Ingredients
* 400g bread flour (14 ounces; about 2 1/2 cups), plus more for dusting
* 10g kosher salt (0.35 ounces; about 2 teaspoons), plus more for sprinkling
* 4g instant yeast (0.15 ounces; about 1 teaspoon), such as SAF Instant Yeast
* 275g water (9.5 ounces; about 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons)
* 8g extra-virgin olive oil (0.25 ounces; about 2 teaspoons), plus more to coat pans and for drizzling
* 1 1/2 cups pizza sauce, such as our New York–style pizza sauce
* 12 ounces grated full-fat, low moisture (dry) mozzarella cheese (see note)
* Toppings as desired Small handful torn fresh basil leaves (optional)
* 2 ounces grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese (optional)
The way I see it, there are three basic difficulties most folks have with pizza:
Problem 1: Kneading. How long is enough? What motion do I use? And is it really worth the doggone effort?
Problem 2: Stretching. Once I've got that disk of dough, how do I get it into the shape of an actual pizza, ready to be topped?
Problem 3: Transferring. Okay, let's say I've got my dough made and perfectly stretched onto my pizza peel. How do I get it onto that stone in the oven without disturbing the toppings or having it turn into a misshapen blob?
This recipe avoids all three of those common pitfalls, making it pretty much foolproof. To be perfectly honest, every single one of these steps has been done before, and none of it is rocket science. All I'm doing is combining them all into a single recipe.
Read on for a few more details on what to expect and how we got there.
How to Make a Pan Pizza, Step-by-Step
What follows is a step-by-step guide to making a pan pizza with a crisp, olive oil-flavored crust; an open, airy, nicely chewy crumb; crispy, browned cheesy bits around the edges; and plenty of sauce and cheese. It ain't the classiest pizza on the block, but sometimes you're just looking for something cheap and easy.
Step 1: Mix and Proof
This is the hardest part of the whole process: weigh out your flour (400 grams), salt (10 grams), and yeast (4 grams) into a bowl, then add water (275 grams) and oil (8 grams) and mix it up, either with your hand or a wooden spoon. That's it. No need to knead, punch, massage, nothing. Just make sure there's no dry flour left, and you're good to go.
Wrap it up tightly with plastic wrap and let it rest, anywhere from 8 to 24 hours.
Step 2: Ball the Dough
After all those hours of you doing absolutely nothing to it, your dough should look basically like a big, puffy, lumpy-looking bowl of soup. When you uncover the plastic and knock the bowl slightly, you'll see the whole thing deflate a bit. This is A-OK.
Sprinkle the top of the dough with some flour, then dump it out onto a floured work surface. It's fine to use a fair amount of flour here; just don't knead it into the dough. This should not be hard, as kneading isn't on your agenda anyway. Divide the dough into two even balls.
Working with one ball of dough at a time, form and roll the dough on the counter using the sides of your hands to form a taut ball with a smooth, elastic top. Use your fingers to pinch and smooth out the bottom side of the ball of dough. Repeat this process with the second portion of dough.
Step 3: Proof Dough in Cast Iron Pan
Pour some olive oil into the bottom of a 10-inch cast iron skillet or a 10-inch round cake pan. If you want to bake your pizzas simultaneously, you'll need a pan or skillet for each ball of dough.
Alternatively, you can store unused dough balls in sealed containers in the refrigerator for up to three days (leave room in the container for the dough to expand) or in the freezer indefinitely. Place the dough you want to bake in the middle of the pan.
Turn the dough over a few times until it's coated on all sides with oil, then swirl it around the pan to get oil into all the corners and the sides of the pan. Cover the whole thing with plastic wrap, and let it sit in your kitchen for a couple of hours. Watch a movie, do your laundry, take your third bath of the day, you get the idea. Just leave it alone and let it do its thing.
Steph 4: Touch Up the Dough
You should come back to find the dough has mostly stretched out to fit the pan.
Using just the tips of your fingers, poke at the dough a bunch of times, working it into the corners a little bit harder and popping any big air bubbles you happen to come across. Those big bubbles will inflate like balloons in the oven, shedding their cheese and sauce, if you don't take care of them now.
Make one quick lap around the edge of the pan, lifting the dough like a blanket. This is just to make sure that no large bubbles are hiding underneath, since air bubbles that form under the crust as it rises will pull away from the pan bottom, preventing the crust from browning and crisping properly.
Step 5: Sauce the Dough
You can use any sauce you'd like, or make your own from scratch. Whatever sauce you use, for a thick pie like this, you need a nice thick layer of sauce. I go with around three-quarters of a cup per 10-inch pie.
If you like having a rim around your pizzas, leave a little rim. I prefer going all the way to the edge with my sauce and cheese, which makes for some delicious crunchy bits later on.
Step 6: Add Toppings
Spread cheese over the top of the pizza (again, going all the way to the edges, if desired). Any good melting cheese will do—mozzarella is classic, but a young cheddar, provolone, Muenster, or Jack will work. You can even go extra crazy and mix 'em up.
