A great recipe for homemade pizza dough, pizza sauce, and a variety of toppings. Best pizza dough ever! Once you've tried the dough recipe you won't use any other! This is my all-time favorite pizza dough recipe. I've made this Pizza recipe so many times so a huge thank you to Carina for sharing!
The pizza dough is really quite something! It's slightly chewy, soft and has a lovely texture.
Table of Contents 📋 hide
1) Why use semolina when making pizza dough?
2) Prep Time
3) Cook Time
4) Yield
5) Ingredients
6) Instructions
7) Notes
8) Can I use all-purpose flour?
9) Recipe Card
10) Home Made Monster Pizza Recipe
11) Delicious Pizza and Flatbread Recipes
Why use semolina when making pizza dough?
One of the things you mustn't skip on in the instructions is to make sure you roll the dough out on the semolina. Also, to sprinkle some on the baking sheet if you are using one. It makes all the difference and you get a 'stone baked' effect once baked. It also helps stop the dough from getting soggy when it's in the oven.
This recipe for Monster Pizza is really flexible with the toppings so feel free to chop and change any of the suggested toppings to your liking.
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When I make this Monster Pizza, I divide the dough in to 3 and each of us at home builds the toppings to our liking. That way everyone is happy plus they help to do some work cooking too!
This delicious recipe has been generously shared by one of our great cooks, Carina.
She's always coming up with great recipes, full of tips and ideas. Here we have a great recipe for a homemade pizza, which Carina's family love! They won't eat their pizza's using any other dough now, so let's see how Carina makes this monster pizza!
The recipe for pizza dough here does make up a large batch, so feel free to halve the recipe if required. We are talking monster size! So for me, I make up the full recipe but once shaped into balls, I freeze half.
Recipe by Carina Duclos
Pizza dough, adapted from Source: Essentials of Baking - Williams Sonoma
Prep Time
2 ½ hrs (includes rise time for dough)
Cook Time
10 - 15 minutes
Yield
depends on how big you want your pizzas. 3 - 6 pizzas
Ingredients
For the homemade pizza dough
5 tsp active dry yeast
2 ¼ cups / 530 ml warm water (temperature 105-115F)
2 tsp sugar
¼ cup / 60 ml olive oil
5 cups / 625 g of bread flour, plus extra if needed ( up to a cup maybe)
1 tbsp sea salt
All purpose flour and semolina for rolling and shaping
For the Pizza Sauce
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can 6 oz (190 g) of tomato paste
1 can 14.5 oz / 450 g of diced Italian tomatoes
2 tablespoons of oregano
Please note the sauce measures are rough, you may want more or less, to your own liking. Any left over you can save in the fridge and use for pasta or another pizza!
Pizza toppings
For my hubby: chopped peppers, chopped onions, mushroom, pepperoni, sausage, sauté ground beef, green olives, and lots of mozzarella cheese.
For me: chopped peppers, pepperoni, blue cheese, and mozzarella cheese.
Youcan add whatever they want,...that is the beauty of pizza!
Instructions
Make The Homemade Pizza Dough
1. Dissolve yeast in warm water and let it stand till foamy ( about 5 minutes)
2. Add the sugar, oil, flour and salt. I use a stand mixer so with the dough hook knead at low speed until smooth and elastic (about 8 to 10 minutes)
You may need to add extra flour while kneading so the dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl.
3. Remove the dough from the bowl and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
Let the dough rise in a warm spot until it doubles in size ( 11/2 to 2 hours).
For a more flavourful crust at this point punch it down, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.
The next day bring it to room temperature before shaping.
4. Transfer the dough onto a lightly oiled surface and cut in half. Shape into a loose ball and cover with a kitchen towel for about 10 minutes.
5. Lightly dust 1 dough ball with all purpose flour and roll into a round 12 to 14 inches (30-35 cm) in diameter. Spread semolina (about ¼ cup on your baking sheet and transfer your dough there.
Notes
My husband likes a thick pizza, I like it thin so what I did with this amount of dough to compromise was: I divided the original ball in three.
I used two for a thicker crust and the third I divided in two and made two smaller thin crust pizzas.
Can I use all-purpose flour?
I read somewhere that you can replace bread flour with regular all purpose flour for your pizza dough and that the results are both good.
