Pizza Dough is easy to make with only 6 basic ingredients. This Italian-style pizza dough recipe has a soft homemade pizza crust.
One of my fondest memories of growing up was my mom making homemade pizza. My mom made everything from scratch. Including her own homemade marinara sauce and Meat Lasagna.
Homemade Pizza has never been easier or tasted more delicious with this homemade pizza dough recipe.
This is my mom’s Italian-style pizza dough recipe. I hope you love it as much as we do!
We grew about 100 tomato plants each year, various varieties and would harvest them in 5-gallon buckets. We used a Sqeezo to process all of the tomatoes, then would make marinara sauce in a big pot on the stove and can it in Mason jars so it was shelf stable.
How to make Homemade Pizza Dough
Step 1: Dissolve the yeast in the water. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl, mix the dissolved yeast, sugar, and olive oil with a wire whisk.
Step 2: Attach the dough hook to the mixer and incorporate the flour and salt until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Step 3: Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, about 5-6 minutes. Grease the mixing bowl with either cooking spray or lightly coated with olive oil using a clean paper towel and place the dough back in the bowl.
Step 4: Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm area until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down. Let rise again, until doubled, about 1 hour.
Step 5: Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into 4 rounds. Cover the rounds loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm area until doubled, about 30 minutes.
Tools you’ll need for pizza dough
You’ll need a pizza stone to place in your oven and a wooden pizza paddle.
And the same pizza stone is perfect for making Sourdough bread if you want a more artisan bread look and not in a bread pan. Proof your sourdough bread in proofing baskets and then carefully put on the hot pizza stone. This same pizza stone can be used in either your oven or on the grill.
This is an Italian-style pizza dough. PREP AHEAD by making the dough a day before and plop in zip-style bags then refrigerate. (Spray the inside of your bags with cooking spray, so you can get the dough out!)
You’ll need to bring the dough to room temperature before rolling it out. My Cast Iron Pizza is more of a Greek-style pizza dough.
More Pizza Recipes
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Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 1 (.25-ounce) 1 packet active dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
- 1 ½ cups lukewarm water
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 to 3 ½ cups all-purpose or bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- yellow cornmeal (for dusting)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil for topping pizza
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- various toppings for pizza
- 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella or pizza blend cheese
Instructions
Pizza Dough
- Dissolve the yeast in the water. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl, mix the dissolved yeast, sugar, and olive oil with a wire whisk.
- Attach the dough hook to the mixer and incorporate the flour and salt until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. (Add 3 cups of flour to start with and incorporate the rest as needed)
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, about 5-6 minutes. (Use the curved side of a plastic bench scraper to help remove the dough from the bowl)
- Grease the mixing bowl with either cooking spray or lightly coated with olive oil using a clean paper towel and place the dough back in the bowl.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm area until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down. Let rise again, until doubled, about 1 hour.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into 4 rounds. Place any unused pizza dough into a plastic bag that has been sprayed with cooking spray, and then refrigerate or freeze. Dough will last up to 2 days in the fridge and about 1 month in the freezer.
- For the dough you'll use right away: Cover the rounds loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm area until doubled, about 30 minutes.
- Place a pizza stone into the oven and preheat to 550 degrees F.
- Roll the pizza dough into a 12-14-inch circle. Sprinkle a wooden pizza paddle with a few tablespoons of yellow cornmeal. Place the rolled out dough on top. Quickly pull back and forth to ensure the pizza dough doesn't stick to the wooden paddle.
- Use the back of a tablespoon to spread the olive oil on the dough, leaving1 to 1 ½-inches of crust without oil. Repeat with the marinara sauce. Pull the paddle back and forth after placing each topping, ensuring your dough does not stick.
- Add your choice of toppings and cheese. Quickly slide the uncooked pizza onto the hot pizza stone. Cook for 12-15 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden brown.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
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Debby says
Why do you have to have a paddle and pizza stone ?
Jessica Robinson says
It makes it super easy to prep the pizza and slide it onto the pizza stone. Plus, the pizza stone makes the bottom of your pizza crust cook perfectly! And my mom ALWAYS did it this way. So that’s the way we do it. If you ever watch them cooking your pizza at a restaurant, their ovens HAVE pizza stones built right in- they cook your pizza in the oven on a pizza stone.
Lisa Hatfield says
Thanks so much for sharing your Mom’s pizza recipe, this looks amazing!