Making homemade pizza dough at home is really quite easy. A few simple ingredients, a bit of rising time, and voila, perfect pizza right at home. Once you have your pizza dough you can customize your pizza with your favorite toppings. In our big family everyone likes different toppings so we created the “pizza buffet”. Pizza buffets are fun to create. Start with our easy homemade pizza dough or buy some ready made crusts from a store like Trader Joe’s. One of the best parts of making a pizza buffet is involving your kids in the cooking process. Kids love to measure ingredients, watch how the dough rises, and create their own pizza pies. Kids who cook their food are also much more likely to eat it!
Homemade Pizza Dough
This recipe is tried and true. We make this dough every week for school lunch on Tuesdays and over 100 kids enjoy it every week. Only 6 ingredients and your dough is ready. The dough is forgiving, it can rise for only 10 minutes or up to 2 hours. Once your dough is ready you will need to top it. For your pizza buffet set up some small bowls and let each person create a pizza. Here are some of our favorite toppings:
- Red sauce: We are partial to Muir Glen Organic Tomato Sauce, 15-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12)
- White sauce
- BBQ sauce
- Pesto
- Spices (oregano, red pepper flakes, rosemary, thyme, sea salt)
- Basil
- Arugula
- Cheeses (We love mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan, fontina and asiago)
- Sliced vegetables
- Meatless meats or meats
- Minced Garlic or garlic slices
- Pineapple
The only other items you need for a pizza buffet are some individual or smaller sized pizza pans. Our favorite pans are these adorable mini pizza pans. These 7 inch pans can be used for a personal pizza for everyone in your family or those attending your party. This recipe makes 4- 12 inch pizza crusts, or 8-12 mini pizza crusts, depending on how thick you like your crust.
Ingredients
- 5 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 cups water
- 2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
- 4 Tablespoons oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Combine flour, salt and sugar in a big bowl.
- Heat the 2 cups of water to 110 degrees. Try to get the temperature as close to 110 as possible.
- Stir the 2 Tablespoons of yeast into the warm water. If the yeast is active it will foam up. Let rest for 5-10 minutes, until foamy.
- Pour the water mixture into the bowl filled with flour.
- Add in your 4 Tablespoons of oil and mix until combined.
- Put into a bowl and let rise in a warm place anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours.
- Punch down your dough and divide into equal pieces.
- Add your toppings and bake.
- Bake at 450 degrees for 5-7 minutes.
What is your favorite pizza topping? Have you ever made a pizza buffet?
Thank you for this! I have been wanting to attempt making my own but have been scared to try. I will give your recipe a go! Maybe we can put that expensive pizza stone to use that we got 2 years ago for Christmas! LOL
I promise you that this recipe is really easy! It will taste so great on that pizza stone you have. You only need to have 6 ingredients, and I am pretty sure you already have the water, flour, sugar and salt already!
I wanna grab this from my screen, it’s really tempting and mouth-watering! I would love to try it myself.
You can make this yourself! Don’t be intimidated by the idea of making your own pizza.
I am the absolute worst at making homemade pizza dough. It usually comes out hard too, so I will have to give your recipe a go!
This recipe is no fail. You will not have hard pizza, it will be soft and delicious!
Your pizza dough looks like perfection! Every time I try to make it from scratch it is an mess so I typically buy it from Trader Joe’s. Maybe I will be brave enough to give your recipe a try!
Trader joes makes the best pizza dough, so if you are truly afraid to try it, you have found the best non homemade dough. I hope you give this recipe a try one day.
I have been wanting to make pizza on my own. This is such a perfect timing. Thank you for sharing. Your pizza looks delicious!
Thank you! You can definitely do it. This is a no fail recipe.
I have always wanted to make my own pizza and you make it look so easy!! I need to try this ASAP!!
You can do it! You will have success with this recipe.
Mm, pizza! I haven’t tried making my own pizza dough. Mushrooms and veggies are my favorite toppings.
Mushrooms and onions are my favorite toppings. I hope you give this recipe a try.
That looks really delicious. I love homemade dough. It’s only the best! I’m going to give this a try soon!
Homemade dough is so good. It really is worth the few extra minutes it takes to make it.
I had no clue that homemade pizza dough was so easy to make. I should give this a try, we love pizza and this would be a perfect way for us to all make our own mini pizzas.
It really is this easy! Mini pizzas that you customize are so much fun. We do this all the time and my kids love it. Plus, everyone is happy!
We love pizza over here and my fave topping is mushroom while my husband and son love pepperoni. But we’ve never tried making a pizza buffet. Sounds like a great idea though.
Mushroom is my favorite topping too! Add a little onion and it is perfect! I hope you will try a pizza buffet one day.
I’ve never used yeast before. You did a great job. I haven’t made bread before so I’m not sure how well I would do.
Do not be afraid of yeast. If you follow the directions you can definitely do it! You will be so surprised at how delicious it is.
It really looks good. Super yummy and delicious! I love this kind! Really great!
Thank you! I hope you will try a homemade dough one day soon.
I never made my own pizza dough before. This looks great and I am loving the veggie toppings!
You really have to try it. People get overwhelmed when they even consider making homemade dough, but it is not that hard.
We make homemade pizza dough all the time. I love that you offer so many choices for sauce options as well.
You need to have a lot of choices in my family, no one really likes the same thing.
I have always wanted to make my own pizza dough, but was afraid it would be difficult. You make it look so easy! I cannot wait to give this recipe a try!
You should not be intimidated by this recipe at all. It is simple and easy to make, just follow the rules.
Omg can we say yum?!?! I just love homemade pizza. So got to try your Crust!!!
I hope you try it! Thanks for stopping by.
Me and my hubby absolutely loves Pizza. Creating your own Pizza dough at home isn’t a bad idea. I might try it and if everything didn’t goes well, I’ll order instead lol.
That is a great idea. You should really try it, and if you do not like it, you can always order takeout!
Homemade pizza dough is kind of my favorite. I really like making my own pizza so I can add my own fresh ingredients!
Homemade pizza is one of our favorites too! It is so nice knowing what is in the foods that we eat.