This is the easiest, best pizza dough recipe. With just 6 ingredients and no fancy flours required (I’ve included instructions for using all-purpose or bread flour), this pizza crust requires just one bowl (no stand mixer, though you can use one if you’d like), about 3 seconds of kneading, and just 30 minutes to rise.
If you’re uncomfortable working with yeast or making your own pizza dough at home, I’ll walk you through every step of the process in my video just below the recipe. You’ve got this!
It’s a little silly how excited I am to share this recipe with you today. It’s pizza dough, not exactly glamorous or sexy and it was honestly pretty boring to photograph (how do you make a ball of dough look fun and appealing in pictures, please tell me!).
But as someone who has struggled with baking even the most simple recipes with yeast, perfecting this pizza dough was definitely a triumph for me and I’m really happy to announce that there’s nothing to be afraid of! Yeast baking isn’t all that scary or hard, and you too can make your own super simple pizza crust at home in a matter of minutes, no fancy ingredients required.
I kept this pizza dough recipe as simple and approachable as possible. It’s made with all-purpose flour (and notes on how to substitute that flour, in case you want to get fancy 😉), no stand mixer needed, and only the most minimal amount of kneading required.
Below I’ve tried to ask some of the most frequently asked questions about making your own pizza dough. Let’s get to it.
What is the best flour for making homemade pizza dough?
Many pizza-making-pros will likely argue that bread flour is best for making homemade pizza. However, I rarely keep any flours in my pantry that are more exotic than all-purpose flour, so when I was working on this recipe I first and foremost made sure that it worked perfectly with regular old all-purpose flour.
I did make a point to test this recipe (repeatedly, we ate a lot of pizza last week) with bread flour and it works very well when made that way, too. I find that the biggest difference is that using bread flour gives my pizza dough a crispier crust, while the all purpose flour yields a softer one.
Can I flavor my Pizza Dough?
Pizza dough on its own is obviously important as a base for your favorite pizza, but it’s also kind of… bland. Shockingly, something made primarily of flour and water isn’t super exciting to the taste buds, and most of the flavor will come from whatever toppings you add.
I do usually try to spice up my crust just a bit, though, by adding a dash of garlic powder (usually around a ¼ teaspoon) and sometimes dried basil leaves (dried oregano could also work for you but I absolutely loathe oregano) into the dough before you add your oil and water.
How do you stretch out pizza dough?
You can use a rolling pin or you can use your hands. If you’re especially skilled, you can toss it up in the air and spin your dough like an Italian pizza artist, but I definitely lack the ability to tell you how to do that one.
I prefer to use a rolling pin and roll the dough out into a circle (or more like an amoeba-shape, since I can’t roll a perfect circle to save my life). Alternatively you can use your hands to flatten and stretch the dough until it reaches the desired width.
Then use your hands to pinch the edges to make a crust or fold over the edges (I always fold mine over because it gives me a thicker crust, which I love), brush the entire surface of the pizza generously with olive oil, and then use a fork to poke holes over the center of the dough to prevent any bubbles from forming while it bakes.
How do you make Homemade Pizza?
You can use this pizza dough recipe to make your own homemade pizza using any toppings you’d like (I love making Margherita pizza and have even made a BBQ chicken version using my BBQ pulled chicken).
I included instructions in the recipe, but once you’ve prepared your pizza dough, just add your favorite toppings and bake in a 425F oven for about 15 minutes (you may need longer if you add a lot of toppings). Do make sure you let your oven preheat properly and use an oven thermometer as possible, my oven takes a while to reach that temperature and usually “tells” me it’s ready when it’s not even close.
OK, are you guys sick of hearing about my beloved pizza dough recipe yet? In case you just can’t get enough, I also made a video just below that you can watch so you can see exactly how your dough should look in every step.
How to Make Homemade Pizza Dough
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The Best Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients
- 2-2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour OR bread flour¹ divided (250-295g)
- 1 packet instant yeast² (2 ¼ teaspoon)
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ⅛-¼ teaspoon garlic powder and/or dried basil leaves optional
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil + additional
- ¾ cup warm water³ (175ml)
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Combine 1 cup (125g) of flour, instant yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. If desired, add garlic powder and dried basil at this point as well.
- Add olive oil and warm water and use a wooden spoon to stir well very well.
