Easy Homemade Pizza Dough

This Easy Homemade Pizza Dough recipe yields the best ever homemade pizza in 30 minutes from start to finish! It’s made with only 5 ingredients and does not require any rising! Plus it is vegan with a gluten-free option.

Course bread, Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Diet Vegan, Vegetarian

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings large pizza (12 Servings)

Calories 67kcal

Author Laura

Equipment

Ingredients

1 cup warm water 105-110 degrees F
1 TBS sugar
1 TBS active dry yeast
1 TBS olive oil
2 to 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour*
1 tsp salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Grease a pizza pan or large jelly roll pan and set aside.
Put warm water into a large mixing bowl.
Add sugar and yeast and stir to combine.
Let mixture sit for 5 minutes, or until it becomes frothy and bubbles form.
Add olive oil and gently stir to combine.
Add 2 cups of flour and salt and mix with a spatula until a ball begins to form (dough will still be slightly sticky). Add more flour as needed to form a dough ball.
Transfer to a floured surface and knead into a smooth dough, adding up to ½ cup extra flour if needed.
Roll dough into your desired shape and gently transfer to your prepared pan. (Or bake on a pizza stone, see instructions in the notes).
To ensure the dough doesn't form air pockets, use a fork to prick to the dough all around (gently so you do not poke holes all the way through the crust).
Bake on the lower rack of your preheated oven for 5 minutes and remove from your oven. (this is just to very slightly prebake the dough). If you notice air bubbles forming, poke them with a fork to let the air out.
Add pizza sauce and toppings of choice!
Bake on the lower rack of your oven for around 15-20 minutes until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned.
Let cool, cut and serve.

Video

Notes

Optional Rise:

If you have more than 30 minutes you can let this dough rise until doubled in size after you form a smooth ball. It results in a softer, more tender dough but rising is not necessary for a delicious pizza.

Use a pizza stone

Since we make pizza so regularly we invested in two pizza stones. We love baking our pizzas on a stone because it crisps the bottom nicely and there's no pre-baking required, making the recipe even easier.

We form our pizza on a piece of parchment paper and use a pizza peel to transfer it from the counter to the stone in the oven.

Ingredient Substitutions

All-purpose flour. I regularly use a mixture of whole wheat & all-purpose flour to make this easy pizza crust recipe. I recommend substituting ½ to 1 cup of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour. You can also use a 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose baking flour with great results.
Sugar. honey can be used in place of sugar.
Olive oil. Any neutral tasting oil works perfectly in this recipe, I suggest olive oil, avocado oil or canola oil.
Toppings: The unanimous pizza topping of choice for my family is pepperoni. My hubby prefers turkey pepperoni. But you can top your dough with anything. My personal favorite is a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar, spinach, green peppers and goat cheese!

Easily Doubled (or tripled)

This pizza dough recipe is easily doubled or tripled. You can also make the crust into small personal pizzas and let the kids put their own toppings on it, which is really fun.

To make ahead:

You can make this pizza dough in advance. Mix it together and form a ball, then place it in a bowl and tightly cover it with plastic wrap and a damp towel. Store it in the refrigerator until ready to use (up to overnight).

To freeze

You an freeze this pizza dough in a few ways:

Form it into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze in an airtight container or plastic bag.
Pre-bake the crust for 5 minutes without toppings. Let it cool, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and foil and freeze. To use, let it thaw, add toppings and bake according to the recipe.
Freeze a fully assembled pizza before baking. You can make your own frozen pizzas by making this pizza dough, topping it with sauce and toppings and flash-freezing it on a baking sheet. One it's hardened, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and foil and freeze for up to 2 months. Let thaw and bake.

Nutrition