by Homemade pizza is one of my favorite weekend meals to make. When you make it yourself, you can control exactly what types of ingredients you use, and it’s a lot cheaper to make at home than to order out.
It’s also a fairly simple meal to make. However, you do need to plan for ahead because it takes about 2 hours to make…although over an hour of that time is just letting the dough rise.
The most important part of making good pizza dough is ensuring that you knead the dough long enough…about 8 to 10 minutes. Kneading the dough develops the gluten by making it stronger and more elastic. Well-developed gluten allows the yeasted dough to stretch and expand as it rises, and produces a finer texture in breads. Kneading can be done by hand, by a stand mixer, or bread machine. I have made it both in a bread machine & with my Kitchen Aid, but my favorite way is to hand knead the dough- there’s something mentally relaxing about the repetitive motion. 😊
Once you make the dough, let it rise for an hour, and create your pizza, the bake time is a mere 10-12 minutes. Literally, almost all of the labor involved is in making the dough.
While your dough is rising is a good time to put together a homemade pizza sauce, so that it can simmer on the stove while the dough rises.
I usually divide my dough into 2 pieces; one piece I roll & cut into breadsticks, and I use the other for the pizza dough. Since my pizza stone is a rather large rectangle, I use about 2/3 of the dough for the pizza and 1/3 for the sticks. However, you could also divide the dough into 2 equal dough balls, and make 2 (12″) pizzas instead. After going through the first rise, the dough can also be refrigerated or frozen, also.
Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 3½ cups flour plus more for rolling the dough
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¼ ounce instant dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1½ cups water, 110° F
- 2 Tbsp olive oil plus 2 teaspoons to oil bowl
Instructions
- Combine the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- While the mixer is running, add the water and 2 Tbsp of the oil. Beat until the dough forms into a ball. If the dough is sticky, add additional flour (1 Tbsp at a time), until the dough comes together in a ball. (however, if the dough is too dry, just add additional water 1 Tbsp at a time).
- Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour. Scrape the dough onto the floured surface, and knead the dough for 8-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Shape into a smooth, firm ball.
- Grease a large bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Place the dough into the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel. Set aside in a warm area to rise until double in size, about 1 hour.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 2 pieces. Cover & let rest for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven (and pizza stone, if using) to 500° F. Roll or pat/stretch the dough into a size to fit your pizza pan or stone. Leave the rolled out dough to rise as your oven & stone heats (15-30 min).
- Top your pizza as desired, reduce the oven temperature to 450. Bake 10-14 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Cut into slices.
Notes
- To make the breadsticks:
- roll the dough in a rectangle and use a clean pizza cutter to slice into sticks.
- Place on a baking sheet, and slightly separate the sticks.
- Allow them to rise on the baking sheet for 15-30 minutes (while pizza dough is also rising),
- bake them for about 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned.
- While the breadsticks are baking, scoop a tablespoon of butter or Earth Balance in a small bowl, add about a 1/4 tsp chopped garlic, and microwave until melted.
- Once the breadsticks are removed from the oven, brush with garlic butter, and sprinkle with Parmesan and salt.
- If you don’t want to use the pizza dough right away, it can be placed in the refrigerator or freezer after you complete step 5. Place it in the refrigerator, if you want to make the pizza within 1-2 days, or it can be stored longer in the freezer.
- Roll each portion of dough into a tight ball.
- Wrap each piece in plastic wrap.
- Place both dough balls in a gallon-sized freezer bag, and place in the refrigerator or freezer.
- On the day you plan to make the pizza, if frozen, remove the plastic-wrapped dough ball from the freezer bag, and place in the refrigerator first thing in the morning (or if you want to bake it for lunch, put it in the refrigerator the night before).
- About an hour before you want the pizza to be ready, remove the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap. Start your oven & stone preheating at this time, as well. Let the dough sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.
- Then roll or pat/stretch to the size of your pan- and follow baking instructions in the recipe.
