You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to make homemade pizza dough! It’s so quick and easy, perfect for pizza, calzones, Stromboli, and more!
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This is my go-to pizza crust recipe. In fact, it’s the only pizza dough I ever use. It is so easy and does not require much time to rest/rise. We like a thin crust’s taste and I also like not filling up only on bread but on the rest of the pizza’s goodness too.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that the two things I’m known best for right now are the Instant Pot and this pizza dough. I get tagged in pizza posts on Instagram every single day and I love it! Check out my saved pizza highlight on Instagram for video demo’s of pizza, and even more tips and ideas!
Homemade pizza is incredibly versatile, not to mention incredibly delicious, and this simple pizza dough recipe makes it accessible for cooks of all skill levels and ages, and makes it fast enough for quick lunches and dinners.
Simple Thin Crust Pizza Dough
I’ve used a variety of flours for this dough– all-purpose, spelt, kamut, and fresh-ground flour. Because this dough is so straight-forward and no-fuss, it is flexible with the flour you use as well.
No rise/rest time is technically required, but my general method is to start by turning on the oven so my baking steel can preheat, then make the pizza dough, press it out with buttered fingertips (makes it so easy!), and then let the dough rest while I gather/prep the sauces and toppings.
Occasionally I will plan out our pizzas so that we have specific types of pizza, but most often we have a few different pizzas based on whatever is on hand in the fridge. Leftover ranch? Great. That can be one sauce. Marinara sauce in the freezer? Perfect. No sauce options at all? No problem. We can just use olive oil and herbs.
Since we have pizza so frequently at our house, I also like to keep a few items on hand all the time for quick throw-together pizzas. I get shredded mozzarella cheese from Costco and freeze one of the bags. Costco also has an awesome bag of real chopped bacon that is perfect for pizzas, frittatas, soup, etc. And, of course, we always have a bag of Power Greens (mix of spinach, baby chard, and baby kale) that makes an easy topping on pizza…and everything else too.
One last idea that I will share before the recipe and additional tips, is that homemade pizza is one of my favorite foods to serve for impromptu lunches with friends and even for birthday parties sometimes.
Because it’s such a frugal meal idea, and infinitely versatile, homemade pizza makes a great hospitality meal.
Pictured below is from one of my kids’ birthday parties. I made a big batch of pizza dough, divided into many small portions and let the kids come in and assemble their own pizzas. It was a lot of fun, and since we could cook four at a time, it didn’t take a really long time either.
Homemade Pizza Tips, Recipes, & Resources
I put together a “one-stop shop” list of recipes, inspiration, and resources for all your pizza needs below. Be sure to save this post for future reference!
PIZZA RECIPES & VARIATIONS ::
- Barbecue & Caramelized Onion Pizza (made with smoked pulled pork or my fav. Instant Pot barbecue chicken)
- Garlic Infused Olive Oil Pizza with Proscuitto & Bacon
- Buffalo Chicken Pizza
- Pesto Pizza with Ricotta and Mushrooms
- Spinach & Bacon Alfredo Pizza
SAUCE IDEAS ::
Pictured: marinara on top, Alfredo bottom left, pesto bottom right
- Make-Ahead Marinara Sauce (or Instant Pot version in my cookbook)
- Best Ever Ranch Dressing
- 5 Minute Super Greens Pesto
- Olive oil + Salt & Pepper + Herbs
- Alfredo Sauce
- Buffalo Sauce (ranch + Frank’s Red Hot sauce)
- Greek Dressing ( combine 1/4 C olive oil, 1/4 C red wine vinegar, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp onion powder, and 1/2 tsp dijon mustard in a jar and mix well with a fork).
RECOMMENDED TOOLS ::
I HIGHLY recommend these tools for making amazing pizzas. Seriously, the baking steel changed my life.
- Baking Steel (perfect, crispy crust every time) UPDATE: My pizza steel is currently unavailable, but this Lodge cast iron pizza pan looks great and has great reviews! I love all the Lodge products I own.
- Pizza Peel (crucial for easy transfer in and out of the oven)
- parchment paper (our preferred way to move the pizza from the counter to the oven)
MORE WAYS TO USE THIS DOUGH ::
The sky is the limit when it comes to homemade pizza! Don’t forget to tag me when you share what you come up with! I’d love to see!
PrintSimple Thin Crust Pizza Dough
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 1 10" pizza 1x
- Category: Pizza
- Method: Baking
Description
You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to make homemade pizza dough! It’s so quick and easy, perfect for pizza, calzones, Stromboli, and more!
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 C all purpose flour
- 1/2 C warm water*
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp yeast
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450° (or 500 if using a baking steel).