When using regular all purpose flour, you will obtain a more chewy crust.
The Pizza Sauce
1. Preheat a saucepan over a medium-high heat then add the olive oil and onion.
Sauté until the onions soften and begin to turn golden, and then add the garlic.
If you add the garlic with the onion, it will burn in the time it takes the onions to begin browning.
Continue to sauté for a few more minutes, being careful not to scorch the garlic.
2. Add the tomato paste and canned tomatoes and stir well, crushing them with the back of the spoon.
Add oregano, while continuing to stir then bring to a simmer. Let simmer for 30 minutes, until thickened. If you like, puree in the food processor until smooth.
The Toppings
For my hubby: chopped peppers, chopped onions, mushroom, pepperoni, sausage, sauté ground beef, green olives and lots of mozzarella cheese.
For me: chopped peppers, pepperoni, blue cheese and mozzarella cheese.
Cooking the pizza
Place pizza in the oven at 450 F/ 230 C/ Gas 8 for 10-20 minutes (Depending on the pizza size and thickness)
Make sure your oven is very hot so preheating for 30 to 45 minutes at 450 will be ideal
This is a great recipe for vegetarian pizza with a variety of topping suggestions, if you have a vegetarian diner too. Check out our other delicious pizza recipes too!
If you've got a bit of pizza dough left over, make some of our cheesy pretzel bites. They take minutes to make and go great with dips, soups, stews etc!
We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our post. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!
Recipe Card
Home Made Monster Pizza Recipe
Yield: 3 - 6
Prep Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Home Made Monster Pizza Recipe.
A great recipe for homemade pizza dough, pizza sauce and a variety of toppings. Best pizza dough ever! Once you've tried the dough recipe you won't use any other!
Ingredients
For the dough
- 5 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 ¼ cups / 530 ml warm water, temperature 105-115F
- 2 tsp sugar
- ¼ cup / 60 ml olive oil
- 5 cups / 625 g of bread flour, plus extra if needed ( up to a cup maybe)
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- All purpose flour and semolina for rolling and shaping
For the Pizza Sauce
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 oz can 6 of tomato paste, 190 g
- 1 oz can 14.5 / 450 g of diced Italian tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons of oregano
Pizza toppings:
- chopped peppers, chopped onions, mushroom, pepperoni, sausage, sauté ground beef, green olives and lots of mozzarella cheese.
- pepperoni, blue cheese and mozzarella cheese
Instructions
Make The Dough
- Dissolve yeast in warm water and let it stand till foamy ( about 5 minutes)
- Add the sugar, oil, flour and salt. I use a stand mixer so with the dough hook knead at low speed until smooth and elastic (about 8 to 10 minutes)
*** You may need to add extra flour while kneading so the dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm spot until it doubles in size ( 11/2 to 2 hours).
Tip: for a more flavourful crust at this point punch it down, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. The next day bring it to room temperature before shaping. If you cannot wait then take the next step:
- Transfer the dough onto a lightly oiled surface and cut in half. Shape into a loose ball and cover with a kitchen towel for about 10 minutes.
- Lightly dust 1 dough ball with all purpose flour and roll into a round 12 to 14 inches (30-35 cm) in diameter. Spread semolina (about ¼ cup on your baking sheet and transfer your dough there.
The Pizza Sauce
- Preheat a saucepan over a medium high heat then add the olive oil and onion. Sauté until the onions soften and begin to turn golden, and then add the garlic. If you add the garlic with the onion, it will burn in the time it takes the onions to begin browning. Continue to sauté for a few more minutes, being careful not to scorch the garlic.
- Add the tomato paste and canned tomatoes and stir well, crushing them with the back of the spoon. Add oregano, while continuing to stir then bring to a simmer. Let simmer for 30 minutes, until thickened. If you like, puree in the food processor until smooth.
Cooking the pizza:
- Place pizza in the oven at 450 F/ 230 C/ Gas 8 for 10-20 minutes (Depending on the pizza size and thickness)
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 1091Total Fat: 31gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 21gCholesterol: 35mgSodium: 1488mgCarbohydrates: 169gFiber: 21gSugar: 37gProtein: 41g
Nutrition information isn’t always accurate
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