Want a quick and easy way to make perfect homemade pizzas from scratch – with a super thin crust? With a couple of neat cheats and shortcuts, you can have freshly-made pizza on the table in just 30 minutes. (With a proper bread pizza base NOT a scone pizza base!)
Quick, easy AND super thin pizza crust – is that possible?
So often ‘quick and easy pizza’ recipes involve ‘cheating’ by making the base using self-raising flour. This results in a pizza base which has the taste and texture of an English scone rather than a thin crust Italian-style pizza! I have NEVER been a fan of the scone pizza base.
The other issue you get with pizza bases is when they’re made like basic white bread – with 10 minutes of kneading and 2 proves. While these bread-style pizza bases taste a lot better than the scone-style pizza bases IMHO, they still come with two big problems: they take HOURS to make AND they result in really thick ‘bready’ pizza bases.
This problem bothered me for a long time, until I came up with a rather ingenious solution…
The short knead, no prove method.
What is the short knead, no prove method?
In order to achieve perfect thin crust pizza in under 30 minutes, I make 2 simple tweaks to the standard bread-based pizza crust method…
First, I only knead the dough for 5 minutes.
Second, I don’t prove the dough AT ALL!
Once I’ve given the dough a 5 minute knead, I then move straight on to rolling out the pizza bases and adding the toppings.
And once that’s done, they go straight into the oven.
This massively cuts down on the time it takes to make homemade pizza… But it also means the pizza bases don’t rise very much in the oven… Resulting in a super thin and crispy pizza crust – RESULT!
Will it please pizza-purists? Probably not.
But for the rest of us who just want great tasting thin crust pizza without a load of time-consuming faff or special equipment, it’s perfect!
How to make quick and easy pizza with a super thin crust
My quick and easy super thin crust pizzas are so easy to make!
All you need to do is mix flour, yeast and salt in a bowl. Then add olive oil and warm water until the mixture comes together to form a dough. Next, knead the pizza dough for 5 minutes on a floured surface. Then, divide the dough up into 4 equal sized pieces and roll each one out before placing each one in a greased pizza tray.
Finally, top each pizza with passata, cheese, oregano, black pepper and any additional toppings you like, before cooking in a pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes. Easy Peasy!
(See below for the full recipe card.)
A sneaky shortcut…
If you want to make the pizza making process even quicker and even easier, simply use a 500g packet of white bread mix.
I find the ones called ‘ciabatta bread mix’ or ‘sourdough bread mix’ are particularly good for pizzas.
Pizza topping ideas…
You can keep this quick homemade pizza recipe super simple by just topping with passata, cheese, oregano and black pepper, as per the recipe card below.
Or you can add all your favourite toppings! Good pizza topping options include:
- Ham (ripped into pieces)
- Peppers (sliced thinly)
- Onions (sliced thinly)
- Fresh tomatoes (sliced thinly)
- Cooked chicken (shredded)
- Black olives (sliced)
- Fresh chillies (sliced thinly)
- Dried chilli flakes
- Mushrooms (sliced thinly)
- Tuna (from a can)
- Pepperoni (sliced)
- Pineapple (controversial, I know!)
- Sweetcorn (from a can)
- Cooked beef mince (I recommend mixing this with the passata for best results)
Just take care not to add too many toppings or you’ll find it hard to get your pizzas fully cooked before the crust starts to burn around the edges.
(Head here to find one of my favourite combos >>> Ham, Mushroom, Black Olive and Red pepper pizza!)
Best cheese for pizza
As for the cheese, that really comes down to personal preference. I have experimented over the years with:
- Fresh mozzarella
- Grated mozzarella
- Grated cheddar
- 50/50 grated mozzarella and grated cheddar
They all work well, but I find if you are just making a simple cheese and tomato pizza, fresh mozzarella on it’s own is too mild-tasting. I prefer either 100% grated mozzarella or a 50/50 mix of grated mozzarella and grated cheddar.
If, on the other hand, your pizza includes lots of tasty toppings, fresh mozzarella works well.
Ultimately it’s up to you and your tastebuds. I recommend you experiment a little and see what you like the most!
What to serve with homemade pizza
You can totally just eat this homemade thin-crust pizza on its own!
