Pizza Dough Fresh Or Dry Yeast

Want to make the best homemade pizza dough? This recipe will turn any beginner into an expert on the very first try. It uses yeast (instant or active) to make chewy, crispy pizza crust from scratch. Let’s cook!

Included in this pizza dough guide for beginners is a step by step video on how to make sheet pan pizza crust using fresh dough. Here are ingredients used in the demonstration. You can always swap them out for pizza toppings of your choice.

Don’t miss the video below with the printable pizza dough recipe for complete visuals on kneading pizza dough so it’s light and fluffy.

Best Yeast For Pizza Dough: Master The Art Of Pizza Making

Step 1. Sift flour. This is optional, but I find it makes a really smooth pizza dough.Use a large sieve into a large bowl and set aside.

Step 2. Activate yeast for pizza dough. To proof the yeast, add yeast, 2 tbsp warm water (⅛ cup), and sugar to a small bowl. Whisk to combine. If using instant yeast to make pizza crust, there is no “activation time”, so move on to the next step without waiting.

For active yeast pizza dough – If using active dry yeast, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside (by a warm sunny window is ideal) for 15 minutes or until small bubbles appear.

Which Yeast To Use?

Step 3. (Option 1 for mixing crust) Mix together pizza dough ingredients by hand. Add yeast mixture, warm water (1 cup), 2 tbsp olive oil, and salt to the large bowl of flour.

Use a large spatula or spoon to loosely combine the ingredients. The dough will be a bit shaggy and not a perfect dough at this time. See the Sip Bite Go video tutorial for visuals. If pizza dough is “too wet”, then add additional flour, ½ tbsp at a time.

How the dough comes together can vary based on time of year and the humidity and heat in your kitchen. It can be a bit of an experiment!

Pizza Crust Yeast Vs Regular Yeast (difference & Usage)

Step 4. (Option 2 for mixing dough) Mix together pizza dough with a stand mixer or food processor. Use a KitchenAid stand mixer with dough attachment or a food processor with a plastic blade.

Adding the wet ingredients to the bowl and gradually pouring in the wet ingredients (yeast mixture and water). Mix with the machine for 1-2 minutes until ingredients combine into a loose ball. Add additional flour if needed, as mentioned in the step above.

Step 5. Gently knead pizza dough by hand so it rises properly. Add 2 tbsp flour to a large cutting board or work surface, divided in placement, with 1 tbsp in the corner to use as needed, and the other lightly spread out on the work surface.

Ultimate Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe

How do you knead pizza dough by hand? Add the unkneaded pizza dough to the center of the dusted surface and knead it by pushing it together in a ball. Then, alternate for 2-3 minutes between pushing the heel of your hand into the center of the dough, and folding in each corner of the dough one by one.

Go back and forth, turning the dough as you push the heel of your hand and fold it over. As needed, add a little flour from the reserved pile to your hands if the dough sticks to your hands. To be sure it’s done kneading, poke the dough with a finger and if it bounces back, it’s done.

Step 6. Allow homemade pizza dough to rise. Add remaining 1 tbsp olive oil to a clean large bowl and spread it around so the bottom is covered in oil. Add the dough ball of kneaded pizza dough to the oil bowl. Turn it once to completely cover in oil.

What Is The Best Yeast For Pizza Dough?

Cover the bowl of dough with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel on top to insulate it. Place the covered bowl in a sunny window (if available). Alternatively, leave the dough on the counter to rise.

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This pizza dough is rising in a sunny windowsill. The step of adding just a slight amount of warmth to the dough rising process is optional, but highly suggested for a perfectly light but chewy pizza crust.

Want to refrigerate pizza dough for the next day? If you’re not going to use the pizza dough immediately, refrigerate it overnight. It will continue rising as it chills in the fridge.

Pizza Dough Recipe (step By Step)

Want to use pizza dough right after making it? See below for a quick and easy pizza recipe using homemade dough. Check out all the delicious pizza recipes on Sip Bite Go for more creative pizza topping ideas.

