How To Make Easy Pizza Dough

Easy pizza dough that anyone can master! This recipe takes 6 simple ingredients and transforms them into a beautifully squishy pizza dough base ready to be loaded up with all of your favourite toppings. It’s a great recipe to make with kids!

When I was growing up my parents ran a popular Italian restaurant that was famous for its freshly made pizzas.  Everyone raves about my Ma’s pizzas to this day and will do anything to get one!

Now with all that history of pizza-excellence in the family, you’d think I was a natural from the get-go but it’s not the case.  The pressure to make pizzas that are up to the same high standards as my Ma’s led to many years of being too scared to try haha!  Finally, I decided enough was enough and I have been making them on a weekly basis ever since (with some pretty epic toppings too I might add – check out my Sunday Slice series on Instagram Reels).

These easy pizza bases contain just 6 simple ingredients (flour, yeast, olive oil, salt, sugar and water) and after 7 minutes of kneading and a little patience to let the dough rise in a warm place, they transform into a beautifully squishy pizza crust that turns out perfectly every time.

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• Why you’ll love this recipe

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Why you’ll love this Easy Pizza Dough

Simple, minimal ingredients. This recipe uses just 6 ingredients – bread flour, instant yeast, olive oil, sugar, salt and water.

Fun to make. There is something therapeutic about kneading bread dough – pressing, stretching and rolling it for 7 minutes until it is a smooth ball. It’s a great easy pizza recipe to make with kids, they’ll have fun stretching the dough out and adding their favourite toppings.

Freezer friendly and ‘make in advance’. You can make this dough in advance and store it in the fridge for a few days or the freezer for up to 3 months – just defrost it in the fridge and bring it to room temperature before using.

Top tips

1. Always proof the yeast: Don’t skip step 1 of the recipe – always proof dried yeast to make sure that it’s alive and working. To proof yeast add it to a jug with a little warm water and sugar; after 10 minutes it should have started to go really frothy which means it’s working. If it doesn’t go frothy your yeast should not be used as it won’t rise the dough.

2. Rise until double in size: Once you’ve kneaded the dough into a ball, put it in a large bowl, cover it and set it aside in a warm (not hot) place to rise. Once it has doubled in size it is ready to use – this usually takes around 45 minutes but keep an eye because if your kitchen is particularly warm it could take less time and if it’s a cold day it could take 15-30 minutes longer.

3. Use a metal tray to bake: Don’t use a pizza stone for this recipe, a metal tray works best. It doesn’t have to be a round pizza tray, any metal tray will work.

4. Bake HOT until golden:

   1. Make sure your oven is fully pre-heated because pizzas need to be cooked at a hot temperature.

   2. After 15 minutes in the oven check the underneath of the pizza base to see if it is cooked – it’ll be ready when the underneath is starting to go a light golden colour.

   3. Don’t check your pizza too soon – you need to keep as much heat in the oven as possible!

   4. Cover the top of the pizza with tin foil if it’s cooked on top but the underneath still needs a few more minutes.

5. Storing: If you’re making the pizza dough to use later then pop it in a reusable bag and seal it up (but not too tightly as it will continue to grow in the fridge).

   1. Fridge – Place the bagged dough in the fridge and use within a couple of days. Bring the dough to room temperature before attempting to stretch it out.

   2. Freezer – Store the bagged dough in the freezer and use within 3 months. Take it out of the freezer 24 hours before use and put in the fridge to defrost. When you want to use the dough, take it out of the fridge an hour before use to bring it up to room temperature before attempting to stretch it out.

The Video Recipe:

The Easy Pizza Dough Recipe:

How To Make Easy Pizza Dough

Easy pizza dough that anyone can master! This recipe takes 6 simple ingredients and transforms them into a beautifully squishy pizza dough base ready to be loaded up with all of your favourite toppings. It’s a great recipe to make with kids!

