ONE DOUGH – FIVE INGREDIENTS – ENDLESS USES
How many of you have ever made your own bread? I know a lot of you out there don’t do it. I was one of you up until about 6 years ago. I was just plain scared of it. It always seemed so daunting. I didn’t think I had the time, patience, or ability to actually make it come out the way it was supposed to. Guess what! I was wrong, and so are you if that’s the way you feel about making your own dough from scratch. I just might change your world today. Our Mama’s Best Pizza Dough recipe is the most versatile recipe I think I have ever come across. It is the quickest and best dough because it rises as it bakes, and there’s only 5, count ’em, 5 ingredients! I make this dough for all things bread. Believe me, it won’t stop with just pizza.
Ingredients
- 3 c. “warm water” (see tip below)
- 2 Tbs. yeast
- 2 Tbs. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 6 – 7 c. flour
Instructions
- MEASURE THE “WARM WATER” INTO YOUR MIXER. TIP: THE YEAST NEEDS “WARM WATER” TO ACTIVATE. IF THE WATER IS TOO HOT, IT WILL KILL THE YEAST, AND IF IT IS TOO COOL, IT WON’T ALLOW THE YEAST TO GROW. SO LET’S DEFINE “WARM WATER”. MY MOM DIDN’T BREAK OUT A THERMOMETER EVERY TIME SHE MADE BREAD, NOR DID SHE TEACH ME THE OPTIMAL TEMPERATURE NEEDED TO ACTIVATE YEAST (IT HAPPENS TO BE BETWEEN 105 AND 110 F IF YOU WANTED TO KNOW). SHE TOLD ME IN PLAIN AND SIMPLE TERMS. ALL YOU DO IS RUN YOUR FINGER UNDER THE TAP. ADJUST THE TEMPERATURE SO THAT YOU ALMOST WANT TO TAKE YOUR FINGER OUT BECAUSE IT’S TOO HOT. ACTIVE DRY YEAST DOES NEED A BIT OF HEAT TO DISSOLVE AND GROW, BUT IF YOU CAN’T LEAVE YOUR FINGER UNDER THE WATER, IT’S TOO HOT FOR YOUR YEAST TOO. SO AS CONFUSING AS IT IS, WHEN A BREAD RECIPE CALLS FOR “WARM WATER” FOR YEAST, IT SHOULD REALLY SAY “ALMOST HOT WATER”. SOUNDS ARCHAIC, I KNOW, BUT IT’S ALWAYS WORKED FOR ME.
- ADD THE YEAST TO THE WATER AND LET IT DISSOLVE FOR A COUPLE OF MINUTES. It should form a froth on the surface.
- NEXT, ADD THE SUGAR, SALT AND ABOUT 2 – 3 CUPS OF THE FLOUR AND WHISK TOGETHER. If you’re using a mixer, put it to no more than about speed 2. At this point your mixture will be smooth and resemble somewhat of a batter more than a dough.
- STIR IN THE REMAINING FLOUR. Change your whisk out for a large wooden spoon or the kneading attachment on your mixer. Start up your mixer or start up your muscles and mix. Continue to add flour to the dough “cleans” itself away from the side of the bowl. This is usually somewhere between 6 – 7 cups.
- KNEAD THE DOUGH UNTIL SMOOTH AND ELASTIC. (ABOUT 6 MINUTES). You want a soft dough, but not sticky. If it sticks to your hand and stays there, add a bit more flour in small increments. If it sticks to your hand, but comes off clean, you’re good to go.
- LET THE DOUGH REST FOR ABOUT 10 MINUTES. This allows the dough to relax and become malleable again to roll out for your pizza. Once you have rolled out your pizza, no need to wait for it to rise. Top it, and bake it. 400 for 16 -20 minutes depending on the thickness of your dough.
There you have it. It really is easy! What have you got to lose? Give it a try. If you want a fun twist on making pizza at home, check out our Pizza on the Grill. Want to see what else you can do with this dough? Check out our One Dough to Rule Them All recipe roundup.
Want to know what we use when we make our pizza? Here are some of our can’t do without products:
Farberware Classic Wood Rolling Pin
OXO Good Grips Pizza Wheel
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Thank you so much for the information on “warm water” for when making bread. i have tried and always failed every time i have made any kind of homemade bread. the yeast never seems to activate properly. And I was just to cheap to go buy a thermometer. I am going to try again today using your tips. Thanks so much!
