I know its a tall claim to make. But once my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and this pizza dough recipe came into our life, we stopped ordering pizza. It’s not a stretch to say we order in pizza about once year. And that this is pretty much a weekly go-to recipe in our home.
As much as I love to bake (and love bread for that matter). I am not a kneader – yes I believe that is a term. I do not like to knead dough by hand for long periods of time. So the discovery of the dough hook for the Kitchen Aid stand mixer was life altering for me. Yes of course you can knead this pizza dough by hand for 8 – 10 minutes. But alas for me that would turn this into a once a year recipe then. For me, when it comes to kneading, it’s really dough hooks for the win!!!
Pizza Dough
*makes 1 large, thick crust pizza or 8 pizza pockets or 4 individual pizzas*
2 1/4 teaspoons Quick Rise or Pizza Dough Yeast (or one pre-packaged packet)
1 Cup of Warm Water
2 teaspoons Olive Oil (plus more for greasing bowl and pan)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
Cornmeal (a dusting to prevent sticking)
Directions
Sprinkle yeast in the bottom of your stand mixture’s bowl.
Carefully pour over hot tap water (very warm, but not scalding) to cover yeast.
Wait two minutes, while yeast forms a bubbly foam on the water.
Add the 2 teaspoons of olive oil.
Attach the dough hook and stir briefly (it won’t incorporate).
Add 2 1/2 cups of flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt (I don’t like to add salt directly to the yeast mixture, and so additive with the flour).
Still using the dough hook, turn the mixture to level 2 and allow to knead for 4 minutes, checking if the dough is too wet after 2 min.
Add more flour a Tablespoon or two at a time if the dough is too wet or sticky. You want it to be cleaning the sides of the bowl mostly, not sticking everywhere.
Continue kneading with the dough hook until the dough forms one large ball around the hook and springs back when lightly depressed with your knuckle.
Oil the inside of a large bowl with olive oil.
Remove dough from hook and shape into ball.
Place inside oiled bowl and then turn dough over so that oil coats both top and bottom.
Place cling wrap (or a clean dish towel) over the bowl and allow to rise for an hour in a warm (room temperature is fine) place.
For thinner crust you can forgo the rise time or split the difference and only rise for 30 minutes. I find this works best with pizza yeast personally, so you don’t have such pronounced ‘yeasty’ flavour from the shorter rise.
Rolling Out The Pizza Dough
Heat oven up to 450 degrees.
Lightly oil your pizza pan or stone and sprinkle generously with cornmeal. You can use cornmeal alone if you know you don’t run the risk of the pizza sticking.
Punch down dough.
Remove dough and roll out. I do my on the oiled/cornmeal pan itself with a nifty little rolling pin, from Pampered Chef, designed just for this. Aim for a even thickness and roll out as large as you can.
To achieve a lovely crust, gently roll/turn the edges under ever so slightly all the way around the outside.
Cover with pizza sauce, toppings and cheese of your choosing – and don’t forget a sprinkle of freshly ground pepper and salt just before the oven (freshly ground Pink Himalayan Sea Salt is rather perfect for this in my opinion), you would be surprised what a difference it makes!
Bake for 12 minutes or until desired level of browning and cheesiness is achieved.
Allow to cool 5 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
The recipe is easily doubled. In fact I only ever make it double for our family of four healthy eaters (and we like leftovers for lunch too). If I really am only making one pizza than I use the remaining dough to make and freeze my own pizza pockets for after school snacks. However make sure your stand mixer is large enough to double the recipe (the small one may not be) and you may have to hold your bowl in place so it doesn’t detach from the mixture when kneading or walk off the counter.
- 2 1/4 teaspoons Quick Rise or Pizza Dough Yeast (or one pre-packaged packet)
- 1 Cup of Warm Water
- 2 teaspoons Olive Oil (plus more for greasing bowl and pan)
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- Cornmeal (a dusting to prevent sticking)
- Sprinkle yeast in the bottom of your stand mixture's bowl.
- Carefully pour over hot tap water (very warm, but not scalding) to cover yeast.
- Wait two minutes, while yeast forms a bubbly foam on the water.
- Add the 2 teaspoons of olive oil.
- Attach the dough hook and stir briefly (it won't incorporate).
- Add 2 1/2 cups of flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt (I don't like to add salt directly to the yeast mixture, and so additive with the flour).
- Still using the dough hook, turn the mixture to level 2 and allow to knead for 4 minutes, checking if the dough is too wet after 2 min.
- Add more flour a Tablespoon or two at a time if the dough is too wet or sticky. You want it to be cleaning the sides of the bowl mostly, not sticking everywhere.
- Continue kneading with the dough hook until the dough forms one large ball around the hook and springs back when lightly depressed with your knuckle.
- Oil the inside of a large bowl with olive oil.
- Remove dough from hook and shape into ball.
- Place inside oiled bowl and then turn dough over so that oil coats both top and bottom.
- Place cling wrap (or a clean dish towel) over the bowl and allow to rise for an hour in a warm (room temperature is fine) place.
- For thinner crust you can forgo the rise time or split the difference and only rise for 30 minutes. I find this works best with pizza yeast personally, so you don't have such pronounced 'yeasty' flavour from the shorter rise.
- Heat oven up to 450 degrees.
- Lightly oil your pizza pan or stone and sprinkle generously with cornmeal. You can use cornmeal alone if you know you don't run the risk of the pizza sticking.
- Punch down dough.
- Remove dough and roll out. I do my on the oiled/cornmeal pan itself with a nifty little rolling pin, from Pampered Chef, designed just for this. Aim for a even thickness and roll out as large as you can.
- To achieve a lovely crust, gently roll/turn the edges under ever so slightly all the way around the outside.
- Cover with pizza sauce, toppings and cheese of your choosing - and don't forget a sprinkle of freshly ground pepper and salt just before the oven (freshly ground Pink Himalayan Sea Salt is rather perfect for this in my opinion), you would be surprised what a difference it makes!
- Bake for 12 minutes or until desired level of browning and cheesiness is achieved.
- Allow to cool 5 minutes before slicing and serving.
- *makes 1 large, thick crust pizza or 8 pizza pockets or 4 individual pizzas*
- Double recipe for 2 pizzas.
I have always done thin crust, but my girls now prefer thick with crusts. Just tried this (doubled) and it turned out perfect. So yummy! Thanks Laura!
So glad to hear you guys enjoyed it!! This crust is definitely on regular rotation around here.
Cant wait to make this one!
I wholeheartedly agree that this pizza recipe beats ‘take out’ any day.
I wish I was brave enough to attempt this. I tried making homemade bread once when J and I were training for half marathon (we needed to carb up) and after several attempts (and a lot of wasted ingredients), I gave up. 🙁 You make it look so easy!
Pizza dough is much simpler than bread to make – bread can be finicky and needs a lot more rise time generally. Pizza dough is much more forgiving. My husband and daughter have both made this recipe before and had it turn out.