- Combine the yeast and water in a glass measuring cup. In a small mixing bowl, stir together 1 C flour and the salt. Pour in yeasty water and stir. Add the remaining flour (1/3 C) to make a soft dough that is no longer sticky. Knead the dough a few times on your clean counter, adding flour as needed. Cover it with a dish towel and let it rest while you prepare your sauce and toppings.
- Butter a round pizza pan. With buttered hands spread the pizza dough onto the pan. This makes a thin crust pizza so carefully spread it out to the edges.
- Add your sauce and toppings. (This is a thin crust so it’s best to not overwhelm it with sauce and toppings).
- Bake the pizza at 450° for 10-12 minutes (or 7-8 minutes at 500 on a baking steel).
Notes
*warm tap water is fine. You don’t want the water to be scalding to the touch or it will kill the yeast.
This recipe easily doubles, triples, quadruples. Each portion is enough for one 10″ pizza, or you could divide the dough into smaller portions for individual pizzas.
Jennifer says
Excellent dough recipe! It took very little time to prepare and had a light, perfect crisp, with great bite and flavor. Not dry or too thin, highly veratile, perfect! Thanks for sharing, we’re saving this recipe.
★★★★★
Hilary says
My crust tasted good, but not sure it turned out quite like it was supposed to. I used 1:1 gluten free flour. Would I have to change anything when using that type of flour?
Julia Mederich says
I have made the pizza recipe more times than I can remember. It’s always a hit and a fun recipe to play around with. I pair it with the marinara sauce! So yummy!
★★★★★
Carol Goings says
Can this be made with gluten free flour?
Erika Gomez says
I have made this several times, everyone loves this crust and I always triple the recipe to keep extras in the freezer.
Andrea says
We’re replacing the recipe we’ve used in the past with this one. So easy to make, and it holds together well. This dough has made family pizza night even more popular!
★★★★★
Shannon koonce says
Could you make this with almond flour?
Megan says
I used this recipe for Stromboli, because my husband loves Stromboli’. We had Stromboli twice in one week because he liked it so much.
The third or fourth time i made this recipe I used un-fine einkorn flour, and it was super hearty and too heavy, so I’ll definitely use a mix next time.
★★★★★
Lauren Furrow says
This is the best pizza dough. It comes together ridiculously quickly. We’ve used it for breakfast pizzas, lunch options and pizza night dinners.
★★★★★
Danielle says
This pizza dough recipe is the gateway drug to cooking from scratch. It will build your confidence and let your creativity flow while making a delicious pizza. Lisa’s recipes are solid gold, especially this one!
Claire says
This recipe is so simple and tastes amazing! My dad has a pizza restaurant and since I live thousands of miles away, I can’t have his pizza whenever I want it. This pizza dough is the closest I have ever found to his dough. We have made it once a week since I found the recipe a couple months ago!
★★★★★
Elizabeth says
Love this recipe! Turns out good every time and is so easy to make.
★★★★★
Karen says
This is the only pizza dough I make now! Easy and comes out perfect every time!’
★★★★★
Kaitlyn says
We make this recipe all the time! So simple and extremely delicious. My kids especially love being able to help on pizza night !
★★★★★
Samantha says
Such a simple quick recipe for my kids to make. We also made the homemade marinara sauce and my kids rated their pizzas 10/10. They never all agree on food!! The pizzas were delicious.
★★★★★
Denise says
I made this with my 10 year old granddaughter recently and let her do most of the work. She LOVED being involved and this recipe was very simple to follow. Love being able to get her involved. She did use too much flour when rolling out and said she still wants to make it again. The thin crust was a true hit with her Pap too!
★★★★★
Missy says
Our go to pizza recipe.
★★★★★
Monica says
This is the BEST pizza dough I have ever had. And I am from New Jersey so I know good pizza. I whip this up once a week for my husband and toddler, they’re huge fans of it too! I will no longer order out pizza or buy frozen ever again bc of this simple and tasty recipe. Thank you!
Carol Johnson says
This is so easy and quick and easy and so delicious pizza! Whole family loves it.
★★★★★
Mackenzie says
So easy and delicious! Makes our weekly pizza nights so simple and yummy!
★★★★★
Jenny says
Such a delicious and easy recipe!! I normally use half white flour and half wheat and it turns out great.
★★★★★
Mariam says
So simple and delicious! This is now my go to for pizza crust.
★★★★★
Kay says
This is the best pizza crust! Delicious, simple, and quick. It doesn’t require hours of sitting and it’s so good! I use her marinara sauce and add various toppings.
