This is the best pizza recipe, recently when I made it at my sister’s house (she tries almost all my recipes), she was mad at me that this recipe is not on the blog. I make this at least twice a month, it is great for kid’s lunchboxes as well. There is a healthy twist you can do as well, the dough is vegetarian/vegan friendly. After this recipe, we have almost stopped buying pizza from outside. It is a great cross between American and Italian Pizza .
I have one more recipe of Pizza which is super popular on the blog, its my mum’s famous pizza which she learnt in 80s before Pizza hut was introduced in Pakistan. If you are looking for a rich crust pizza that is more like a deep pan style, do try that out as well.
Recipe at a Glance
For the Easy Pizza Crust Dough
Flour – All purpose, Pizza/Bread Flour or a combination, I like to substitute some with wholewheat flour [see recipe for exact ratio]
Olive Oil – Good quality for the dough as well as for drizzle
Salt – for the flavoring
Sugar – for the color and flavor offset
Yeast – I like to use instant yeast so I can use it directly and save the extra step of proofing, if you use granulated, make sure to add a little room temperature (if its summers) or light warm (if its winters) with a pinch of sugar and let it sit for 5 minutes till its active, and foamy
Water – Again no need to use warm water because usually in this part of the world (Middle East and Pakistan), its pretty warm throughout the year, however, in winters you could use slightly warm water but never hot or cold
For the Homemade Tomato Sauce
Tomatoes – blended
Garlic – crushed/minced
Seasonings – Salt, Pepper, Crush red chili, Dried Oregano and Basil
Ketchup and Tomato Paste – for that added flavor and color
Olive Oil
For the Topping
Protein – Cooked chicken in any form, stir fried, roasted, tikka, leftover or even any form of boneless meat
Vegetables – chopped like capsicum, olives, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes
Cheese – Cheddar and Mozzarella, grated or sliced, use the best quality available
Extra
Dash of olive oil, crushed red chili and oregano to sprinkle just before baking
Semolina/cornmeal and extra flour for rolling out
FAQs
Important Tips to make best homemade pizza
- I have noted that hand tossed pizza is more flavorful, try practicing, I have made a reel showing this technique here.
- A dust of semolina or corn meal adds a beautiful and artisan style crunch to the crust.
- Italian Pizza is very thin with puffy edges while American style Pizza has relatively thick base, this in my opinion is a cross of both.
Serving Suggestions
Enjoy this Pizza hot out of the oven with a side like a fresh salad. It also tastes great with a soup.
You can also make mini pizza or different shapes like square or rectangle.
Substitutions and Variations
For the dough, I like to substitute up to half of the quantity with wholewheat flour or aataa. The pizza dough will be a little denser.
For the tomato sauce, you can skip seasoning like red chili crushed and basil and also ketchup and paste.
For the toppings you can choose anything you prefer like grilled zucchini, egg plant, pineapples for that hawaiin style pizza, fresh herbs and leaves (after baking), different kinds of meat like prawns and variety of cheese like burrata.
Storage and Make Ahead Tips
This is such a foolproof recipe and also versatile. The crust dough is very forgiving and I have done the following at various times.
- Make pizza dough, let it rise for 1 hour and pop it in fridge, for up to 4-6 hours, when you are ready to bake, take it out for 30 minutes, let it come to room temperature (else it will contract as you stretch the dough)
- You can freeze the 80% baked pizza, cooled, freeze, wrapped twice and then freeze up to 2 weeks. When ready to serve, bake directly in preheated oven after removing the wrappings.
- If you want to only make the crust ahead of time, you can bake it 50% and then freeze like above, when ready, place the toppings and bake as usual.
Yield: 2 large Pizzas
Easy Homemade Pizza Crust
Prep Time
1 hour
Cook Time
30 minutes
Additional Time
1 hour
Total Time
2 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 500 grams All-Purpose Flour*
- 2 teaspoons yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 300-340 grams Water
For the Tomato Sauce:
- 450 grams Tomatoes (about 3 medium)
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1 tablespoon Ketchup
- 1 tablespoon Tomato Paste
- 4-5 Garlic cloves, crushed/minced
- Seasonings, salt, pepper, crushed red chili, dried oregano and basil, as required or 1/2 teaspoon each
For Assembling:
- Semolina/Corn meal
- Extra flour for dusting
- Olive oil for drizzle
- Chopped vegetables like capsicum/bell pepper, mushrooms, onion, tomatoes, olives
- Cooked chicken as required, optional
- Shredded or sliced Cheese, Mozzarella and Cheddar
Instructions
For the Dough
- Place both flours, yeast, sugar, salt and oil in a large bowl.
- Add water.
- Using a stand mixer or hands, knead a smooth soft dough for about 8 minutes.
- Proof in a greased bowl,covered for 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled in size.
- Knock the dough down on a floured surface sprinkled with semolina.
- Divide the dough in 2 parts. (for 2 large size pizzas)
- Hand stretch or roll out each piece and line on lightly greased pizza trays.
- Spread the pizza sauce, place the toppings and cheddar and mozzarella cheese.
- Sprinkle oregano and red chili flakes (optional).
- Bake in a preheated oven for 12-15 minutes at 400F until the crust is golden brown and cheese has melted.
For the Sauce
- Heat oil, add crushed garlic, saute for 1 minute.
- Add blended tomatoes and rest of the ingredients.
- Cook for 15 minutes on medium heat until the water has dried and the sauce has thickened.
Notes
* You can use and experiment with different flour combinations like all-purpose, bread and whole wheat.
What i recommend is start with all-purpose or 400 grams all-purpose and 100 grams whole wheat.
Don’t replace more than 50% of the flour with wholwehat as it becomes really dense.
Depending on the flour, you need at least 300 grams water and at most 340 grams.