Aside from scrambled eggs, grilled cheese and quesadillas, homemade pizza (complete with homemade dough) was the first thing I ever really learned how to cook. After a long day at school, coming home and having my own personal pizza party was my favorite thing to do while growing up. I still have those pizza pity parties sometimes, but they usually involve delivery pizza, which never lives up to its hype. This pizza dough, however, cures all of my gourmet pizza cravings and saves me the trek to Antico Pizza when I’m craving really solid pizza.
It might not seem as easy as dialing a phone number, but I promise that the upgrade is well worth the effort. Yeast doughs intimidate a lot of people who are hesitant to have a major kitchen flop on their hands, but this recipe is pretty much fail proof. The dough only has six ingredients, one of which is water, so it’s really as basic as it gets. Don’t be scared off by the prep time or the seemingly gourmet gadgets that are used to make this pizza, it really is one of the easiest things I’ve ever made.
Prep Time: 70 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour and 25 minutes
Servings: 2 medium pizzas
Photo by Jasmine Tang
Ingredients:
Homemade Pizza Dough:
1 ½ cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pizza:
1 homemade pizza dough
1 jar pizza sauce
1 package shredded mozzarella cheese
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
Desired toppings*
Steps:
Photo by Jasmine Tang
1. Place all dough ingredients in a metal mixing bowl. Using the dough hook on an electric stand mixer, mix and knead all ingredients until they are smooth and pliable. Work the dough until it forms into a ball on its own and the mixture peels away cleanly from the bowl. If you do not have a stand mixer, you can knead the ingredients by hand in a bowl, but it will take longer.
Photo by Jasmine Tang
2. Let the dough rise at room temperature for approximately 30 minutes. If you have a warming drawer, proofer or proof setting on your oven, they will help it rise. Rise until the dough has doubled in size. This will take approximately 30 minutes, give or take a bit, depending on climate and other factors.
3. Preheat the oven to 450°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Photo by Jasmine Tang
4. Remove the dough from the bowl and place onto a floured work surface. I prefer to use a silicone sheet because the dough will never stick. Cut the dough into two halves and work with them separately.
Photo by Jasmine Tang
5. Roll the dough out until it is ½ inch. Do not roll it to be more than ½ inch thick or the pizza will be yucky and you will be sad. The pizza will rise quite a bit as it bakes so a ½ crust pre-bake will yield a 1 inch crust post bake.
6. Transfer the pizza crusts to the prepared baking sheet and let the crusts rest for 20 minutes at room temperature.
Photo by Jasmine Tang
7. Top the pizzas with sauce, cheese and desired toppings.
Photo by Jasmine Tang
8. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and the edges of the pizza are crisp.
*Here are my favorite topping combinations to try:
Margherita: fresh mozzarella rounds + tomato slices + basil
Veggie: mushrooms + red onion + red peppers + cheese
Hawaiian: Canadian bacon + crushed pineapple + cheese
Prosciutto: mozzarella + thinly sliced prosciutto + red onion + chopped figs + fresh arugula + freshly grated parmesan cheese (sprinkled on after cooking)
Check out these other inventive pizza recipes: