Easy Pizza Dough Recipe
Family pizza night is a weekend staple in our home. This simple yeast pizza dough recipe makes it quick, easy, and fun! We’re all about food from scratch in this house, it just tastes better! Not to mention the health benefits of real, quality food and ingredients. This pizza dough can be made and rolled out in under 45 minutes. With short rising times and minimal ingredients, it’s the perfect base for a yummy family dinner.
Pizza Dough, but make it fancy
If you’ve been here for hot minute, you know my love language is herbs. Well, coffee and herbs, but not together, that’s gross.
I digress.
Herbs make basically everything better. I take my mortar and pestle, and grind dried rosemary, basil, and oregano together and toss into the dough. It takes it from ordinary to gourmet. This is an added step that can be omitted if you want to keep the dough very basic, or you’re afraid of picky eaters seeing the herbs in the dough.
If you want to learn all about harvesting herbs and how to dry them, check out this post here.
Is convenience food (aka: refrigerated, store bought dough) really more convenient, or a clever marketing term?
Let’s think about this logically. It takes less than 10 minutes total hands-on time to mix this pizza dough and roll it out. The other time is spent rising and baking. I don’t know about you, but for flavor’s sake, I’ll spend that ten minutes making something from scratch instead of removing the store bought dough from the fridge, which I’m not sorry in the least to say, lacks the flavor and texture of a good crust.
I think one of the great lies of the last 100 years is that baking bread is hard.
Yep, I said it.
When the truth is, it’s one of the easiest, least ingredient foods you can make from scratch. If the rising time is what gets us and why we purchase store bought, then maybe it’s time to reevaluate how we spend our time. If we have an hour a day to waste on social media, why not waste it after you’ve made bread and it’s rising? You get what I’m saying here, I’m not trying to be harsh, but bread products are not difficult, yet the big baking companies out there are taking our money, a lot of our money, telling us we don’t have the time or ability to do it ourselves. You can still make a loaf of bread for under a buck friends. Versus the five plus dollars you are paying at the store.
Rant over. I just want to make it clear, you can make bread, pizza dough, and accomplish and acquire whatever other homemaking skill you want. All you need is practice and a willing heart.
Pizza Dough
This pizza dough is so darn easy, and will be a great confidence booster! If you can make this friends, you can make other items too! Trust me!
Want a tip that I use to take my pizza to the next level? I love to sprinkle garlic powder and corn meal on the pizza sheet before placing the dough over it. I’m always team more herbs! It bakes into the bottom of the crust and makes it extra yummy and crusty. Use your favorite spices to do something similar!
Rolling out the dough
Unless you have mad skills, don’t think you have to toss the dough in the air to stretch it out. A rolling pin will do. We have always made our pizza on a cookie sheet. So we roll it into a rectangle. You can also divide the dough and make mini pizzas. The kids love to roll their own out and add the toppings. It’s a fun pizza night project.
Once the dough is rolled out, make sure to use a fork and poke holes into the dough so it doesn’t puff up or cook unevenly.
I like to precook my dough a little before adding the toppings to make it extra crispy, but if time is an issue, you can skip this step. I like to cook it at 350 for 10 minutes, remove from oven and add sauce and toppings, and immediately place back in oven and bake until the cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.
Can you pre-make and refrigerate this dough? Answer: Yes!
This recipe makes one, 18″ x 26″ cookie sheet pan pizza. After the pizza dough is allowed to rise, it can be refrigerated for up to three days. To use, remove from fridge and allow to come to room temperature for an hour. Then dust with flour and roll out like normal.
Key moments in the pizza dough recipe | How Yeast Works
The most import part in this recipe is the yeast activation step, where you add the yeast to the hot water and sugar, and allow it to activate. This activating step basically wakes up the yeast from the nap it was having in your fridge. (I hope you keep your yeast in the fridge! It keeps it alive longer.) After adding the yeast to the hot water, it will begin to foam. If it doesn’t, your yeast is too old, and you’ll need to purchase more.
Once the dough is fully incorporated and set aside to rise, this is called the fermentation process. As the carbon dioxide gas expands, the bread dough rises.
Use this pizza dough recipe for breadsticks
Double this recipe and use half for breadsticks! Simply roll out, brush dough with melted butter. Sprinkle with rosemary, thyme, garlic powder, dried onions, basil & oregano, and use some flakey sea salt. Yum! Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and using a pizza cutter, slice into inch long strips, about 4 to 5″ long. Enjoy!
This is truly such a versatile recipe and I can’t wait to see what you do with it. Make sure to tag me over on Instagram with your Pizza. I want to see! Happy baking friends!
Pizza Dough
This delicious, easy pizza dough is perfect for a quick weeknight dinner, or fun for a weekend family pizza night! When I'm in a hurry and don't have a ton of dinner prep time, I usually make pizza. This yeast bread comes together fast, doesn't need much rise time, and always turns out.
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon yeast
- 2 teaspoons organic sugar
- 3/4 cup very warm water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 2 cups organic, unbleached flour (or whatever flour you have on hand)
- Additional, optional spices:
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed rosemary
- 1 teaspoon crushed basil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- In a bowl or mixer (you can do it either way) pour hot water. Sprinkle on top the yeast, and sugar. Give it a quick stir, and let sit for 5 minutes, allowing the yeast to foam up and come alive!
- After 5 minutes, add in olive oil, garlic salt, and other seasonings if using, and incorporate. Add in one cup of flour and stir, slowly add in the remaining flour until it begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. You may use less or more flour depending on if you're mixing by hand or using a stand mixer. Thus, I give you a bit of play room with the flour. Normally it takes just under two cups.
- Once incorporated, dust the counter with flour, and taking the dough ball, place on flour, dust top of dough with a bit more flour, and cover with clean linen cloth. Let sit on counter for 15-30 minutes depending on the time you have. I've baked it after just 15 minutes, but realize you'll have a bit denser crust by not giving the dough more time to rise.
- After 30 minutes is up, roll out on a floured surface into the shape you're baking. Sometimes, we make mini pizzas and the kids make their own, mini pizzas. I'll cook those on a cookie sheet. Truthfully, I always cook my pizza on a cookie sheet. It's just how we've always done it!
- Before placing on the baking sheet, I'll sprinkle the baking sheet surface with a combo of a teaspoon of cornmeal, and tespoon of garlic salt. I find it gives the bottom of the dough a nice crunch and a little flavor punch!
- Once done rolling out, fold the dough in half like you do after rolling out a pie crust, and gently move it to the baking sheet. Unfold. Taking about half an inch on all sides, fold over the dough to create a nice crust. If your family isn't big crust people (mine arent) don't make a crust!
- Now, if you're in a hurry, throw all the sauce and topping on at this point and bake. However, if you have a bit of time, I like to prebake my dough just a little to give it a nice, sturdy base. I place it in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes, then remove it and apply toppings right away, and throw it back in the oven until the cheese melts and begins to slightly brown on top. If you choose to skip this step, that's fine!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 216Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 84mgCarbohydrates: 41gFiber: 2gSugar: 1gProtein: 6g
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Cranberry orange pound cake with white chocolate and orange glaze
