How to Make Homemade Pizza Dough From Scratch

Making your own homemade pizza dough is an easy and delicious meal to make yourself! Using just flour, yeast, salt and water, you can easily make a wonderful comfort meal whenever you want.

Making Homemade Pizza Dough

This homemade pizza dough has much healthier ingredients than anything you can find in the store. Using your own ingredients also allows you to custom make each pizza to your nutritional and taste preferences. For instance, if you LOVE garlic, you can sprinkle a little garlic powder throughout the dough and around the crust after baking!

Making Extra Dough For The Freezer

Taking the time to make a bigger batch of dough to stock your freezer is a great way to do a little bit of meal prep and can be a blessing to your future self when you have less time to make dough from scratch. It takes hardly any extra time to measure out the extra ingredients.

The main “added time” is in forming the dough balls and preparing them for the freezer. However, you will surely enjoy just pulling out the dough from the freezer when you need a quick meal. 

Homemade Pizza Topping Inspiration

Just like with the pizzas in the grocery store, the potential toppings for homemade pizzas are basically endless! Some family favorites include sausage, pepperoni, bacon, ham and assorted veggies like green pepper, mushrooms or onions. 

For a deliciously sweet onion flavor, I recommend caramelizing your onion pieces before topping them on your freezer pizza!

Storing Homemade Pizza Dough

If you won’t be using your pizza dough right away, you can store it in the fridge for a few days. The cool temperature of the fridge will slow down the yeast activity allowing you to keep the dough ready in the fridge.

However, if you’re looking to make this dough ahead of time for dinner a week or more away from baking, it would be best to store it in the freezer. 

How To Freeze Homemade Pizza Dough

To freeze homemade pizza dough, you will follow all of the mixing instructions listed below. In sead of rolling out the dough after it has risen for the first time, you will form each section into a ball. After each ball is formed, you will oil all sides of the dough ball and tightly wrap in plastic wrap. 

How To Thaw Frozen Pizza Dough

It’s best to keep pizza dough in the freezer until the day before you’re ready to bake. When you want to make pizza, move the dough into the fridge about a day ahead. This will allow the dough to slowly defrost and provide the best texture. 

Once the dough is pliable, you should be able to shape, assemble and bake your pizza. 

If you need to bake your pizza faster or you forgot to take your dough out of the freezer, have no fear! You can still make your pizza. Instead of placing it in the fridge, put your wrapped dough on your kitchen counter. The ambient air will warm the dough much faster than defrosting in the fridge. 

If possible, check on the dough every 20-30 minutes by gently poking it. It may take more than an hour or so to fully thaw and become pliable. Once the dough is pliable, roll out the dough, assemble your toppings and bake your pizza as desired!

The Shelf Life of Homemade Pizza Dough

As with many homemade foods, the shelf life is quite short. This dough is best made into pizza on the same day it is mixed. However, you can store it in a covered bowl in the fridge for a few days.

If you want to make pizza dough ahead of time as meal prep, it’s best to store in the freezer. For best results, use any frozen dough within 2-3 months.

Ingredients and Tools

5 ⅓ Cups All Purpose Flour

2 Cups Warm Water (about 110℉)

1 TBSP Active Dry Yeast 

1 TBSP Sea Salt

Makes 2-3 Medium to Thin Crust Pizzas (16 Inch)

Directions

Prepare The dough

• Begin by combining the yeast and warm water in a measuring cup to bloom. Set aside for about 5 minutes.

• While the yeast is blooming in the water, mix together 4 ½ cups of flour and all of the salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. 
• Once the yeast has bloomed, add the yeast water to the flour and salt mixture. Mix in the stand mixer on a medium speed for 5-7 minutes or until the dough starts pulling apart from the sides.

• Add the remaining flour until the dough is no longer sticky. 
• Remove from the stand mixer bowl and knead the dough by hand a few times to ensure it doesn’t become sticky. Add flour as needed. 
• Grease your mixing bowl with a little oil and return the dough to the bowl and cover with a wet towel. Place in a warm area and let rise until doubled. 

Baking Your Crust

• Once doubled, preheat your oven to 400℉ and punch down your dough. Divide the dough into your desired sections. **See Notes** 
• Roll out each piece to your desired size and transfer to a greased or parchment paper lined baking sheet. 

• Assemble your pizza as desired and bake until your crust is cooked to your preference.
• After your pizza is cooked, remove from the oven, cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

Notes: 

This dough makes ~3 thin crust pizzas with a 16 inch diameter. If you want a thicker crust for a 16 inch pizza, you’ll want to divide this into 2. If you’re making smaller pizzas, you can divide the dough into more pieces.

Homemade Pizza Dough FAQ:

Why Make Homemade Pizza Dough?

This homemade pizza dough has much healthier ingredients than anything you can find in the store. Using your own ingredients also allows you to custom make each pizza to your nutritional and taste preferences. For instance, if you LOVE garlic, you can sprinkle a little garlic powder throughout the dough and around the crust after baking!

What’s The Shelf Life of Homemade Pizza Dough?

As with many homemade foods, the shelf life is quite short. This dough is best made into pizza on the same day it is mixed. However, you can store it in a covered bowl in the fridge for a few days.

If you want to make pizza dough ahead of time as meal prep, it’s best to store in the freezer. For best results, use any frozen dough within 2-3 months. 

What Toppings Can I Use For Homemade Pizzas?

Just like with the pizzas in the grocery store, the potential toppings for frozen pizzas are basically endless! Some family favorites include sausage, pepperoni, bacon, ham and assorted veggies like green pepper, mushrooms or onions.

What’s the Best Way to Store Homemade Pizza Dough?

If you won’t be using your pizza dough right away, you can store it in the fridge for a few days. The cool temperature of the fridge will slow down the yeast activity allowing you to keep the dough ready in the fridge.

However, if you’re looking to make this dough ahead of time for dinner a week or more away from baking, it would be best to store it in the freezer. 

What’s the Best Way to Thaw Frozen Pizza Dough?

The best way to thaw your home frozen pizza dough depends on how quickly you need to use the dough. If you are preparing meals for your weekly meal prep, I suggest taking out the dough between 1 & 2 days before you plan on baking. 

If you need to bake your dough faster, you can place the frozen dough in a bowl and leave it on your counter until it’s pliable.

Did you try this? Share your creations in the comments or by tagging @MissysHomestead on Instagram.