Adapted from my favorite pizza crust, this homemade flatbread pizza bakes up into a thin and chewy base for your favorite flatbread toppings. Quicker, easier, and thinner than pizza, this flatbread dough takes about 1 hour start to finish and is perfect for beginners. I always love adding garlic and Italian seasonings for extra flavor!
If you’ve ever wanted to try making restaurant-style thin crust flatbreads, I have the perfect starting point for you. This is my EASY homemade flatbread dough, and the starting point for recipes like zucchini & herbed ricotta flatbread and veggie pizza. Have you tried it yet?
Here’s why you must…
Make This Flatbread Pizza Because:
- you don’t need many ingredients
- it’s quicker than homemade pizza
- the dough yields 2 flatbreads
- 1 full recipe is perfect for 2-4 people
- it’s easier to shape than regular pizza dough
- you can eat it plain or with toppings
In other words, it’s the easier, quicker, and more convenient version of pizza dough.
What’s the Difference Between Flatbread Pizza and Regular Pizza?
Flatbread can be made with or without yeast. My version requires yeast for the smallest bit of rise, similar to a thin crust pizza. If you want a no-yeast flatbread, I recommend searching for another recipe that’s modified without its addition. (Don’t simply leave the yeast out of this one!)
My regular pizza dough bakes into a thick, chewy, and soft-centered bed for your favorite toppings. It’s a deeply loved recipe on this website and the only pizza dough recipe I use. Flatbread pizza is just that– flatter pizza. Since it’s flatter, it doesn’t require as much yeast or rise time and is perfectly manageable if you’ve never made homemade bread before.
This flatbread is similar to my focaccia, another simple homemade bread recipe.
6 Ingredient Yeast Flatbread Pizza Dough
- Yeast: You can use instant or active-dry yeast with zero changes. If you’re new to working with yeast, I recommend reviewing my Baking with Yeast guide. I used to make flatbread with 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of yeast, but recently reduced it down to 1 teaspoon. This is plenty for a thin flatbread crust. Note that 1 teaspoon is less than 1 standard packet.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar feeds the yeast. You only need 1 teaspoon.
- Water: Flatbread and pizza dough are lean doughs, meaning there isn’t a lot of fat present. While I make rich overnight cinnamon rolls and glazed doughnuts dough with milk, we don’t need that extra fat here. We’re aiming for chewy and crisp, not voluptuous and soft.
- Flour: You can use bread flour or all-purpose flour. Bread flour leaves a slightly chewier texture, but the difference is barely noticeable since the crust is so thin.
- Olive Oil: Adds flavor. We’ll also brush the dough with olive oil before baking, too.
- Salt: Adds flavor.
Optional Additions: You can also add some flair to this dough with a little garlic and/or Italian seasoning like we often do when making homemade breadsticks. Or add chopped fresh herbs or freshly ground pepper, too.
Overview: How to Make Flatbread Pizza Dough
- Mix the dough ingredients together by hand or use a stand mixer.
- Knead by hand or beat the dough with your mixer. Reference my How to Knead Dough video tutorial if you need extra help with this step.
- Place dough into a greased mixing bowl, cover tightly, and let it rise for 45 minutes.
- Punch down the slightly risen dough to release air bubbles. Divide in half.
- Flatten the two doughs with your hands or with a rolling pin. The flatbreads can be any shape you want as long as they’re about 1/4-inch thick. (Very thin!) Dimple with your fingers or with a fork. Brush with olive oil, which helps protect the crust from any sogginess lingering from the toppings.
- Top with favorite flatbread toppings.
- Bake at a very high temperature for only about 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
You Can Enjoy it Plain
If desired, you can skip the toppings and leave the flatbread plain. In the next two pictures, I topped the doughs with fresh garlic, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper. After baking, I sprinkled with fresh parmesan cheese. Freshly baked plain flatbread feels like a total treat when served with marinara sauce, hummus, homemade pesto, or even mashed avocado and fried eggs (for an avocado toast variation!).
Flatbread Pizza Toppings
Or you can get creative with various toppings. Add these before baking.
- Tomato, Basil, & Mozzarella Flatbread: I have this version pictured today, and with some fresh arugula on top. See recipe note.
