Pizza night is everyone's favorite dinner right?? As much as I love just ordering that takeout pizza, there's something else that's so appealing about homemade pizzas! I love to use this quick homemade pizza dough for the easiest pizza night ever!
What I love about this recipe is that it uses just really basic ingredients:
- All Purpose Flour - yup, not bread flour or self-rising flour or any special flour required
- Instant Yeast - 1 packet, the simplest most straightforward measurement!
- Olive Oil
- Sugar
- Salt
- Water
And that's it!! Isn't that great! I'll bet you can even make homemade pizza night for dinner tonight! How dangerous is that?! lol!
The other thing that is great about this recipe is the timing!
So I've seen pizza dough recipes that require proofing overnight or for hours! Yikes, sorry but that's usually too much planning for me. This one requires 1 hour, that much I can definitely manage! I love that I can plan a pizza night with so little planning required!
Working with yeast?
The most important thing to check when working with yeast is the water temperature!
It does not like hot water, you can't just sprinkle into scalding hot or boiling water. That will kill it.
But you also can't use lukewarm water, it will never activate fully. Yeast likes to be comfortable in a nice warm water bath, that's between 105° - 115°F. Yes yeast is very finicky! I like to use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the water before adding the yeast to it. Lol, I know it sounds odd, but I don't have another kitchen thermometer at the moment. And it works!
So what's the other thing to remember about yeast? The proofing time and temperature. Always check the recipe for how long something needs to proof. As for the temperature, find a warm toasty place in your home and just leave it alone for the allotted time. I heard that some people use their ovens. I usually stick my dough in a closet that's warm.
Once your dough is proofed, you're all set with your quick homemade pizza dough! This recipe makes 2 12-inch pizzas. You can cut the dough in half, roll out each half and top your pizzas to your liking! I only advise that you try not to overload the pizzas. Toppings usually contain a lot of moisture and it will leak out and make the dough soggy.
For more delicious cheesy recipes check out: Spicy Spinach and Artichoke Naan Pizza, Cheesy Pull-Apart Keema Pav
Quick Homemade Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 1 packet Instant yeast 2¼ teaspoons
- 1¼ cup warm water water needs to be about 105°-115°F
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2¾ cup all purpose flour
Instructions
- In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook, pour warm water in and sprinkle with yeast. Let stand about 5 minutes. *Important to check the temperature of the water, it should warm to the touch, not hot or cold.
- Add in sugar, salt and olive oil and gently stir. Slowly add in 1 cup of flour and turn on the mixer at a low speed. Once the flour has incorporated, add in the other cup of flour and mix together. Slowly add in the last flour. (If the dough seems very sticky, sprinkled in a little more flour.
- Knead the dough a little until it forms a bowl. Transfer the dough into an a oiled bowl, and flip the dough so all of the surfaces are coated in oil.
- Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel, set aside in a warm spot for 1 hour. The dough should double in size.
- Cut the dough in half, on a floured surface knead each ball of dough separately. Roll out each dough into 12 inch pizzas.
- Preheat oven to 450°F, if using pizza stone, preheat pizza stone in the oven at the same time. Sprinkle a touch of cornmeal on the pizza stone, transfer dough to pizza stone. Top each pizza with your desired toppings (take care not to overload or the dough will get soggy). Bake for 10-12 minutes.
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