- Gradually add another 1 cup (125g) of flour. Add any additional flour as needed (I've found that sometimes I need as much as an additional ⅓ cup), stirring until the dough is forming into a cohesive, elastic ball and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the bowl (see video above recipe for visual cue). The dough will still be slightly sticky but still should be manageable with your hands.
- Drizzle a separate, large, clean bowl generously with olive oil and use a pastry brush to brush up the sides of the bowl.
- Lightly dust your hands with flour and form your pizza dough into a round ball and transfer to your olive oil-brushed bowl. Use your hands to roll the pizza dough along the inside of the bowl until it is coated in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place.
- Allow dough to rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. If you intend to bake this dough into a pizza, I also recommend preheating your oven to 425F (215C) at this point so that it will have reached temperature once your pizza is ready to bake.
- Once the dough has risen, use your hands to gently deflate it and transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead briefly until smooth (about 3-5 times).
- Use either your hands or a rolling pin to work the dough into 12" circle.
- Transfer dough to a parchment paper lined pizza pan and either pinch the edges or fold them over to form a crust.
- Drizzle additional olive oil (about a Tablespoon) over the top of the pizza and use your pastry brush to brush the entire surface of the pizza (including the crust) with olive oil.
- Use a fork to poke holes all over the center of the pizza to keep the dough from bubbling up in the oven.
- Add desired toppings (see the notes for a link to my favorite, 5-minute pizza sauce recipe!) and bake in a 425F (215C) preheated oven for 13-15 minutes or until toppings are golden brown. Slice and serve.
Notes
Making in Advance:
To make in advance, let the dough rise covered at room temperature as indicated in the recipe, then deflate it, wrap it tightly so it doesn't dry out, and store in the refrigerator for up to several days or it will freeze for up to a month. Top your pizza off with my favorite, easy, homemade pizza sauce!Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Chrissy
I absolutely love this pizza dough recipe! I’ve made it several times and it’s the favorite one my husband likes as well. He’s one of those “I’ll eat everything” kind of people so when he has a favorite I make it a lot. He even requested that I make it for his birthday ! Major kudos LOL
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Chrissy! 🙂
Jessica Venezia
I’m a chef but not a baker. This was the first time in my life I have used yeast and made pizza dough from scratch. Strange but true!
This recipe worked out great. Better than my inept hands would have expected. I kept it unflavored and was planning to grill the pizzas on my Weber. Apparently I gave away my pizza stone 😒 And I used charcoal…. but it worked out better than I could have ever imagined with two cast iron pan bottoms and a little cornmeal. My boyfriend was skeptical but even he got into rolling out crust and playing with the dough! (x2 batches, 1 with proofed active dry yeast, the other dry into dough. Once risen and kneaded, I cut each round into 4). The dough was very forgiving and worked regardless of how many times he rerolled and played. The grilling of the dough worked well and was thin and crispy. I plan to make a Chicago style in a cast iron pan with this recipe and next time I will use your flavor additives and use bread flour. Thank you for giving me the confidence to start playing with pizza dough.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Jessica! I haven’t tried making it on a charcoal grill. I bet that adds some excellent flavor. 🙂
Wendy
My first attempt at pizza dough (and using yeast!). Your instructions were very helpful. I had bread flour so used that and added the garlic powder and dried basil. It was so easy and so good. Crust browned nicely. I don’t think I poked enough holes in as it did come out thicker than expected, but no one cared, it was gobbled up. I will this recipe again. Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Wendy! 🙂
Irene
Thanks Sam for your pizza crust recipe. Fantastically good. I used less than 2 cups of bread flour. My family loves this thin crust.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Irene! 🙂
Kami Gallaher
Can I use this recipe in a bread maker?
Sam
Hi Kami! I’m not sure how that would work. I don’t have much experience with a bread maker so I’m not quite sure how that would work.
Damla
Thursday is officially pizza day thanks to your super simple recipe! Always a happy crowd raving about my pizza. I use my Kitchen Aid and pizza stone and it never fails to come out every time. I am using all purpose flour and it’s fine, but have yet to try bread flour, just to see the difference. It seems hard to find where I am (Dubai). Is there another name which it goes by?
Sam
Hi Damla! I am so glad you are enjoying it so much! I have not heard of bread flour being called by any other names. 🙁
Shehwar
I love this recipe..never did the base at home as I was always fearful of messing it up. But your recipe is absolutely fool proof , quick and brings out the best flavor in the dough!
Have made it multiple times already.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy it so much, Shehwar! 🙂
Joan M Angelopoulos
Dear Master Chef Sam!