I’m so glad it was helpful! Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
Thank you so much for this tip, also. I had used a bread machine for about a year, and I, too, never used a thermometer. I could never figure out why it turned out perfect sometimes and awful others. You are a life saver!!! PS, I’ve used this recipe many, many times and I love it. Thank you!!!
You’re so welcome! Thanks for reading!
This was great, it turned out perfect
I’m so glad! Come back soon!
I really would like to try this but am not sure how much 3 c of water is and 6-7 c of flour, could you please translate in metric. Thank you
Can this recipe be frozen? Great recipe! Thanks 🙂
I haven’t ever tried, but I don’t see why not. I do know that typically when you freeze dough, you should let it rise once, punch it down and then wrap and freeze. This way, it rises the second time as it thaws. This recipe only needs to rise once, but I’m sure another wouldn’t hurt. I’ll try to remember reserve some dough to experiment with next time I make this. If anybody has tried to freeze this recipe, please share your results! Thanks for your question!
This sounds awesome. Do you ever use a pizza stone with this recipe? I am just wondering what oven temp and how long to cook it for on a stone? Im new to the whole stone cooked pizza and any help would be great.
The short answer is yes. The long answer is that pizza stones are AWESOME…after a bit of a learning curve. Make sure you place a cold pizza stone in the oven first to pre-heat it to the desired temperature. Meanwhile prepare your dough by rolling it out about one cm thick. Once your stone has pre-heated, carefully take it out, remember, it is hot! Dust the stone surface with cornmeal and place the dough over the top. Add sauce, cheese and toppings. Here’s where the learning curve comes in. The more toppings, the longer baking time and the risk of burning the bottom. The less, the quicker it can all melt. Always plan on baking it about the same amount of time as a conventional method, but make sure to check it early just to be safe. It is a game of trial and error, but once you find a groove you won’t often make pizza without it. Good luck. Let us know how it goes!
Hello,
I have made this recipe a few times and lets just say, we won’t eat any other pizza now. I make the full recipe and freeze half for another meal. It does really when after being frozen. All I do is take it out in the morning and let it thaw at room temperature until ready to roll and bake.
Can you use instant dry yeast instead of active dry yeast?
I have only used active dry yeast and rapid rise yeast in this particular recipe, but I don’t see why you couldn’t use instant. Here is a link to a conversion chart for different types of yeasts if you’ve never substituted before. http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2008/01/12/let-us-now-praise-instant-yeast/#yeast-conversions If you try substituting let me know how it goes. Thanks for stopping by, and good luck with the dough!
This recipe calls for an extreme amount of water.. (3 cups). Any recipe I have ever used calls for 1 cup of water per 3 cups of flour.. there is an extra 1 cup of water in this.. is this an error???
No error. It is a lot of water, but not in relation to the amount of flour. This recipe calls for 6 – 7 cups of flour and makes two large pizza crusts. You can cut the recipe in half if you only want to make one. That would make the the amount of water about what you’re used to with other recipes. Thanks for reading and for your question.
Since using the “no knead” method, I simply don’t want to bake any other way. I let the bread rise overnight and throughout the day and it is ready to bake at dinner time. It can be used for pizza or made as an artisan bread or rolls. I only need to use 1/4 tsp. of active dry yeast or bread machine yeast. Rising times, however, can be 2 to 24 hours. It can rise in the fridge, on the counter, in a cold oven or warm room. The longer the proof time, the better the flavor. Longer gives it a rather sourdough flavor. It is delcious and simple to make on almost any schedule. Very forgiving and easy to make this way. Time kneads the bread.
Cool! I’ve never done that but will definitely give it a go. Thanks for the tip!
Can you freeze the dough until ready to use?
You bet. Here is a great post about freezing pizza dough if you’ve never done it. http://creativesavingsblog.com/from_my_kitchen/freezer-cooking/how-to-freeze-pizza-dough/
What kind of flour do you recommend in “Mama’s Best Pizza Dough” recipe?
I have always used all-purpose flour for this particular recipe.
What kind of yeast?
You can use either regular active dry yeast or rapid rise dry yeast. I have used both. If you do use rapid, just be prepared to work a little faster. Regular should rise completely in about a half hour. Rapid takes about 20 minutes.
This turned out great! The info on the water temp was so helpful. I never get that part right! Thanks!!
You bet! Thanks for stopping by!
