Okay, unless you found us on Google (or Bing?) for the first time today, you know we’re all about Homemade Pizza Dough. We’d love to share how our journey took us from buying a pre-made dough in a supermarket to a blog page with over 100 articles about pizza!
As a pizza enthusiast, I often find myself diving into the world of pizza dough, exploring the nuances of flour types, hydration levels, and fermentation times. There’s something deeply satisfying about creating the perfect pizza crust from scratch.
Yep, I’m a pizza nerd and I love making pizza dough. But it didn’t start that way. It actually started with pre-made dough from a (now-defunct) grocery store chain called Fresh & Easy. Heather and I got pretty good and confident in buying the dough ball, rolling it out, and making great pizza at home. That didn’t stop us from ordering pizza or having pizza when we were out (it wasn’t THAT good), but it really gave us a confidence we didn’t originally have.
And then…Fresh & Easy closed forever in 2015.
Now what?
Well, we’re not going back to this!
Why a Pre-Made Pizza Dough?
I’m getting ahead of myself. Why use a pre-made pizza dough ball? Well, the answer of course is convenience.
And maybe price?
Well, let’s face it, you’re likely not getting pizza much cheaper than Little Caesar’s. If you’re here on our page looking for the cheapest way to have pizza, then we should get out of your way and let you just order!
But, a pre-made pizza dough is the start on the path to a very high-end homemade pizza!
Pros of Using Pre-Made Dough:
- Convenience: Perfect for busy weeknights or impromptu pizza cravings.
- Consistency: Reliable results every time, as the mixes are formulated for optimal performance.
- Beginner-Friendly: Ideal for those who are new to baking and want to avoid the trial-and-error phase.
How About Pre-Made Pizza Dough Mixes?
Honestly, it wasn’t until later that we discovered pre-made pizza dough mixes. Urban Slicer and Gaston’s Organic Pizza Dough Mix both come to mind as companies that provide a “just add water” package that will get you on the road to making your own pizza dough.
Not quite from scratch, these are relatively easy entry points to making homemade pizza dough from scratch.
One hint?
Don’t add all the water until you’re sure! My experience with these pre-made packages is that you shouldn’t add all the water until you’re very sure the pizza dough is working the way you want. Because for a lot of people using these kits, there isn’t a bag of extra flour to correct for things if the dough is too sticky!
Doubly true if you are using a gluten free kit (which literally just happened to us! Now what??).
Homemade Pizza Dough – from scratch
When you make pizza dough from scratch, you embark on a culinary adventure that deepens your understanding and appreciation of pizza. You get to experiment with different flours, hydration levels, and fermentation methods, each adding unique characteristics to your dough.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…
The Birth of our Easy Peasy Pizza Dough
While I’ve worked in restaurant kitchens in the past, I was never a baker. If I turned on the oven, it was to put loaded nachos in.
Period.
So it was all up to Heather to figure out how to recreate this pizza dough at home!
With a little bit of experimentation, trial, error, and delicious eating, she crafted what is now our Easy Peasy Pizza Dough with just 6 ingredients and a scant 30 minutes.
And while we now add a little complexity through a Biga starter or Autolyse of the dough, this is still the backbone of many of our pizza doughs!
And Then?
Once we had a handle on our own dough, we went and got our first outdoor pizza oven – the Solo Stove Pi Dual-Fuel. This really is a wonderful oven and, other than it being a bit small for something like a New York pie, this really has been the workhorse of a couple of hundred pizzas.
And while we started off using Easy Peasy Pizza Dough, we are now WAY down the rabbit hole of unique pizza doughs.
Why You Should Learn to Make Your Own Pizza Dough:
- Customization: Tailor your dough to your exact preferences, whether you like it thick and chewy or thin and crispy. Different doughs will also work better with different ovens, cook times, and just pizza types.
- Quality Ingredients: Choose high-quality flours, perhaps even hand-milled from a local grainery (for us, Roan Mills because of where we live), maybe an imported Italian flour for a traditional Neapolitan touch, or maybe something totally unique like our pretzel crust pizza!
- Flavor Development: While this is last on the list, when you get here, you’ll really appreciate the experience you can get from rich, complex flavors that develop with longer fermentation times or the tangy notes from using a sourdough starter in a Neapolitan pizza.
The sense of accomplishment and connection to the process is something that pre-made dough or even pre-made pizza dough mixes simply can’t replicate. Kneading dough by hand, feeling its texture change, and watching it rise is an experience that’s both meditative and rewarding.
Our Favorite Dough Recipes
At Satisfying Slice, we have a treasure trove of pizza dough recipes waiting for you to explore (looks like 25 at the time of writing this article). Whether you’re interested in a classic Neapolitan dough, experimenting with different flours (rye anyone?), or trying your hand at sourdough, our pizza dough recipes are designed to guide you through the process with ease and confidence.
Then again…there’s something to be said about having pre-made at hand.
And despite our love for creating our own favorite dough recipes, having a pre-made dough (or dough kit) at hand isn’t a bad idea, especially for those days when you need a quick pizza fix.
It’s also invaluable to have a pre-made dough at hand if you’re throwing a pizza party and maybe you have unexpected guests or something goes terribly wrong!
Conclusion
Pre-made dough and dough kits are part of the journey to being your own favorite pizzaiolo, so embrace this step in our journey to becoming a pizza master chef!
Easy Peasy Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (one envelope)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 cup warm water between 100-110 F
- 2 ½ cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Ensure your water is between 100-110 F. Hotter water will kill your yeast, and colder water will make it take much longer to activate (although you will not get a lot of rise with this dough).
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. You do not want the salt to touch the yeast directly, as it will kill it.
- After the yeast, sugar, and water mixture is creamy, add in the flour and salt mixture, about ½ cup at a time, incorporating it. Alternate between adding the flour and olive oil, beginning and ending with flour.Reserve 1 teaspoon of olive oil to oil your pan and your hands.
- After all the ingredients are incorporated, let it rest for five minutes.
- Lightly oil your pizza pan to help avoid sticking.
- After the dough has rested, lightly oil your hands and press the dough into a circular shape onto a pizza pan.
- Top with your favorite toppings.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
Todd’s cooking skills have revolved around the grill since about age 12, when he developed a love for grilling and took over for Mom at the BBQ. He worked at Wendy’s and at Earl’s Tin Palace (a restaurant chain in Canada) but never really did any sort of baking…until he and Heather started making pizza together! Now he’s often making dough in the mornings and pizza in the evenings.