I’m baaaaaaack and I missed you!
I’m currently suffering from Empty Nest Syndrome since my family left yesterday. Luckily, the Bachelorette and some leftover wine consoled me last night.
Saturday night, I threw a ‘Build your own pizza party’ with my family. Initially, I was worried that the pizza wouldn’t turn out and everyone would be disappointed, but my worries vanished as soon I saw the beautiful pizzas come out of the oven and the kids faces light up!
If you followed my Project Food Blog journey last year, you may know that I used to be terrified to make my own pizza dough crust from scratch. Actually, any type of bread baking involving yeast terrified me for years! I stuck to buying pre-made crusts at the grocery store. It was only when I was faced with Project Food Blog’s Pizza Challenge, that I had to face my pizza dough fears and dive right in.
That night, I tried out 5-6 pizza dough recipes right there in my kitchen with a bottle of wine. It was fabulous. I created all kinds of flavours like herb and cheeze, chocolate, and cinnamon sugar. Most of them tasted horrible, but I was learning!
After 10 trials of pizza dough, I finally conquered my pizza dough fear and I discovered that sometimes you just have to get flour in your keyboard, dough stuck in your hair, and polish off a bottle of wine until you find your groove. it’s a life mantra, really.
After talking with my family this weekend, I discovered that so many of us have this same fear about making pizza dough from scratch. Today, I’m going to show you step by step how to make the pizza dough of your dreams!
I’ll wait here for a second while you get your apron on and pour yourself some wine.
Ready?
Let’s begin.
How To Make Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
Recipe –> For my whole wheat pizza dough recipe, I used this ‘Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza Crust’ by Marla on Allrecipes.com. It is rated 4.5/5 stars by 578 users! It’s my fav!
Step 1) Proof your Yeast
In a large bowl, dissolve 1 teaspoon of white sugar in 1 and 1/2 cups warm water (about 45C/110F). Stir until dissolved. Now sprinkle 1 tablespoon dry active yeast on top of the sugar-water mixture and let stand until foamy, for 8-10 minutes.
It will look like this after 10 minutes (if it doesn’t foam, your yeast is inactive!)
Step 2) Mix in olive oil and flour
Add 1 tablespoon olive oil into the yeast mixture and gently stir. Now, mix in 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of all-purpose flour and stir until the dough starts to come together.
The dough will be very cracked and scruffy looking at this point and this is totally NORMAL! Do not fear!!
Step 3) Flour the surface
Add the remaining 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour onto the counter and place dough on top.
Tip: At this point, soak your bowl in soap and warm water for easy rinsing later!
Step 4) Knead the dough
Now it’s time to knead the dough (for a great video tutorial, see here) until all of the flour has been absorbed and the ball of dough becomes very smooth and non-tacky. This is the point when you will feel like you did something horribly wrong because your dough looks like crap! But, trust me, it will eventually come together in 8-10 minutes of kneading!!! It really does take the full 8-10 minutes until it comes together. Shape into a ball. Once you make a few pizza doughs, you will know exactly when it’s ready.
And yes, kneading dough by hand is a workout, but we’ve never been afraid of a little work, right?
I tried a few pizza doughs with my KitchenAid stand mixer dough hook last Fall and they never came out as good as kneading by hand. There’s a reason why pizzerias still knead dough by hand!
5) Admire your beautiful ball of dough that you worked so hard on!
Your dough will look like this after 8-10 minutes of kneading:
6) Oil the Bowl
Rinse bowl and lightly oil it. Place dough ball in the bowl and lightly move it around to coat the ball with oil. This will prevent it from sticking to the bowl as it rises.
7) Let the dough rise
Place dough in the bowl and cover with a towel. Let it rise until it’s doubled in size, about 1 hour. In the summer, I just leave the dough on the counter, but if it’s cold, you might want to place it in the oven (NOT turned on) with the light on to keep it warm.
After rising, punch out the air.
8.) Second Rise
Divide dough into two balls (for 2 thin crusts) and place both on a floured surface. Allow the 2 balls to rise, uncovered, for 45 minutes.
I made a double batch of this dough recipe, so I had 4 balls at this stage!
9) Preheat oven and Shape the dough
Preheat the oven to 425-450F. (If using a pizza stone, preheat the pizza stone for 1 hour at 450-500 F and sprinkle on cornmeal onto your pizza peel) Punch out any remaining air in the dough and then begin shaping with your hands. I like to toss it in small circles over and over to get it going. It takes a few minutes to get the dough pliable and ready to spread onto the pizza pan or stone.
You can place your dough onto an oiled pizza pan or onto a Pizza Peel sprinkled with cornmeal if using a Pizza Stone.
Spread out the dough with your fingers until your desired shape is achieved.
Gently pinch the crust with your fingers.
I like to spread on garlic infused olive oil onto the crust to give it flavour.
10) Add your sauce and toppings!
Add your tomato, pesto, or BBQ sauce..and then sprinkle on your toppings! I used Daiya cheese on my section and most of the adults tried it and commented on how good this vegan cheese is. It’s a great non-dairy alternative!
The kids loved building their own pizzas!! So cute :)
11) Bake until golden and cooked through
If using a pre-heated Pizza Stone, use your pizza peel to gently slide the pizza onto the stone in the oven. I highly prefer pizza stones because they give the pizza a very authentic crispy crust!!
Last Fall, I tested three popular pizza baking methods:
1) Pizza pan –> Soft crust, soft interior
2) Back of a baking sheet –> Soft crust, soft interior
3) Pizza Stone –> Authentic, crunchy crust, with soft interior
The pizza stone won by a landslide!
