You’re hungry. It’s pizza night. But you don’t really want to go out. There aren’t any frozen pizzas in the freezer. What do you do? Do you pull out your favorite delivery app? You could try making your own pizza crust instead.
Making homemade pizza dough is not difficult, and if you bake, you likely already have the ingredients you need.
Jump to RecipeGather Your Tools
You will need a few gadgets to make and bake your homemade pizza crust. There are also a few swaps you can make if you don’t have exactly what you need.
- A large mixing bowl
- A surface to knead the dough. I use a large cutting board. You can also clean off a countertop.
- A rolling pin. If you don’t have one, try using a sturdy drinking glass.
- A pizza pan. I have three large, round metal pizza pans in rotation. I also like using pizza stones and cast iron skillets, although these result in smaller pizzas. If you don’t own any of the above, you can divide the dough in half and place two smaller pizzas on a cookie sheet or any oven-safe baking dish.
- A pizza cutter. If all else fails, use a knife.
Choose Your Style
You can use this crust recipe to make different pizza styles, from deep dish pizzas to thin-crust pizzas.
As you might guess, to make a thin crust pizza, roll your dough out as much as you can, until it is less than 1/4 inch thick. Place it flat to bake.
For a deep-dish pizza, I like to use a cast-iron skillet. Roll the dough so that the diameter is more than that of the skillet. The dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Place the dough over the skillet and gently press it down to conform to the skillet’s shape. Then, fold the excess dough over on itself.
For a standard pizza crust, roll the dough until it is no more than 1/4 of an inch thick and place it on a flat baking sheet. Turn the edges of the dough over on themselves. Optionally, you fold cheese (or plant-based cheese) into the crust to make a stuffed-crust pizza.
This recipe produces enough dough for one 12-inch deep-dish pizza, a 12-inch stuffed crust pizza, a 14-inch standard pizza, or a 16-inch thin-crust pizza.
Homemade Pizza Dough – Better than Storebought AND Most Restaurants
I love pizza. For years, I searched for a crust recipe that had the flavor and texture I loved. Store-bought crusts didn’t cut it – many seemed stale, flavorless, or like cardboard. I tried cauliflower crusts and almond flour crusts. FINALLY, I stumbled across this recipe from Sugar Spun Run. They call it the best pizza dough recipe, and it is. It’s my own variation of this recipe that you’ll find here.
Now, we have homemade pizza every Wednesday (and sometimes other days, too). Sure, we order out sometimes. But few recipes can top the crispy bite and rich flavor of this homemade pizza crust.
A Note About Flour
You can use virtually any flour in this recipe – unbleached, whole wheat, even gluten-free alternatives. I’ve used them all, but the best texture and taste, my opinion, comes from all-purpose flour marked “bread and pizza flour.” It’s more finely ground. My favorite is the BIG bag from Sam’s Club!
Easy Homemade Pizza Crust Recipe
This pizza crust recipe is easy to make – no dough throwing required!
Homemade Pizza Crust
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Rolling Pin
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra)
- 2.25 tsp instant yeast (1 packet)
- 1.5 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra
- .75 cup warm water
Instructions
- Combine 1 cup flour and the rest of the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.
- Add the oil and water, stirring to form a soft dough.
- Add the remaining flour. Stir or knead until the dough to form a ball.
- Drizzle a small amount of oil in the bowl, and rub the dough ball in the oil to coat all sides. This will prevent the dough from drying out as it rises. Place the bowl in a warm location – near the preheating oven works well. Dampen a cloth with water and place it over the top of the bowl.
- Allow the dough to rise undisturbed for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 425 F.
- Lightly flour a cutting board or similar surface. Turn the dough out onto the surface and gently knead, sprinkling with flour as needed to prevent sticking. Form the dough into a sphere, then pat it flat.
- Flour the rolling pin. Roll from the middle of the dough toward the edges. Roll from different directions to maintain a circular shape.
- Lightly oil the baking dish. Lift the dough gently and place it on it.
- Add your favorite toppings. Optionally, you can drizzle the edge of the crust with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Bake for 15 minutes.
Finally, if you love pizza as much as we do, check out our Pizza My Heart t-shirt, available on Etsy.
One part Lois Lane, one part Jimmy Olsen, one part Johnboy Walton, and a bit of that Clark Kent secret identity thing thrown in for good measure.
Cara Siera is a freelance writer and photographer with a passion for travel and exotic cuisine. Join Cara, her husband Marc, and one very spoiled German Shepherd on their next great adventure.