This pizza crust recipe is great for a family pizza night! I know I post a lot of sourdough recipes lately but this one is regular old yeast for the readers who do not have a starter.

As a side note, I am working on creating an easy to understand sourdough class for beginners. It should be released by the end of the month. If you would like to be notified when it releases be sure to subscribe to the email list!

Now let’s chat common problems with homemade pizza crust…

Crust Tastes Plain

This can be a problem because your main pizza chain restaurants basically always flavor their crust! To avoid the problem of your crust tasting like cardboard try thinking outside the box with different seasoning combinations. Here are a few to try:

Garlic butter
Italian (use an Italian seasoning mix)
Garlic and herb
Cajun butter
Pepper Flakes

Get creative and see if it helps step up your pizza game!

Here’s another idea when it comes to plain tasting crust- stuff it!

There are few who will disagree that stuffed crust pizza is better. My favorite way to stuff a crust is with ground sausage and mozzarella cheese! It’s amazing dipped in some marinara sauce. It also helps the pizza last longer because it is so filling.

Crust Tastes Yeasty

I had this problem for years while trying to come up with the type of crust recipe I wanted. You put in all that hard work just to get to the end and it taste like I just poured some pizza sauce over yeast! I think this is where a lot of people give up on homemade pizza crust. Here are a few ways you can correct a yeasty tasting pizza…

Make sure you let the dough rise sufficiently. A good rule of thumb when working with any kind of dough is to let it double in size.
Check to make sure your yeast is in date. Store yeast in the refrigerator, it will stay fresh longer
Avoid fast or quick rise yeast.
Dissolve yeast all the way before using.
Use enough honey or sugar to offset the yeast flavor.

If you are still having yeast problems after trying the solutions above it may be that the recipe you are using just is not for you.

Crust Does Not Rise

This can be an issue if you have not allowed to dough to rise sufficiently before baking. When dealing with most rising doughs you are working with a two-three rise system. Simply meaning that before it will rise during the baking process you must first allow the dough to rise.

After mixing all of your ingredients and kneading the dough you need to let it rise by doubling in size. This could take several hours depending on your climate and the temperature of your house. Yeast and sourdough react to heat. If you are having trouble getting a good rise try these tricks below.

The Height Method

We all know that heat rises. Try placing your dough somewhere high during a rise. On to of your refrigerator, on a high cabinet or shelf are a few ideas.

The Oven Method

This one never fails me! You have two options: one, place the bowl of rising dough on the stovetop of a heated oven. The heat from the oven will cause the dough to rise. Two, heat your oven to 350 degrees for ten minutes then turn it off. After the oven has cooled down but is still decently warm, place the dough in the warm oven and allow to rise.

Be careful not to let the dough over rise or it may have a slightly yeasty taste.

Now that we have covered the basic tips for a homemade pizza crust let me share with you my favorite recipe!

I hope you enjoy this and that it turns out great. Remember you can be creative with seasoning and stuffing the crust. Here I will just give the basic crust recipe and you can add your own spin on it with the fun stuff!