Easy homemade pizza recipe: A complete guide

What to do when your 8-12 month vintage nephew comes to go? Make pizza, of direction!

Well, not of path, in reality. I did not think about it until we exhausted Sorry, Monopoly, and gin rummy. But it did emerge as a tremendous concept as my father had just received a baking stone for Christmas, and my nephew loves pizza.

Family Pizza Time

I told him if he helped me make it I would talk about him on my internet site and he could be famous. That seemed to get his interest. His concept of the dough changed into “slimy and gross” but he loved picking his personal toppings, and the finished product changed into “high-quality”.

Overhead view of a pizza dough recipe and topped with cheese and mushrooms.

My Favorite Pizza Dough Recipe

The following method I patched together from recipes in each Joy of Cooking and Cook’s Illustrated’s The Best Recipe. The pizza dough recipe makes enough dough for 2 10 to twelve-inch pizzas.

Next time I’ll be a bit more patient with stretching out the dough so I can get it even thinner.

The Best Flour for Homemade Pizza Dough

Bread flour is excellent flour for homemade pizza dough. You can use all-cause flour instead of the bread flour known as for in the recipe, but bread flour is higher in gluten than all-reason flour and could make a crispier crust for your pizza.

Side view of a tacky homemade pizza recipe on a wooden reducing board.

How To Make Sure Your Yeast Is Active

Pizza dough is a yeasted dough that calls for lively dry yeast. Make sure to test the expiration date on the yeast package deal! Yeast that is too vintage can be lifeless and may not work.

Also, if the yeast does not begin to foam or bloom within 10 minutes of being added to the water in Step 1 of Making the Pizza Dough, it is probably dead. You’ll want to begin over with new, active yeast.

How To Measure Flour for This Pizza Dough Recipe

Cup measurements can vary depending on how you are scooping the flour (we fluff the flour, gently scoop it, and grade with a knife). So I endorse using a kitchen scale to degree out the flour amounts with the aid of weight. This is the only manner you’ll get a consistently accurate dimension.

Ingredients

For the pizza dough

• 1 half cup (355 ml) warm water (one hundred and five°F-115°F)
• 1 package deal (2 1/four teaspoons) energetic dry yeast
• 3 3/4 cups (490g) bread flour
• 2 tablespoons more virgin olive oil (leave out if cooking pizza in a wooden-fired pizza oven)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

For making the pizza and toppings

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Cornmeal (to help slide the pizza onto the pizza stone)
• Tomato sauce (easy or pureed)
• Firm mozzarella cheese, grated
• Fresh smooth mozzarella cheese, separated into small clumps
• Fontina cheese, grated
• Parmesan cheese, grated
• Feta cheese, crumbled
• Mushrooms, very thinly sliced if uncooked, otherwise first sautéed
• Bell peppers, stems, and seeds removed, very thinly sliced
• Italian pepperoncini, thinly sliced
• Italian sausage, cooked ahead and crumbled
• Sliced black olives
• Chopped fresh basil
• Baby arugula, tossed in a touch of olive oil, delivered as the pizza comes out of the oven
• Pesto
• Pepperoni, thinly sliced
• Onions, thinly sliced raw or caramelized
• Ham, thinly sliced