The first step towards pizza-making at home is to make your own pizza dough. Making pizza dough by hand is a challenging task in itself, but with the right guidance and a little practice you can master this art in no time. Follow these step-by-step instructions to make your own pizza dough at home. 

Pizza dough is made with yeast so you need to do a bit of advance planning before starting to make the dough. The recipe given below will make enough dough for about 2 pizzas (12 inch).

The ingredients that you’ll need to make pizza dough include 2 packages of dry yeast, 1¼ cup of warm water, 3½ to 4 cups of sifted flour, vegetable oil or olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, and a pizza pan or baking sheet.

Procedure:

1. Take 1¼ cup of warm water in a medium bowl and sprinkle the yeast onto the water, stirring until it dissolves.

2. Add 2 cups of sifted flour to this water and stir well to blend completely.

3. Now slowly add the remaining 1 ½ to 2 cups of flour and mix well until the batter turns too stiff to stir with a spoon.

4. Take the dough out onto a flat floured surface and knead it well for about 15 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.

5. Take another bowl and grease it with a few drops of oil. Place the dough in this bowl, and then turn it once so that the top surface gets oiled.

6. Seal the bowl with a plastic wrap and let it stand in a warm place for about 45 minutes. Check for the dough to rise to about double its original size.

7. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

8. In the meantime, take the dough back onto the floured surface, and knead it hard so that no bubbles are left behind. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions and set aside for a few minutes.

9. Roll each portion of the dough into a 12-inch circle, with thickness depending upon how thick you want your pizza crust to be.

10. Now place the dough in an oiled pizza pan or on a baking sheet. Sprinkle cheese, sauce or any other topping over the dough. You can brush the exposed edges of the pizza crust with olive oil as well.

11. Bake each pizza for about 20 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and the cheese gets melted.