This sheet pan pizza recipe is so incredibly delicious and feeds a crowd, perfect for your next family dinner or get together!
Pizza has to be the most universally loved food, right? I can honestly say that I have never met someone who doesn’t like some form of pizza.
Me? Well, I’m no exception, I love pizza. I grew up in Chicago where we had deep dish, I went to graduate school in NY where I got to experience the big pieces of New York style pizza, and also in New York I got to have big square pizzas in the city (also known as Sicilian pizza). I now live in Milwaukee where we have thin, almost cracker-crispy thin crust, and my in-laws make the best wood-fired pizza. I do not discriminate, I love all kinds of pizza!
I forgot what show we were watching, but they were doing some feature on pizza and showed a square/rectangle pizza and my hubby said he had never had pizza like that. I immediately remembered the square pizzas I had had in the past.
The dough was soft and fluffy but had a nice crunch to the bottom of it with a nice bold olive oil flavor. It made me think of when I made tomato rosemary focaccia bread, I wanted it a little fluffier and topped with cheese, because, pizza!!
Whenever I’m working with dough, I immediately think of my favorite yeast brand: Red Star Yeast.
Their yeast is second to none. Their quick rise yeast is truly the best. It works quickly!
I have to admit: yeast dough kind of scares me. My father in law is baker extraordinaire, and makes bread every week for Sunday family dinners. My version of making yeast dough is more like when I made these slow cooker cinnamon rolls, which didn’t require much rising time. So I enlisted his help- mainly for him to set the timers and tell me to stay out of the kitchen lol.
The dough was surprisingly easy to make, and I absolutely LOVED how it all came together, and how easy it was to make!
Because you’re making it on a sheet pan, it makes it really perfect for feeding a crowd. Think pizza party, family dinners, friends over, all enjoying this amazing pizza you’ve just made, it’s a total winner.
I made homemade sauce for this, but you could certainly buy pre-made pizza sauce. What makes this pizza taste amazing is the crust. It’s got a crispy bottom from baking in an olive oil coated sheet pan and is soft on the inside because of the double rise times. You put a layer of cheese down directly on top of the dough and then sauce over the cheese to prevent the crust from getting soggy. You could make this with and without pepperoni, the only thing you want to make sure of is that if you are using pepperoni, you get the good natural casing kind!
Next time you’re feeding a crowd, be everyone’s favorite hostess by making this amazing sheet pan pizza recipe!
Other posts you might enjoy:
- 5 Ingredient Jalapeno Enchilada Pizza Recipe
- Winter Vegetable and Sausage Pizza
- Homemade Pizza Pockets
Sheet Pan Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
- For the dough:
- 1 1/4 cup warm water about 90-110 degrees
- 1 envelope 2 1/4 teaspoons Red Star quick rise active yeast
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 3 tablespoon olive oil plus ¼ cup for the pan
- 3 1/2 – 4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- For the sauce:
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoons dried red pepper flakes or more to taste
- 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- To Assemble and Bake:
- 1 pound sliced deli-style mozzarella cheese
- 6 ounces natural-casing pepperoni cut into 1/8-inch slices
- 4 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese grated
Instructions
- Warm the water (I do this by microwaving it for 30 seconds).
- Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water in a small mixing bowl or measuring cup. Proof the yeast until it is foamy, about 3-5 minutes.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough attachment on, pour in the yeast mixture, salt, 3 tablespoons olive oil and 3 ½ cups of flour. Turn mixer on medium and mix until combined and no flour streaks remain (about 4 minutes). Slowly add in the additional ½ cup flour and mix for (about another 2 minutes). Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and transfer to a well-floured surface.
- Knead by hand until smooth and elastic and form into a shape resembling a rectangle.
- Coat a 13 x 18 inch sheet pan (or jelly roll pan) with ¼ cup olive oil.
- Transfer dough into the oiled pan and cover with loosely with plastic wrap. Let rest until it has doubled in size (1 hour for the quick rise yeast, 2 hours for regular yeast).
- After it has risen, punch down the dough and form it to fit the entire pan, edge-to-edge. Dimple the crust with your fingertips as you form into the pan and carefully prick carefully with a fork. (The fork pricking is to prevent the crust from bubbling up, only gently prick it, don’t poke all the way through the dough – I made a total of 12 pricks.) If the dough is resistant to reach the corner, allow it to rest a few minutes and try again. Cover pan with the plastic wrap and allow it to rest another hour.
- Preheat the oven to 525 degrees, making sure the bottom rack of your oven is set to its lowest level. (If your oven doesn't go this high or you're nervous baking at such a high temperature, I've also made this with great success at 475 for about 15-20 minutes. Also, if the lowest rack of your oven is directly over heat, put it at the bottom third).
- Make your sauce, sauté garlic in the olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat until fragrant (2 minutes) then add in the oregano and red pepper flakes can of tomatoes and salt, stir and cook for 2 minutes, then remove from heat. Use an immersion blender to blend contents in the pot or pour contents into a blender and blend until smooth and no large chunks remain.
- Remove plastic wrap from the pizza dough and place slices of mozzarella cheese down, then spread sauce over the cheese. Place slices of pepperoni over the pizza and then sprinkle with Pecorino Romano cheese.
- Place the baking sheet on the lowest rack in the oven and bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the crust is crispy and lightly browned.
Notes
Nutrition
Looking for more bread recipe inspiration? Check out Red Star Yeast on facebook, pinterest, twitter and instagram.
