Easy Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe

This homemade pizza dough recipe is easy to make and the results are a chewy pizza crust that you can customize with your favorite toppings. It has become my family’s favorite homemade pizza.

If you are like me, pizza is a food group all by itself. I am pretty sure I could eat it every day. Being that you can change the toppings, there are endless varieties of pizza that can be made.

I am putting this recipe out there because it is so good and easy to make and I want to make sure that my friends and family can make it, too.

homemade pizza on a baking stone
The ingredients that you need to make this pizza dough are water (preferably filtered), honey, yeast, flour, and salt. That’s it.

I recommend using a stand mixer unless you prefer to get in a workout for your arms and hands.

fresh pizza dough in a bowl
How I Make Pizza Dough
If I am planning on using the pizza dough quickly – say in an hour and half or two, I turn on my oven and let it heat to around 140 – 150 degrees Fahrenheit. I then turn off my oven. This creates a nice, warm environment conducive for the dough to rise.

I start making the pizza dough by warming room temperature water in my microwave for 3-40 seconds on HIGH. I have a Berkey Water Filter that removes fluoride and other contaminants and I use filtered water from it.

Once the water is warm, I add honey and yeast and let it sit for a few minutes until it becomes foamy.

Next, I place flour and salt in my mixer bowl and then add the yeast mixture to the bowl. I turn on my mixer and let it run on medium speed until it all comes together. I stop occasionally to scrape the sides.

If I find that the dough looks too wet, I add a small amount of additional flour. Too dry? I add a tad bit more of filtered water.

Once the dough comes together and forms a nice, cohesive ball, I turn off my mixer and remove the bowl from the stand. I then spray the mixer bowl and dough ball with nonstick spray.

[If I plan ahead of time (like at noon or 1:00 pm), I will make the dough and place it in my oven that has not been pre-heated and let it sit until I am ready to make pizza.]

When it is time to make pizza, I remove the dough from the oven and preheat my oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. I typically divide my dough in half, though you could easily make 3 pizzas with one batch of dough.

If you don’t plan on making that many pizzas, you can freeze individual dough balls in plastic wrap. Just be sure to spray them with nonstick spray and wrap tightly. Note that the dough will expand before it has frozen solid.

To use, thaw the dough overnight in the refrigerator. Take it out about 30 minutes before you want to start cooking it and allow it to come to room temperature.

Roll out your dough and place on a baking sheet or pizza pan. Tip: lightly flour your pan/stone so that the bottom of the pizza does not stick to it when it bakes. Also, use a little bit of flour on top to make rolling it easier.

rolled out pizza dough

Take a fork and prick the dough – this well help keep it from rising too much. Bake the untopped pizza for 8 minutes in the preheated oven. This is called blind baking. It will help keep your crust from becoming soggy.

blind baked pizza

Remove the crust from the oven and top it with your favorite toppings. One of my favorite pizza sauces is Classico Organic Pizza Sauce.

prebaked pizza

Using potholders, carefully place the pizza back in the oven and bake for an additional 8 – 10 minutes until the toppings are cooked and the crust has a nice, golden color.

homemade pizza

Easy Homemade Pizza Crust
This homemade pizza crust recipe is easy to make and the results are a chewy pizza crust that you can customize with your favorite toppings.

Ingredients
1 ½ cups water
3 Tablespoon honey
1 ½ teaspoons yeast or one packet
3 ½ – 4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Turn off the oven.
Warm water in microwave on HIGH setting for 35 seconds.
Add honey and yeast and let sit for 5 minutes.
Place flour and salt in bowl of stand mixer. Add water/yeast mixture and mix until combined.
Using dough hook, knead dough for 3-5 minutes.
Spray pizza dough with cooking spray or use a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to light coat dough.
Keep dough in mixing bowl and place in the (turned off) oven for 1 hour. You can leave the dough in the (turned off) oven for a few hours before using.
When ready to use, remove the dough from the oven and preheat oven to 450 °F.
Divide the dough in half and roll out each half on a lightly floured surface into desired shape and size. Use a fork and poke small holes around the surface to allow air to escape.
Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and top with your favorite toppings.
Bake for an additional 8-10 minutes with toppings.
Remove from oven and enjoy.
Notes
Alternatively, you can wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze to use later. If you choose this option, allow the dough to come to room temperature before using it. You can thaw frozen dough overnight in the refrigerator. Allow at least 30 minutes for the refrigerated dough to come to room temp.
One batch of dough could make up to 3 large pizzas. The nutrition information is calculated based on 3 pizzas and each pizza having 3 servings.