This is the easiest recipe for pizza dough you will ever make! You would never guess that with just 5 simple ingredients you could make something this good. It’s thin, crisp and a little chewy!
About This Recipe For Pizza Dough
- This is a very soft dough making it hard to form into a dough ball and is not suitable for the bread machine. If you are experienced and know how to handle a wet dough and wish to go the messy way, this can be hand kneaded. However, for a beginner, we recommend using a stand mixer, that can knead dough.
- It’s very quick dough to make and takes about 8 minutes to knead in a stand mixer.
- You only need 5 ingredients to make this pizza dough recipe.
- This recipe is enough to make two 30 cm thin pizza crusts.
- You can make the pizza dough ahead of time and let it rise in the fridge overnight.
Ingredients
Step by Step Instructions
Before starting this recipe, be aware that is recipe for pizza dough is very soft and sticky. It can be a little hard to work with if you are not familiar with wet doughs. But trust me a wetter dough equals a crispy crust and is well worth making.
And after making this, make my homemade naan, it’s another soft dough made using a stand mixer. It’s so soft, fluffy and delicious to eat.
Step 1 – Place the water and yeast into the bowl of the stand mixer and leave for 5 minutes. This will activate the yeast.
Note: The water can be at room temperature or lukewarm but, never hot. Hot water will kill the yeast.
If you have never worked with yeast before you might like to read this article.
Step 2 – Add the flour and salt to the mixing bowl.
Step 3 – Use a wooden spoon to combine the ingredients, rather than using the dough hook. I like to do it this way because, I have been caught a few times with flour going everywhere when I have used the mixer to do this.
Step 4 – Set the mixer speed to the recommended setting for kneading, as out lined in the machine’s instruction manual.
Step 5 – At first the dough will look soft and rough but, as it continues to knead the dough will come together.
Step 6 – To help the dough form, stop the machine from time to time and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Step 7 – After about 6 – 10 minutes the dough should look something like this, soft and smooth and little sticky.
Step 8 – Divide the dough into two even pieces. Place the balls into bowls that have been lightly coated with olive oil.
Step 9 – Cover the bowls tightly with plastic food wrap. Place the bowls in a warm area and allow to double in size – this can take anywhere between one to three hours.
Step 10 – After the dough has risen it can be stretched, placed on baking trays or pizza pans, topped with your choice of toppings and baked.
Now that you’ve made this recipe for pizza dough what to do you do with it?
Tips For Shaping Pizza Dough For Pizza Pan
This recipe for pizza dough is very soft and can easily be stretched using your fingertips.
We like to dust the dough all over with flour before stretching, it’s less sticky and better to handle this way.
Because it’s soft, stretching the dough out on a piece of parchment paper (baking paper), makes it easier to transfer it to a pizza pan or baking tray. There is no need to remove the parchment paper before baking.
If you are using a pizza pan with holes, you must use parchment paper underneath. Baking the pizza on parchment paper will stop the dough from being baked into holes, making it easier to remove from the pan after baking.
Pizza Topping Ideas
Just about anything and be used to top a pizza and you don’t need very many ingredients to do so. Most pizzas will have some sort of cheese and tomato sauce. The toppings can be anything you have on hand, you can even any bits you might have as leftovers.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Maragherita – pizza sauce, baby bocconcini and top with torn basil leaves after baking.
- Sausage and pepper pizza – pizza sauce, cooked Italian sausage slices, grated mozzarella and thin slices of capsicum (bell peppers).
- Vegetarian pizza – pizza sauce, grated mozzarella, thin sliced mushrooms, onions, green capsicum (bell peppers), pitted green and black olives.
- Caramelized onion pizza – pizza sauce, thin sliced onions caramelized in a little butter, dried rosemary, black pepper, anchovies, olives, cheese.
- Pepperoni and cheese pizza – pizza sauce, pepperoni slices, cheese.
What To Serve With Pizza
Make a meal of it with these ideas for sides, drinks and desserts.
Serve of these as a side dish:
- Easy carrot salad – by recipepocket.com
- Roast pumpkin chickpea and feta salad – by recipepocket.com
- Easy roast pumpkin halloumi salad – by recipepocket.com
- Roasted cherry tomato caprese salad – by itsnotcomplicatedrecipes.com
- Charred fennel salad with bresaola – by thedevilwearssalad.com
- Air fryer french fries – by nourishedplate.com
- Easy tomato salad with homemade vinaigrette – by theforkedspoon.com
Drinks
- Watermelon juice – by cookieandkate.com
- Coffee and hot chocolate drink – by linsfood.com
- Beer margaritas – thatskinnchickcanbake.com
Round of the meal with one of these sweet treats
- Easy ricotta cookies – by recipepocket.com
- Easy apricot cake – by recipepocket.com
- Fresh strawberry cake – by recipepocket.com
- Vanilla bean panna cotta – marcellinaincucina.com
- Italian lemon almond cake – by texanerin.com
- Pear and walnut salad – by mrsjoneskitchen.com
- Pears poached in red wine – by abakingjourney.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Does pizza dough have eggs?