I definitely have a selective palate along with my family. I was looking for something that wasn’t too difficult to make, yet tasty too! Thank you Sam! My entire family loves this recipe and every time it comes out better than the time before. I’ve been sharing your recipe with extended family and friends. One thing I did , by accident , as I didn’t have a pizza pan, was I used an old ROUND 16″ metal cookie decorative pan that I got years ago and I placed parchment on the top. Once I put the dough in the middle, it was so easy to roll out in this round 16″ inexpensive metal round pan I got at a Christmas Tree Shop or Home Goods. I’ll try to send a pic next time! But love this and thank you so much. Also made your pizza sauce and this was fantastic too !
Thank you for all your hard work and expertise!
Jo
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Joan! 🙂
MJ
I typically “taste” a piece of dough to make sure I can taste the salt too. Often I have added just a pinch of salt to bread , pizza and pie crust recipes.
Brittney
Can you put warm milk instead of water?
Sam
Hi Brittney! I will typically use warm milk in breads to make the bread more tender and when most people think of pizza crust they aren’t aiming for tender, but I suppose it could work here. 🙂
April
This is the third time I’ve used this recipe to make pizza dough and another perfect crust! Love the flavours added with the garlic and basil. I find I usually only have to use 1.5 cups of flour in total but it still turns out amazing. Thanks for the recipe!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy it so much, April! 🙂
Anna
Wow! This was the best homemade pizza crust I have ever made. I made it for a backyard party with 3 friends and they could not stop talking about how good it was. Two of them eat like birds and said they usually only have one slice of pizza (crazy, right?!) and they each had 3 and asked to take some leftovers home with them. One of my friends even said I should open my own pizza shop! I told them I’d send them the recipe, lol. I doubled the recipe but basically made it as is, with only a few tiny changes that she suggested were optional. I mixed the yeast, sugar and water separately to let it foam according to the Fleishmann’s package directions before adding it to the flour, and made my own bread flour since I had vital wheat gluten on hand from another recipe and she said it makes the crust crispier. She was right! The crust was so crisp on the bottom, pillowy and soft in the middle, and folding it over for a thicker part where you hold it was really chewy and satisfying. I added garlic powder as suggested but no oregano/basil, since I didn’t know how that would taste with Hawaiian toppings. So good! Saving this recipe forever!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Anna! 🙂
Phil the Pizza master
Couple tricks, take a desire amount of dough, use clean counter top, use your hand to cover the dough (small dough use one hand, large dough use both hand to cover, then move the dough in a circular motion that will make the pizza dough nice and round to set a side.
Once the dough has been proofed, cover with flour, use your hands to squeeze(finger to palm) the dough and move it in circle until it has been flatten a bit use your fingers (both hand) to press the dough on the counter, keep pressing in circle until they are large enough to be covered by your hand, use nice slow motion to stretch (let the motion and gravity do the work), you can also do slight spin and toss it in the air.
Sam
Thank you so much for the tips! I will have to try that next time! I can never get my pizza to come out round. 🤦♀️
Carol Brown
I made this crust twice today. It was really good. I watched your video and both my crust seemed to be dryer than yours with only 2 cups of flour. Very hard to stir in the second cup of flour. Maybe next time I will add a little more water. I used organic ingredients with organic bread flour, maybe that is why?? Anyway the second crust I divided into two and rolled very thin. So delicious! My new go to pizza crust.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Carol! I wouldn’t add more water here though, I would gradually add the flour until you reach the right consistency. I typically add maybe 1/4 cup at a time. 🙂
Carol Brown
Ok, I will try that next time. Thank you. Oh and another tip for a crunchier crust. I baked on a pizza pan with air holes for 10 minutes then I removed from pan and placed directly on the middle oven rack and cooked for an additional 5-6 minutes.
Sam
I will definitely have to try crisping the crust some time. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Christine
Was not the authentic pizza dough I was looking for. Did not cook well on the bottom and too thick for my taste even through it was rolled out to the full size of a pizza pan. I did like adding the garlic and basil but it was just bland in texture.
Sam
I think this might be this recipe’s harshest critique yet! Sorry it wasn’t a hit for you, Christine! As I mention in the post, pizza dough itself is by nature fairly bland. If you like a thin crust you can try dividing the dough in half and making two crusts instead, I’m not sure why it wouldn’t have cooked well on the bottom but it may have just needed a bit more time in the oven?