Any tips I should know before I refrigerate it for a couple days? Should I let it rise first and then pound it?
I’ve never actually tried refrigerating it for days. If you want to make ahead of time, especially days ahead, I would make it and freeze it. I have been told that usually freezing dough requires more yeast than usual. Luckily this particular recipe has quite a bit of yeast. Freezing has always worked fine for me. See previous comments. There is a great link for freezing homemade pizza dough. 🙂 Thanks for dropping by!
Hi There
Thanks for sharing the water tip. I love making homemade pizzas, so u can have better control over ingredients, but my attempts never turn out right. Now I know why, all this time I have been using warm water instead of the right temp. I will be trying it this week. Can’t wait to see how it turns out! 😉
You bet! Thanks for reading. Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!
This dough is awesome! I did a review of it on my site. This is going on my go to recipes.
http://mommywithavision.blogspot.com/2014/02/tried-and-true-chapter-2-pizza-dough.html
I made this tonight and rubbed some garlic, basil, and oregano on top. It came out very good! It rose a lot while baking and was very fluffy. What could I do to flatten it a little and make it spread easier on the pan? It really wanted to stay in a ball. Thanks for the recipe!
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what kind of flour did you use?
Just regular old All Purposes Flour.
I’m a little confused. Your recipe says to “let it rest for 10 min” nothing about letting it rise but in some of the comments you have responded to on here you talk about letting it rise. Do you need to let this dough rise? Help! I know regular bread dough and almost every other pizza dough recipe says to let it rise but it just doesn’t say to do it except in your comments. Thanks for hopefully clearing this up!
You do NOT need to let it rise in the traditional way. It will rise a little as it rests for the 10 minutes, but then it does all the rising it needs to do as it bakes. It’s a great dough if you don’t have a lot of time.
Hey ice used this recipe numerous times and love it! Just wondering if can you use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose, using the same measurements?
Thanks!
I can’t thank you enough for this dough recipe! I’ve been craving zeppole (Italian doughnuts) for a few days now and haven’t had the heart to ask hubby to go to work to pick up a ball of dough on his days off! lol Now he won’t have to and my cravings will be satisfied! 😀
I made this pizza dough tonight after finding this recipe via Pinterest. It was very simple and turned out yummyliciously (I invented a new word for how yummy the crust of my home-made pizza was) ! I started mixing it using the plastic kneading blade of my food processor, but ran out of room so I finished the rest by hand. I had enough dough to make 2 large pizzas. I put one of the dough balls in my fridge and will try to make it again on the weekend. Next time I’ll half the recipe so I can make the whole thing in the food processor and speed up the preparation time. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I’m so glad! Make sure to stop back by tonight! We have a round-up post going up about all the “yummylicious” things you can make with Mama’s Best Pizza Dough! Thanks for reading!!!
This looks great. Do you have any recipes for strawberry cake?
We do actuallly. Here it is. It was a guest post from Anita at Livelikeyouarerich.com
We have a family Strawberry Pop Cake that we will have to put up soon. Thanks for the idea~
I’ve been making bread for over 40 years. It is so fun to play in the kitchen with my new found bread dough from you. Just found your website about a month ago. Have made breadsticks, pizza twice and tonight we are having Smokies in a blanket and with the left over dough will make a few cinnamon rolls and then some cinnamon twists, can hardly wait. This dough is PERFECT for so many fun, fun things. Thank you for making my life a little easier.
I believe that your pizza recipe is the only recipe the world needs, Honestly its a never absolute fail pizza dough no matter how experience you are it will never fail you and ive been using your pie dough recipe since last year ever since our Culinary Arts Teacher (then i was in the 11th grade) and it made huge pieces of pizza which was great because we had a big class room. Im actually about to use it for a get together on Tuesday. And i just wanted to thankyou even on the warm water tip.
Excellent post! I actually use your recipe to make the pizza cake!
I’ve always ordered pizza. I’ve made your recipe for the first time about a month ago..WOW. It is amazingly easy. I divided it in two and froze half,( thawed out just like I whipped it up fresh). I coupled it with a homemade sauce, etc… NEVER again will I waste $18 bucks on a pizza that who knows WHATS IN IT or HOW it’s made…I SINCERELY thank you! Passes my young adults pizza passion too. DELICIOUS!
Marie- Thank you. I finally made Marie breadsticks tonight since I have a new kitchen aid. they were a huge hit. Thank you again.
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing 🙂