How To Make Homemade Pizza With Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough

If you want to be able to throw together the absolute best homemade pizza, I’m going to show you how to do it with a single shopping trip to Trader Joe’s.

You can make a very simple pizza with pre-made pizza dough without following a recipe. But if you’re here, it means you want to make the best pizza possible, so I’m here to walk you through every step of the process for my preferred method.

This recipe is in no way sponsored by Trader Joe’s, although I’ll keep my inbox open for them. This is my own go-to recipe for homemade pizza that I love because Trader Joe’s ingredients are all top-notch quality.

You might think that using store-bought pizza dough wouldn’t be as fulfilling as making your own pizza dough, but I’m here to prove you wrong. Trader Joe’s pizza dough is some of the best I’ve had!

By using a single Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough (for about $2) we’re going to make two delicious 10″ pizzas!

If you’re scanning this recipe and thinking “this seems like way too much writing for a simple pizza recipe,” maybe you’re right. Making pizza can be a very simple process, but I didn’t want to leave anything to chance here.

I have been making pizza with Trader Joe’s pizza dough for years now, and I like to think I have perfected it. I wanted to include as much detail as possible to help you make the best pizzas of your life.

To help you out, I’ve included a table of contents below so you can jump around to each section of the recipe as needed.

This walkthrough is going to make two 10″ pizzas from one pizza dough, but I’ve more recently started using this same Trader Joe’s pizza dough to make Detroit Style Pizza as well. Check out that recipe if that’s more your style!

Why Not Follow the Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough Package Instructions?

The Trader Joe’s pizza dough contains preparation instructions right on the package, and they certainly work, but I’ve found that they aren’t ideal.

Here is what the package recommends:

“Leave dough at room temperature for 20 minutes. Remove dough from package. Flour work surface liberally and roll your dough into a 12″ diameter circle.”

If you follow these directions, you will end up with a delicious pizza. But here’s what I’ve found when following those instructions:

1. Trader Joe’s pizza dough tends to get quite sticky. As the dough softens at room temperature, it only gets stickier within the plastic, making it very difficult to remove. If you are leaving it out for 20 minutes, I recommend transferring it to a separate container.
2. 20 minutes is not long enough to allow the dough to become light and airy. As the dough sits at room temperature, the yeast becomes more active, so a longer time works much better if you want a fluffy crust.
3. As a fan of thin-crust pizza, I find that making a single 12″ pizza from this Trader Joe’s pizza dough creates a pizza that is far too thick. If you prefer a thicker pizza, such as a Pizza Hut or Dominos pizza, then that can work fine. But I prefer a thinner crust, so I’m going to show you how to create two separate 10″ pizzas from a single Trader Joe’s pizza dough.

If you want to keep things simple, you can follow Trader Joe’s instructions. But then again, if you’re reading this recipe, you probably want to make the best pizza possible. So, allow me to show you how.

What Are The Best Ingredients for a Trader Joe’s Pizza?

Quality pizza dough is the star, but the toppings you choose for your pizza also matter.

For this pizza recipe, I love using the Garlic & Herb Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough. It is infused with a ton of amazing flavor, so I love using this particular pizza dough.

Trader Joe’s also sells plain pizza dough, which also works great. In fact, the two pizza doughs are virtually the same, but this version has an extra garlicky flavor that I really enjoy.

With all that being said, I use these pizza doughs interchangeably, so you may notice photos using one or the other. It’s just a matter of preference (and the availability of what Trader Joe’s has in stock that week).

Regardless of which type you choose, the main ingredients in Trader Joe’s pizza dough are simply enriched flour, water, oil, sugar, salt, and yeast.

Notice how the entire package is one pound, which is more than enough dough for 2 pizzas. If you’re worried about the pizza being too small when split into two, they come to almost the same exact size as a traditional Neapolitan Pizza. A 10″ pizza is the perfect sized meal in my eyes.

When it comes to toppings, you have the freedom to get as creative as you’d like, but this is what I tend to go with:

Trader Joe’s Bolognese Sauce is my preferred pizza sauce. While Trader Joe’s sells regular pizza sauce, their bolognese is one of my favorite products of theirs. It’s a thick meat sauce with a ton of flavor, and it really takes your pizza to the next level.

Trader Joe’s Lite Mozzarella has been my go-to cheese for quite some time. It’s the only lower-calorie cheese I’ve found that actually melts really, really well. Whenever you use low-fat cheese, not only does the flavor suffer, but it doesn’t melt nearly as well- that’s not the case with this cheese! If you’re not concerned about calories, opting for regular shredded mozzarella works even better.

