🍕 Pizza Crust (Easy as Pi)!

From scratch, yummy, and Goo-Free!

Mar 13, 2025

I’m always amazed by how much it costs to buy a pre-made pizza crust in the grocery store. Even the pizza dough from your local bakery seems pricey. There’s really nothing to it that is expensive or complicated.

Water. Yeast. Sugar. Salt. Oil. Flour.

That’s it!

The yeast does all the work for you, too.

We make four crusts at a time and freeze three to shorten prep time when we want pizza for dinner. Just pop a crust in the oven during the preheat cycle and then add your toppings…

Let me tempt you with some amazing photos to get your tastebuds watering. 🤤

Homemade pizza! — Rectangular or Circular - homemade pizza is the BEST!

If you use your imagination, you can practically taste that awesome crust. Crunchy and chewy in all the right ways…

We never really had a written recipe - it’s that easy.

My husband keeps a yellow index card taped to the inside of the kitchen cabinet with the ingredients list for a one-crust recipe. Just multiply these measurements by the number of crusts you want to make at once:

We use a bread machine only to mix the dough, but you can knead it just as easily.

Time to make it

Yeast Proofing/Activation: 5-10 minutes.
Mixing (in Bread Machine or Kneading) + First Rise: 45 minutes
(this time depends upon your altitude about sea level)
Shape + Second Rise: 10 mins + 30 mins
Total Time: 60-85 minutes

Let’s start with the equipment you will need so that you can be ready to go.

In the kitchen

electric bread machine ← I like this one
(you won’t need this if you are hand-kneading the dough)
medium mixing bowl (for hand kneading)
measuring cups
measuring spoons
stainless steel pizza pan (ready to bake)
silicone spatulas
plastic storage bags (for freezing)

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Ingredients

One 16 ounce pizza crust will make a large pizza and can serve a party of 2-4 people.

This recipe makes two 16 ounce crusts.

(1-1/2) cups warm water < 120'F
(2) tsp yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
(2) tsp salt
(6) tbsp oil
(4) cups flour

Optional Ingredients

These optional ingredients could be added to the crust dough to boost the flavor.

oregano
black pepper
fresh garlic
basil
toasted sesame oil (replace oil in recipe above)
finely diced sun dried tomato pieces

Bread Machine

If you prefer to hand-knead, scroll down.

Into the bread machine, add the warm water, yeast, and sugar. Mix with spatula and allow to rest 5-10 minutes. Waking up the yeast will improve the rise.
Add remaining ingredients and start the bread machine on the dough setting. (Do not set to bake). This takes about 45 minutes.
When the cycle is done, pour the dough out onto a countertop dusted with flour and knead enough to get a smoother consistency.
Divide and weigh 16 ounce portions. If you have extra dough you can make the crust larger or make buns.
Shape into the pizza crust, ensuring that the edges are lifted enough to keep pizza ingredients from falling off during baking.
Set aside for second rise - 30 mins in the pizza crust pan.
Set oven to 400’F and bake for 20 minutes.

Hand-Kneading

Into medium mixing bowl, add the warm water, yeast, and sugar. Mix with spatula and allow to rest 5-10 minutes. Waking up the yeast will improve the rise.
Add remaining ingredients in portion and knead well. Add flour until the dough is no longer sticky. This takes about 15-30 minutes.
Divide and weigh 16 ounce portions. If you have extra dough you can make the crust larger or make buns.
Shape into the pizza crust, ensuring that the edges are lifted enough to keep pizza ingredients from falling off during baking.
Set aside for second rise - 30 mins in the pizza crust pan.
Set oven to 400’F and bake for 20 minutes.