Easy Pizza Dough From Scratch

As far as I’m concerned knowing how to make an easy pizza dough from scratch is an essential life skill. Because really, I can’t think of any occasion where serving pizza isn’t a good idea. Date night, check. Easy dinner when the whole extended family descends on your house for a long weekend, check. Casual backyard wedding with the outdoor pizza oven in full swing, check! See, I told you, there isn’t an occasion when pizza is not a socially acceptable option! Plus, who doesn’t like pizza?!

What you need to get started

• Dried yeast
  
  
  
• Lukewarm water
  
  
  
• Sugar – I use golden castor sugar when making pasta dough, however, I’ve also used white sugar here and both worked perfectly well.
  
  
  
• “00” Flour – Perfect for pizza (and pasta) dough, given its low gluten content. It makes the silkiest pizza dough ever!
  
  
  
• Salt flakes – Always Murry River Salt Flakes in my kitchen
  
  
  
• Extra virgin olive oil

The Nitty Gritty

1. Place the water, yeast, and sugar in a bowl. Give it a quick stir to combine it with a fork. Set aside for 5 minutes to activate.
   
   
   
2. In a stand mixer bowl place the flour and salt. Make sure you use the dough hook and give a quick mix to combine.
   
   
   
3. Add the water mix to the flour and salt. Add the olive oil. Turn the mixer onto speed two. When combined reduce speed to one and continue to mix for a further 10 minutes. By this stage, your dough should be super smooth and elastic.
   
   
   
4. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and stand in a warm place for 30 minutes.
   
   
   
5. Divide your dough and roll out ready for pizza topping!
   
   
   
6. Once the pizza toppings are done, pop the pizza into the oven (on a greased baking tray) for 12-15 minutes.

Equipment

You can totally get by kneading your dough by hand. However, I am a firm believer in having the right tools to make life easier. I couldn’t be without my KitchenAid stand mixer. After a couple of years with a KitchenAid KSM150 tilt head mixer, I upgraded to a KitchenAid Proline bowl-lift mixer, with its huge 7-liter bowl. We’re like peas and carrots – basically, we belong together! The dough hook makes pizza dough in 10 breezy minutes after the ingredients are combined.

Pizza toppings

The really good thing about this pizza dough recipe is that it makes two pizzas. I always make one traditional type (usually pepperoni) for meat lovers and then I love to try different combinations with the remaining dough. Some of my favorite versions are…

• Slow-roasted tomato, a drizzle of pesto, and sliced mozzarella
  
  
• Butternut pumpkin, Caramelised onion & goat’s cheese
  
  
• Here’s a grown-up version of pizza pinwheels. Remember those?! Think outside the box for other pizza dough uses.

Can you freeze pizza dough?

Yes! This batch makes two pizzas. However, if I have the time I make a double (or triple batch). After the first rise, divide the dough into pizza size dough balls. Double wrap them in cling film and pop them in the freezer for later use. Frozen pizza dough defrosts quite quickly, so on baking day, remove the dough ball from the freezer a couple of hours before you are ready to cook. Roll out, and top with your favorite pizza toppings.

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