Trader Joe’s Part Skim Ricotta is an excellent addition to the pizza. I often add a few dollops of this ricotta right on top of my pizza, and I love the extra flavor it provides. This is optional, and it can be left out if you prefer a more traditional pizza, but it’s a great addition.

Trader Joe’s Italian Style Soffritto Seasoning is my favorite way to season this pizza. You can go with any seasoning you’d like, but this Italian-style seasoning is the perfect compliment to the Trader Joe’s pizza dough.

And last but certainly not least, Trader Joe’s honey sauce is a must for my pizza.

I was skeptical about drizzling spicy honey on top of my pizza, but it’s incredible.

While the pizza is still hot, drizzle some Spicy Honey Sauce over the top, and you’ll quickly learn why the combination of hot honey and pizza is so popular. If nothing else, it’s a great way to flavor the crust you’re left with at the very end of your slice.

How to Prep Your Trader Joe’s Pizza

I make this exact recipe every single week. We like to celebrate “Pizza Friday” in our household, so if you follow these directions exactly as written, I promise that you’ll end up with absolutely perfect pizza every single time.

Ready to make your own pizza using Trader Joe’s pizza dough? Let’s get into it.

Step 1: Transfer the pizza dough to an airtight container with a small amount of olive oil.

I like to use a large glass Tupperware for my pizza dough. It’s going to poof up a bit, so choose a container that’s a bit larger than the pizza dough.

Drizzle a small amount of olive oil into the container (I don’t measure, but it’s never more than 1 tablespoon) and add your pizza dough right on top of the olive oil.

Flip the pizza dough a few times in the container to make sure it is fully coated in the olive oil, then cover and let sit at room temperature for 4 hours (minimum one hour, but four hours tends to work the best in my trials).

If you don’t want to wait, I’ve included instructions below for making pizza with zero wait time, although it’s less preferred.

Pro tip: If your house is cold, the dough will not rise as much. To ensure the pizza dough rises, I like to place the pizza dough in the oven with the pilot light on. The oven with the light on gives just enough heat to activate the yeast without cooking the dough.

The Trader Joe’s pizza dough instructions say to let it size for 20 minutes, but I don’t find that to be nearly long enough.

When you cover the pizza dough and let it sit at room temperature, the yeast will become very active, and the dough will double in size. See the below photo for the before & after…

Step 2: Split the Pizza Dough Into 2 Equal-Sized Balls

After the dough has risen, you’ll split it into 2 separate pieces to make your 2 pizzas.

I like to weigh my pizza dough, then split it in half to get 2 perfectly equal-sized portions, but you can eyeball it. Once split, lightly knead each dough ball for about 30 seconds to smooth them out.

You don’t need to knead the dough balls very much- at this stage, we simply want to smooth them out and repair any parts of the dough we may have ripped in the process.

The dough will be pretty sticky, but if you use a silicone mat, it will be very easy to lightly knead. Otherwise, you can use a little bit of semolina flour to help.

Step 2: Cover the Pizza Dough Balls for 30-60 Minutes

I like to cover the pizza dough balls with a wet washcloth or paper towel to lock in moisture while they sit, but placing them back in an airtight container has worked well for me too.

If you have to skip this step, you’ll still have a great pizza crust, but this final hour gives you one more quick rise for the fluffiest crust possible.

While the dough sits, it’s extremely important to preheat your oven.

I use a pizza oven, and I highly recommend investing in one if you plan on having pizza nights often! I have the Ooni Koda 12, which hooks up to a propane tank outside to make things super easy. It’s 12″, so it’s on the smaller side, but it works perfectly for me considering I always make 10″ pizza.

It can reach 700-900 degrees F, which is far hotter than a standard oven, making it ideal for pizza and getting that beautiful char on the crust.

Ooni is definitely one of the better ovens out there, although there are other options as well, so I recommend checking that one out.

If you do not have a pizza oven and are using a regular oven, I highly recommend using a Pizza Steel. Pizza steels create a cooking surface for your pizza that gets insanely hot, allowing the pizza to cook very quickly. Without a pizza oven, using a pizza steel is the next best thing and will produce amazing results.

I like to crank the oven as high as possible (typically 500 degrees F) with the pizza steel or pizza stone in the oven for a full hour, allowing it to get really hot before cooking the pizza. The hotter the surface, the better!

Don’t worry, I have more specific cooking instructions below.

Step 3: Form Your 10″ Pizzas

There’s nothing I love more than an airy crust (it always feels like hitting the lottery when you get a nice big crust bubble) so we’re going to carefully form each pizza.

First and foremost, sprinkle some semolina flour or cornmeal on your surface and over each ball of dough. Finely ground semolina is the secret ingredient most pizzerias use, and it will help you tremendously when forming your Trader Joe’s pizzas.

