My parents have been making their own pizza for years, but I just started doing it for my own family fairly recently. We made pizza at home but never completely from scratch. I don’t know why I was intimidated by the task of making my own crust, because it really is very easy.

The only downside for me is the cleaning I have to do afterwards, but it so worth it when you take that first bite of pizza fresh from the oven. Homemade is so much better than the pizzeria, and the kids love to help so it’s an activity for them too. This is my go-to when I realize that I forgot to take meat out for dinner because I almost always have the ingredients on hand.

How to Make Homemade Pizza Crust

Recipe makes two large pizzas.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 oz. pkg. active dry yeast
1 cup warm (not hot) water
1 teaspoon honey
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Dissolve yeast and honey in the water. Stir well and then let sit for about 15 minutes or until it becomes frothy. If it looks something like this, it worked. If not, dump the mixture and try again.

Dump the remaining ingredients into a large bowl and add the yeast mixture. I use the dough hook on my mixer for this step. Well a ball of dough has formed, it’s done. If it looks a little dry and not everything has incorporated, I add a little oil to help it along. I also like to pick up the ball and grease the bowl a little bit. (If you don’t have a mixer, you can stir and knead by hand).

Cover the bowl with a towel and put it aside where there are no drafts. I like to put the whole thing in the oven, but if you do just make sure you lock your oven so that nobody turns it on! In about an hour, the dough will double in size. Punch it down and you’re ready to make pizza! Or, you can store it in the fridge or freezer for later.

When you’re ready to bake:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. I use a jelly roll pan and roll out my pizza right in there. Just lightly flour the surface of the pan and the top of the dough so that it doesn’t stick to your rolling pin. As far as baking, I like to pre-bake the crust so that I don’t have to worry about it not being undercooked; this also makes for a more crispy crust. After 8-10 minutes, remove the crust from the oven and add your toppings. It’s done when the cheese is nice and bubbly, about another 10 minutes.