The Essential Pizza Dough
Sometimes you want to skip the delivery pizza and opt for a nice homemade pizza. Pizza night is always a hit in my home; my family loves it. This tried-and-true pizza dough recipe is definitely one to keep in your recipe book.
This recipe is simple and straight forward. With just a few ingredients from your pantry, and a little time you can have delicious homemade pizza dough ready for your choice of toppings. Try one or both of these pizza sauce recipes for your pizza.
You will find that this pizza dough comes together pretty quickly. I have been using this recipe for several years now, and it is always a huge hit. You can bake your pizza immediately after you add your sauce and toppings for a thinner crust.
Or if you have time, you can allow your pizza to proof for about 30 minutes for a puffy crust.
As with most yeast dough recipes, the amount of flour is a guideline. The absorbency of the flour will play a huge roll in the amount of flour needed. When adding the flour to the dough you should always add a little, then check to see if the dough is sticky or tacky.
If the dough is sticky, add more of the flour, if it is tacky, let it knead for a minute then add more if needed. You can tell if the dough needs more flour if it becomes sticky again after kneading for a minute or two.
Once the dough is no longer sticky it should be ready to begin the full kneading process. Don't worry, this becomes easier to eyeball after you have worked with doughs several times.
When rolling out the pizza dough you can either roll it out thin and bake it immediately for a thin crust pizza. Or roll it out thicker and let it rise for 10-30 minutes after adding the toppings for a thicker crust. Either way works great with this recipe.
This pizza dough recipe that comes together quickly and tastes great. Makes 2 or 3 pizzas. Roll it out thin and bake it immediately for a thin crust pizza. Or roll it out thicker and let it rise for 10-30 minutes after adding the toppings for a thicker crust.
- 1 Cup warm water
- 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1/2 Cup warm milk
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 2 tsp salt
- 4 cup bread flour (approximately)
In your mixer, mix together the warm water, yeast and warm milk and allow to sit for a few minutes so that the yeast has time to bloom.
Mix in the honey, salt, olive oil and half of the flour. Using the dough hook on its lowest speed, start to knead the dough. Continue kneading the dough and start adding 1 cup of flour at a time, only using enough flour for the dough to come together. You may or may not need all of the flour.
Once you have added as much flour as it needs, turn the speed up to the next setting and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. The dough should be soft and tacky, not sticky. Remove the dough hook, cover the bowl with a towel and set aside to proof until it doubles in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Now for the fun part! Gently deflate your dough, separate into 2 or 3 portions. Using a little olive oil, to prevent sticking, roll each dough out. You can roll them thin or leave them a little thick. Transfer them to a lightly oiled pan and gently stretch back out if it shrinks a little.
Next sauce them up and add the toppings. From here you can bake them immediately in a 425° F oven or you can choose to cover them and let them rise for about 10-30 minutes then bake them. Bake each pizza for approximately 15 minutes.
This recipe yields 2-3 pizzas.
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