Bread Machine Pizza Dough – Italian Herbs

This easy bread machine pizza dough recipe allows you to make delicious homemade pizza. Why buy stale frozen pizza or expensive delivery pizza… when you can make great pizza at home! Moreover, my pizza dough recipe includes optional Italian herbs in order to make the dough extra special & tasty.

Bread Machine Pizza Dough with Mini Pepperonis

Recipe Sections

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

Recipe Rating 4.96 from 67 votes Featured Comment Angela “Bread Dad, you have not disappointed me yet. We’ve made banana bread, oatmeal bread, rye bread, cornbread, and now pizza dough… I took the plunge because every recipe we’ve tried has been great, and this one got kudos from everyone!”

The creation of bread machine pizza dough is a simple & easy process. Your bread machine does the hard stuff (e.g. mixing the ingredients & kneading the dough). You just need to quickly shape the fresh pizza dough, throw on a few of your favorite pizza toppings & stick it in the oven in order to create some wonderful homemade pizza. Your family will love it!

Bread Machine Pizza Dough with Large Pepperonis

Please be aware that this is not the usual set & forget bread machine recipe. You have to shape the dough and your pizza needs to be finished in an oven (versus a bread machine). However, the prep work is much less (as the bread machine handles the kneading & rising).

Ingredients – Bread Machine Pizza Dough Recipe

• 1 1/4 Cups – Water (warm) – 285 milliliters
• 3 Tablespoons – Olive Oil – 45 milliliters
• 3 1/2 Cups – All Purpose Flour – 420 grams – You can also use bread flour. Be aware that pizza made with bread flour is chewier and a pizza made with all purpose flour is softer. See tips section below for more info.
• 1 Tablespoon – White Granulated Sugar – 12.5 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Salt – 6 grams
• 2 Teaspoons – Bread Machine Yeast (or Instant Yeast) – 6 grams – Not active dry yeast
• Optional – 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Italian Herb Seasoning – 3 grams – Do not add the Italian seasoning if you prefer plain pizza dough. See the tips section below for more dough “flavoring” variations.

Serving size – 1 large pizza (8 large slices), 2 medium pizzas or 4 mini pizzas.

Equipment Needed – Measuring cup & spoons, flexible spatula, oven mitts, pizza pans or baking sheets, large cutting board, oven… and of course, a bread machine.

Bread Machine Pizza Dough with Cheese & Tomato Sauce

Instructions – Bread Machine Pizza Dough Recipe

• Unplug your bread machine and remove the bread pan.
• Place the water, olive oil and then the rest of the ingredients into the bread pan. You can make a little indent on top of the flour in order to avoid the yeast falling into the water (until the machine starts). Do not combine the salt with the yeast (as the salt can kill the yeast). Place the yeast & salt in separate parts of the bread pan.
• Place the bread pan (with ingredients) into the bread machine and then plug in the machine.
• Put your machine on the Dough setting and press the start button. In our Sunbeam bread machine, the kneading & rising on the dough setting takes about approximately 1:30 hours.
• When your bread machine has finished, unplug the machine & pour the dough onto a cutting board. Wear oven mitts (as the bread pan/bread machine may be hot). Sprinkle some flour on the cutting board (before you pour the dough) in order to avoid the dough sticking to the cutting board.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Shape the pizza dough into a round pizza shape. Don’t press down on the edges of the pizza. You want a little rim around the pizza. The higher edges will help to contain the sauce and cheese as the pizza bakes.
• The pizza dough can be used to create one large pizza or two small/medium pizzas.
• Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this dough successfully.

Instructions – Next Steps for Homemade Oven-Baked Pizza 

• Place the pizza-shaped dough on a non-stick baking sheet or pizza pan.
• Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce (or pizza sauce) on the pizza dough.
• Sprinkle on a layer of shredded cheese.
• Add some already cooked toppings (e.g. pepperoni or fried Italian sausages). These toppings should be pre-cooked because the pizza baking process may not cook them properly or safely.
• Bake pizza in the oven at 400 degrees for 18-22 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Baking time will vary due to the amount & variety of toppings and size & depth of the pizza dough. Check the pizza frequently after 15 minutes to ensure that it has been baked to perfection!
• Wear oven mitts to remove the pizza from the oven.
• Place the finished pizza on a cutting board and cut into pizza slices. Enjoy!