- Zucchini & Herbed Ricotta Flatbread
- 1/2 cup goat or blue cheese per flatbread (1 cup total) and 1/2 cup fresh apple or pear slices per flatbread (1 cup total), plus a handful of fresh arugula and/or drizzle of honey after baking
- Make a cold veggie pizza! (Note the dough is very slightly different in that recipe.)
- BBQ Chicken Pizza & Pesto Pizza toppings*
- Spinach Artichoke White Cheese Pizza toppings*
*If you’re using toppings from my pizza recipes, you’ll need about 2/3 of the amount. My pizza recipe toppings are enough for one 12-inch pizza and are more than plenty for 2 smaller flatbreads (the full recipe below).
Pre-cook: Any meats should be pre-cooked before using as a flatbread topping. If you want to top the flatbread with vegetables, feel free to sauté or gently cook them first. I usually don’t with spinach, peppers, and mushrooms, but with “harder” veggies like broccoli or cauliflower, they’ll taste better if they’ve been slightly cooked before using as topping.
Get creative! I can’t wait to hear about how you top your flatbread pizzas. Feel free to email or share your recipe photos on social media. 🙂
See Your Homemade Flatbread Pizzas:
PrintHomemade Flatbread Pizza Recipe
- Prep Time: 55 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: serves 2-4
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Follow these basic instructions for thin yeasted flatbread pizza crust. The recipe yields enough dough for two small flatbreads, each perfect for 1 hungry person or 2 people to split (2-4 people total). Freezing instructions listed below. See all of my detailed topping suggestions in the blog post above or recipe notes below.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon active dry or instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (180ml) warm water, (between 100-110°F, 38-43°C)
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour or bread flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and surface
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons for brushing the dough
- 1 teaspoon salt
- optional: 1 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 clove minced garlic and/or 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: Whisk the yeast, sugar, and warm water together in the bowl of your stand mixer. Loosely cover and allow to sit for 5–10 minutes until foamy and frothy on top. *If you do not own a stand mixer, you can do this in a large mixing bowl and in the next step, mix the dough together with a large wooden spoon/silicone spatula. It will take a bit of arm muscle. A hand mixer works, but the sticky dough repeatedly gets stuck in the beaters. Mixing by hand with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula is a better choice.*
- Add the flour, olive oil, and salt (and garlic/seasoning if using). Mix on low speed with the dough hook attachment until combined, about 2 minutes. The dough should be thick, yet soft and slightly sticky. It should pull away from the sides of the bowl as it mixes. When it does, it is ready to knead. If, however, the dough is too sticky to handle, mix in more flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time. Make sure you do not add too much extra flour; you want a soft, slightly tacky dough.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer (and switch to the dough hook if using the paddle) and beat for an additional 6-8 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 6-8 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- Place the dough in a greased bowl (I use nonstick spray to grease) and cover with plastic wrap, aluminum foil, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow to sit and rest for 45 minutes at room temperature. Once it has rested and slightly risen, you can continue with the recipe or place the covered dough in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. More instructions in the make ahead Note below.
- As the dough is resting and rising, prepare your toppings. See blog post and/or recipe note below.
- Preheat oven to 475°F (246°C).
- Shape the dough: Punch the dough down to release any air. Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured surface with floured hands and working with one dough piece at a time, begin shaping and stretching the dough until it is 1/4 inch thick. You can use a floured rolling pin for this too. Don’t worry about the shape of the dough, just make sure it’s pretty thin. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Carefully transfer both pieces of dough to a parchment paper or silicone-mat lined baking sheet, or use a pizza stone. (You can also shape/roll out the doughs directly on a silicone baking mat or a large sheet of parchment if that is easier for you and then just transfer the whole thing to the baking sheet.)
- Poke your fingers all around the surface of the flatbreads or prick a few holes with a fork. Drizzle or brush each with 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Top each with your favorite toppings.
- Bake for 15–20 minutes or until the crust and toppings are browned to your liking. Remove from the oven. Slice and serve warm.
