This dough is one of the most versatile I’ve ever used. It can be used for rolls, pizza crust, stromboli or calzone crust, pot pies, and more. My boyfriend is the one who originally started to experiment with this recipe. He says it’s the closest thing he’s been able to make to butter rolls his dad used to make. He started using it for homemade pizzas and expanded from there.

I’ll be posting a series of recipes using this dough. For most recipes, you can make the dough ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator. This is great for a quick weeknight homemade pizza, and making dough at home is more cost-effective than buying store-bought. Using current prices at my nearest grocery store, a refrigerated pizza crust costs $2.79, whereas making homemade costs approximately $1.58.

The recipe calls for bread flour, but if you don’t have any, or if you want to save money and buy all-purpose, you can substitute.

I made this dough in my stand mixer, but you can definitely make it in a bowl and hand-knead it. If you’re going to hand-knead, dust your hands with flour because this dough is really sticky.

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5 from 1 vote

All-Purpose Homemade Dough

A versatile dough you can make at home for numerous types of recipes.

Prep Time10 mins

Resting Time1 hr

Total Time1 hr 10 mins

Course: Breakfast, Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: all-purpose dough, homemade dough, low cost recipe, multi-purpose dough, pizza crust, roll dough, versatile dough

Servings: 1

Cost: $1.58

Equipment

• Mixer

Ingredients

• ¼ cup water
• 2¼ tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
• ¾ cup milk warm
• ½ stick butter melted
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2¾ cups bread flour (may substitute all-purpose)

Instructions

• Turn on your faucet and get your water as hot as you can. Fill a measuring cup with ¼ cup water and stir in yeast. Let rest for a few minutes. The yeast should start to look frothy in the water.
• Transfer yeast/water mixture to a mixing bowl, along with the milk, butter, egg, salt, and sugar. Stir to combine.
• If using a stand mixer, attach the dough hook. If you're mixing by hand, you can start with a spoon, but you will eventually need to mix by hand. This dough gets really sticky, so you'll wand to coat your hands with some flour.
• Gradually add flour and mix until everything is well-incorporated. If using the stand mixer, continue to mix for about another minute or two. If you mixed by hand, knead the dough for a couple of minutes.
• If you're using the dough to make rolls, transfer it to a greased bowl, cover, and let sit in a warm place to rise for about an hour. If you'll be using it for a crust (pizza, pot pie, quiche, stromboli, etc.), wrap it loosely in plastic wrap and transfer to the fridge until you're ready to use it. It'll be good for several days in the fridge.