Most of the time, I say go easy on the toppings, but a pan pizza with a thick, robust crust can handle some serious loads, so go wild .
Step 7: Bake in a Hot Oven
Now you just have to place the pan in a hot oven. How hot? Very, very hot.
I max out my oven (550°F/290°C) when I bake pizza, since hotter cooking leads to a few differences in the end product. For one thing, it produces more micro bubbles on the exterior, giving your pie more crunch and character. These micro bubbles form because air and water vapor inside the dough expands rapidly under high heat, filling up and stretching out gluten-walled bubbles before they harden and crisp. The hotter the oven, the faster these bubbles will expand.
You can easily see the difference in the texture of a crust cooked at 400°F (200°C) versus one cooked at 550°F (290°C):
High-temperature cooking also leads to superior interior structure for the same reason: Bubbles inflate rapidly, giving a pizza cooked at a high temperature a more open, airy crumb.
The difference is striking.
Step 8: Add Some Post-Bake Flair
Some toppings are best added before baking. But a few are better added once the pie emerges from the oven.
Topping that list? Hard cheeses. I like to add grated Parmigiano-Reggiano by the fistful to the top of the pie after it's done baking. I love the contrast you get between the browned, bubbly bits of mozzarella and the sharp, fresh bite of the uncooked Parmesan.
Other than that, there's really not much to say. Like I said, the recipe is stupid easy. Mix together ingredients, then let 'em sit for a while. Top them and bake them. It's as easy as that.
Next time someone says to you, "I want to make pizza at home. Know any good recipes for beginners?"—and, if your life is anything like mine, you hear that at least a couple times per week—you'll know where to send them.
Recipe Facts
4.9
(104)
Prep:25 mins
Cook:20 mins
Active:15 mins
Proofing Time:10 hrs
Total:10 hrs 45 mins
Serves:4 servings
Makes:2 pizzas
Home · Recipes · Pizza · Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe for Beginners
Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe for Beginners
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Author: Sally
Published: 01/21/2019Updated: 05/14/2022
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This easy pizza dough recipe is great for beginners and produces a soft homemade pizza crust. Skip the pizza delivery because you only need 6 basic ingredients to begin!
This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.

Every great pizza begins with a great pizza crust. Some like it thin and crispy, while others prefer a thick and soft crust. This homemade pizza crust has it all: soft & chewy with a delicious crisp and AWESOME flavor. It’s my go-to pizza dough recipe and just a glance at the hundreds of reviews in the comments section tells me that it’s a favorite for many others too!
Easy Dough for Bread Beginners
This is a no-fuss dough recipe for beginners. You need just 6 basic ingredients, plus a little cornmeal for preparing the pan. (You can skip that if needed.) Most of the time is hands off as the dough rises. You might wonder… why waste the time when you can just buy frozen pizza dough? Frozen pizza dough is certainly convenient, but from-scratch crust has unbeatable flavor and texture that only comes from fresh dough. And you can use the dough for cheese breadsticks, too!
Reader, Andy, commented: “Super easy, super fast, super good! I don’t like doughy thick pizzas and I find with this recipe that I can make them thin and crunchy, I love how easy it is. I make pizza once or twice a month! Haven’t bought one for quite some time now! ★★★★★“
If you’ve ever made homemade bagels or sandwich bread, you can easily make pizza dough because it’s quicker, easier, and requires fewer steps.

Overview: Homemade Pizza Dough Ingredients
All pizza dough starts with the same basic ingredients: flour, yeast, water, salt, and olive oil. Here’s the breakdown of what I use in my homemade pizza crust recipe. The full printable recipe is below.
Yeast: I use Platinum Yeast from Red Star. I have the best results when I use this instant yeast. The Platinum yeast is fantastic because its careful formula strengthens your dough and makes making working with yeast simple. You only need 1 standard packet of yeast (2 and 1/4 teaspoons) to get the job done.
Water: I tested this pizza dough recipe with different amounts of water. 1 and 1/3 cups is the perfect amount. Use warm water to cut down on rise time, about 100-110°F. Anything over 130ºF kills the yeast.
Flour: Use unbleached all-purpose white flour in this recipe. Bleaching the flour strips away some of the protein, which will affect how much water the flour absorbs. You can substitute bread flour for a chewier pizza crust. If you love whole grain bread, try this whole wheat pizza dough instead.
Oil: A couple Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil adds wonderful flavor to the dough. Don’t forget to brush the dough with olive oil before adding the toppings, which prevents the crust from tasting soggy.
Salt: Salt adds necessary flavor.
Sugar :Tablespoon of sugar increases the yeast’s activity and tenderizes the dough, especially when paired with a little olive oil.
- Cornmeal: Cornmeal isn’t in the dough, but it’s used to dust the pizza pan. Cornmeal gives the pizza crust a little extra flavor and crisp. Most delivery pizzas you enjoy have cornmeal on the bottom crust!nedufoods@gmail.com thanks for reading see you in the next one.
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