Quick and Easy Pizza Dough

I have used this recipe for years, which I also got from an old Betty Crocker cookbook, but in mine it doesn’t say to knead the dough. Instead, once you’ve mixed the ingredients, add flour until it forms a ball that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Give it 20 additional strong strokes, cover and let sit for 5 minutes (tip: if you let it sit 30 minutes it will be even lighter). I also make breadsticks etc with this recipe and for pizza dough I often add spices like garlic to the dough itself (but for every tsp. of garlic powder you use you must use an equal amount of sugar so it isn’t bitter).

OK, just tried this recipe tonight…YUMMY! We made it with whole wheat flour and I have NEVER tasted a better dough! Crispy on the o0utside and nice and chewy in the middle..THANK YOU!

I usually make the crust in my bread machine – I got it for a wedding gift almost 12 years ago and it still works great! I use 1/2 whole wheat flour, 1/2 white. I have been experimenting with even more whole wheat, and that has been working fine. As for toppings: My husband and son are booooring… Cheese for my son, pepperoni for my husband. I like to try ham, bacon, ground hamburger, onion, red and green peppers, olives,mushrooms, tomatoes… basically anything I have in the fridge that gives my side more variety!! I also add minced garlic to the dough, use olive oil instead of veg oil, and like to add parmesean cheese, basil, and oregano to the crust. I roll it onto my pizza stone that’s lightly coated with cornmeal – yum! It gives a good texture, and makes it completely non stick. We do this once a week – usually Friday night.

I made homemade pizza for the first time last night using your recipe, and my family loved it! My husband said that it was better than take-out pizza from a local Italian restaurant and my 3 kids devoured it.

I never made homemade pizza before and your recipe was so easy.

Thanks for sharing a wonderful recipe with us! I can see that this pizza is going to become one of our family’s favorites.

We tried your dough recipe last night. It passed the test! We made it with half bbq chicken (leftover from Sunday) and half bologna. Thanks for sharing!

Ok so I tried it tonight and although I didn’t like the sauce I made (it was ketchup mixed with bbq sauce), I did like the toppings I used… smoked turkey sausage, cheddar cheese, white cheddar spread, and tomatoes. And I LOVED the crust. It was soooo good. It will taste amazing with a better sauce LOL I’m going to use an alfredo or tomato sauce next time (didn’t have any of those in the pantry)

I tried this recipe for lunch today. It was very easy and quick. I double the recipe and it made 3 pizza and 6 bread sticks.
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1. I sauteed sliced red peppers and fresh spinach leaves.
2. Sausage
3. Pepperoni

I was going to make pizza anyway last night so you can imagine my happiness to see an easier recipe… and it was a winner! TFS!

Our pizza is pretty boring – pepperoni usually, but we love it. I use the breadmaker to make the dough…very easy and quick for me!

Wow, this recipe is great, you don’t even need to rise it. I’ll have to give this one a try as my family loves to have homemade pizza. Thanks for posting it.

As a family of 10 we make pizza every week.
My husband makes a great philly cheese steak pizza
Check it out on our blog!
God Bless, Kathy
http://inmymothersgarden.blogspot.com/2009/01/we-love-pizza.html

I didn’t read through every thing so I apologize if someone mentioned this, but when we do homemade pizza I make our dough in the bread machine. It works super slick!

We had homemade pizza on Monday night. I thought I was cool until I started reading your comments…man these people really no how to make authentic homemade pizza! I have stuck with the same ol’, same ol’, pepperoni & cheese, or supreme. I’ll have to venture out and try something else.

I found this recipe for Par-Baked Pizza Crust several months ago: http://convivial.blogs.com/my_weblog/2008/01/kims-super-easy.html
It is now a regular part of my once a month cooking. This crust is partially baked and frozen. Then you simply take it from freezer to oven after adding your favorite toppings. It is crazy-good!

I love buying yeast super cheap at Sam’s and then making this recipe – http://www.mummydeals.org/2008/10/mama-bs-kitchen_23.html. We’re pretty boring with toppings as hubby is fussy but these pizzas are soooo good. I did just find wholewheat pizza dough already made at trader Joe’s for $1.29 so i gotta try that too!

I gotta try this recipe! I love to make pizza at home with 5 y/o brother, but we always use the refrigerated pillsbury dough (it’s good), but this recipe looks like it would be more wholesome and fun to make. We are more a traditional pizza kind of family, it’s usually pepperoni, and black olives. But my fav is tomatoes and banana peppers! =)

I have had that same recipe for over 20 years-my 5 kids were raised on it. We still make pizza every Saturday night even though we are just 3 now. The pizza idea with the Italian dressing, chicken, onions and feta sounds wonderful and I am going to give that a try. Thanks!

