Homemade Pizza Dough

There is nothing like homemade pizza crust. It tastes sooo much better than the best you can buy in the grocery store. I use my basic roll dough recipe that I have posted several times. It is great for rolls, cinnamon rolls, cheese danish, cheese rolls, pepperoni bread, calzones, and PIZZA DOUGH. For the pizza toppings, I also think it's fun to scavenge through my refrigerator and use ingredients I have on hand to challenge myself to create culinary magic. I know. Kinda sad.

Here is my roll dough recipe again:

Basic Roll Dough

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup water

1 egg

1 stick butter, sliced

2 tsp salt

6 tbsp sugar

2 pkg yeast (either regular or rapid rise)

Place ingredients in bread machine. I like to add about 1/2 the water first, then the flour and other ingredients, including the rest of the water. Set the machine to the dough setting. This takes 90 minutes. When the cycle is over, roll the dough out onto a floured surface and cut into the desired sizes.

My toppings were: leftover grilled chicken, fresh basil, chopped red bell pepper, grated cheddar cheese, and a few strips of bacon. For my sauce I used Ragu Pizza Quick.

After the dough was ready, I divided it in half and sprinkled it with cornmeal as I rolled it out.

Then I placed it in a greased pizza pan. (I don't let it rise).

I covered it with my toppings.

Bake at 450° for about 20 minutes or until the crust is golden around the edges. This pizza did not last long at my house.

While it is baking you can reserve the other half of the dough for future small personal pan pizzas. I divided it into 5 portions and rolled them out individually. Then I separated them with pieces of parchment paper.

I wrapped them with plastic wrap and put them in the freezer. When you want to make small pizzas, you can pull as many as you need out of the freezer and place the toppings on them and bake them without thawing them first. How easy is that?

Pepperoni Bread #2

This pepperoni bread recipe is like the previous one I posted, but this time with cheddar cheese instead of Parmesan and without olives. I am posting it again to show the versatility of this yummy recipe.

Pepperoni Bread

1 recipe basic bread dough (recipe below)
1 pkg pepperoni
grated cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp basil

Prepare dough in bread machine. Roll out 1/2 the dough onto a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Combine basil and egg and brush a generous amount onto dough. Cover with pepperoni slices and cheese. Roll up and slice into 3/4 to 1 inch slices. Lay each one, cut side up, in a greased baking dish. Brush with remaining egg mixture. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Basic Bread Dough
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup water
1 egg
1 stick butter, sliced
2 tsp salt
6 tbsp sugar
2 pkg yeast (either regular or rapid rise)
Place ingredients in bread machine. I like to add about 1/2 the water first, then the flour and other ingredients, including the rest of the water. Set the machine to the dough setting. This takes 90 minutes. When the cycle is over, roll the dough out onto a floured surface and cut into the desired sizes.

On a floured surface, roll bread dough out into a large rectangle. Brush with the egg and basil mixture:

Place pepperoni slices on top:

Then lots of cheddar cheese:

Carefully roll dough up:

Slice and place into a greased baking dish:

Brush again with the basil and egg mixture:

I had just baked some brownies and they were still hot. I experimented with letting the bread rise on top of the hot pan of brownies and the bread rose beautifully. I would highly recommend having a hot pan of brownies available for this very reason.


Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until lightly browned. Pepperoni Bread is one of Zac's favorites. He is supposed to be doing display hands, but he actually just wanted me to hurry up and take a picture so he could eat some.

I served it with a salad, and of course, brownies for dessert.