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This Perfect Homemade Pizza Dough recipe is tried-and-true and is ready to bake with in 2 hours. Use it to make incredible homemade pizzas or calzones!
Making your own dough is so incredibly satisfying and not nearly as hard as it may seem. In order to hold the toppings, pizza dough is a bit different from a typical bread dough. The addition of semolina flour strengthens the dough, but if you can’t find it, you can use all-purpose flour to replace the same volume in the recipe or a good bread flour (or ideally, a Typo 00 flour). You can also substitute half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour to make it a bit healthier if you wish!
How To Make Homemade Pizza Dough
Skip the pizza delivery because you only need a few basic ingredients to begin! The ingredients and tools I use for this perfect dough recipe are:
- lukewarm water
- sugar
- active dry yeast
- olive oil
- semolina flour
- all-purpose flour
- salt
- pizza peel
- a pizza stone
Do I Need a Pizza Stone?
We’re serious about pizza around our house, which is why we invested in an outdoor pizza oven. However, when baking pizza in my indoor kitchen oven, I always use a pizza stone!
Conventional ovens and grills were not made to bake pizza, which typically requires a very hot surface to bake to perfection. A pizza stone changes the game, and acts as surface to hold that high heat in an oven or on the grill. When used properly, the stone heats up, and when the pizza is placed on the stone, the crust starts to cook immediately, mimicking the cooking style of a traditional brick pizza oven!
If you don’t own a pizza stone simply use a baking sheet flipped upside down.
Pizza Recipes
Using this dough as your base you can easily choose-your-own-pizza-adventure! Create a DIY pizza setup: try my Mushroom & Thyme combo, or try this in my Homemade Pizza Pocket Version! But if you need some other ideas you can find my favourite pizza topping combinations here! I always serve a heaping bowl of arugula tossed in olive oil and salt alongside to top our pizzas (kind of like a salad pizza – gotta get those greens in!).
Perfect 2-hour Homemade Pizza Dough
Make this impressively easy 2 hour pizza dough for your next pizza party!
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups lukewarm water
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast or 1 x 8 oz packages
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 150 grams semolina flour 1 cup: plus extra for cooking*
- 550-800 grams all-purpose flour 4- 5 cups (use Tipo ’00 flour if you can)
- 2 teaspoons salt
Instructions
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In a large measuring cup, mix together the lukewarm water and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Sprinkle in the yeast and let it sit for approximately 5-10 minutes, until the yeast starts to ferment and bubble. Stir in the olive oil and set aside.
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Place the semolina flour and 2 cups of the all-purpose flour along with the salt in a large bowl and whisk together. Create a well in the center.
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Pour the wet mixture into the well and stir together with a fork or wooden spoon until it is well mixed. Transfer the dough to a well-floured clean surface and sprinkle extra flour on the dough.
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Knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes, until the dough looks smooth and stretchy, adding extra flour as you knead to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and the surface. The dough should feel soft and stretchy when pulled (just slightly stiffer than my bread dough if you have made that).
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Place the ball of dough in a large bowl greased with olive oil, dust the top of the dough with flour, cover with a clean dish towel, and place in a warm draft-free area for about 1-1 1/2 hours, until the dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down. At this point you can either refrigerate the dough overnight (covered with plastic or beeswax wrap and occasionally punched down) or divide the dough into 4-8 portions (depending on how big you want your pizzas)and let the dough balls sit to relax while preheating your oven. If you have refrigerated your dough be sure to bring it to room temperature before you are ready to bake.
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Once ready to bake, heat the oven to the highest heat setting (500 F for most ovens) and place a pizza stone in the oven for 20-30 minutes to pre-heat.
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Using your hands, form and flatten each pizza crust on a flat surface dusted generously with semolina flour until it is nice and thin. It’s best to do this directly on a pizza peel (the paddle that they use in those fancy restaurants) to easily transfer to the hot stone. Top the pizza with the desired toppings.
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Carefully transfer the pizza to the stone, and bake until the pizza is golden brown and the cheese bubbles, about 8-10 minutes. Cut and serve hot.
Recipe Notes
*you can, should you wish, skip the semolina flour and use just all-purpose flour
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