Homemade pizza dough is the best thing to make on a Friday night!  This pizza dough recipe only has a few ingredients and is easy enough for your kids to make! 

How to Make Homemade Pizza Dough

1. First get your yeast going- it should look nice and bubbly after about 5-10 minutes.
2. Mix your oil, salt, and flour in with the yeast mixture.  I let mine knead with a dough hook in my KitchenAid for about 5 minutes.  If you don’t have a mixer, knead your dough on your counter with a little flour until the dough isn’t sticky.
3. Place it in an oiled bowl and cover.  Put it in a warm place to let it rise.
4. Let it rise for about an hour or until double in size.
5. Punch it down and set it on your pizza stone or pizza pan.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes.
6. If you are just making one pizza, you can roll your dough out right on your pan.  Roll your dough very thin.  It will puff up a lot during baking, so if you don’t want a 4-inch thick crust, then roll it thin!
7. Place on a stone or pan and bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes (just the dough).  Then add your toppings and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the crust has started to brown.

What are the Ingredients in Homemade Pizza Dough

Yeast.  This is the ingredient that a delicious dough needs the most.  Yeast is what causes the dough to rise giving you a delicious light and airy crust. Active dry yeast is one of the most common types of yeast to use in homemade pizza dough recipes because it is easy to use, and easy to find in most stores.

Sugar.  A lot of people believe that sugar is necessary to ‘feed’ the yeast, but yeast will grow and bubble just fine on its own.  Sugar plays a couple of different roles in pizza dough.  The first is that it enhances the flavor of your dough just like salt.  All of the different types of sugar add a subtle flavor to your dough.  The second thing it does is to tenderize your dough and help it retain moisture.  You don’t need to add very much to get the benefits of sugar in your dough.

Water.  Water helps the protein in the flour bond together more tightly which forms a stronger gluten structure and gives your dough more elasticity.

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Salt.  Salt is one of those ingredients, like sugar, that isn’t absolutely necessary in pizza dough, but without it the flavor of your dough will be a lot more bland.  It also regulates the activity of the yeast and helps your dough to rise more predictably.

Oil. Oil acts as a lubricant in dough making it easier to stretch and roll out.  Oil can also affect the crispiness of the finished product and the flavor of the pizza dough.

Flour.  The type of flour you use will significantly effect the texture of your pizza dough.  Bread flour, cake flour, all-purpose flour, and whole wheat flour.  The type of flour you use is as personal of a preference as the toppings you put on your pizza.  Bread flour will produce an airy and chewy crust.  Cake flour produces a very tender crust.  All-purpose flour is a great all around flour for dough.  Whole wheat flour produces a dense, more bread-like dough.

5 Tips for Making the Best Pizza Dough at Home

1. Heat a pizza stone in the oven before you put your dough on it.
2. Roll your dough as thin as you can possibly get it.  It will rise a lot and become too thick and bread-like if you don’t roll it thin (especially when using whole wheat flour).
3. Use a dough docker (or a fork) to prevent your dough from bubbling.  This also helps your dough to rise evenly.
4.  Make sure your don’t skip pre-baking your dough before you put the toppings on.
5. Brush the edges of the crust with a little olive oil before baking with the toppings.

Our Favorite Homemade Pizza Toppings

There is something about a classic pepperoni pizza, but if you make pizza every Friday night then it is fun to switch it up!  These are some of our favorite pizza topping combos:

• Chicken Pesto: Grilled chicken + Pesto Sauce + Mozzarella
• Margherita: Plum Tomatoes + Fresh Mozzarella + Basil Leaves
• Fall Veggie Pizza: Sweet Peppers + Carmelized Onions + Oven Dried Tomatoes + Pesto + Mozzarella
• Hawaiian Pizza: Natural Ham + Pineapple Chunks + Mozzarella
• BBQ Chicken Pizza: Shredded BBQ Chicken + Sautéed Red Onion + Mozzarella Cheese + Cheddar Cheese + BBQ Sauce/Ranch Sauce
• Classic Veggie: Tomatoes + Sweet Peppers + Mushrooms + Pineapple + Onions + Olives

Favorite Homemade Pizza Recipes

• Kale and Chicken Sausage Pizza
• Buffalo Chicken Pizza
• Greek Pizza
• Tex Mex Pizza
• Pump It Up Pizza
• Thai Pizza