A basic pizza dough for when you can't think of anything to cook and pizza is a good option.
This home-made pizza dough requires one bowl, minimal ingredients, 3 minutes of kneading and rolling however you like.
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This basic pizza dough recipe will yield 5 small pizzas. When I last made this pizza dough for our family of four; two of us had one pizza each and two of us had one and a half pizzas.
It's fun having a pizza night with the family. We usually allow each person to customise their own pizza with their preferred toppings. This keeps the kids busy for a few minutes (which is needed during this self-lockdown period - I really don't want to hear "Mum I'm bored!" ever again)
Steps to make homemade pizza dough
- Activate your yeast - In a large mixing bowl, pour warm water, add dried yeast and maple syrup, mix and allow yeast to froth for 10 minutes.
- In the same bowl, whisk in olive oil and yeast. Add flour and stir until a sticky dough forms. Using your hands knead dough for about 3 minutes (in the bowl).
- Make a ball with your dough, place it in the center of your bowl and cover with cling wrap for five minutes.
- Roll out your dough into desired pizza shape, size and thickness on a flour dusted surface. You can evenly divide the dough into five equal parts.
How to know your pizza dough is ready
Depending on your oven, baking your pizza can vary time-wise. An oven on 225 degrees Celsius (437 degrees Fahrenheit), the pizza dough should be baked for about 9-12 minutes. If your toppings look baked to the way you like, pull out your pizza and use a fork to check the base. It should look like the first photo. If it is still not-quite-there, put it back into the oven for another minute or two.
A little cheat...
We wanted rustic looking pizza's this time around, so we placed them into rectangular trays. I'm not fond of cleaning up, so I cheated and used parchment/baking paper and placed the pizza dough onto it. It was perfect as the tray remained clean (although I still washed the trays, as they were handled) , the trays didn't have any of the burnt sauces or anything that requires a good scrubbing. Winning!
What pairs perfectly with pizza? Pasta! Try my Vegan Lasagna Gluten Free recipe. I doubt there will be left overs!
📖 Recipe
Basic Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 290 ml Filtered water warm
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1.5 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Maple Syrup substitute with raw/brown sugar
- 480 g Plain flour
- 2.5 tsp Yeast dried
- 2 tbsp Plain flour Extra flour for dusting
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add warm filtered water, maple syrup and dried yeast and mix. Allow to sit for 10 minutes to activate yeast. The mixture will become frothy.
- Preheat oven on 225 degrees Celsius (437 degrees Fahrenheit).
- In the same bowl, add olive oil, salt and yeast mixture and whisk.
- Add plain flour and mix into a sticky dough.
- Use your hand to knead dough for about 3 minutes.
- Make a ball with your dough, and place in the center of your bowl.
- Cover with cling wrap for 5 minutes to rest.
- Using your hands place dough on flour dusted surface and roll out pizza dough into desired shape and thickness.
- Place your pizza dough on a pizza tray or baking tray.
- Using a fork, prick rolled pizza base evenly and top with your favourite pizza toppings.
- Bake for 10-20 minutes. Allow 5 minutes rest before cutting up.
Shumaila
Friday nights are now sorted. Thanks for this Janelle 🙂