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Helpful Tips – Pizza Dough Bread Machine Recipe

• The tips below are designed to help bread machine “novices” and/or people with limited baking experience.
• Click on this “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include my tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on easy Bread Machine Recipes such as banana bread, extra soft white bread, multigrain bread, bagels and French bread.
• The pizza baking time will vary based on the thickness of the pizza dough and toppings. If you make a thick pizza dough and add lots of extra toppings, your pizza will take longer to bake.

• Do not use too much sauce & cheese when making your pizza or it could lead to the pizza being too moist/soggy in the middle when it is removed from the oven. Start with a thin layer of sauce & cheese when making your first few homemade pizzas. As you get comfortable with the process, you can experiment and add more cheese, etc.
• Optional – You can make a “white” pizza by only using dough, cheese and toppings. A white pizza does not include tomato sauce.
• Optional – If you want to make pizza dough with more natural fiber, you might like to try my easy Bread Machine Whole Wheat Pizza Dough recipe.
• This recipe is NOT for 1 lb capacity bread machines. Please check the capacity of your bread machine before making this recipe. The dough will be too large for your machine and overflow the bread pan. An example of a bread machine with only a 1 lb capacity is the Zojirushi Home Bakery Mini Breadmaker (model BB-HAC10).

• Optional – You can add 1 1/2 teaspoons of Italian herb seasonings to the dough in order to add some “pizazz” to your pizza! The addition of some extra herbs & spices turns bland pizza dough into something special. As you probably know, Italian seasoning is made out of dried herbs & spices such as oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, garlic powder, sage, etc.
• Optional – For a milder herb-flavored pizza crust, you should use 1/2 or 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning. Thanks Brenda for the suggestion.
• Optional – Or you can add 1 teaspoon of dried hot pepper flakes to the pizza dough if you want to add a little “heat” to your bread machine pizza dough.
• Optional – If you want to add garlic to your pizza dough, I would recommend using small bits of minced & FRIED garlic and NOT garlic powder. Dehydrated garlic powder seems to slow or even stop yeast growth (as it has some antimicrobial effect on the yeast). Nevertheless, frying the garlic seems to destroy this antimicrobial effect. I always have to use minced & fried garlic when making anything with yeast such as my Bread Machine Garlic Bread.
• FYI – If you would like to try growing rosemary, oregano & other Italian seasoning herbs at home, check out Bread Dad’s Grow Your Own Ingredients page for herb seeds, etc.

• Visitors – Since there are a million varieties of pizza, I would love to hear how you make your pizza different & special (e.g. unique ingredients added, crust variations, baking tips, etc.). Help others (esp. pizza beginners) to design the perfect bread machine pizza… by posting your pizza tips in the comment section below.
• Visitor variations – Holly likes to make a variety of delicious pizzas with her bread machine pizza dough. She adds toppings such as “sauce, mozz, ham, bacon, and mushrooms”, “wing sauce, mozz, cheddar, chicken, and bacon” and “taco pizza with enchilada sauce (could use refried beans but I hate beans!), taco meat, and cheddar”.
• Fun pizza idea – Joan, one of our amazing Pinterest visitors, likes to turn our bread machine pizza dough into “breakfast pizza“. Joan makes breakfast pizza by covering the pizza dough with tomato sauce and then adds a layer of cheese, a layer of scrambled eggs & favorite breakfast toppings (such as bacon bits) and finally another layer of cheese. Yum!
• Optional – Once you have mastered the basics of pizza dough making, you might like to try out this great tip from Karen (one of our amazing visitors)! She suggested a way that you can improve the outer ring of the pizza crust… “I stuffed the crust with mozzarella cheese sticks…..yummy”.

• You can make your bread machine pizza with a wide variety of cheeses such as shredded mozzarella, parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, goat cheese, provolone cheese, gruyere cheese, etc.
• Many people like to use a blend of cheeses on their pizzas for extra flavor. Popular cheese combinations include mozzarella & provolone, mozzarella & parmesan or mozzarella & cheddar.
• Visitors – What type of cheese do you like to use on your bread machine pizza? Mozzarella? Provolone? Parmesan? Cheddar? Other? A special blend of different cheeses? Leave your cheese tips & suggestions in the comment section below.

