Homemade Pizza Dough

Homemade Pizza Dough is a delicious base for endless possibilities. You'll want to bring this easy make ahead recipe into regular dinner rotation. It's irresistible.

It's February, and we're still under a stay at home order here in Scotland. I'm a pretty focused person. I love being at home and getting on with random projects and ticking things off my various lists. I'm a confirmed introvert, so I can go for ages with only my weird brain for company. I'm really made for staying at home.

But I'm also a Sagittarius, and I need to travel and have adventures. The last time we traveled outside the UK was April 2019 when we went to Berlin. The last time we slept somewhere other than our house was Christmas that same year when we went to visit family in England. The farthest away I've been from my house in over a year is Ikea, which is technically still in Glasgow. I can't wait to set foot in a place I've never been before. My heart is aching for it. Where will you travel first when you can? Or have you been traveling this whole time? I need to know.

What makes Homemade Pizza Dough so awesome?

Though with all this time at home, I've been able to spend much more time in my new kitchen. I recently learned to make Homemade Pizza Dough, and I'm totally hooked. This recipe comes from that mad scientist, Alton Brown, and his book, I'm Just Here for More Food.

This dough is pillowy soft and develops a great flavor all its own. It bakes up nice and crisp, but not dry and crackery. It would probably be even better if you baked it on a pizza stone, but I just don't have one. My favorite thing is that you make it at least a day ahead of time, so it breaks up the work a little bit.

The dough gets divided into four portions, and each portion makes a pizza that's like one and a quarter servings. We each made our own pizza. Geoff finished his, and I had a couple pieces left over. I kept the other two dough balls in the fridge to use a couple days later. They'll last up to a week in the fridge. As the yeast slowly continues to ferment, the flavor just deepens and improves.

How to make Homemade Pizza Dough

I can tell you right now that this recipe is much easier if you have an electric mixer with a dough hook. If you don't, you'll just have to roll up your sleeves and get messy. It's totally worth it in the end.

This recipe starts out by dissolving a children's chewable 25 mg vitamin C tablet in a bit of water. I've skimmed through the whole chapter to try to figure out why. I don't know. They don't seem to make chewable tablets for kids anymore. Everything is gummy. Here's my work around. Get whatever vitamin C tablets you can find, smash it up, and just use a tiny bit of the powder. Please let me know in the comments if you have a better idea. Also, just don't sweat it. It'll be fine.

Okay, but back in the realm of usual bread making, seriously, all you have to do is add warm water, vitamin C, salt, sugar, all-purpose or plain flour, and instant yeast to the bowl of your stand mixer, and mix it on medium for a couple minutes until everything comes together. Let the dough rest for a bit before mixing it with the dough hook for another five minutes until smooth.

Work your dough by hand for a minute just to bring everything into a nice ball, then let it rise in an oiled bowl for about an hour. Then, punch it down, form it into a fresh disc, and put it back in the bowl for a slow overnight rise in the fridge.

When you're ready to make pizza

At least an hour before you want to make pizza, split the dough into four roughly equal parts, and roll each quarter into its own ball. If you're using them right away, leave the dough on the counter to rise for an hour. The rest can be bagged up and stashed in the fridge for up to a week until you're ready to use them. Just let the dough ball sit out of the fridge for an hour to puff up a bit before making pizza.

Then all that's left to do is form it into whatever shape you want your pizza to take. I wouldn't bother with a rolling pin here. This dough is stretchy enough that you can just stretch it with your hands gently. I like to just hold one end and let gravity do most of the stretching for me.

You'll want to preheat your oven to pretty much as hot as it can go. 500 F or 250 C. I baked my pizzas on a baking sheet for 8 minutes, but it will vary based on the size, shape, and what you're baking it on. It looks like a lot of instructions, but I promise, it's really easy.

Make it magical

Every ingredient you use in your kitchen has magical properties, even the wheat used to make your flour. Simple grains have been fueling human civilization for centuries, and millers were once regarded as magicians similar to alchemists for their ability to transform wheat into flour.

Wheat symbolises abundance and rebirth because of its ability to flourish year after year. It's golden color is also symbolic of prosperity. Use wheat in your kitchen magick when you want to call in money, abundance, and fertility. (Sources: Flying the Hedge and Encyclopedia of Witchcraft By Judika Illes)

I can't wait to experiment with awesome pizza flavors and share those with you in the future. For now, let this basic Homemade Pizza Dough be your playground. It's gonna be awesome.

Looking for more awesome homemade baking projects. Try these Sea Salt Bagels.

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Recipe from I'm Just Here for More Food by Alton Brown.