Everyone loves a pizza, but it’s often something we order takeaway or when we’re at our favourite Italian restaurant.

But it’s so easy to make home! Pizza requires very few ingredients to make the dough, and you can customise the pizza to suit your taste buds.

From the right flour, through to the best way to knead it together, this handy how-to will soon have you throwing your own pizza dough like a pro.

Start with the best pizza dough recipe

The first step to ensuring your pizza turns out perfectly is to start with a recipe you can trust. Here you’ll find a selection of our best pizza dough recipes to suit your tastes, whether you like your pizzas thin and crispy or thick and fluffy.

Know your flours

When it comes to making perfect pizza, you need to make sure you’re using the right flour. The best choice is Italian Tipo ’00’ flour, which is finer ground than normal flour, giving the dough that smooth texture and crunchy exterior.

While Italian Tipo ’00’ flour is widely available at most supermarkets, if you can’t find any, try using strong bread flour, as this is designed to stand up against the yeast to produce a great crust.

Knead it together

When you’re ready to make your dough, use your hands to bring the ingredients together in a bowl to form a rough dough. Add salt to the dough mixture after the other dry ingredients, as it can kill your yeast, meaning your dough won’t rise.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly-floured surface and use the heel of your hand to push and stretch the dough. Lift and fold the dough, making quarter turns as you go until the dough is smooth. This should take around 10 minutes to reach the right springy and smooth consistency.

Credit: BestRecipesTeam

Let it rest

Form the dough into a ball, and place it in a bowl covered with a damp tea towel. Leave the bowl in a warm spot to prove and double in size (about one hour) .

Turn it out onto a lightly-floured surface and use the heel of your hand to lightly knead the dough again to knock the air out. Divide the dough into equal portions, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove again for 1 hour or until it doubles in size.

Roll it out

It’s time to roll out your pizzas. Start by knocking the air out of each dough ball and shaping it into a round base using a rolling pin. Roll the dough from the centre outwards, lifting and turning it slightly as you go to ensure it’s an even thickness. Don’t fuss too much about getting the perfect circle, you want to avoid knocking too much air out of the dough to ensure the texture’s just right.

Credit: BestRecipesTeam

If you like, try sprinkling a little polenta over the tray to prevent the pizza from sticking and to make the base extra crisp.

Credit: BestRecipesTeam

Make ahead of time

You can actually make your dough up the night before. Simply cover the divided dough balls in plastic wrap as soon as they’ve finished the first proving. Store the balls in the fridge overnight. The next day, continue on with the second proving, giving the dough at least 1.5 hours, then cook as usual.

You can also use your bread machine

If you’re lucky enough to have a bread maker in the house, pizza dough just got a whole lot easier. Here’s a handy recipe that is guaranteed to give you an irresistible crust:

Pizza Dough for Bread Maker

And for a little more help along the way, follow these simple tips to dough success:

Put all your ingredients into the bread pan in the order that your manual instructs to ensure it’s perfectly kneaded.
Set the machine to ‘dough’ mode, or the equivalent.
Once the dough has finished, place it in a lightly oiled bowl and roll it around to ensure it’s covered in oil. Cover the bowl and allow it to rise for an additional 30 minutes. Turn the dough out and lightly knead it before shaping it into pizza bases.