• Optional – If you would like a “crispier” pizza crust, you can bake the pizza dough in the oven for 7-8 minutes before adding toppings. After semi-baking the pizza dough, you should add the toppings (e.g. sauce, cheese & other toppings) and place the bread machine pizza back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
• Optional – If you would like a thicker crust, you should let your dough rise for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before putting the bread machine pizza in the oven (or adding any toppings). The yeast in the dough will rise naturally and make the dough thicker & airier.
• Optional – For extra thin crust pizza, some people like to use a roller to roll out the dough. However, this squeezes out the “air” bubbles created by the yeast. Of course, as you are probably aware, no air bubbles greatly reduce the “fluffiness” of the pizza crust.
• Caution – For a soft & airy crust, you should use your hands to shape and flatten the dough. A rolling pin can squeeze out all of the air pockets in the dough (created by the yeast) and this creates a harder crust. By using your hands to shape the pizza dough, you reduce the chance of squeezing out all of the air bubbles. That is why you see the best pizza makers making their pizzas by hand!
• If you want more tips on how to shape your pizza dough, you might like to watch this King Arthur Baking video or this Emeril Lagasse video.

• You can use all-purpose flour or bread flour in order to make bread machine pizza. However, bread flour is generally more expensive than all-purpose flour. FYI – Since I am a cheapo! (frugal), I generally use all purpose flour.
• Bread flour pizza versus all purpose flour pizza – Since bread flour has more gluten that all purpose flour, pizzas made with bread flour are chewier than pizzas made with all purpose flour. NY-style pizzas often use bread flour. In contrast, pizzas made with all purpose flour tend to be softer & more tender than pizzas made with bread flour.
• Visitors – Do you like to use all purpose flour or bread flour to make your pizzas? Please leave your flour “thoughts” in the comment section below.

• Be careful moving your pizza dough from the cutting board to the baking sheet. I like to semi-start the pizza dough shaping on the cutting board but finish it on the baking sheet. Make sure to add the toppings AFTER you have moved the dough to the baking sheet.
• Other people like to make their pizza on a “pizza peel” (a large wooden or metal paddle used for pizza making). After making the pizza on the pizza peel, they can easily move the pizza peel and cause the pizza dough to gently slide off the paddle onto a baking sheet, pizza stone, pizza oven, etc. This reduces the chance that the pizza will accidentally collapse during the move (e.g. moving it by hand from a cutting board) before it is put in the oven.
• According to Wikipedia, “The bottom of the pizza, called the “crust”, may vary widely according to style, thin as in a typical hand-tossed Neapolitan pizza or thick as in a deep-dish Chicago-style. It is traditionally plain, but may also be seasoned with garlic or herbs, or stuffed with cheese”.

• You can make pizza dough in the morning and use it later in the day for a delicious dinner. Just place the dough in a greased bowl (with olive oil), cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place in the bowl in the refrigerator. About 30-60 minutes before you want to make your pizza, you should remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let the pizza dough warm up to room temperature. My thanks to Fran for this great tip!
• If you want to make lots of pizzas, you can make several rounds of pizza dough the day before the pizza “occasion”. Store the pizza dough in the refrigerator overnight. Just place each pizza dough ball in a bowl (whose interior has been lightly “greased” with olive oil), tightly cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap (so the pizza dough doesn’t dry out) and place the bowl in the refrigerator. FYI – As stated above, you will need to let each bowl of pizza dough warm up to room temperature before you use the dough to make pizza. This “warmup” usually takes about 30-60 minutes (after you have removed the bowl of dough from the refrigerator).
• Make sure that your oven has been COMPLETELY preheated. It can take 10-20 minutes to fully preheat an oven given the size of the oven, etc.
• If the oven has not been properly preheated, your pizza could come out undercooked. If your oven does not have a built-in thermometer, you consider buying an inexpensive oven thermometer that you can place inside your oven (in order to correctly gauge the internal temperature of your oven).

