Recipe for Homemade Pizza

For many years I was too intimidated to make homemade pizza; I'm so glad I learned how. They are so much better than any store bought or delivered pizza and are not hard to make at all. I'm a bread lover and I don't like bland pizza crust, so I created this recipe for a crust that is flavorful and delicious.


Here is my recipe for Turkey Pepperoni Stuffed Crust Pizza with step by step instructions for those who may be a bit intimidated like I was.

I usually use the bread maker for the dough but many times, when I need to make more than one pizza, I make it by hand.

Place the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed.

• 1 cup warm water (I place mine in the microwave for about 50 seconds to warm it up, if it is too hot it will kill the yeast.)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2-1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 -1 tsp. garlic powder (optional)
• 1/2-1 tsp. Italian seasoning and/or pizza seasoning (optional)
• 3 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp. powdered milk or non-dairy creamer
• 1 tablespoon yeast

Set the bread maker on the dough cycle.


When the cycle is complete, sprinkle flour onto your work surface, place the dough onto the surface, knead it a little, and form the dough into a ball, using as much flour as necessary so that it doesn't stick to your hands or the work surface.
Roll or press the dough to flatten it into the desired shape.


I recently started using a pizza pan with holes in it and it makes the very best crust, it's perfect, and also eliminates some of the steps in the recipe. Definitely worth every penny.


If you use a regular pan or cookie sheet, sprinkle the pan lightly with cornmeal to keep it from sticking.


Lift the dough and place it into pizza pan.

Press the dough to the edges of the pan. To stuff the crust with cheese, (optional, but trust me, it's delicious with this crust), cut strips of mozzarella cheese and wrap the edges of the dough around the cheese. Press the edges firmly to completely enclose the cheese.


If you use a pizza pan without the holes, you should use a fork to poke holes in the dough to keep air bubbles from forming. Also, if your pan is small and the dough is thick, at this point you need to precook the dough for 5-7 minutes before any toppings are added to make sure that the dough gets fully cooked. The dough cooks perfect every time with my new pizza pan with holes, but before, with regular pans, I had to precook the dough.


Top with pizza sauce, (Trader Joe's has my favorite sauce).
Top with mozzarella cheese.


Top cheese with pepperoni slices, (I use the turkey pepperoni because it isn't as greasy).

Bake at 400 in a preheated oven until cheese is melted and lightly golden, as in the picture at the top.



Here are a few other pizza "recipes" using this same tasty dough:



Easy BBQ Chicken Pizza (One of our favorites.)

Prepare dough in bread machine as directed.

Boil about 5 chicken breast and season with various seasonings according to taste, (minced onion, garlic, salt, pepper, Cayenne pepper). When it's done shred the chicken and pour on some of your favorite BBQ sauce, (mine is KC Masterpiece Original). Mix well and then place the BBQ chicken on the prepared pizza dough.


Top with mozzarella cheese and bake at 400.





Garlic Cheese Bread



1 recipe of pizza dough

butter (room temperature)

Garlic powder

Parmesan Cheese

Mozzarella Cheese (or favorite cheese)

• Prepare dough in bread machine as directed.
• Roll and press dough into an oblong pan that has been lightly dusted with cornmeal (to keep bread from sticking).
• Spread softened butter onto the dough.
• Sprinkle dough with garlic powder.
• Top with your favorite cheeses (I use mozzarella and Parmesan)
• Bake at 425 until cheese is melted and lightly golden. It is best when it's not overcooked.

You can use this pizza dough to make pizza with any topping you like. A lot of times I divide the dough and we each make our own personal pan pizza, (one dough recipe makes three good size personal pan pizzas). When we do this I usually make myself a vegetarian pizza with roasted red peppers, black olives, onions, jalapenos and mushrooms.

I apologize for the crazy spacing on this post, for some reason Blogger wouldn't allow me to space properly.