I have been making my pizza dough from scratch for years. It’s easy, tastes great and is dirt cheap to make at home! I often receive requests for my recipe, and I’m happy to share! It’s a great project to do with kids, too! We enjoy having grilled pizza parties during the warm months and I always make the dough then everyone brings toppings and we all help make custom individual pizzas. When we started grilling pizza dough I realized it is much easier to work with when the dough is par-baked before adding the toppings. It works so well that I now par-bake all my crusts and keep them in the freezer for a quick and easy weeknight meal. Once you have started making dough you will never go back to store bought except in an emergency. Buon Appetito!
- 3 tsp yeast either quick rising or regular
- 1 ½ cups warm water 100°F
If using quick rising yeast just toss everything together in the bowl right away.
If using regular yeast, dissolve yeast in warm water until it starts to react and bubble (or about 10 minutes), then add:
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp kosher or coarse sea salt
- 2 Tbsp sugar, honey or agave
- 2 ½ cups All Purpose White Flour (APF)
- 2 cups whole wheat flour (or just use 4 ½ cups APF)
- 2 Tbsp vital wheat gluten (not needed if using all white flour, but necessary with whole wheat flour)
If using a mixer with a dough hook, mix on low for about 6 minutes or until dough is smooth. If mixing by hand, mix in a bowl with a spoon until dough comes together then knead on a floured counter for approximately 8-10 minutes until dough is smooth.
Place dough in a greased bowl about twice the size of the dough, spray the top of the dough with some oil and cover with plastic wrap and keep in a warm place until doubled in size. If your oven has a proof feature it will take about 1 hour on proof at 85°F. Otherwise it will depend on the ambient temperature and humidity level but normally about 2 hours on the counter.
Turn the proofed dough out onto a floured counter and let rest for 10 minutes. Cut into portions for pizza and use immediately or refrigerator overnight before wrapping into individual portions and freezing.
To use later from the freezer, place in the fridge overnight then bring up to room temp before rolling out.
When rolled paper thin this recipe makes approximately 6-8 pizza crusts.
Lisa’s tip: par bake the crust before topping. We started doing this for pizza on the grill and it works so well we now par bake all our crusts before topping. You can even roll out the dough and par bake the crust and freeze it for later use for quick pizzas on the fly. To par bake: roll out to desired size and thickness then place in oven on pizza stone or rack, or on grill and bake approximately one minute on each side. This gives the dough some strength to hold your toppings and makes it much easier to get in and out of the oven or on and off the grill.
