Easy Pizza Dough Recipe | Make Your Own Pizza Crust | Moms Need To Know ™ (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making good pizza dough? ›

There are many tricks to achieving a tasty, homemade pizza dough that rises into a beautiful pizza crust, such as making sure your ingredients are at right temperature, using half bread flour for a stronger dough and half all-purpose flour for a nice rise, substituting honey for sugar to help caramelize the crust and ...

Yes, pizza crust is “just” dough. Most pizzerias and probably all chains just make the dough, let it rise, and roll or toss it into a pizza shape and add toppings. But better restaurants will proof the dough, and this means aging it.

Of course you do. Parbaking, or partially baking the dough to its halfway point in advance can save you a ton of time on pizza party day. You just have to top it and toss it back in the oven before you want to sit down and eat. This is also a great way to get everyone involved in the pizza-making experience.

Bread Flour: With a higher percentage of protein compared to all-purpose flour, this is the flour I'd recommend starting with for a great crust. Bread flour is widely available, and you'll get fantastic results. “00” Pizza Flour - A lot of people swear by a pizza dough made with a percentage of “00” flour.

Flour is the main ingredient in pizza dough, and the type you use can have a big effect on the end result. All-purpose flour will work fine, but if you want a chewier crumb and a better hole structure, you should consider buying yourself some high protein bread flour.

Oven Method:

Pick the top of the dough a few times with a fork and pre-bake the dough in the pizza pan, or slide onto a hot pizza stone to pre-bake for 3-4 minutes. Remove from oven and add pizza sauce and toppings. Return to oven and bake for 8-15 more minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly.

Unlike frozen pizza crust, Pillsbury refrigerated pizza crust dough is ready to bake. Just unroll pizza dough on a sheet pan, prebake for 6 minutes, then add your favorite toppings and finish baking according to package directions for delicious oven-fresh pizza with a thin and crispy golden brown crust.

At 450°F, the same thin crust can be done in 8-12 minutes. For a thick-crust pizza, it takes 18-25 minutes at 400°F and 14-20 minutes at 450°F. So when increasing the temperature by 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the cooking time can be reduced by 2-5 minutes depending on crust thickness.

Should you oil pizza dough before baking? ›

Although oil in pizza dough is not required, it may be helpful. The oil improves the dough's stretchability while also keeping it hydrated. When you bake the dough, you can see how this process works, and the oil keeps the dough supple even after cooking.

The steam from the base can't escape, so it condenses on your crispy surface and turns it wet and soggy. Use a pizza stone or a pan with holes to get a crispy pizza crust. A pizza stone will keep your pizza hot and its porousness will absorb some condensation.

The more time you allow for slow fermentation, the more flavorful the crust will be. Once you're confident of your slow fermentation technique, experiment with brushing, stuffing and dusting your pies, establishing your own signature recipe for a unique homemade pizza.

The most commonly used cheese on pizza is mozzarella, because it melts beautifully without turning oily or lumpy. Cheeses such as feta, haloumi and aged gouda are tasty toppings, but they're a bit fancy for families and don't melt as well as mozzarella. Low-moisture mozzarella in particular has great melt and stretch.

Pizza dough loves warmth, so if you can find a way to add some extra heat, your dough will rise faster. One way to do this is to preheat your oven to the lowest setting (usually around 200 degrees Fahrenheit) and then turn it off. Place your pizza dough in the warm oven for 10-15 minutes until it begins to rise.

Add sugar and oil to the dough

So what two ingredients set New York-style pizza crust apart? It's a combination of oil and sugar that gets added to the usual suspects of flour, yeast, water, and salt. When oil is added to pizza dough, it adds flavor, but more importantly, it coats individual grains of flour.

The best flour for making Deep-Dish Pizza Dough is all-purpose flour. In bakeries and pizzerias, Pizza Flour is often used because it is a high-protein flour that produces a light and airy crust. However, all-purpose flour will also work well for Deep-Dish Pizza Dough.