You can make stone crust pizza on a baking stone or bake pizza directly on the rack, but today I’m going to show you how to par bake pizza crust using a sheet pan. It’s foolproof – I’ve made this recipe hundreds of times! Then you’ll see how to top it and bake it until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.

Step 1. Prep for baking the pizza. Preheat oven to 450°F. Set out a large rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Pizza Crust Recipe

Step 2. Stretch the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface. Spread half the flour on a large flat work surface or butcher block. Add the rest of the flour to the corner of your work space. (See the full Sip Bite Go guide on how to stretch pizza dough)

Add the raw homemade pizza dough to the center of the floured surface. Add a pinch of reserved flour to lightly coat the pizza dough. Stretch homemade pizza dough by pinching the outside 1” in a circular motion to create a thin crust.

Homemade

Then, alternate between pinching the center of the dough with your fingers, pressing it out on the work surface, and using the back of your knuckles to stretch the dough out from underneath. You’ll find your rhythm as you alternate between techniques.

Ultimate Guide To Pizza Yeast

Pick up a little extra flour here and there as the dough stretches. This will help it retain the growing size as it stretches out. Stretch until you get a loose circle shaped pizza crust about ½” to ¾” thick and about 14” in diameter.

Step 3. Par bake pizza dough. Brush half the olive oil on the parchment paper/pizza stone. Add stretched homemade dough on top. Brush the remaining olive oil around 1” of crust. Sprinkle the crust with half the salt. Bake the pizza dough without toppings and bake for 7 minutes at 450°F.

Step 4. Prep for baking homemade pizza dough in the oven. Once the dough par-bakes, remove it from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 500°F.

Easy Pizza Dough Recipe: Can Be Made Ahead & Chilled/frozen! Baking A Moment

Step 5. Add pizza toppings to homemade pizza crust. Add the sauce, dried Italian herbs, remaining salt and pepper. Then add mozzarella cheese and any other toppings as desired.

Step 6. Bake fresh pizza dough with toppings. Add the assembled pizza to the oven to bake at 500°F for 7-10 minutes, until the cheese has completely melted.

The type of flour that you choose will affect the texture of your pizza dough because of the amount of gluten in the flour. Here are the most common types of flour for pizza dough…

Easy

Best Pizza Dough

If you want a pizza crust that is fluffy, chewy, and soft, use bread flour to make your pizza dough. Bread flour has a high amount of gluten. But if you don’t have bread flour, all purpose is a great substitute.

This type of flour is often used for a thin crust pizza dough recipe. Because all-purpose flour does not have as much gluten, the crust will not rise as much as dough with bread flour.

Almond flour is one of the best choices for someone that cannot eat gluten. Almond flour is easy to use for beginners and you can use it for a quick pizza dough recipe.

Easy Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe

The only thing to note is that you can’t equally swap almond flour for all purpose because it requires a binding agent (like an egg) so you need a specific almond flour pizza dough recipe to make it.

Self satisfaction and that “made by hand” quality top my reasons for making homemade dough for pizza. I’ve been a longtime fan of making homemade pizza using store bought dough, especially Trader Joe’s pizza dough and Whole Foods pizza dough. But making pizza dough from scratch taps into using cooking and baking as a form of creativity and self care. Plus, it’s fun!

You have many options. This pizza crust will make about 2 round personal pizzas (10-12” in diameter). Or 1 large circle pizza on a pizza stone (about 14”). Or 1 large rectangle pizza you can cut in squares (a sheet pan pizza about 12×19”)

All About Yeast

Try adding an infused oil to pizza crust in place of regular olive oil. Garlic oil or truffle oil are delicious substitutions. You can also add dried herbs (dried basil and oregano or parsley are great choices) and dried spices (a pinch of garlic powder is perfect). You can also use fresh herbs and garlic.