This perfect pizza dough has been my go-to for years. I love everything about it: minimal ingredients, easy to make, tastes great, and yields a tender but crispy crust. It holds up to the toppings and start to finish you can have delicious homemade pizza in less than two hours. If you’ve never made pizza dough before, you won’t believe how easy it is and you’ll be hooked.

When we first moved to Columbus we missed our NY pizza so much, we started having make your own pizza parties almost every Sunday night. This was always followed by an ice cream sundae bar! It was my way of ending the weekend on a high note before the hectic school week began.

Now my boys are grown and we are empty nesters. Our pizza parties went by the wayside. A couple of months ago, I decided to bring the party back! So now when my husband and I want to do something really fun on a Saturday night, we make pizza!

I have adapted this recipe from Kathleen Daelemans’ easy pizza dough recipe. She was on the Food Network and made it look so easy I had to try it. 16 years later I’m still using her recipe. I’m glad it’s very forgiving because sometimes I use a mixer and sometimes I mix it by hand. I have used both all-purpose flour, and bread flour. The bread flour yields a bit more tender crust, but not significantly. I use a pizza stone but if you don’t have one, you can use a rimless sheet pan.

While the dough is rising I set up all of the toppings and then the extravaganza begins. I steam spinach, roast mushrooms and peppers, shred mozzarella cheese, cut up olives, and halve teardrop tomatoes. Any topping you like will work. Just make sure you don’t load up the pizza too much. I use 1/3 cup sauce for each pie, and about 1/2 cup vegetables, and 1/2 cup cheese.

The next time you’re looking for something really fun to do with your spouse, your kids, or your friends, this recipe is the one you should try. It makes four 10” to 12” inch pizzas or 2 – 14” pies. You can also use a sheet pan and stretch the dough to make one rectangular pizza. Whatever shape you go with Enjoy!

ingredients
3 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons fine kosher salt
2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil plus a little for the bowl
½ teaspoon sugar
2 packages dry active yeast (4 teaspoons)
1 ½ cups lukewarm water
Extra flour, for the work surface

toppings
Use whatever sauce is your favorite. I like to use a good jarred sauce like Rao’s Pizza Sauce’s. You can top it with shredded or fresh mozzarella cheese or both, and vegetable toppings of your choice.

directions
Dissolve the yeast in 1 ½ cups warm water with ½ teaspoon sugar; after about 5 minutes it should look cloudy and have bubbles on the surface.

There are two ways to make this dough. Option 1: In a mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook, place in flour, and salt. While mixer is running, gradually add the yeast-water mixture and knead on low speed until dough is firm and smooth, about 5 minutes. Option 2: you can do this all by hand which is my preferred way to make this dough. It comes together so easily. Place the flour and salt in a bowl, make a well in the center, pour in the yeast water mixture in the middle, and the olive oil. Mix with a fork to combine, then use a spoon to mix it together. when it forms a ball, it’s ready to knead. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes.

When dough is ready, shape into a ball, pour a little oil down inside of bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

After it has doubled, punch it down to get the air bubbles out and divide into 2 or 4 equal pieces depending on the size pizzas you want. Form the dough into balls and place on a lightly floured board covered with foil or parchment. At this point, if you don’t want to use them all right away, you can place the balls into individual bags and refrigerate for up to three days. Cover the dough balls with a damp paper towel. Let the dough rise again for an additional 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. set oven rack to the lowest position in the oven and place your pizza stone in if using. You want to put your pizza stone in the cold oven – never in a hot oven, it will crack. If you don’t have a stone, you can put the pizza onto a cookie sheet.

Working with one dough ball at a time, on a lightly floured work surface, (I like to do this directly on aluminum foil or parchment paper) gently form a disk, press down and keep stretching the dough first with your hands and then using a floured rolling pin, gently roll dough into a 10 to 12 inch circle until very thin. Don’t worry if your circle isn’t perfect or if you get a hole just pinch the edges back together.

If the dough feels a little sticky, sprinkle with flour. Add toppings keeping them 1/2 inch in from the edge. Using a pizza peel, or flat sheet pan, transfer the pizza onto the stone while still on the foil or parchment. Alternatively you can place the pizza on a cookie sheet and slide that onto the bottom rack of the oven.

After it’s been in the oven for about 2 minutes, slide the foil or parchment out from under the pizza. You have to do this quickly and carefully especially if using parchment. Alternatively you can use a little cornmeal under the dough and slide it onto the stone or sheet pan directly. I’m not successful at that and find this to be the easiest way for me. In the past flour and cornmeal got all over my oven.

Keep an eye on it when it bakes; it cooks really quickly.. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden and the cheese is bubbling. Checking after 5 minutes.