Easy Homemade Pizza Dough
Homemade Pizza Dough is very easy to make. All pizza dough starts with the same basic ingredients: flour, yeast, sugar, water, salt, and olive oil.
Apart from pizza, you can use this dough to make many other creations. (You will find a list at the end of the post).
What kind of flour can I use to make Pizza dough?
Flour is the main ingredient in pizza dough, and the type you use can have a big effect on the end result.
The best one to use is bread flour because it makes the dough more elastic and crunchy, due to the greater amount of gluten it contains.
Of course we can also use all-purpose flour or a combination of both and I use it many times because I do not always have bread flour at home.
The texture of your pizza dough is usually associated with the amount of gluten found in the flour as gluten creates a stable texture, making it one of the crucial ingredients of pizza dough.
A few more minor details that make a difference.
Sugar is necessary as it helps activate the yeast and makes for a crispier crust. I sometimes add honey instead of sugar.
The water used must be lukewarm (tepid). Lukewarm water is neither hot or cold.
If you have a thermometre the temperature is around 40°C (104°F). If you don't have a thermometre do it the old way.
Boil some water and then gradually add room temperature water testing each time slowly with your pinky.
If you can hold your pinky in the water and count up to to 5, then the water is ready.
Another secret is to wet the dough with olive oil before rising, which makes a lovely, elastic dough.
At this stage you can use the pizza dough but it is preferable to make it the previous day.
Put your dough in a bowl and cover it with cling film and a kitchen towel. Put it in the fridge and let it rise slowly overnight, at least for 12 hours.
Next day take it out of the fridge so that it comes back to room temperature (about an hour), knead it for a few minutes and the dough is ready for use.
I've been making pizzas for many years but this is my best pizza dough.
My friends and relatives who have tried it, say that it's the best crust they've ever had, considering that it is not baked in a wood fired oven nor baked on a pizza stone.
I have a few pizza recipes to share with you, as well as a couple of calzone recipes I made recently using the same dough, so before giving the recipes here is the dough I use.
Apart from making pizza from scratch, how about making pizza with your leftovers?
Pizza Bolognese:
Ingredients:
- Pizza dough
- Leftover Bolognese sauce as the base
- Any other ingredients to enrich it such as mushrooms, bell peppers, onions etc.
- Mozarella or other cheese than melt on top
Directions:
- Prepare dough as above.
- Grease your baking tin with olive oil and spread the dough.
- Add the leftover bolognaise as the base. Put any other ingredients you like on top and cover with cheese.
- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C / 400 F and bake until golden, for about 20 minutes.
Leftover pizza is great for breakfast, brunch or as a snack the next day.
Here are a few other recipes I made pizza, using leftovers:
Pizza Pull-aparts:
Same dough, filled with Bolognese and topped with feta.
Spetzofai Pizza:
All you need for Spetzofai pizza is some cheese on top. The dish itself has sausages and peppers.
Pizza Peinirli
Although I have never posted the recipe for "peinirli" before, as the recipe is included in my cookbook "More Than A Greek Salad", the dough for peinirli is slightly different for that of pizza, as instead of water we add milk.
I have used this dough to make these gondola shaped boats, which I filled with a filling I made with leftover meat sauce from the equivalent to the Greek Bolognese, which I mixed with some bechamel sauce.
After filling the boats I topped it with lots of cheese, suitable for pizza and baked them in the oven for about 20 minutes.
As I did not intend to post the recipe I did not take any notes of the exact measurements I used.
However, they were so delicious that it is worth mentioning the ingredients even if they are roughly estimated.
For about 1 cup of leftover meat sauce I made a bechamel with about 2 tablespoon olive oil, 2 tablespoon flour, salt, nutmeg, 1 ½ cups of milk and 1 egg.
The meat sauce was mixed in the bechamel and left to cool before filling the boats. I rolled the dough thin and oblong, I added the meat sauce and then topped it with cheese.
I then twisted the edges to give them the shape of the boats. With the above amount of dough it yields about six peinirli.
There were two leftover, which the next day which I heated on the sandwich griller but without the plates touching the cheese.
They made a lovely snack together with some Greek coffee.
How to make Easy Homemade Pizza Dough
Ingredients
Starter:
- 2 tablespoon bread or all-purpose flour
- 8 grams (0.28 oz) active dry yeast or 25 gr fresh yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ¼ cup lukewarm water
Dough:
- 500 gram bread or a mixture of bread and all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 4 tablespoon olive oil, divided
Instructions
- In a medium sized bowl combine flour, yeast and sugar and mix.
- Pour the lukewarm water and mix until it becomes a batter.