• Always use FRESH ingredients for the best results (e.g. fresh mozzarella, basil, flour, etc.). Stale ingredients can ruin the flavor or impact the rise of the dough (e.g. old yeast).
• Moreover, you should keep your ingredients in airtight containers in order to prevent contamination from moisture in the air, dust, pests, etc. Airtight containers will also extend the shelf life of ingredients such as flour.
• Be aware that old flour absorbs moisture from the air (if kept in an open bag and not an airtight container). This extra moisture can throw off recipes and leads to overly wet dough. You know there is a problem when the flour looks “lumpy” and pours out with many clumps of flour. FYI – Sometimes, even new flour can have an excess moisture problem if the paper package is not tightly sealed. I occasionally have this problem with “generic” supermarket brand flour.
• This recipe uses bread machine yeast (instant yeast). It does NOT use active dry yeast.
• Bread machine yeast and instant yeast are not the same as active dry yeast. Bread machine yeast and instant yeast are added directly to the recipe’s ingredients. In contrast, active dry yeast must be activated in water/milk before being added to a recipe’s ingredients. If you try to use active dry yeast for this recipe, it is much less likely to work properly (as the recipe instructions & leavening time is based on the use of bread machine yeast). Examples of yeast that can be used for this recipe include Fleischmann’s Bread Machine Yeast, Fleischmann’s Instant Yeast, Saf Instant Yeast, Red Star Instant Yeast, etc. You should not use active dry yeasts for this recipe such as Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast, Red Star Active Dry Yeast, etc.

• If you haven’t used your bread machine or bread maker in a long time, please buy some NEW bread machine yeast before making your pizza dough. Old yeast can die or lose its potency and this will lead to dough that does not rise properly. Bread machine yeast is not likely to be viable if it has been sitting in your pantry for years.
• Bread machine yeast loses its potency over time. Generally, bread machine yeast lasts for only 3-4 months after you have opened the bottle. However, if the yeast is exposed to air & moisture (e.g. the bottle not sealed tight) or exposed to higher temperatures, the yeast will expire even more quickly.
• Once you have opened the bottle that contains the bread machine yeast, the yeast will last longer if you store the bottle in the refrigerator or freezer. Just make sure the bottle is sealed tight (as the yeast will deteriorate quickly if exposed to air, moisture and/or heat).
• Bread machine yeast in a bottle that has never been opened should last until the bottle’s “Best If Used By” date… but only if the bottle has been stored properly (e.g. in a refrigerator, freezer or in a dark, dry & cool spot in the pantry) and the bottle remains unopened.
• I would recommend NOT reducing the salt in this recipe. The salt moderates the growth of the yeast. If you cut the salt, the yeast will grow faster than expected. In turn, this can result in a “slack” (less manageable) & weak pizza dough.

• Can you freeze bread machine pizza dough? Yes, the pizza dough can be frozen but in my opinion, it will not be as good as fresh pizza dough. However, it can be a solid emergency option if you have made fresh dough but are called away from finishing your pizza making.
• Here are the steps for freezing the bread machine pizza dough – After the bread machine has finished making the dough, divide the dough into 2 equal pieces (which will allow you to make 2 medium-sized pizzas). Shape each dough piece into a ball. Lightly coat both dough balls with olive oil (to help prevent sticking). Then wrap each ball with plastic wrap and place the wrapped balls in a large resealable sandwich bag. Squeeze the air out of the bag and put the bag in your freezer. These dough balls should be good for a couple of months. However, just make sure the dough is wrapped well & bag is sealed with minimal air inside in order to prevent freezer burns.
• To thaw the bread machine pizza dough, take the frozen & wrapped dough balls out of the freezer and place them in your refrigerator & let them thaw out in your refrigerator for roughly 8-10 hours (e.g. overnight). Then take the dough out of the refrigerator, unwrap the dough pieces & place each dough ball into a lightly oiled large bowl (2 separate bowls). Cover the bowls with plastic wrap after you have placed the dough balls inside. Then let the dough warm up in your kitchen for 30-45 minutes. Don’t leave the plastic wrap on the dough balls when they are warming up in your kitchen or the dough balls can become soggy & sticky due to condensation.
• After the dough has warmed up for the 30-45 minutes, you can finish making your pizza such as shaping the dough into round “pies”, adding the toppings, etc.
• Just be aware that frozen pizza dough is not as good as freshly made pizza dough. Why? Because the freezing impacts the “liveliness” of yeast (so it is harder to get a nice soft/fluffy pizza as the yeast doesn’t rise as well in the thawed dough), freezing can cause ice crystals in the dough and this can impact the texture of the dough, there is potential for freezer burns & potential for lost moisture from the dough, etc.
• Visitors – If you have any great tips or suggestions on how to freeze pizza dough, please them in the comment section below.

