Ingredients:

If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, it makes this a breeze and cuts the effort by about 80%.

We do everything right in the mixer bowl: add the water and sugar, mix until the sugar dissolves, add the yeast, then let it sit until frothy. Once it’s bubbling, add the olive oil, flour, salt, and Italian seasoning and mix on the lowest setting until you get a nice dough ball that’s slightly tacky but not super sticky and gooey.

That’s it — no kneading on the counter needed. You can absolutely do this by hand (instructions below), but if you have the mixer, use it.

By hand:

1. Dissolve the sugar first. Combine warm water and sugar in a large mixing bowl, stir until the sugar dissolves, then sprinkle in the yeast. Give it a gentle stir.
2. Let it sit for 5 minutes, or until it becomes frothy and bubbly. This tells you the yeast is alive and working.
3. Gently stir in the olive oil.
4. Add 2 cups of flour, the salt, and Italian seasoning. Mix with a spatula until a ball begins to form. The dough will still be slightly sticky — that’s fine. Add more flour as needed to bring it together.
5. Transfer to a floured surface and knead into a smooth dough, adding up to ½ cup extra flour if it’s still too sticky.

Either way:

1. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let it rise for 1–2 hours. No more than 2 hours. This is the sweet spot we’ve found — enough time for good flavor development without overdoing it.

Start preheating your oven to 550°F at least an hour before you plan to bake. Yes, an hour. If you’re using a pizza stone (and you should be — more on that below), it needs time to get screaming hot. Place the stone on the lowest oven rack. This is critical. Cooking on the lowest rack gets the crust crispier without burning the toppings and cheese.

While the oven heats up, prep your toppings and shred your cheese. And yes, shred your own cheese. It’s so worth it. Pre-shredded cheese is coated in anti-caking agents and just doesn’t melt the same way. The difference is obvious enough that the few times we’ve cheated, the kids all point out “Why doesn’t it look as good?”

Before you start rolling, stretch the dough out into a rough circle with your hands. Then grab your rolling pin.

Sprinkle a little flour on your parchment paper, dust the top of the dough, and dust the roller too. Roll the dough out on the parchment paper and bake it on that same paper — it makes cleanup so much easier and means you’re not trying to transfer a floppy raw pizza onto a hot stone.

This dough works best if you roll it nice and thin. You get a light, crispy crust that is just delicious. Try to keep it around 13 inches or smaller. You’ll be tempted to go bigger, but smaller pizzas cook more evenly, are easier to handle, and the center doesn’t get soggy.

1. Add your sauce, freshly shredded cheese, and toppings of choice.
2. Use a pizza peel to transfer the pizza (on its parchment paper) to the preheated stone.
3. Bake at 550°F. Our gas oven gets these done in about 7 minutes. At the 4-minute mark, rotate the pizza 180 degrees — the back of the oven runs hotter, so don’t skip this step. Every oven is different, so if it’s your first time, check at the 6-minute mark and adjust from there.
4. The pizza is done when the bottom of the crust is golden brown.
5. Remove with the pizza peel and set on a wire rack to cool for 5–10 minutes before cutting and serving. This is hard to wait for, but it makes a difference.

Try not to open the oven too much while baking — every time you do, you lose a lot of heat.

Pizza stone: This is a game changer. The crust cooks more evenly and gets noticeably crispier. If you don’t have one, put some foil on the oven rack and place the parchment paper with the pizza directly on top. It’s not the same, but it works.

Pizza peel: That pizza shovel thing you see them use at restaurants. Moving a big floppy uncooked pizza is no easy task, and a peel makes the job so much easier. You can find them on Amazon for around $20 — ours has a short handle and folds for easy storage. Worthwhile investment.

Cheese shredder: There are a lot of options out there, but we like this one: [Cheese Grater] . Gets the job done quickly and cleans up easy.

It’s Better then delivery. I promise!