October 5, 2021

Easy Homemade Pizza

Did y’all know that October is National Pizza Month? Pizza is one of our favorite foods (and easy meals), so we try to make one night a week pizza night. This Easy Homemade Pizza Crust is our go-to recipe when we want a tasty, satisfying pizza, but don’t want to order in or wait too long. It always hits the spot!

My Easy Homemade Pizza Crust is a delicious quick fix for your weeknight pizza cravings.

Before I get too deep into this post and recipe, let me make one thing very clear before any of my Italian or New York readers come at me. This is not a traditional pizza recipe. I know it’s not traditional New York style or Neapolitan style. It’s not meant to be my attempt at traditional pizza styles. I’ll happily leave those to the professionals.

This recipe is for those nights when you’re craving pizza, but don’t want to wait for delivery, or want something as quick as delivery but better quality, or don’t have time to go through the steps of a traditional recipe, or don’t want to. It’s relatively quick and easy, doesn’t require any specialty ingredients, and still delivers on everything you love about pizza: chewy crust, red sauce, your favorite toppings, and of course, lots of cheese.

This pizza is certainly nothing fancy, but you can make it as fancy as you like it with your sauce and toppings. I love a classic red sauce loaded up with melty mozzarella cheese. You also can’t go wrong with a Margherita pizza, especially with fresh mozzarella and homegrown basil. This summer I made a Burrata Margherita, with burrata cheese instead of mozzarella. That was such an easy way to elevate a Friday night pizza.

Some of my other favorite pizza toppings include:

Prosciutto
Pineapple (yes, I’m one of those people)
Sausage
Ricotta
Pepperoni
Roasted red peppers
Hot honey (just a drizzle at the end!)
Arugula
Red pepper flakes

A good quality pizza pan makes a huge difference when making pizza at home. We have the Lodge Cast Iron Seasoned Pizza Pan, and it’s amazing. There’s no need to use baking spray or oil, and we’ve never had a pizza (or anything) stick to it. We do sprinkle cornmeal on the pan before placing and stretching our crust, but that’s more for texture than stickage.

How to Make My Easy Pizza Crust

This recipe makes one, roughly 12-inch pizza crust. You will need:

Flour
Water
Instant yeast
Salt
Olive oil
Sugar or honey
Your favorite pizza sauce
Your favorite pizza toppings
Cornmeal

For the flour, I use half all-purpose, half whole wheat. I like that whole wheat gives the dough a little more structure and different taste. You can change up the proportions of each flour, or use all AP or all whole wheat.

To make the pizza crust, first prepare the yeast. Add the yeast and sugar (or honey) to the warm water. Mix until it’s foamy on top, and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Combine all the dough ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, and olive oil. Add the water-sugar-yeast mixture, and stir until everything comes together. It will be a large, sticky ball.

Rest the dough. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel. Let it rest for 20 minutes. While the dough is resting, preheat your oven to 475ºF.

Stretch, shape, and top your crust. Once the dough has rested, turn it onto a lightly floured work surface. Begin stretching and shaping it to your desired size and thickness. Once it’s shaped, sprinkle your pizza pan with cornmeal and carefully place your crust on top. Add your desired sauce and toppings.

Bake the pizza. This will take anywhere from 10-13 minutes, depending on your oven and how thick your crust is. You can pop it under the broiler for a minute or two at the end for extra browning.

Slice and enjoy! Pizza is best served hot. Top with fresh basil, extra cheese, olive oil, or red pepper flakes if desired.

That’s it, y’all! That’s how we make our Easy Homemade Pizza. It’s not traditional, but it’s easy and delicious, and we love it. If you enjoy this recipe, you might also like:

Thanks so much for reading and following along! If you enjoyed this and are craving more, follow me on Instagram and Pinterest to see more of my favorite scratch-made Southern recipes. If you make one of my recipes, don’t forget to tag me so I can see your creation!