- Cover with cling film and a kitchen towel and let it rest for 5-10 minutes or until it bubbles. During this time, the yeast should start to bloom and froth up.
- Attach the dough hook to your stand mixer. Add the flour, 2 tablespoon olive and salt and mix on low speed.
- Add the yeast mixture and continue mixing on low speed.
- Finally add the water gradually and mix until the dough gathers around the hook.
- Remove the hook and add the remaining 2 tablespoon olive oil and coat the dough.
- Cover with cling film and a kitchen towel and let it rise, until it doubles in volume.
- When ready to use, transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead briefly, so that it deflates and becomes smooth (about 3-5 times)
- Your dough is now ready to make pizza or other delicious creations.
Notes
Add the water gradually, as depending on the type of flour it might need less or more.
Nutrition Information
Yield 1 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 3042Total Fat 79gSaturated Fat 12gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 61gCholesterol 0mgSodium 4989mgCarbohydrates 491gFiber 37gSugar 43gProtein 96g
"These values are automatically calculated and offered for guidance only. Their accuracy is not guaranteed."
Pizza Dough Creations
Here are a few recipes you can make using pizza dough.
Cypriot pita bread
Cypriot pitta bread are much different to the Greek pitas. They are flatbread like the other pita but are different in shape and in taste.
Aladoti Eliopita (Olive bread with tahini)
Aladoti Eliopita (pr. Ah-LAH-doh-tee Eh-LIOH-pee-tah), is an olive bread made without any oil or any other fat whatsover. This yummy eliopita uses tahini as its source for fat, which makes a delicious and healthy bread for breakfast, brunch or as a snack during the strict Orthodox fasting period, when there are days that no oil whatsover is consumed.
Lagana Flatbread
Lagana (in Greek λαγάνα, pronounced lah-GHAH-nah) is a traditional Greek flatbread, which is made with flour, yeast, salt and water.
Lagana with Garlicky Olives, Sun-dried Tomatoes and Rosemary
Lagana with Garlicky Olives, Sun-dried Tomatoes and Rosemary is not your classic Greek flatbread traditionally baked for Clean Monday, but a twist you can make year around.
Tyropitari
Tyropitari pronounced Tee-rho-pee-TAH-ree, is a homemade Greek pastry filled with feta cheese and deep fried, which is served as an appetizer.
Halloumi-Graviera Pull-aparts
Halloumi-graviera pull-aparts are individual filled bread placed next to each other and baked so that when baked they join into one large bread which can easily be separated by pulling each piece.
Green Olives and Feta Pull-aparts
Enjoy these easy to make homemade pull-apart bread filled with Greek olives and feta.
Kopiaste and Kali Orexi,
He, he, I am reading your post while 4 small "pizzas" are in the oven.... I used souvlaki's pittas which are not bad when you are very busy though they don't compare to your homemade dough. 🙂
That's a great idea Marianna. Never thought of using pitas as a base for pizza.
I love homemade pizzas 🙂
I love thin crust pizza as they are not so filling and crispy around sides, just beautiful!
I love pizza too. so many varyations are possible once you have the right dough!
Funny Ivy, I was reading your recipe and it is identical (except for the honey, we use sugar) to the pita bread dough I've been using!)
They are practically the same. When I couldn't find Cypriot pitas in Greece a couple of years ago, I would substitute them with Arabic pitas and not Greek, which are quite different.
Ivy, thanks for this great dough recipe. I haven't been using yeast for too long, but I'd love to try making my own pizzas at home without buying the pre-made crust. Thank you my friend.
I look forward to your pizza toppings. I shall try it next time adding honey and oil at the end.
thank you, ivy, for this wonderful recipe!i will try it to my next pizza!and a very good day!
We love home made pizza. It always turns out better when my husband kneads it. Must be the strength! Or maybe I just can't be bothered to knead it for long 😛
I've never thought of using honey as the activator. I'll give it a try next time.
I have been looking for a pizza dought for long. After comming from italy i have not had pizza here saying i don't want to be disapointed.
So now i just have to make pizza myself.
Thankyou for the recipe
I think this looks easy enough for me to handle. I have to start making my own dough one of these days. I like this recipe. 🙂
Homemade is always the best 😀
Ivy, I haven't been to your blog for ags. How bad of me:( I love homemade pizza a lot. Thanks for the recipe. The addition of honey is interesting. Must add a nice dimension to the taste of the crust.
Glad to see you again Farida. Hope to see you more often.
Nothing like the homemade fresh pizza.
Homemade pizza dough is always better than those awful store bought crusts, and so versatile!