the bottom. I then top with our favorite pizza toppings.