Who doesn’t love family pizza night? Take this family tradition up a notch by making your own pizza — including the dough! Doughn’t worry, we made it easy with only six ingredients. If you’re in a rush (or have hangry kids), you don’t even have to wait for it to rise! You’ll be topping your own personal pizza before you know it!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- Sauce, cheese, and toppings of your choice
Steps:
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease your pizza pan or baking sheet and set aside.
- Put warm water into a large mixing bowl. You want it warm to the touch, but not boiling. Add sugar and yeast and stir to combine, then let the bowl sit for about 5 minutes or until a layer of frothy bubbles forms. Add the olive oil, stirring gently as you pour.
- Mix the flour and salt together, then add to your wet ingredients. Mix with a spatula until a ball begins to form. Add more flour as needed until you form a ball. Note: Your dough should be a little sticky, but should easily pull off your spatula.
- Transfer your dough to a floured surface and knead, adding extra flour if needed. Be careful not to knead too long! You don’t want to make your dough tough. Once you have a smooth, round dough ball, stop kneading.
- Roll dough into a round shape and transfer to your pan. You can also make several smaller rounds if you want individual pizzas.
- Bake on the lower rack of your oven for 5 minutes. If you notice any air bubbles forming, poke them with a fork.
- Take your dough out of the oven and add sauce, cheese, and toppings.
- Bake for another 15-20 minutes until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned.
- Remove from the oven and let the pizza sit for a few minutes before serving.
Bonus tip: If you have time, let the dough rise for 30 minutes (or until it doubles in size) before rolling it out. You’ll get a fluffier crust!
You can also make this recipe ahead and freeze it so you have dough ready to go! You can either freeze your dough as a ball, or make a fully dressed pizza and freeze it that way.
Healthy substitutions: you can swap out the sugar for 2 tsp of honey. For a gluten free crust, try using 2 cups of almond flour and adding an egg. When you roll out your dough, you can use cornstarch to make your surface non-stick or press the dough into your pizza pan with your fingers.
Ways your kids can help
1-3 years old: Let your kids help mix the ingredients together to form a dough ball. It’s a great sensory activity, but you might want to mix it a bit on your own first so they don’t get too sticky.
4-5 years old: Give them a chance to try out a rolling pin! Show them how it works and let them roll the pizza dough into a round shape. You can also talk about units of measurement and how thick the dough needs to be.
6-7 years old: Measuring and mixing your ingredients together is a great way to let kids at this age practice their math skills in a hands-on way.
8-9 years old: Let your child add the sauce, cheese, and toppings, and supervise them as they cut the pizza once it’s had a chance to cool.
10+ years old: Are you feeling adventurous? Try throwing your pizza dough instead of rolling it! Watch how-to videos online together and then see who can throw the best crust.
Proudly sponsored by Breadroot Natural Foods Co-op in Rapid City. Breadroot’s mission is to promote community involvement in the production, procurement, and distribution of natural and organic foods and other goods and services for healthy living. They envision a community strengthened by cooperative economics and driven by concern for the health and well-being of the planet and its inhabitants.