Rather than using a rolling pin to roll the pizza out, start by pressing down in the center of the pizza dough, then working your way towards the outer crust. This method helps to keep all of the air inside of the outer crust, which is what we want.

After you do this, you’ll pick up the pizza by hooking your fingers under the outer crust. You’ll slowly turn the pizza like a wheel, allowing gravity to stretch the pizza into shape.

Once stretched out, you should have a pizza that is right around 10 inches.

I form my pizza on this Silicone Pizza Mat that measures the pizza for you, which makes things very easy.

The exact size may vary, but I always aim to make my pizzas as close to 10″ as possible. If you don’t want as big of an outer crust on your pizza, you can stretch each pizza to 12″ with a smaller crust.

My goal is always to have some air bubbles in my crust like you see above, because that leads to those wonderfully charred bubbles that everybody loves.

The pizza is going to seem extremely thin, but there is enough rise when it cooks that it holds up just fine (even with toppings).

Step 4: Place Your Dough on a Pizza Peel and Add Toppings

Sprinkle some semolina flour or cornmeal on a wooden pizza peel (note that a wooden peel allows the pizza to slide off much easier than aluminum) and transfer your pizza dough onto the peel.

If you add the pizza dough to the pizza peel on its own, it will not slide off, so it’s important to use a dusting of semolina or cornmeal.

Once the formed pizza dough is on the pizza peel, give it a little shake to make sure the pizza moves around and will be able to easily slide off the pizza peel. If it doesn’t budge, lift the crust to sprinkle more semolina underneath until you’re able to slide it around.

At this point, you’re ready to top your pizza with whatever Trader Joe’s toppings you’d like!

I simply spread a layer of Trader Joe’s Bolognese sauce on the pizza, then top it with shredded mozzarella and soffrito seasoning. Often times, I like to add some fresh veggies on top, too.

How To Cook Your Pizza in a Pizza Oven

Now for the fun part: cooking your pizza! You’ve waited hours for the dough to rise, so now it’s time for you to be rewarded.

The first option for cooking your pizza is using a pizza oven, which is my favorite method.

If you’re using a pizza oven as I do (I cannot recommend the Ooni enough), this pizza will cook in a matter of minutes.

My pizza oven cooking tip: I crank the heat on high while the oven is preheating in order to get the pizza stone to the highest temperature possible. This ensures that the bottom of the pizza will become nice and crispy. However, right before putting the pizza in the oven, I turn the temperature to low so the outer crust does not burn. This strategy has worked great for me!

Carefully slide your pizza into your pizza oven, then rotate your pizza every 15-20 seconds. Since the flame is located in the back of the oven, if you let the pizza sit too long without moving it, the back side will burn very quickly.

When in doubt: keep it moving.

Note: it’s significantly easier to rotate your pizza with an aluminum peel versus a wooden peel. I prep my pizza on a wooden peel, then use an aluminum peel (which is thinner) to move the pizza around.

It’s better to turn the pizza too often than not often enough. If the crust isn’t quite browned enough, you can always rotate it back!

All in all, this pizza will be completely cooked in a matter of minutes, so make sure you don’t step away.

You’ll achieve a delicious result in a standard oven, but a pizza oven is worth the investment. Because of my pizza oven, “Pizza Friday” has become a weekly staple in our household.

How to Cook Pizza in a Traditional Oven

You don’t need a fancy pizza oven to make delicious pizza at home! While I recommend it, you can still achieve a beautiful crust in your kitchen with no special equipment.

If you’re using a regular oven, I highly recommend you buy either a pizza stone or pizza steel to create a very hot surface to crisp the bottom of your pizza. Since regular ovens don’t get as hot as pizza ovens (typically topping out at 500 degrees F), using a pizza stone allows the bottom to crisp up very nicely.

However, you don’t even need a pizza stone to make delicious pizza. If you have no special equipment, you can use a baking sheet to achieve a wonderful result.

Flip a baking sheet upside down, then place another baking sheet on the rack directly above it. It will get extremely hot between the 2 baking sheets, giving you a perfect surface to bake your pizza.

Crank the heat on your oven as high as possible (usually 500 to 525 degrees F) and let your oven preheat for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Preheating is extremely important to get your surface as hot as possible. Without preheating, the top of your crust will cook much faster than the bottom, leading to a much flatter (and often overcooked) result.

Yes, your kitchen might get pretty hot in this time, but it’s worth it!

Once the oven is hot and ready, prep your pizza on a pizza peel with some semolina or corn meal so the pizza can easily slide off, then slide the pizza right onto the upside-down baking sheet (or pizza stone if you go that route).

