Quick Pizza Dough
This is the quickest, easiest pizza dough recipe you’ll find! You can roll it out crispy, cracker thin or toss it by hand for a thick, chewy crust. Either way, you’ve got a tried and true pizza crust recipe that your family is going to love!!
Why you’re going to love this easy pizza dough:
- It’s super easy. If you’re new to making pizza dough at home (and have perhaps only used a pre-packaged bag of pizza dough mix!!) this recipe is for YOU! It’s so easy that your kids can help you make it and getting them involved in making dinner always means they are more likely to eat dinner!
- The ingredient list and prep time are minimal. 5 ingredients and 10 minutes of prep time is all it takes to get this classic pizza dough ready to rise. It only takes an hour to double size while you finish the laundry or lounge on the couch and then it’s time to top and bake!
- There’s no fancy kitchen gadgets required. You don’t need an expensive stand mixer. You just need your hands and a little bit of flour! Take out your frustrations from the long work week on this ball of dough and watch it transform before your eyes.
How to make quick pizza dough:
Add all ingredients to a large bowl. Stir with a fork.
Once the dough starts to come together, transfer to a lightly flour work surface.
Form into a ball and knead dough for 5 minutes.
Transfer back to bowl. Oil dough ball on all sides.
Cover and let rest for 1 hour. Dough should double in size.
Preheat oven to 550 degrees. Transfer to lightly floured surface and divide dough in half. Gently work it into two round crusts. Dust baking sheet with corn meal.
Place crusts on top of corn meal and brush with olive oil. Par-bake crusts for 3-5 minutes. Top as desired and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
Tips for making the best quick and easy pizza dough:
- You can just use all purpose flour for this recipe. Don’t worry about finding a fancy bread flour or 00 flour. This recipe is written for all purpose flour and will work best that way.
- Don’t skip the par-bake. Partially baking the crust (before topping it) for 3-5 minutes in a hot oven is going to go a long way in ensuring that you get a perfectly crispy crust. There is nothing worse than a pizza that’s dough in the middle and par-baking will guarantee that doesn’t happen!
- Keep it simple when it comes to toppings. I like to stick to about 1/2-3/4 cup of sauce and 1-1.5 cups of cheese and another 1/2 cup or so of per pie. A pizza that is loaded with sauce and toppings will not cook evenly and you’ll end up with a soggy mess! Just remember that less is more when it comes to topping your pizza!
Freezing pizza dough:
- I always have a frozen dough ball in the freezer for nights when I need a quick and easy dinner. Whether it’s my no knead pizza dough (that takes 24 hours to rise but is completely hands off) or this quick and easy pie dough – both freeze and thaw beautifully making them perfect for family dinner.
- Be sure to transfer the fresh dough to an air tight container before putting in the freezer. The dough will stay good in the freezer for up to 3 months (and probably longer but it never lasts that long in our house)!
- To thaw frozen dough overnight: place dough in fridge for at least 8 hours. Then place dough out on the counter and allow it to come to room temperature. Then toss, par-bake and top.
- To thaw frozen dough quickly: leave dough out on the counter for at least 2 hours. This will allow the dough to thaw all the way through and come to room temp. Then toss, par-bake and top.
More Easy Pizza Recipes
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Quick Pizza Dough
This is the quickest, easiest pizza dough recipe you’ll find! You can roll it out crispy, cracker thin or toss it by hand for a thick, chewy crust. Either way, you’ve got a tried and true pizza crust recipe that your family is going to love!!
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 lbs. dough (about two 12–14 inch hand tossed pies) 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1 packet yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1.5 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil + more for oiling the bowl
- 1.5 cups lukewarm water
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a large bowl.
- Stir with a fork until it cleans the sides of the bowl.
- Transfer to lightly floured work surface.
- Knead dough for 5 minutes.
- Transfer back to bowl. Oil dough ball on all sides.
- Cover and let rest for 1 hour. Dough should double in size.
- Preheat oven to 550 degrees.
- Transfer to lightly floured surface and divide dough evenly in half.
- Gently work it into two round crusts.
- Dust baking sheet with corn meal.
- Place crusts on top of corn meal and brush with olive oil.
- Par-bake crusts for 3-5 minutes.
- Top as desired and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
You can just use all purpose flour for this recipe. Don’t worry about finding a fancy bread flour or 00 flour. This recipe is written for all purpose flour and will work best that way.
Don’t skip the par-bake. Partially baking the crust (before topping it) for 3-5 minutes in a hot oven is going to go a long way in ensuring that you get a perfectly crispy crust. There is nothing worse than a pizza that’s dough in the middle and par-baking will guarantee that doesn’t happen!
Keep it simple when it comes to toppings. I like to stick to about 1/2-3/4 cup of sauce and 1-1.5 cups of cheese and another 1/2 cup or so of per pie. A pizza that is loaded with sauce and toppings will not cook evenly and you’ll end up with a soggy mess! Just remember that less is more when it comes to topping your pizza!
FREEZING:
Be sure to transfer the fresh dough to an air tight container before putting in the freezer. The dough will stay good in the freezer for up to 3 months (and probably longer but it never lasts that long in our house)!
To thaw frozen dough overnight: place dough in fridge for at least 8 hours. Then place dough out on the counter and allow it to come to room temperature. Then toss, par-bake and top.
To thaw frozen dough quickly: leave dough out on the counter for at least 2 hours. This will allow the dough to thaw all the way through and come to room temp. Then toss, par-bake and top.
What size is your large sheet pan?
I use these half sheet pans: https://amzn.to/3I3NIC9
I used half of the recipe to make a cast iron skillet pizza. I used a 10” pan. It was excellent! I love the taste and texture of this crust and so easy to make. My mixer did the kneading for me.
Can you partake the crust in an Ooni pizza oven?
Great question, Jo! We’ve tried that a couple of times without much success. We found that after the dough is par-baked the high heat causes condensation to form between the pizza crust and whatever you’ve got it on. The caused the pizza to stick and it also led to a bit of a gummy texture. I think it may be possible, but it seems that it would likely be a bit tricky to perfect!
Not sure what I did wrong but could barely handle the dough after the rise! Cooked 31/2 minutes per instruction. Certainly not smooth and impossible to make a thin crust without tearing. What did I miss. Will top it for dinner tonight and see! Thanks.
Hmmm…I wish I could see what you’re working with so I could give more detailed help!! Did you knead the dough for the full five minutes before let it rise? It definitely should have been very smooth after kneading. When you say you could barely handle it after the rise, what does that mean? Was the dough wet and sticky? I’d recommend kneading in more flour if that was the case, however a wet sticky dough will give you the best texture for pizza. That’s why I recommend touching gently working it into two crusts. Sometimes if I’m having trouble with the pizza dough, I will use a rolling pin to help roll it in this, but that’s usually a last resort. I hope that some of these help – please let me know if you have any other question! Thank you!