The perfect pizza dough recipe for family pizza nights!

Pizza is so easy to make and often tastes its best when it is made at home with loved ones!

Pizza is so easy to make and often tastes its best when it is made at home with loved ones!

pizzanight

I love special family nights together and one of my favourite is our weekly pizza night. We make the pizza dough in the afternoon after Roo gets home from school, sometimes he will make it with me, and other times he will just play whilst I make it (checking every so often to make sure I’m doing it right of course!).

Then when it gets to about 5pm, we grate the cheese (which the boys eat, so I have to grate it again), slice up the mozzarella and anything else we want to go on top of the pizza. Once its done we sit down as a family and share out all of the slices, watch a disney film and snuggle. Its so much fun!

Because I love this little ritual so much, I wanted to share with you my perfect pizza dough recipe, so here it is, I hope you give it a go.

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of yeast, or 1 packet of dry yeast
  • 3 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 cup of warm water (hand touch warm)
  • 1 teaspoon of salt

In a bowl mix the yeast and sugar with the warm water and leave to activate for 10-12 minutes. Once the yeast has activated the water will be frothy/bubbly. Mix the flour, salt and butter together in a separate bowl and add the yeast mixture. Mix really well until this forms a dough.

Leave the dough to rise in a warm place (approximately 1 hour), punch down to knock the air out (highly satisfying if you have had a bad day!) and leave to rise again for another hour – you can skip the last rise if you are really rushed for time, or shorten the time to 30mins, but the dough is best if it is double risen. During the second rise (or first if you are skipping the second rise) pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6/7.

Roll out the dough over a well floured surface to form approximately 3 large pizzas, or 6 smaller ones. We always do 3 large pizzas for our family (3 adults and 2 children) this feeds everyone with plenty left over. With a fork prick the dough all over leaving an inch or so around the edge to form a crust – this stops the dough rising up in the oven if you prick it. Bake for 10-15 minutes until turning golden.

Add whatever topping you are planning on using: garlic spread, tomato base, cheese, ham, mushrooms, pepperoni, chicken etc etc. Return to the oven for a further 15 minutes until the cheese is completely melted.

At the moment, we really love spicy chicken with peppers, pepperoni, ham and mushroom and four cheese pizzas. I try to get the boys trying different flavours so we change them up whenever we fancy it, but the cheesy pizza is alway a favourite!

Harriet x

 

30 Comments

  1. Avatar May 8, 2018 / 12:22 pm

    Great post and love the punching it if you have had a bad day. I can see us doing this a lot lol. We will be giving then a try.

  2. Avatar April 7, 2016 / 8:20 am

    My daughter would love making this with me although I have to admit I’m always to lazy to make the dough and normally by pizza bases lol x

    • Harriet April 7, 2016 / 9:20 am

      Yes we buy them too sometimes but this is sooooo much better!

  3. Avatar April 6, 2016 / 9:30 pm

    I love pizza! I should try making my own dough sometime! The one pictured looks delicious!

  4. Avatar April 6, 2016 / 9:26 pm

    I always make my own pizza dough as well as they taste so much better. And pizza is my favourite food. πŸ™‚ I have never tried it with sugar though, as I tend to add a little sugar to the sauce instead. πŸ™‚

    MookieslifeΒ 

    • Harriet April 5, 2016 / 8:09 pm

      Let me know how you get on! H x

  5. Avatar April 4, 2016 / 4:38 pm

    Hands up I love pizza and this recipe sounds absolutely delicious yes please! x

  6. Avatar April 4, 2016 / 2:24 pm

    I really should try making this πŸ˜€ Lily has never had pizza!!!

  7. Avatar April 4, 2016 / 11:14 am

    We love a pizza on a Friday night, but I usually cheat with the base and use wraps. This looks super easy, so I should give it a go x

  8. Avatar April 4, 2016 / 8:51 am

    Mmmmmm this is making me want pizza! I quite often make it with my daughter although we cheat a bit with a packet mix but never get round to doing it for me and my husband…

  9. Avatar April 3, 2016 / 10:36 pm

    I love making my own pizza but I’ve never really thought about doing the dough, I think I’m just too lazy. They look really yummy x

    • Harriet April 3, 2016 / 10:53 pm

      Give the dough a try I promise its so much better than the shop bought one! H x

  10. Avatar April 3, 2016 / 9:46 pm

    Yum this sounds incredible! We are big pizza lovers in this house!

    • Harriet April 3, 2016 / 9:59 pm

      Thanks Rebecca – it is and the kids love making it! H x

  11. Avatar April 3, 2016 / 7:21 pm

    I recently made pizza at a cookery lesson and was amazed at how simple it was!

    • Harriet April 3, 2016 / 10:00 pm

      It’s so simple! Yum!!

  12. Avatar April 3, 2016 / 4:15 pm

    I like making pizza, it tastes so much better than the shop bought ones here. But, the best pizza I’ve ever eaten was in Rome.

    • Harriet April 3, 2016 / 10:02 pm

      Yes it really does doesn’t it?! H x

  13. Avatar April 3, 2016 / 2:46 pm

    Ummm yum!!!! I want to try this one. I love pizza. All your recipes are so easy to follow. This sounds perfect for family nights in xx

    • Harriet April 3, 2016 / 10:02 pm

      Ahhh thanks Chloe πŸ™‚ H x

  14. Avatar April 3, 2016 / 1:22 pm

    I love pizza big time but I have never made it from scratch before I always buy but boo tries to make now and again it does taste better

    • Harriet April 3, 2016 / 10:04 pm

      Do it Anosa, it’s so easy to make! H x

  15. Avatar April 3, 2016 / 12:37 pm

    Aww this looks so yummy, I’m a huge fan of family nights too, though have to admit hubby’s the cook in this house lol. Lovely picture of you both too xx

    • Harriet April 3, 2016 / 10:05 pm

      Oh I wish hubby could cook! H x

  16. Avatar April 3, 2016 / 12:14 pm

    Homemade pizza is one of our favourites as well. It always tastes so much better than shop bought pizzas. X

    • Harriet April 3, 2016 / 10:05 pm

      Amen to that Yvonne! H x

    • Harriet April 3, 2016 / 10:10 pm

      Yes do! Tweet me your attempt! H x

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