Homemade Pizza Crust!

I would have to say the one kitchen appliance my husband can’t live without is his bread maker!  He makes an incredible calzone with this recipe.   I have to say pretty much everything my husband makes is delicious, especially his calzone.  So this past week, we decided to make homemade pizza crust for my son’s 4th birthday.  He loves pizza and wanted it as his birthday meal.  Of course I have no idea where his love of pizza comes from:).   

This is the famous bread maker.   But you don’t need a bread maker to make homemade pizza crust.  I share both recipes below.  Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.  And it’s best to have a pizza stone in your oven so your pizza crust will cook evenly.

This pizza dough is really simple and is made up of only 4 ingredients.  First ingredient is flour.  You can use regular flour or wheat flour or both (just split the recipe 1/2 regular and 1/2 wheat).

Yeast and salt.

And water!

It will take 45 minutes in the bread maker.  It will take anywhere between 1-3 hours for the bread to rise if you make it by hand.  This is what it will look like when it’s ready to be flattened for the crust.

When you get ready to shape the dough, first put flour on your counter so it doesn’t stick.  We like the thin crust, so my husband flattened it as thin as possible.

Then added the sauce.

Then our toppings.  We made an Italian Sausage and Onion pizza (my kids had their favorite….cheese.)

After about 10-15 minutes in the oven, the pizza is ready.  The time in the oven will vary depending on how “done”  you like your cheese!

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Homemade Pizza Crust!

This recipe is simple and takes a little patience. Give yourself enough extra time just in case your dough takes longer to rise. If you want to make the dough ahead of time, it will take 5 hours to rise in the refrigerator.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

For Bread Maker

• 3 cups Flour
• 2 teaspoons Yeast
• 3/4 teaspoons Salt
• 1 cup Water

Without Bread Maker

• 3 cups Flour
• 2 teaspoons Yeast
• 3/4 teaspoons Salt
• 1 cup WARM water
• Olive Oil

Instructions

For Bread Maker

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees
2. Add all ingredients to bread maker container
3. Let mix in bread maker for 45 minutes
4. Take out of bread maker and on a flour coated counter, flatten out the dough to your desired pizza shape
5. Top with sauce, cheese and desired toppings
6. Cook at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes (or until the top is done) WITH pizza stone

Without Bread Maker

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees
2. Add yeast to warm water until it dissolves, let stand for 5 minutes
3. Add remaining dry ingredients, until blended
4. Hand-kneed the dough for about 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic
5. Shape the dough into a ball
6. Lightly coat dough with olive oil, place in bowl and cover with plastic wrap
7. Let it rise in room temperature location until it doubles in volume. It will usually take 1 hour but could take as long as 3 hours. To test it press with your finger, when it's done an indent will stay in dough
8. Flatten out the dough on a flour coated counter.
9. Shape and top with sauce, cheese and desired toppings
10. Cook at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes (or until the top is done) WITH pizza stone

Recipe Notes

If you want to make this dough a little healthier, you can use wheat flour instead of the regular flour. If you make a lot of pizza, like we do, you may want to invest in a pizza stone for your oven. It will help cook the pizza evenly and keep it flat.