Rachel
- Feb 22, 2018
- 3 min read

My Mom's Pizza

Updated: Mar 27, 2023

My mom's recipe will always stick with me because she makes the best pizza. It's always a magical thing to eat fresh, and there's no replacement for genuine love you can taste through food. The crust recipe also makes great stuffed-crust pizza and calzones so don't be afraid to experiment with this recipe! From start to finish this recipe only takes about 2 hours, feel free to double the ingredients! The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below.

My pizza sauce recipe

The crust recipe for 1 large pizza or 2-3 small pizzas is below:

Ingredients:

1 cup warm (about 90-100°F) water (220 g)
1 tbsp. yeast (10 g)
1 tbsp. sugar (14 g)
1 tbsp. olive or vegetable oil (11 g)
1 tsp. salt (5.5 g)
2 3/4 to 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour (340-360 g)
Butter or oil for greasing
Desired pizza sauce and toppings
Some of my favorites my mom uses: Pepperoni, Sausage (she always used breakfast sausage and it's surprisingly amazing), Green or Red Bell Pepper, Onion, Mushrooms

Directions:

Note: You can do this by hand, the method is the same but you gradually mix in the flour with a spatula or spoon (or your hands) and knead by hand, but the KitchenAid method is how my mom does it, and it's pretty much foolproof!
Mix together the water, sugar, and yeast in a KitchenAid mixing bowl with a dough hook attachment. Let rest until the yeast starts to foam and rise (5-10 minutes).
Add the salt and oil. Add about 1/3 cup of flour and start mixing on speed 2. Once the flour is mixed in, keep slowly adding flour, about 1/3 cup at a time, stopping the mixer and mixing the flour in a little with a spatula if it's not mixing in.
Once it starts getting stretchy and forming a dough, add less flour each time. The goal is for the dough to not stick to the bottom or sides of the bowl, so add less flour the closer it is to not sticking. Tip: As the dough starts to crawl up the hook, it's a good idea to take it off and flip it over for even mixing.
Once the dough doesn't stick, let the mixer run for 3 minutes more on speed 2, without adding any more flour. Take the dough out onto a countertop and knead it a little and shape into a ball.
Grease the dough lightly with some oil or butter and place in a greased bowl. Cover the bowl and rise somewhere warm for 1 hour.
When the dough is ready, grease a sheet pan (12x18 inch works well) with butter or oil. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Dump the dough onto the pan and use your hands to press it into a rectangle about 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) thick. Alternatively you can make round pizza(s).
Add sauce and other ingredients to your liking. This dough is sturdy so you can be a little generous.
Optional: After topping, sprinkle the pizza with a thin layer of garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and salt all over the toppings and crust.
Bake at 375°F until done, about 28-36 minutes. The toppings and bottom of the crust will be golden brown. Optional: Use broil for 2-3 minutes to brown the toppings more, watch it closely! Cut into square pieces.
Optional: add toppings after baking (e.g. pickled peppers, basil)
Serves 3-4 people. You can make 1 large pan pizza, or 2-4 small personal sized pizzas.

Mix the water, sugar, and yeast together and let rest.

The yeast is foamy and ready yo go!

Add the oil and salt.

And add about 1/3 cup of flour to start, using the dough hook attachment.

You will gradually add flour, starting at about 1/3 cup at a time and mixing in between additions:

After adding about 1/3 cup in each photo, top to bottom, left to right. The dough gets firmer and more sticky and stretchy.

After adding another ~1/3 cup. Firmer but still sticking to the bottom of the bowl, so I will not add less and less between each mix.

After adding just enough flour until it no longer stick to the bottom (maybe a spoonful more than the last photo). After this you'll run the mixer on speed 2 for 3 minutes.