If you want to add some extras, I recommend serving your homemade pizzas with garlic bread and/or a simple salad.
What to drink with homemade pizza
This will depend a little on the toppings, but good options which go with most toppings are:
- Italian reds like Chianti, Valpolicella, Primitivo or Montepulciano d‘Abbruzzo
- Sangiovese (the main grape variety in Chianti) or Primitivo from other parts of the world
- Chilean Merlot
- A Joven or Crianza style Rioja
- Zinfandel (another name for Primitivo) from the USA
What to do with leftover homemade pizza?
If you end up with leftovers, this homemade pizza keeps very well in the fridge. Simply place the cooked and cooled pizza in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will keep for up to 3 days.
This pizza is delicious cold, straight from the fridge, but can also be reheated. To reheat, set your oven to 200C (180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F) and place the cold pizza on a pizza tray / baking tray. Put it straight in the oven (don’t wait for the oven to warm up!) and cook for 5-10 minutes, or until it’s piping hot and the base has crisped up again.
I don’t recommend reheating pizza in the microwave (soggy base issues!)
Can you freeze homemade pizza?
You can – I’ll be honest, it’s not as good after freezing, but it’ll work! Simply place the cooked and cooled pizza in an airtight container in the freezer, where it will keep for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
Quick and Easy Pizza Dough (Super Thin Crust)
Ingredients
Quick and Easy Pizza Dough
- 500 g strong white bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 7 g fast action yeast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (plus extra for greasing)
- 350 ml lukewarm water (you may not need all of this, see instructions below)
Pizza Toppings
- 350 g passata (I use Cirio Passata Rustica)
- 250 g grated mozzarella (or fresh mozzarella or grated cheddar – see Note 1)
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- Black pepper to taste
- Other toppings of choice (e.g. ham, peppers, onions, cooked chicken, black olives, mushrooms, tuna, pepperoni, sweetcorn etc.)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 230C / 210C fan / gas mark 8 / 450F. Grease 4 large (30cm / 12 inch) pizza trays with a little olive oil. (Or 8 smaller ones – See Note 2.)
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast and salt, then add the olive oil and stir. Slowly add the water until the mixture comes together to form a dough – the dough should just come together and should not be too wet/sticky. (You may not need all the water. Start with 300ml and see how it goes, add it in little bits after that.)
- Knead the pizza dough for 5 minutes on a floured surface.
- Divide the dough up into 4 equal sized pieces (or 8 if you are making small ones) – I use my scales to make this easier and more accurate.
- Roll out each piece out to roughly the size of the pizza tray. Put the rolled out dough in the pizza tray and stretch out gently to the full size of the pizza tray (this is because it will shrink slightly when you pick it up).
- Top each pizza with 4 tablespoons passata. Spread the passata all over the base using the back of a spoon, leaving a thin border all around the pizza. (Don’t use too much passata or it will make your pizzas soggy.)
- Top with the cheese, oregano, black pepper and any additional toppings of your choice. (See Note 3.)
- Cook your pizzas in your pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes. You may find you need to move the pizzas around in your oven so they cook evenly.
- The pizzas are ready when the cheese is bubbling and the base is a light golden brown and crispy, not soggy. (If you discover as you are cutting the pizza that the base is still a bit soggy, just pop it back in the pizza tray and back in the oven for a couple more minutes.)
Notes
- What cheese you use is up to you. You can use grated mozzarella, grated cheddar or torn fresh mozzarella. If you are just making a simple cheese and tomato pizza, I recommend using more cheese – around 300g / 10½oz. If you have a lot of other toppings you can reduce the cheese down to 200g / 7oz.
- This recipe can also be used to make 8 smaller (18cm / 7inch pizzas). If you don’t have a pizza tray, use a baking tray or cake tin of a similar size instead.
- The trick to getting a super thin crust is to only knead for 5 minutes and not prove the dough, so be careful not to leave the pizza dough to rest too long at any point or you will find the dough rises and you’ll have thick crust pizzas!
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Sue Taylor says
Great recipe for when you don’t have much time! Super crispy base – love it!
Eb Gargano says
Aw, that’s so good to hear! Thank you for this lovely review 😀