Hi Crystal,
My husband is a pastor and I try to keep Saturday nights quiet and stress free for him while he is finishing up his Sunday preparations. So for us, that means homemade pizza almost every Saturday for dinner. However, it has never been” totally” homemade, because I buy the crusts! So, now you all have encouraged and inspired me to try making my own! I love saving money, too. 🙂 As far as toppings, we like lots of veggies and pineapple. I try to plan ahead, but sometimes it is fun to just add what we have and it is always good! I think I will try artichoke hearts this Saturday, after reading one or more of the comments.
Thanks and God bless!

Hi,

We use the crust recipe from the Tightwad Gazette…very similar. I love the idea of adding herbs and spices to the crust. I’m going to have to try that. Our favorite here is Taco. We spread refried beans (thinned with a little enchalada sauce) as the sauce, we add chicken, pork or beef, seasoned with taco seasoning next, then we top with colby-jack or mexican blend cheese and bake until golden. Then we add shredded lettuce and diced fresh tomatoes. I’m going to have to try some of these recipes that mentioned fresh tomatoes and artichokes…they sound so good…=)

We make homemade pizza once a week. My boys won;t eat it with anything except peperoni on it though

We like pesto with onions and cheese, but it’s also good with chicken thrown on, too.

That’s really funny that you just posted this because I just (over this past weekend) bookmarked this same post from your old biblical womanhood blog from a few years ago. I’ve never made homemade pizza before, but I look forward to trying this recipe!

We almost never eat pizza shop pizza, and I don’t think my kids have ever eaten the frozen stuff. We LOVE homemade! I knead it with my Bosch stand mixer so it’s even quicker to make. One of our favorite toppings is pineapple with ham or sausage. Then mozzarella of course. I drain crushed pineapple very well, even squeeze it out, to keep it from sogging up the crust. Another fav is sliced fresh tomatoes in the summer. That’s on top of the traditional pepperoni or whatever, and topped with mozzarella.

We make pizza about twice a month here. I like a half wheat and half unbleached dough myself. We enjoy home made sauce- and mixed italian cheeses- esp. provolone. YUM!

we love ALL KINDS of pizza, but one of our favorites is thin whole wheat crust with a can of diced tomatoes (we use the muir glen organic garlic and basil kind) as the sauce mixed with tastefully simple pesto and with lots of mozzarella cheese on top. mmmm i’m drooling 🙂

tina 🙂

I also use part wheat flour in a 1:2 ratio using more white flour so it doesn’t taste so grainy and my family will actually like it. I also use honey in place of sugar, and olive oil in place of butter. Making everything from scratch is much healthier!! We usually eat pizza every Friday. I don’t know what I’d do without my breadmaker!!!!!!!!

I make my pizza crust in the bread machine (I just use the recipe from the machine book).

I like carmelized onions, bacon, chicken, and blue cheese. Yum.

oooo, I love homemade pizza, but I haven’t tried my own crust yet! We’re pretty plain people, so we like to stick to the tried and true cheese and pepperoni! Thanks for the recipe and recommendation- I can’t wait to try it out!

mmm… I use crushed tomatoes for a can and add Penzey’s pizza seasoning for the sauce. On top I put: spinach, mozz cheese, artichoke hearts, feta, and veggie pepperoni.
I also really like whole kernel corn on my pizza.

We have homemade pizza every friday night. Truthfully, our toppings depend on what’s in the fridge that day. Pizza night is usually used to get rid of the bits and pieces that we have left in the veggie drawer so I can get more the next week.

I started making homemade pizzas about two months ago and it’s become a weekly event. The kids love it and so do hubby and I! Of course I really love the fact that the crust costs me about 50 cent for 2 pizzas! Crazy good! We’re plain janes on toppings: cheese for the kids, half pepperoni for me, half mushrooms for hubby. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

I have been using this recipe for our Friday Clarke Family Pizza Party nights for I don’t know how long…perhaps when you posted it way back when?? I do add garlic and onion powder to the dough (I like a little kick!)

Thanks for the great recipe!!!!

We have homemade pizza almost every Friday. My 5 year-old calls it “Pizza Day,” not Friday. Sometimes I mix an extra batch of dough and bake the crusts for about 2-3 mins. without any toppings. I then freeze these and they are ready for super quick lunches after topping them and baking for a few minutes. This has saved us from being caught in the drive-thru trap so many times. My KitchenAid does the mixing, as it has for over 20 years. I can’t believe the amount of money that mixer has saved me. I top ours with a locally-made pizza sauce, imported parmesan (I splurge on this but still save $$ by making the pizza myself), mozzarella and provolone and olives for me, mushrooms and bell peppers for hubby. During garden season I use lots of fresh tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella.

