Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe

This is a guest post and recipe by my friend Amy Quinn. On a recent visit to her house, I tried her homemade pizza and knew it would be a hit with my kids. The crust was thin and soft — the kind you can slice into big, floppy triangles and fold in half. And I was right: After the first bite, Henry asked, “Mom, did you order this pizza?” Success!

Yeasted doughs, especially for pizza, had always been one of those mysteries of cookery to me — some kind of kitchen alchemy to which I wasn’t privy. A few early attempts at pizza dough turned out inedible and tough (certainly due to overzealous kneading) or unrisen because of old yeast or water at the wrong temperature.

Of course, going by the “even bad pizza is still pretty good” rule, we still ate it. I mean, duh.

It’s taken me months, but I finally have the recipe and techniques right where I want them. And as a bonus, Friday Night Pizza is now a “thing” in our house, something my son looks forward to helping with too.

Here’s my basic recipe (see printable version at bottom of post):

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle, place 1 cup bread flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Mix to combine. Add water in a slow, steady stream, and mix until you have a yeasty paste, about 2 minutes.

Replace paddle with dough hook, and scrape bottom and sides of bowl. With mixer on medium speed, add the rest of the flour. You may need to drizzle in more water here, a little bit at a time, until a nice dough ball forms. Then turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl one more time. Add a bit more flour or water to get the right consistency — you want it to completely pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Knead with dough hook on medium-high speed about four minutes. The dough should be smooth, soft, and stretchy.

Remove dough to a bowl coated with a bit of olive oil, and turn the dough over a few times to cover with oil (this will keep it from sticking to the bowl as it rises and will help it not stick to your pan later on).

Cover with plastic, set in a warm place, and let the dough rise until doubled in size.

Gently punch dough down, then cut the dough ball in half, and let the two pieces sit another 10 minutes.

Preheat oven or gas grill to 475 degrees; the high temperature is crucial for a quick-baking, “boardwalk-style” crust. From here, the key is to handle the dough as little as possible and with a light touch.

Coat the dough ball with flour, then press it into the pan. Eschew the rolling pin — the best tools here are your two hands. Place one hand flat on the dough near the center, to keep the dough in place, then use the fingers on the other hand to stretch and move the dough in a fan shape, turning the pan as you go. (If you’re brave and want to try stretching it like they do in a pizzeria, use your knuckles and not your fingertips. Trust me.)

Top your pizza. We like sweet sausage or spinach and tomato. But my newest favorite is olive oil, arugula, red onion, pistachios, rosemary and Fontina cheese — swiped from Pizzeria Stella in Philadelphia.

Bake 8 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Rest pizza for 2 minutes before cutting.