This deliciousness is brought to you by Red Star Yeast, all opinions are as always my own, thank you for supporting the brands and products I love and that make the Sweetphi blog possible.
Elise says
If you want to add veggies do you put them under the sauce or on top of the sauce?
Sweetphi says
I usually add them on top so they cook a little bit more
cleek says
I’d caution strongly against putting it on the bottom rack of you oven. I tried it, and the entire bottom burned solid black in nine minutes.
Sweetphi says
Oh my goodness, I am so sorry to hear that. I’ve made this several times and have never had that happen! I will definitely add that to the notes of the recipe to make sure it doesn’t happen to others!
Nicole Ch says
Today I was looking for a thick pan crust because my husband likes that and my usual go to is just a regular crust. All the ones I found called for 8 hours minimum time. Unfortunately pizza is a last minute dinner for us so that wasn’t going to work. I made yours and the bad news is that I’m pretty sure my yeast wasn’t good. I used it anyway so my dough didn’t rise but I’m still sold on your recipe! The dough was so easy to work with whereas every recipe I’ve used in the past leaves me a little flustered. But not yours, plus it completely covers the pan. Thank you! I’m bookmarking your page.
Sweetphi says
Hi Nicole, thank you SO MUCH for your comment and feedback. I am so happy to hear that you loved this recipe. Hopefully next time with some fresh yeast it will be EVEN better!! Thanks again for your kind words!!
Jenny says
I love colorful recipes indeed, and this pizza is absolutely flavorful!
Love this so good, our family really enjoyed it… saved it to one of my pins for pizza night! thanks! ?
Sweetphi says
I think you’d absolutely love this pizza!
Kate says
Oh my heavens. I cannot believe I found this site and this recipe. You have made my day. I lived in Italy with so many fond memories. I was a child when my father took a job with Pirelli. Then there were the Detroit days and a lot of waiting in line at Buddy’s for the best pizza ever. You have sparked a lot of interest for me. Thank you.
Sweetphi says
So glad you like this recipe, thank you for your kind words, I hope you enjoy it!
Maya says
Hi! I’m going to try this one out tonight with my family ? Hopefully they will enjoy!
Maria says
Absolutely love this pizza recipe. It’s the only one I use. I make it every Friday night, my husband and kids love it. ???? I’ve also done it for other members of the family and they can’t believe how amazing and authentic the pizzas turn out ?
I’ve been using a shop bought pizza sauce but would love to make my own.
Sweetphi says
Oh my goodness Maria, thank you so much for sharing this awesome feedback!!! So happy to hear how much you love this pizza recipe!
Beth Tingle says
This was delicious! It’s more like a pizza hut crust than a thin crust. I needed a recipe that I could prep in advance of company coming and made three sheet pizzas. It reminds me of America’s Test Kitchen’s recipe for deep dish pizza, but I think this is better and the dough is easier to make. I only needed 3 and a 1/2 cups flour and a TBS– it would have been too much to do the full four cups. I put the sauce on first and cheese and toppings after and it worked out great. I’ve never done a pizza on the bottom of the oven like that, and it turned out well (they were done around 11 min. in my oven). Thanks for sharing!
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much for the feedback, that’s so awesome to hear how you loved it, I’m making this pizza again for a party next weekend 🙂
Peg Chamberlain says
I want to make this except I’d like to use store bought dough. Can you tell me how much dough I would need? The store bought is 16 oz per package. Thank you!
Sweetphi says
Hmmmm, I’d think you’d need two packages of store bought dough….I don’t know how it will turn out because this dough is a little different. I would still highly recommend oiling the pan for the nice crusty bottom 🙂
Deanna Zuniga says
Would I be able to substitute the quick yeast with regular active dry yeast
Sweetphi says
Definitely! I would just add a little more rise time as quick yeast cuts the active dry yeast time in half 🙂
cakespy says
Thin crust pizza annoys me; this sheet pan pizza is WHERE IT’S AT. I love it!!
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much – this pizza is definitely where its at!
Jessica Lane says
I love it, one of my favorite things! Thanks for sharing this delicious looking recipe!
Sweetphi says
Thank you!!
Shawnna Griffin says
hey girl- yummy! this looks so good!
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much – I love how this recipe is perfect for family dinners and feeding a crowd
Little Cooking Tips says
Amazing. This is the classic homemade pizza we used to eat at our home and friend’s homes while growing up. You see homemade pizza was very popular in the 80s:) Nowadays most people opt to have their pizza delivered from a pizza joint.
In our humble opinion, nothing beats a thick and fluffy homemade pizza with LOTS of tomato sauce and a variety of toppings(we always have a version with bell peppers though; can’t do without it) 🙂
This pepperoni version loos DIVINE and we’ll definitely try it out! Excellent photography (again) dear Phi!
Hugs,
Mirella and Panos
Sweetphi says
You’re so right – pizza used to be homemade so much more often than it is now, but the homemade taste is just so much better 🙂 Thank you for your wonderful comment Mirella and Panos 🙂
jess larson | plays well with butter says
my mouth. is. watering. there is NOTHING wrong with the situation you’ve got going on here…from the chewy pizza crust to the light & crispy salad you paired it with! definitely keeping track of this recipe for pizza night with my hubby (it’s our fave!).
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much – this pizza was seriously some of the best homemade pizza we’ve ever had!