You may need to rotate the pizza halfway through if your oven tends to have hot spots, but since there is no direct flame like with a pizza oven, it’s not quite as necessary.

The entire pizza should cook in 10-15 minutes, but it will vary based on your oven, so keep an eye on it as it cooks to pull it once it looks ready.

Even with a regular oven, you’ll be able to achieve a wonderfully airy, charred pizza crust. Check out the pizza I was able to make in my oven with just a baking sheet:

For a pizza made in a traditional oven, I am extremely impressed!

I like to top my pizza with some Trader Joe’s Spicy Honey Sauce once I remove the pizza from the oven, and it’s the perfect finishing touch. It may sound odd, but the combination may just change your life if you haven’t tried it.

Otherwise, saving a little extra Trader Joe’s Bolognese (or other sauce) to dip the crust into is an excellent strategy.

If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you, first of all, I sincerely apologize. Second of all, you can follow these same instructions using any store-bought pizza dough you can find!

How To Make Trader Joe’s Pizza With Zero Prep Time

Recently, we found ourselves up against it for dinner and had our hearts set on pizza. We didn’t want to settle for takeout, so I decided to see what would happen if I took the pizza dough out of the fridge and immediately cooked it.

The instructions on the package say to let the dough sit for 20 minutes at room temperature before making your pizza, but for my experiment, I wanted to pull it directly out of the fridge with zero waiting time.

First things first: preheat your oven. Whether you’re using a traditional oven or a pizza oven, fire it up while you form your pizzas. For pizza ovens, the preheat time will be much shorter than preferred, but 15-20 minutes is better than nothing.

Remove the pizza dough from the fridge, split it into two, and then get to work forming the pizzas.

Since the dough is cold and tough, you won’t be able to form the pizza with your hands. Instead, you’ll have to use a rolling pin to roll it out thin.

Even though this isn’t my preferred method, I was still able to stretch the pizza to roughly 10″ in diameter.

You won’t be able to form a thick outer crust, but depending on your cooking method, that might not be the end of the world.

Top the pizza with your favorite toppings, then slide it into your hot oven.

If you’re using a pizza oven (which I cannot recommend enough), the outer crust should still puff up plenty.

Honestly, I was surprised at just how much it did puff up. Considering I needed to use a rolling pin to roll the dough out flat, I was not expecting it to be this airy, but that’s the beauty of a pizza oven! The high heat of the pizza stone and direct flame work like magic.

If you use a traditional oven, don’t expect these results- your pizza will become more of a NY-style pizza instead, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

So, how was the final result? Honestly, it came out much better than I expected.

Unfortunately, with no real preheat on my oven, my pizza was still pretty doughy inside, so I needed to toss it into my kitchen oven for about 10 minutes at a low temperature to finish cooking through.

If you’re going this route with no preheat, aim for a lower oven temperature and longer cooke time.

You’ll notice a big difference in the texture of the crust when you don’t allow your dough to rest at room temperature. While it’s still an airy crust, it is significantly denser than when we let the dough sit out at room temperature.

If you’re in a pinch, you can make this work. But there’s a reason I wrote such a long recipe for this Trader Joe’s pizza: because it comes out really, really good.

I recommend following the full instructions for best results (both in terms of texture and flavor), but if you’re facing a pizza emergency, this is not a bad fallback.

Turning Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough into Detroit-Style (or Deep Dish) Pizza

A regular round pie isn’t all that you’re limited to. You can just as easily use these same ingredients to make a square pizza, too!

If you’re unfamiliar with Detroit-style pizza, it’s a square pie defined by super crispy edges. The pizza itself is thick and fluffy, similar to a deep dish, but the edges really set it apart.

And to be compeltely honest, it has become my new favorite way to prep the Trader Joe’s pizza dough.

By following this recipe largely the same, but cooking this pizza in a square pan in the oven (no pizza oven required) you’re left with a soft & fluffy deep dish pizza that is out of this world.

Check out my Detroit-Style Pizza recipe here to make your own. And don’t worry, it still only requires a single Trader Joe’s run.

More Trader Joe’s-Inspired Recipes

It’s no secret that I love Trader Joe’s. In fact, I love it so much that I put together a full guide that includes the nutrition facts for over 600 Trader Joe’s products.

I also have some other recipes here on my blog that revolve around Trader Joe’s ingredients, so you can plan to make multiple recipes from your next shopping trip!

• The Easiest Parmesan Truffle Fries
• The BEST Way To Cook Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken
• How To Make The Perfect Crispy Hash Browns in the Air Fryer
• California Burrito (Carne Asada Burrito with Fries)
• 15-Minute Ground Beef Fried Rice
• Elote Beef Taco Bowls in 20 Minutes

And many more to come!

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