However, on Saturday night, we used pans to save time since we had 3 large and 4 mini pizzas to cook! It was just enough dough for everyone (I made a double batch).
After baking for about 15 minutes, pizza perfection was achieved.
Nothing to be scared of, trust me!
Now, go on and try your hand at your own homemade pizza crust. I’m confident you can rock it!!
Pizza from scratch is always a crowd pleaser no matter who you are entertaining.
Pizza fear conquered.
Now who wants to come over for a pizza party?
We can have Fruit Pizza with Avocado Lime whip for dessert. ;)
Thank you so much. I reference this page every time I make a homemade pizza now!
Looks relish! Have you ever made cauliflower pizza crust? A friend’s mom made this a few times using riced cauliflower, mozzarella cheese and eggs.
If so do you have your own version of the recipe you can share? Maybe sub mozzarella for almond cheese? Not sure how to get around the eggs though.
No I havent but Ive been wanting to try one! Thanks for the reminder.
Can the dough be frozen for future use? If so at what point do you freeze it? Before or after rising?
THanks :)
Hi Kristen, I do think you can freeze pizza dough, but I’m not exactly sure when you would freeze it so I’m hesitant to give you a suggestion – I would suggest a quick google search about freezing dough. You should be able to find someone who has the proper advice. Goodluck!
Thank you thank you thank you! Not only was this 4 year old approved, but good gracious it is delicious! Also, in your garlic base, if I may add, chop up some rosemary (I inherited a big bunch and tried it!—yum yum yum)
Angela, I made this pizza crust last weekend and my family loved it! I would like to make pizza next weekend for my little girl’s birthday party but want to do as much prep as I can in advance. Would it be a good idea you think to bake the crust ahead of the time, then just add the toppings that morning and bake or broil… or bake the whole thing the day before and reheat in the oven… or leave the dough uncooked and put on the toppings the night before and bake it the next morning? So many options, so little experience! Any advice would be lovely :)
Hi Angela,
I can’t wait to try this crust as is but do have a question in regards to flour substitute. I’ve been reading up on almond flour and I know it can’t always be substituted 1:1 to all recipes as it does not absorb liquids as well as wheat or white flour. Do you have any suggestions for subbing out the wheat and white with almond flour in this recipe?
Thanks!
I made FIVE of your recipes today, (all great!) and this was one of them – the pictures really helped. I topped my kids’ with the usual tomato sauce and mozzarella, but I put your cauliflower Alfredo sauce (with a little cashew creme mixed in) on mine, and then layered on roasted squash and a few dollops of tomato sauce. When it came out of the oven I drizzled on some black truffle oil – wowza!
I already make my own pizza dough… well I did when I was vegetarian (used honey) and I recently crossed over to the vegan side :D so I decided to look for a brand new pizza dough recipe. I came straight to your website. You’ve been a vegan goddess for me!! lol just curious, what are the toppings in the picture where you’re cutting the pizza? It looks AMAZING.
I made this pizza dough the first time about 3 weeks ago, let it sit overnight in the refrigerator, and then divided my dough into 2 parts. We made pizza that night, and froze the other part. The results were great.
Part 2 of the great pizza “science experiment”: Yesterday about noon, I removed the frozen dough from the freezer to the refrigerator. Then today about 1:00 PM I took it out of the refrigerator and into the (unheated) oven with the light on. The dough rose again (3rd rise), and then we made pizza. Then you flatten it all out to make the pizza and it puffed up again while cooking. I swear tonight’s pizza was as good or better than the first one. And I had a whole lot less to clean up tonight!
I will definitely be making this again.
Could you freeze any leftover dough?
Hi. You need to cold proof the dough in the refrigerator for 3 days prior to baking. Your method will result in dough with minimal flavor. Also don’t use a pizza stone. Instead use a steel or better blue steel pan baking at 500 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes. Steel is a better conductor of heat than stone. Also use a high gluten flour.
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Nice Recipe
I would like to buy a stand mixer in India. Please answer my questions.
Can I make this pizza without any stand mixer?
Could you please suggest the company?
Which stand mixer is better?
Where to buy this stand mixer in India?
Can I buy through their official website? If I can buy, please suggest me their official website in India.
Thanks.
This recipe looks yummy. I don’t own a pizza stone, however I used a cast iron skillet well oiled, and seasoned. I also knead in cornmeal and extra on the bottom. I prebake for 5-8 minutes then top. It makes a delightful pan pizza that can be topped to the edge. Thank you for the recipe. I will be trying this on the weekend.
Thanks for sharing the cast iron skillet trick, Kim! I hope you like this recipe when you give it a try.
This turned out perfect for us, great tasting recipe. thanks.
Simon
I just recently tried making pizza with Kirimochi! So delicious! I love pizza but am always looking for an alternative to pizza bases. Making my own base seem to take too much time and cleaning up the floury mess makes it worse. But with kirimochi, it’s really easy and my pizza is done in 15 minutes! It’s also naturally gluten and wheat free. Recipe on my blog:
https://breakfastandsalads.wordpress.com/2016/10/01/chewy-mochi-pizza-naturally-gluten-free/
I will try making pizza the first time with my kids this weekend. Thank you for sharing the recipe! It’s very helpful for me!
Hi Angela, I’m celiac which means that I can not use normal flour. Did you try to use a gluten free flour before ? thanks