We make pizza at home too! Our favorites are somewhat standard, but we also do ‘leftover’ pizzas with that last little bit of cooked chicken, part of an onion and some olives…or a chopped up slice of ham, pineapple and a few slivered pepperonis. One of hubby’s favorites is to knead some ‘Italian herbs’ into the crust, put a little red sauce, mozzarella and cheddar and then lots of thin sliced onion rings. Yum!

When cheese is on sale, I stock up and freeze it for pizza nights, and it works great. We save a lot of money making pizza ourselves. 🙂

I make homemade pizza all the time but dh insists that I make the dough the day before and let it proof in the fridge so he can make the pizzas with it the next evening. He used to make pizzas for a living (he managed a local pizza place for a few years when we first got married 20 yrs ago) so he does it his way 🙂 and they are delicious!
Some of our favorite toppings are pepperoni, ham, grnd meat, chicken, veggies of all sorts, taco stuff (for taco pizza!), banana peppers, (ds loves anchovies!), pineapple and assorted cheeses. Depends on what I have on hand as to what we use on them. One that is really good with fresh tomatoes is simply olive oil, garlic, fresh sliced tomatoes, basil and fresh mozarella chesse (or fresh goat cheese!) YUMMY!

I *love* your pizza dough, I’ve been using it for several months now! I usually make a double batch and make two at one time.

I also use 2 cups white and 1/2 cup wheat in the recipe. A little bit more whole grain, and it gives the dough a nice texture.

I’ve also used your recipe to make homemade hot pockets. Yum!

We love to make pizza at our house! I second the “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day” Post. That is the recipe I use! It requires no kneading and I make it a day or two ahead of time. The other thing I do, is keep shredded mozzarella on hand in the freezer. It makes the work so much less. I also LOVE my pizza stone. I crank the oven up as high as it can go and put the pizza right on the stone. It tastes better than going out most of the time.

We love having carmelized onions on our homemade pizza. Its a cheap and “gourmet” topping : )

I am not the best in the kitchen, so I have a question…do you knead the dough for five minutes, and that’s all the rising it needs? Or do you knead the dough, and let it sit five minutes? Thanks for clarifying!

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Money Saving Mom here: This dough does not need to have any rising time other than the kneading time. However, you don’t have to bake it immediately. Sometimes I’ll make up the pizza and then refrigerate it for a few hours before baking it. It’s a very versatile crust recipe that seems almost impossible to ruin!

I am making pizza tonight! My dough just finished in the bread machine. Do you use whole wheat flour at all? I use 2 C wheat, 1 C white. The best thing about pizza is you can use the little bits of things left in the fridge. Anything goes! My husband likes chicken with ranch dressing for the sauce. I like to thinly slice avacado for a topping as well.

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Money Saving Mom here: You can use whole-wheat flour or half and half. I think it’s better with some white flour in it, though.

I make white cheese pizza. You mix some ricotta cheese with some shredded mozarella and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. It will be a little thick but spreadable. I pre bake a traditional pizza crust for 5-7 minutes, then spread the cheese mixture on the crust. Then I use a whole package of sliced provolone cheese – smoked flavor (usually has 8 slices) and lay them on top of the pizza. Finally, I sprinkle mozarella cheese on top. This is GREAT!

We love homemade pizza around here! I use basically the same recipe- I use olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I divide the dough up into smaller portions and let my kids (5, 3, and 2) make their own pizzas. It’s a fun way to let them “cook.”

We love homemade pizza here! That’s what we just had for dinner. My favorite “gourmet” toppings are sun dried tomatoes, sauteed onions, peppers, mushrooms and fresh baby spinach (sauteed at the end of cooking the onions, etc.) Or we do a BBQ pizza with chopped scallions and sun dried tomatoes. I’m sure chicken would be good on those too, but we’re vegetarian so we just do veggie toppings;-) And of course we eat it with just cheese and sauce sometimes too.

I recently started making pizza from scratch. Before, I used a pizza crust mix. I use the following recipe, although I found that two batches will make three pizzas (otherwise you end up with an extremely thick pizza):

http://www.tammysrecipes.com/annejiscas_easy_pizza_dough

I discovered the book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” and just realized that the master recipe can be used to make pizza. I’m so excited to try it, because if we like it, making pizza will be even easier than before. If you haven’t checked out this book, I HIGHLY recommend it.