Julie Clark
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Perfect Pizza Crust
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The most Perfect Pizza Crust you could possibly think of. Chewy on the inside, lightly crisp on the outside.
Table of Contents
It’s Friday again. A whole week has passed, the weekend is here, and most importantly…..Friday night pizza! You’re ready to relax, enjoy the weekend, and spend time with your friends and family. Kick off the weekend with pizza…but skip delivery and make it at home.
This pizza crust recipe is our best pizza dough. It’s a few more ingredients than the normal 4 ingredient dough, but it has a delicious flavor, delightful golden brown color and chewy texture. Every bit as good as our pizza babka.
What makes this perfect pizza crust the best?
- Flavor: This pizza dough is seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, olive oil, cornmeal, sugar and salt. If you love cheese, try adding in a few tablespoons of parmesan cheese for extra flavor.
- Texture: This pizza dough is chewy on the inside but is crisp on the outside, especially if you brush the crust with olive oil before baking. And you’ll notice there’s a little baking powder in this recipe along with the yeast. That baking powder will just give a little extra rise to the dough.
- Method: Although some pizza recipes need a slow fermentation, we make this dough quickly in just under 2 hours. No need to plan days in advance for a delicious dough.
Can you make this dough in the bread machine?
Yes. If you have a bread machine, go ahead and use it for this recipe. Add the ingredients in the order suggested by the manufacturer, use the dough setting and go relax a little bit. You just made your Perfect Pizza Crust recipe even easier.
Can I use all purpose flour for pizza dough?
You can, but you may not end up with the texture that you’d like. Bread flour will give your pizza dough structure and make it chewy on the inside, which is what many people like in a pizza crust.
How to Make the Best Pizza Dough
- Activate the yeast. Put the warm water (110ºF) and yeast into a bowl. Let it sit for about 5 minutes. This allows the yeast to activate. Make sure the water temperature is correct. Hot water could kill the yeast.
The type of yeast matters
We often use instant yeast for recipes. Instant yeast does not have to be activated, which is the method we show in the image above. You can add the dry yeast to the other dry ingredients and then mix in the wet. Many people still like to activate the yeast, though, so that they know the dough will rise. Read our guide to baking with yeast for more tips, and always read the back of your yeast packet to know what temperature of water to use.
- Add the next ingredients. Next, add your sugar, salt, olive oil, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, onion powder, and garlic powder. Use the paddle attachment and set the mixer to low speed to mix the ingredients.
- Let the dough rest. After the ingredients are mixed, allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes before kneading. This will help the flour to absorb the water and give the dough a better structure.
- Knead the dough. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed for about 10 minutes. Don’t use high speed. You want the mixer to mimic you kneading the bread, which would be slow and easy.
- Rise the dough. Cover over the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until almost doubled in size. I like to either just barely warm the oven for a little warm spot, or set it wherever the sun shines in. Is it cold outside? Learn our tips for how to make dough rise.
- Preheat the oven. For the best results, bake the pizza at a high temperature. 500ºF is great, but if your oven goes higher, use that higher temperature. It may take 25-30 minutes to heat your oven this hot, so plan accordingly.
- Top the pizza and bake. Stretch and press the dough in your favorite pizza pan or stone. Top with my Perfect Pizza Sauce and whatever toppings make you happy. Then bake for about 13-15 minutes.
Tips for The Best Ever Pizza
In 2019 I visited Chicago and took a pizza making class at the North American Pizza and Culinary Academy. You can read all our tips for making the best homemade pizza.
Perfect Pizza Crust
The most Perfect Pizza Crust you could possibly think of. Chewy on the inside, lightly crisp on the outside.
Servings 16 servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Rise Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups warm water 110ºF
- 2 1/4 teaspoons Red Star Platinum Instant Yeast (or 1 packet)
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar 8 grams
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 6 grams
- 2 tablespoons olive oil 28 grams
- 2 tablespoons cornmeal 22 grams
- 3 cups bread flour 390 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking powder 3 grams
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
Instructions
- Put warm water and yeast together in a bowl. Let it sit for 5 minutes or until the yeast has activated.
- Add in the sugar, salt, olive oil, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, garlic powder, and onion powder.
- In your stand mixer, mix with the paddle attachment just until combined. Then let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
- Put the dough hook on the mixer and knead on low speed for about 10 minutes.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes or until almost doubled in size.
- Press and stretch the dough out on a floured surface and place in a pizza stone or pan.
- Top with desired pizza toppings.
- Bake at 500 degrees for about 14 minutes.
Notes
You can use your bread machine for this recipe. Add the ingredients in the order suggested by the manufacturer and use the dough setting.
Refer to the article above for more tips and tricks.
The calories shown are based on the recipe making 16 pieces of pizza, with 1 serving being 1 slice of pizza. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. The information in the nutrition box are calculated through a program and there is room for error. If you need an accurate count, I recommend running the ingredients through your favorite nutrition calculator.**
Nutrition
Serving: 64g | Calories: 107kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 183mg | Potassium: 54mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg
Lizzy.
I am trying to duplicate a pizza crust I had tasted about 10 years ago. It was, in my opinion, the best crust I have ever eaten. It’s quite simple to describe, an extremely light and airy dough/inner bottom crust with nice moderately sized inner carbon dioxide holes with a slightly crunchy bottom. This search is driving me bonkers! I just can’t find the combination. I had asked the fellow at the pizzeria back then what made the pizza light and airy and his reply was, “add more eggs”. Didn’t work for me. Can you help?
How many crusts does this recipe make. 12 servings would be more than one crust!
Best pizza crust recipe ever! I have been using this recipe for at least a year now. Friends & family are always asking, can I get this recipe? It truly is the perfect pizza crust recipe. Turns out great every time. Sometimes I let it rise for a few days and then it’s even better!
Can you freeze this ?
Is there a substitute for the corn meal in this pizza dough recipe? Should I just leave it out, sub with more flour? And what is the purpose of adding the corn meal…what am I going to be missing out on? Thanks! Looking forward to giving this a try!
Can I use all purpose flour?
Just curious, why the baking powder in addition to yeast?
Thanks!
I am literally making this right now. I thought I would stop while my dough is rising and say thank you for the recipe!
Love this recipe, definitely chewy on the inside crunchy on the outside. Like a very good Italian bread, just what I was searching for! I will be using this recipe for now on! thank you!
This is my favourite crust recipe! Have you ever made the pizza and frozen? Then baked from frozen? If you have do you know how long and what temp?
Question: recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of ” yeast” , however, there is active yeast, and breadmaker yeast. Variable, if i am using a breadmaker, how much active yeast shoud i use? And what yeast are you referring to in this recipe?
What did I do wrong….i preheated the oven to 500 and at 13 minutes my eese was starting to burn but the crust isn’t quite cooked, (not browned on the bottom.)
Yummy! That looks so good. I like to cook my pizzas on a stone to get the crust evenly baked and crispy. That’s what makes the perfect pizza.
Wow! I can’t wait to try this! We are living in Southeast Asia as missionaries and it is SOOOO hard to find a good pizza. This is definitely on the “To make” list for my family. Pinned!
This pizza crust DOES look perfect, and it just so happens that I am making pizza for my family tonight, so I am going to use your recipe. But I do have a question: Do you bake the pizza crust before you add your toppings and then bake it again once the toppings are on? Or do you just bake it once at 500 degrees for 14 minutes with all of the toppings already on it? Thank you so much!