Easy Homemade Pizza Dough

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read the full disclosure here.

This easy homemade pizza dough recipe requires no rising time and is ready for all your favorite toppings in under 30 minutes. Recipe includes instructions for preparing ahead of time or freezing to use at a later time.

If you’ve been here for any amount of time, you know that I love me a good yeast bread recipe. I love getting my hands all up in the dough, creating something from seemingly nothing, and using yeast to give life to flour.

I talk to readers all the time who are intimidated by yeast bread, and I get it. Kneading, rising, punching, rising again, shaping… It can feel overwhelming and hard to tackle if you’ve never done it before.

I am always so impressed with the texture of the final crust, and as a sometimes-a-crust-person-because-it-has-to-be-just-right kind of gal, I do love this pizza crust a lot.

It just gets better as leftovers are reheated (in an oven or toaster oven, to be specific) and it has just the right amount of crunch without breaking your teeth (that crust is the worst).

Uhh… What?

I know. It’s crazy.

But the thing is, pizza dough recipes are designed to be simple because the end result doesn’t have to be lifted and fluffy like homemade sandwich bread or cinnamon rolls.

We’ll get to how making pizza dough is so simple in a bit, but let’s talk about what you’ll need for my simple pizza dough recipe.

You’ll also need some cornmeal for putting the pizza dough onto a baking sheet or pizza stone, but it’s not actually going into the dough.

And did you notice that there are no butter nor eggs involved? So this pizza dough recipe is completely vegan and ready for all of your favorite vegan pizza toppings.

We’re looking for water that is about 110ºF (45ºC). I like to use my instant read thermometer to check to make sure it’s where I want it to be, but if you don’t have one of those, just test the water with your wrist.

Put your wrist under the stream of water coming from the tap. If you can feel the temperature of the water (either cold or warm), it’s not quite right.

Adjust the temperature until the water feels about the same temperature as your wrist. Then you’re all set!

You’ll also add the sugar to the water with the yeast so it has something to start to feed on. Whisk that all together, and then let it rest and activate for about 5-10 minutes.

When your yeast is good and active, add the remaining ingredients, then stir it all together. You can also use your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, but I much prefer using my hands to make yeast bread.

Once the dough starts to look shaggy, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it for a few minutes until it is smooth. You don’t want it to be too sticky, but you do want it to have some stick. I like to equate it to the texture of PlayDoh.

Once you’re happy with the texture of your pizza dough, allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

If you went right into shaping the dough before letting it rest, it would be hard to shape and would resist your pushing and shaping.

Resting also allows it to rise just enough to give it some lift. As I mentioned, we don’t need pizza dough to be as lifted as traditional yeast breads, but we do need it to have a bit in order to create that tender, chewy pizza crust texture we all love.

If you’re going to use it right away, I highly recommend using my sheet pan pizza recipe. So easy! Otherwise, choose your favorite method for making homemade pizza and enjoy!

Use your hands to pat and flatten the dough and start shaping it to the size of your sheet pan or pizza stone. Transfer the dough to the prepared sheet pan or pizza stone, then finish shaping it. If dough is too stretchy and not keeping its shape, allow to rest for 5 minutes then continue shaping.

Score the dough with a fork, then place crust in the oven to pre-bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, score again, then spread sauce, cheese, and toppings as desired. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until cheese has melted and crust is browned to your liking.

Simply follow my recipe through scoring and pre-baking the crust, then wrap tightly and freeze up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator then proceed with your recipe.

Follow my recipe through almost the entire recipe, stopping before the final bake. Freeze your topped pizza on a sheet pan or pizza stone until hard, then wrap tightly and freeze up to 2 months. Bake frozen for 16-18 minutes.

Don’t forget to grab my homemade pizza recipe (made on a baking sheet– so simple!) or use your favorite toppings to create your best Friday night treat!