Finally, pizza dough for busy people!
This 2-Hour Whole Wheat Pizza Dough is made with basic pantry ingredients, a 5-minute stir + knead in the bowl, and yields a chewy, crisp, airy pizza crust that’s just perfect for an easy weeknight meal.
Truth be told, for years my go-to homemade pizza dough has been a no-knead recipe that needs to be made the night before you want to use it; usually not a problem for us, because we have a pretty set routine of making pizza dough Thursday night after dinner for our Friday night homemade pizza.
But sometimes, we don’t.
Life gets busy, or a random pizza craving strikes a few hours before dinner, or we have friends coming over and decide last minute to turn it onto a build-your-own-pizza night and it’s way, way too late to make the overnight version.
So, I developed this much-quicker recipe to help us out on those nights. While a quick rise time sacrifices some of that complex, slightly fermented, yeasty flavor of a 24-hour pizza dough, don’t let that stop you; we are still totally in love with this quicker pizza dough.
It makes up for the lack of rise time with a little more flavor in the dough from extra yeast, honey, olive oil, and a teeny bit more salt.
Flour and water get added to the aforementioned flavorful ingredients, stirred to form a dough, then kneaded in the bowl for a few minutes before covering and letting rise for 2 hours.
And, while this is a 2-hour pizza dough recipe, you don’t have to use it as soon as it’s risen. You can, obviously. That was the whole point of creating such a quick-rising recipe. But, should you find that your life is busy, and 2 hours isn’t the ideal amount of time between when you make the dough and you want to make dinner, this dough can just hang out in the fridge for a few hours (or up to 5 days) before you want to use it. No problemo.
This recipe yields enough dough to feed four people, in whichever form that may take. We like to cut the dough into 4 and make small, single-serving pizzas; cut it in half and make 2 10-inch round pizzas, or use the entire dough on a large cookie sheet to make a big, family-style, slightly thicker-crusted rectangular pizza.
When you’re ready to bake your pizza, here’s what you should plan to do:
Preheat your oven to as hot as it will go. Yes, really. Crank it all the way up! If you can get to 500 degrees or higher, all the better. You can also grill pizza, if you’d rather not heat up the oven!
Roll out the dough to whatever thickness you like. We like it pretty thin, but this dough can handle whatever pizza thickness you’re craving. You can either do this with a rolling pin or your fingers, pressing out the dough with your hands until it’s reached the shape/size you want.
Plan to par-bake your dough. That is, stick the dough onto a baking sheet and cook it plain, with nothing on it, for about 5-7 minutes, before adding your sauce and toppings (pro tip: a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of cornmeal on the pan will keep your pizza from sticking!). In commercial pizza ovens par-baking isn’t necessary, since they cook pizza directly on a hot stone in an oven that might be upwards of 800 degrees. At home, though, I find the key to a crispy crust is letting the dough itself cook a bit before weighing it down with toppings.
Then, just top with whatever you love on your pizza, pop back into the oven until golden (usually between 5-10 more minutes, depending on the size/thickness of your pizza), and you’ll have crisp, bubbly, homemade pizza waiting for you in no time.
Whether you’re just making pizza for yourself or throwing a pizza party, I think you’re going to LOVE this quick, easy, 2-hour Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. If you try it, let me know what you think! Leave a comment below, or take a picture and share it with me on Instagram! I love seeing my recipes in your kitchen.
- 1 1/2 cups warm tap water
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil, divided in half
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 3 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour*
- 1. Put water, honey, half the olive oil, yeast, and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir to combine with a sturdy wooden spoon. Then, add 2 cups of the flour and stir to form a pancake-batter like dough. Finally, add in the remaining flour and stir until mostly combined.
- 2. Use your hands to scrape the dough off the spoon, then knead the dough with your hands in the bowl for 3-5 minutes, or until it holds a ball shape and all the flour has been absorbed**. The dough ball will be a little sticky at this point; but should still hold together in a ball shape. If for some reason yours is extremely wet, thus challenging to knead, add in an extra 1/4 cup of flour and see if that makes it easier for you to work with it!
- 3. Drizzle the remaining half tablespoon of olive oil over the dough ball, toss the dough to coat in oil, cover the bowl, and let rise for 2 hours in a warm spot in your house (I usually just leave it in the kitchen, but if it's winter, I might turn the oven to it's lowest setting for 5 minutes, then turn the oven OFF and let the dough rise inside the slightly warm oven)
- *Feel free to use half whole wheat and half all-purpose, or all of one or the other. I just prefer the texture and mild flavor of white whole wheat to traditional whole wheat.
- **Never kneaded anything before? Here's the process: scoop the dough into a ball in the bowl, then fold it over onto itself and use the palm of your hand to press down firmly, then repeat the folding and pressing until all the flour is absorbed and your dough stays in a ball shape. This helps activate the gluten in the flour, creating elasticity in the dough, so don't skip it! You could also just dump all the ingredients into a KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment, mix on low until just combined, then switch out the paddle for the dough hook and knead for about 2 minutes on medium speed.