5 from 3 votes

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Prep: 30 minutes mins

Cook: 18 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr 53 minutes mins

Serves: 4

Calories: 872kcal

Author: Tara

Ingredients

 

MetricUS

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 60 ml warm water (*see notes)
• ▢ 7 g yeast (dried)
• ▢ 2 tsp sugar
• ▢ 750 g strong white bread flour (**see notes)
• ▢ 2 tsp salt
• ▢ 90 ml olive oil
• ▢ 300-400 ml room temperature water
• ▢ pizza toppings of your choice

Instructions

 

Prep the dough:

• To a small jug or bowl, add 60ml warm water, yeast and sugar. Be careful not to get your sugar and salt mixed up here! Stir together and set aside for 10 minutes to go frothy.(***see notes)
  60 ml warm water, 7 g yeast, 2 tsp sugar
• Add the flour and salt to a large mixing bowl and stir until combined.
  750 g strong white bread flour, 2 tsp salt
• Add the olive oil to the flour and stir until roughly combined. You’ll see little globules of oil within the flour.
  90 ml olive oil
• Once the yeast mix is frothy, add it to the flour mixture and stir it in. Add 300ml of the room temperature water and then add a little more if necessary to bring the dough together into a ball. You want to have picked up most of the flour from the bowl but for the dough not to be too sticky to handle (you shouldn’t need to go above 400ml of water).
  300-400 ml room temperature water
• Lightly flour a surface and your hands and knead the dough for seven minutes until it is smooth and elastic, kind of like the texture of bubblegum.
• Put the dough in a bowl, cover it and set it aside in a warm place to rise (prove) for 45 minutes, at which point it should be roughly double in size. You may need to leave it slightly longer if you have a cooler room or it may be ready slightly sooner if your kitchen is particularly warm - aim for the dough to have doubled in size.

Make the pizzas:

• Lightly flour a smooth surface and your hands. Turn the dough out onto the surface and divide it into four roughly equally sized sections.
• If you don’t want to cook up all four bases, at this stage you can choose to wrap the dough and put it in either the fridge (for a couple of days) or the freezer (for up to 3 months), just defrost the dough and bring it to room temperature before use.
• To stretch the dough into the desired shape, first form it roughly into a ball with your hands. Place it on the surface and press it gently with your finger tips about 1cm in from the edge and work your way around in a circle so that it flattens out.
• When it is the shape of a small pizza, pick it up and hold it by the edge with the rest of the dough hanging down towards the bench. Turn the dough a little at a time so that you go full circle, this allows gravity to do the work of stretching the dough for you.
• Place the dough on a lightly floured 10” pizza tray or a regular baking tray and do any final shaping on the tray. Try not to make your pizzas bigger than 10”, otherwise you’ll lose some of the beautiful soft squishyness!
• Top the pizzas with your toppings of choice and then set the bases aside to prove again for 20 minutes. During this time, preheat the oven to 220°C fan (240°C conventional / 475°F / gas mark 9).
  pizza toppings of your choice
• Place in the preheated oven and cook for around 15-18 minutes. Check the pizza by lifting the base carefully off of the tray; if the underneath is still very pale, put the pizza back in for another 2-3 minutes. They are ready when the underneath is just starting to colour. If you have a lot of toppings they could take a little longer to cook.

Video

Notes

Vegan / Dairy Free / Egg Free / Nut Free / Soy Free

Recipe inspired by: Italy

* The water for the yeast should be slightly warm to the touch, not hot; around 40°C.

** Pick flour with a high protein percentage if there is one available in your local store. If you are in the UK, Tesco do a Canadian strong white bread flour with 14% protein, which is perfect.

*** By letting the yeast go frothy you are testing that it is active and going to work in your recipe. If it doesn’t go frothy then don’t use it, you’ll need to try another yeast.

Please check the allergens on the ingredients you purchase before use. The allergen information provided in this recipe is intended as a guide only and is based on the specific ingredients and brands used at the time of creating the recipe, therefore we cannot guarantee that the same will apply to the ingredients you use.

Prep time excludes any inactive time.

We highly recommend you use the metric and 1x options on this recipe card for the best results. Please note that this recipe has not been tested using US measurements or increasing ingredient quantities to 2x or 3x, therefore results may vary.

Nutrition

Calories: 872kcal | Carbohydrates: 139g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 1189mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 3g | Net Carbohydrates: 134g

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