Two-Ingredient Pizza Dough—And Two Easy Pizza Recipes

As part of our year-end review, we're revisiting some of the most popular stories from 2014. Here, an easy pizza dough recipe that uses just two ingredients.

Elettra Wiedemann is the enthusiastic eater behind the blog Impatient Foodie. Here, she shares her favorite new discovery, two-ingredient pizza dough, which she first read about on The Slow-Roasted Italian, as well as two pizza recipes that are easy to make—and impressive and healthy to boot.

Photo credit: Davide Luciano

You might be thinking, “There is no way that two-ingredient pizza dough works.” I SWEAR IT DOES. I am totally confounded by the chemistry of this, but it tastes amazing and the texture is perfect. I tested it in multiple kitchens with multiple people and everyone was like, “WHOA. Why didn’t we know about this before?”

I first heard about it in a work meeting. I have found the two problems with having a food blog are:

A) Everyone expects you to cook all the time.

B) Everyone thinks you know what you’re doing.

So, I was in this meeting for Impatient Foodie and a woman was trying to get me to “spill the beans” about all my “secret recipes” and I was kinda like, “I don’t know. I just try stuff and keep trying until it works, and then I write it down.” Then she started talking about two-ingredient pizza dough and I was like, “Hold the phone. WHAT? Tell me more about this RIGHT NOW.” And I pulled out my little red Impatient Foodie inspiration notebook and wrote down every word she said.

When I went home and did a web search, it was clear that this had been discovered already, but the ship had passed me by. (Had you heard of two-ingredient pizza dough before now?)

I bought the two ingredients, convinced it would NEVER work. I had friends over for dinner and told them that it was sure to be a disaster, promising to take them out to dinner some time soon. But the pizza I pulled out of my oven looked fabulous and smelled amazing. The crust was everything you would want it to be. We all ate our first bites at the same time and then started saying things like, “Whoa!” “No way!” “But how?” “It’s so good, but I don’t get it!”

The two recipes below are pretty straightforward, and I have to give a shout-out to Darroch and Mikey of Putnam & Putnam flowers for the second one, their Brussels sprout-lemon pizza recipe. The key is in taking the time to cut paper-thin slices of lemon, otherwise the citrus overrides the other flavors.

Two-Ingredient Pizza Dough
by The Slow Roasted Italian
Makes 1 pizza

I swear it works, don’t ask me why. And, no, the dough doesn’t taste like yogurt, it tastes heavenly. -EW

1 cup Greek yogurt
1–1 ½ cups self-rising flour

Note: If you can’t find self-rising flour, you can substitute 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 ½ tsp. baking powder, and ¾ tsp. of salt.

Mix ingredients in a bowl until it starts to come together, then knead it on a well-floured surface for about 8–10 minutes. Add in a little bit of flour at a time if the dough is too sticky. Form it into the pizza shape and size you want.

Brush with olive oil, add toppings, and put straight into a 450°F oven for 10–12 minutes. Here are two recipe suggestions:

Simple Margarita Pizza

Olive oil Garlic, minced
Pomi strained tomatoes
Mozzarella, sliced Parmesan, grated
Fresh basil, chopped (for garnish, optional)

Preheat oven to 450°F.

In a sauté pan over medium heat, cook garlic in 1 Tbsp. oil. Cook until it starts to become fragrant and turn golden brown.

Add Pomi strained tomatoes (amount depends on pizza size). Reduce the heat and simmer, allowing the the sauce to thicken, 10–15 minutes.

Brush your dough with some olive oil and spoon on your sauce, leaving ½ inch of space around the edges. Top the sauce with mozzarella (again, don’t go all the way to the edge of the dough).

Bake for 10–12 minutes. Remove pizza and sprinkle on some grated Parmesan. Bake for about 1 minute more, just until Parmesan starts to melt.

Garnish with chopped basil and enjoy immediately.

Brussels Sprout-Lemon Pizza

Olive oil
Mozzarella, sliced
Brussels sprouts (enough to cover whole pizza), shredded
Salt and black pepper
1 lemon, sliced (really make an effort to get your lemon slices as thin as possible)
Parmesan, grated

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Brush your dough with olive oil, then add a generous amount of mozzarella (leave room at edges, about ½ inch).

Toss Brussels sprouts in olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Sprinkle on top of the mozzarella, then layer on lemon slices, and finally top with Parmesan.

Bake until lemons are charred and crust is golden, about 10–15 minutes.

From the Yahoo Food Team: If you make this recipe at home, let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you!