Homemade Pizza Crust

Create delicious, made from scratch pizza with this easy Homemade Pizza Crust recipe. This step by step tutorial will help you make perfect pizza dough at home.

Those bags of pre-made pizza dough at the store can be tempting and honestly, they are a big timesaver. But, this easy pizza crust recipe yields a crust with better flavor and a fabulous soft and chewy texture. If you’ve never made pizza crust from scratch, I’m here to tell you that you can! It’s really quite easy.

We don’t always have time to whip up fresh pizza dough on an average day. Not a problem! I’ve included make-ahead and freezer directions so you can have fresh, homemade pizza dough on hand for a quick weeknight meal.

Ingredients for Homemade Pizza Crust

• Active dry yeast – You’ll need one packet of regular active dry yeast, not instant or rapid rise yeast.
• Granulated sugar – Just a touch of granulated sugar to help activate the yeast.
• Warm water – See my tips for proofing yeast below for more details on water temperature.
• Salt
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Flour – You can use either all-purpose or bread flour.

All-Purpose Flour or Bread Flour

Both all-purpose flour and bread flour will yield a wonderful pizza crust with this recipe. The main difference between the two is the protein content. Bread flour has more protein than all-purpose flour so a lot of bakers like to use it for things that need structure like breads and rolls. You can substitute bread flour for all-purpose flour but be sure not to overwork the dough or it could end up tough. I don’t usually have bread flour on hand so I almost always make my pizza dough with all-purpose flour.

Stand Mixer vs. Kneading by Hand

When I make homemade pizza crust or my Overnight Cinnamon Rolls, I always use my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. This fabulous kitchen tool was a gift from my mom ages ago. At the time, I was young and foolish and had no idea how much it could do. With the push of a lever, it mixes and kneads pizza dough while I attend to other tasks – such a luxury! Now, every time I reach for my KitchenAid, I feel like my mom is with me in the kitchen and this is a wonderful thing.

If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can knead the dough by hand. The recipe card at the bottom of this post includes instructions for how to make pizza crust without a mixer.

How to Make Pizza Crust

1. Pour the warm water into the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the sugar and yeast and give it a little stir. Let it sit for 10 minutes to proof the yeast.
2. Once the yeast activates, mix in the salt and oil on low to medium speed. You can use either the dough hook or paddle attachment up to this point (either works).

1. Add in 2 ½ cups of the flour. Allow to mix completely and then add more flour in ¼ cup increments.
2. Stop adding flour as soon as the dough is holding more to the hook than to the bowl. You may not need it all. It’s better to err on the side of the dough being too sticky because you can always add flour but you can’t take it out! Continue to mix the dough on speed 2 for another 2 or 3 minutes.

1. Coat your hands with flour and remove the sticky dough from the bowl of the mixer.
2. Shape it into a neat ball and place it in a well oiled mixing bowl. Flip the dough over to coat both sides with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and leave in a warm place. It should take about an hour for the dough to rise until it doubles in size.

How to Roll Out Pizza Dough

This recipe yields enough dough for two 10- to 12-inch round pizza crusts or one large pan style pizza.

1. Punch down the dough to deflate it and form it into a tight ball.
2. For two round pizzas, cut the dough in half with a knife or bench scraper. Allow the dough to relax for a minute.
3. Use a rolling pin to flatten one of the balls of dough on a lightly floured board.
4. Roll it out and finish shaping it with your hands, pressing it out from the inside working out. Stretch the sides until you reach the desired diameter, about 10-to 12-inches for a regular or thin crust pizza.

For Sheet Pan Pizza

Instead of baking two round pizzas, you can use this pizza crust recipe to bake one large thick-crust pizza in a sheet pan. A great choice when you’re feeding a group! You can see how this works with my Cheeseburger Pan Pizza. It’s a good idea to par-bake the crust to give it a head start before adding the sauce and toppings.

• Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. and coat a large rimmed baking sheet with olive oil or nonstick cooking spray. Roll out the pizza crust dough then pat it down into the pan, shaping it so that it fits right up to the edges. Lightly poke the top layer of the dough all over with a fork to help prevent air bubbles from forming.
• Par-bake the crust for 5 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the oven, top the crust with pizza sauce and your pizza toppings, and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the edges of the crust are browned. Remove the pizza from the oven and allow it to rest for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Make-Ahead Pizza Crust

Instead of allowing the dough to rise immediately, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator. You can do this one or two days ahead to save time on a busy day. Remove the bowl from fridge and let it rest while you are preparing the toppings. Then, proceed with shaping, topping, and baking the pizza as directed in the recipe.

Freezing Pizza Dough

Generously dust the ball of dough with flour and transfer it to a 1 gallon freezer-safe plastic storage bag. Pizza crust dough freezes well for up to one month. To use frozen dough, transfer the bag to the refrigerator the night before. Once fully thawed, let it rest on the counter for about an hour before assembling and baking the pizza.

This post was originally published August 20, 2011. It has been updated with new text and images.

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