★★★★★
Elizabeth says
Love this dough! We use it to make Stromboli on a regular basis!
★★★★★
Magen says
My family and I LOVE this pizza dough!!! I recommend it to anyone whenever I get the chance! It is super simple and Lisa’s instructions are easy to follow. I’ve also used it for Stromboli with great success.
★★★★★
Diane says
This pizza dough is so easy to make and delicious! We make it once a week and rarely order pizza from out anymore. Thanks for the great recipe!
★★★★★
Julie says
Totally shocked by how quickly this recipe came together & was totally fool proof. Because TPL’s Stromboli’s have become constantly requested I finally gave her pizza crust a try and it is perfect! So thin and rolls out easily.
★★★★★
Lynette Ballmer says
This is my second time making this recipe. I quadrupled it to make enough pizzas for my whole family. I love how easy and quick it is. Pizza night is becoming one of our favorite meals! My kids love adding their own toppings and making their own creations!
★★★★★
Allison says
The pizza steel in your link isn’t available. Do you have a new link?
Lisa says
I added a second link to this pizza pan by Lodge: https://amzn.to/35UdqoG
Christine says
This recipe has changed our Pizza loving family! To be able to decide in the late afternoon that you want pizza has made this recipe our family go to! Sooo good, sooo fast and easy. Love the provided options too!
★★★★★
Kena says
So fast and simple, but most importantly delicious! I used a bit less flour than called for (just over 1 cup), and we had a pizza on the table so quickly. We ended up finishing one pizza, and making another one immediately after. Next time I’ll know to just double the batch right away.
★★★★★
Katie J Peters says
We have to have an assortment of toppings and flour (not ever out anyway) on hand at all times now because this has become a family FAVORITE! My husband and children love them just as much as I do. I can’t believe how incredibly easy this recipe is! AMAZING!! We have slowly stopped eating out. Not only because it saves soooooo much money, but because the more homemade items I make the more I can’t stand fast food!
Thank you for this recipe Lisa! You’re awesome.
Shannon says
I have made this quite a bit now and my family loves it. They were also so amazed at how quick it was, I love how easy it is! Thank you!!
★★★★★
Vanessa Murphy says
My dough was very hard and crumbly. I followed the directions exactly but this is my first time ever making a dough. Any idea what went wrong?
Lisa says
It sounds like you had too much flour in your dough. If the dough is too dry, you can add a little water at a time to soften the dough. Make sure you don’t pack the flour when you’re measuring it.
Raegan Vanderput says
We love it on the baking steel. Our new Friday night tradition
★★★★★
Heather says
This pizza crust is simple and comes together quickly. My children have said that I now “out-pizza the hut”!
★★★★★
Katherine says
Made pizza this weekend and it was a hit with my family! Pretty simple to make and really like knowing what’s in our food without crazy ingredients
★★★★★
Kayla says
This was so easy and my family LOVED it!
★★★★★
Sara Kirkendall says
Made this tonight and it was wonderful. Super easy to mix up and I love that I didn’t have to wait on it to rise or pre-bake the crust. I used my PC baking stones and had to up the cooking time but the crust was wonderful. I have been making homemade pizza for 25 years for our family and until tonight my husband has never said that was great pizza. He loved this crust! Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
Tammy says
I made this tonight! So good!
Laura says
This is our go-to pizza crust! So quick and delicious. 🍕😋
★★★★★
Candace says
How many pizzas does this make or how many people does this recipe feed?
Lisa says
The recipe makes 1 10-in pizza. I typically make three pizzas to feed our family of seven, kids ages 9 to 1.
Shana says
Found this recipe 3 months ago in an attempt to make healthier food for my family. We have said goodbye to frozen pizzas since learning this recipe. My kids love to help stir the simple ingredients together. We have a big family so I am always making this double recipe at least 8 times for one meal, and still it is so simple. The hubby loves it he doesn’t miss the frozen pizzas at all. Kids love it as well. I’ve used different wheats also and it never fails. We are now making this recipe every week. Love love love!!!!!
★★★★★
shannon Emrich says
This has become a family favorite. I was just telling my husband last night, I don’t remember the last time we ordered pizza out. We typically make pizza now every other Friday night….
With the baking steel you reccomend, love it!
★★★★★
Susan says
Did you use instant yeast or regular active yeast?
Lhea says
THANK YOU!! I made this pizza crust for the first time tonight and I finally got an approval from my hubby. This is the best homemade pizza I have made. Yay!!
★★★★★
Claire says
Thanks so much for posting this! We’ve been looking for a yummy thin crust recipe & I’m excited to try this tonight!