• If you liked this pizza recipe, you should also try my other “Italian restaurant” themed bread machine recipes for Italian bread, caprese panini sandwiches, calzones, breadsticks, garlic bread, rolls, etc.
• Be aware that some bread recipes may differ slightly between different types of bread machines. Therefore, please read your bread machine manufacturer’s instructions for basic bread recipes (e.g. dough making, white bread or whole wheat bread) as these are more likely to work on your individual bread machine.
• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (e.g. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (e.g. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (e.g. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with ovens & bread machines. They can get very hot.
• For more easy bread machine recipes (e.g. white bread, oatmeal bread or banana bread), please visit Bread Dad’s main section on Bread Machine Recipes.

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Pizza Dough Bread Machine Questions

Will a bread machine bake the pizza for you?

Unfortunately, a traditional bread machine will not shape or bake a pizza. Nevertheless, the bread machine will do the hard work of kneading the pizza dough for you. You just need to shape the pizza dough into its classic round shape, add your favorite toppings and bake it in your oven.

What toppings can you add to bread machine pizza?

Bread machine pizza is just like regular pizza. Let your imagine run wild with the pizza toppings. At a minimum, you should add tomato sauce and shredded cheese. However, after that you can add toppings such as already cooked meats (e.g. sausage or pepperoni), sliced vegetables (e.g. onions or peppers), special ingredients (e.g. pineapple or anchovies), etc.

How long does the pizza dough cycle take on a bread machine?

With our Sunbeam bread machine, it takes approximately 1:30 hours in order to make bread machine pizza dough. This length of time is used by the bread machine in order to knead the pizza dough and allow the dough to rise. However, check your bread machine instructions because the length of the dough cycle may vary on other bread machines.

Are there other uses for bread machine pizza dough beyond making pizza?

Beyond making delicious homemade pizza, you can use bread machine pizza dough in order to make bread sticks, calzones, dumpling skins, rolls, etc.

What is the best flour to use for bread machine pizza dough?

You can use either all-purpose flour or bread flour in order to make bread machine pizza dough. Both work well (although the bread flour will result in a slightly “airier” pizza dough). Nevertheless, I tend to use all-purpose flour for my bread machine pizza because all-purpose flour is usually cheaper than bread flour and tastes roughly the same as bread flour (when used for pizza). I also tend to have a lot more all-purpose flour available because it is used in so many different recipes (e.g. banana breads, muffins, cookies, etc). In contrast, bread flour is used primarily just for making bread.

What types of pizza can I make with bread machine pizza dough?

You can make a huge variety of different pizzas with bread machine pizza dough. According to Wikipedia, there are many regional and national pizza varieties such as bar pizza (“distinguished by a thin crust, almost cracker-like, and is cooked, or at least partly cooked, in a shallow pan for an oily crust”, California pizza (“distinguished by the use of non-traditional ingredients, especially varieties of fresh produce”), Chicago-style pizza (“distinguished by a thick moist crust formed up the sides of a deep-dish pan and sauce as the last ingredient, added atop the cheese and toppings”), Greek pizza (“a variation popular in New England; its name comes from it being typical of the style of pizzerias owned by Greek immigrants. It has a thicker, chewier crust and is baked in a pan in the pizza oven”), Sicilian pizza (“a square pie with a thick crust”) and New York-style pizza (“often sold in generously sized, thin, and flexible slices. It is traditionally hand-tossed, moderately topped with southern Italian-style Marinara sauce, and liberally covered with cheese”). There are many other US pizza varieties such as Detroit-style pizza, grilled pizza, pan pizza, sheet pizza, St. Louis-style pizza and even upside-down pizza!

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Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Bread Machine
2. Wikipedia, Dough
3. Wikipedia, Italian Seasoning
4. Wikipedia, Pizza

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3. Bread Machine Garlic Cheese Bread
4. Bread Machine Italian Bread
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