The answer to this is yes and no. There are pizza dough recipes that use eggs and sometimes a fat like oil or butter, to add richness, flavour and softness to the dough. Traditional pizza dough is eggless and usually oil free and makes a crusty pizza crust.
What’s the best flour for pizza dough?
To tell the truth it comes down to personal taste. For years we have been making pizza dough with plain flour and was happy with it. However, after making it with bread flour my preference has changed.
Depending on what we have in the pantry sometimes, we will make pizza dough with plain flour or bread flour but, more often it will be a combination of two.
So, experiment between the different flours and see what you and your family like.
My homemade pizza dough doesn’t cook.
The reason for this could be one of three things. The first being adding a very thick layer of sauce to the dough. The second allowing the sauce to sit on the pizza dough for too long before topping and lastly, you’ve overloaded the pizza with toppings.
If you have added a very thick a layer of sauce to the dough, the liquid from the sauce can add extra moisture to the dough making it wetter and can cause the dough to go soggy.
We like to use about 2-2 ½ tablespoons of bottled pasta sauce for a 30 cm pizza base, it is quite a wet sauce. If you are using a thick tomato paste, with very little moisture, you could get away with using a little more.
If you let the pizza dough sit for some time with sauce and or toppings before baking. This could also be another cause for soggy crust.
For example; if you’ve used a wet sauce like bottled pasta sauce or toppings like tomato, leaving them sit on the dough for some time, allows the moisture to seep into the dough making it go soggy. The best way to avoid this is bake the pizza soon after adding the topping.
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Recipe
Stand Mixer Recipe For Pizza Dough
Equipment
- Stand mixer
Ingredients
- 1 level teaspoon active dry yeast
- 300 grams warm water
- 1 teaspoon level salt
- 250 grams white bread flour baker’s flour/strong flour
- 115 grams plain flour all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Place the warm water and yeast into the mixer bowl and leave for 5 minutes.
- Add the salt and flour to the yeast/water mixture. Use a wooden spoon to mix to form a soft dough.
- Attach the dough hook to the stand mixer. Turn the machine to a low or medium speed and knead the dough for about 8 – 9 minutes or, until the dough is smooth and elastic and leaves the sides of the bowl clean.Note: this dough is very soft and will be slightly sticky to the touch.
- Divide the dough into two pieces and place int lightly oiled bowls. Roll the dough around in the oils so that they are lightly covered.
- Tightly cover the bowls with plastic and place in a warm area for about 1 – 2 hours or until they have doubled in size.Note: If you like to make the dough the night before you want to use it, the sealed bowls can be put in the fridge at this stage. Remove from the fridge about 1-2 hour before use and make sure it is room temperature before making the pizza. If the dough is cold, it doesn’t stretch as well and springs back and will take a little longer to bake.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
- Lightly dust each ball in flour. Use your fingertips to stretch each ball into a large 30 cm circle. Place onto baking trays or round pizza trays and top with your desired toppings and bake.Tip: The dough can be stretched on a piece of baking paper, which makes handling easier. The dough can be left on the paper and baked.Transfer the dough (with baking paper if you have used it) on to baking trays or round pizza pan trays and top with your desired topping and bake. (See notes below Tips for Topping A Pizza)Note: This pizza dough is very soft so avoid using a pizza tray with holes, the dough with fall through the holes making it stick to the tray when baked. If you want to use a tray with holes line the base with baking paper before placing this dough on it.
Notes
- Spread on a thin layer of pizza sauce (or bottled pasta sauce), don’t make it too thick, because you could end up with a soggy pizza.
- Use a cheese that melts well. Some will add a thin cheese layer on top of the tomato sauce followed by the other toppings. Others will say to add the cheese last. There is not right or wrong way.
- Precook raw ingredients like meats, seafood and hard vegetables like broccoli before using as a topping. If put on raw these foods may not be completely cooked when the rest of the pizza is done.
- Avoid topping with too many watery ingredients like tomatoes, artichokes and zucchini these can make the pizza go soggy.
- Give the pizza a thin layer of toppings, less is best. Because a pizza with too many toppings doesn’t not cook well.
- If using fresh herbs, cover these with other toppings. Doing this will stop them from burning during cooking.
- Cook the pizza soon after adding the toppings, don’t leave it sit for too long because, you could end up with a soggy pizza.
My family love making pizza on a Friday, and this base looks the perfect homemade base!
So easy and simple to make this. Love it
Epic recipe – and thanks for the tips. I am forever adding too many toppings and having a somewhat soggy base. Everything worked out perfectly after trying this
I’m glad it worked out for you.
I’ve never made pizza dough with yeast before but you make it look so easy with all the tips and tricks. Will have to give this a go next family pizza night 🙂
Pizza dough is always so fun to make at home to have a pizza party! I haven’t made pizza in so long but I’m dying to try this recipe now 🙂