- Cover and store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: The dough can be prepared through step 4, then after it has risen, cover and place in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Continue with step 5. To freeze the dough, prepare it through step 4. After it has risen, punch it down to release any air. Divide it in 2, if desired, then wrap in plastic wrap and place in a freezer-friendly container for up to 3 months. When ready to use, thaw the dough overnight in the refrigerator. Then let the dough sit at room temperature for about 1 hour before stretching out/shaping and topping. If the thawed dough keeps shrinking back as you try to shape it, lightly cover it with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let it rest on the counter or your work surface for 15 minutes. (The gluten just needs a chance to settle.)
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer or Glass Mixing Bowl and Wooden Spoon / Silicone Spatula | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Pizza Stone | Pizza Cutter
- Yeast: You can use instant or active-dry yeast with zero changes. If you’re new to working with yeast, I recommend reviewing my Baking with Yeast guide. I used to make flatbread with 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of yeast, but recently reduced it down to 1 teaspoon. This is plenty for a thin flatbread crust. Note that 1 teaspoon is less than 1 standard packet. If you want a no-yeast flatbread, I recommend searching for another recipe that’s modified without its addition. (Don’t simply leave the yeast out of this one!)
- Flour: I haven’t tested this recipe with whole wheat flour, but let me know if you do. You may need a little extra liquid in the dough.
- Pictured Plain Flatbread: Top with 1 teaspoon each of olive oil as directed in step 8. Top each with 1 clove minced garlic. Sprinkle with your desired amount of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. After baking, sprinkle with fresh parmesan cheese (if desired).
- Pictured Tomato, Basil, & Mozzarella Flatbread: Slice 8 ounces of fresh mozzarella into thin slices, or use 8 ounces shredded mozzarella. Top each flatbread with 4 ounces. Top each with a handful of fresh tomato slices and a sprinkle of chopped fresh basil. If desired, sprinkle with fresh parmesan cheese too. After baking, feel free to top with more chopped fresh basil and/or fresh arugula.
- Double Batch: Dough may easily be doubled by doubling each ingredient. Extend the rise time in step 4 to 1 hour.
- Optional Flavors in Dough: I love adding garlic and Italian seasoning to this dough, as listed in the ingredient list above. If you can’t find a spice labeled “Italian Seasoning” in the spice aisle, use dried oregano, dried basil, and/or dried parsley instead. Honestly, any herb (fresh or dried) that you love works.
This has fast become my only pizza/breadstick dough recipe! I add the garlic powder and Italian seasoning to the dough as well. My husband made the comment that he wishes the crust was crispier… so I pre bake the crust before adding the toppings (5 minutes @ 450° then top it and bake an additional 8 minutes. I also bake on a HOT pizza stone.
This is a big winner!! Thank you so very much for making this family’s pizza dreams come true.
Delicious! I added garlic powder and Italian seasoning to the dough. It was a hit with the whole family.
The crust came out very good. I did pre-bake the crust for 5 minutes before putting the sauce and toppings on so it wouldn’t get soggy. I would recommend this recipe
Clear and easy recipe for delicious flatbread pizza . My family of 4 ( I doubled the recipe) loved it!
The only addition I made was to add 1/2 cup of cornmeal, because I thought we had run out of flour. I also added the minced garlic that you recommended.
This is so much faster than making the traditional pizza dough and there is no compromise in flavor or texture.
Thanks for this user friendly vegan recipe!
Simple to make and so delicious. My go to dough now for flatbreads.
I’ve tried this recipe with whole wheat flour. I used an extra tablespoon or so of water and it came out perfectly! It’s a little less chewy than when made with regular flour, but not too dense and very delicious!
Thanks, Sally!
I’m looking forward to making this! Wondering – if I’m using the dough hook, can I really not knead the dough in my stand mixer? You still recommend kneading it by hand after the initial mixing?
Hi Kristyn, you can knead the dough with your stand mixer rather than by hand if you prefer.
I made your flatbread recipe yesterday and loved it! I’m a thin-crust pizza gal, so I’m thinking this might become my go-to pizza dough recipe. I loved how crispy it got. I wish I had read the make-ahead instructions more thoroughly because I definitely had a difficult time shaping it after it came out of the fridge—it kept shrinking back. I think I’ll be making it again today for another meal (I have a problem, haha), so I’ll be sure to let it rest for 15 minutes this time before I shape it. Other than that, it couldn’t have been easier!
Before I start to make the flatbread, can I ask for the nutrition information first please?
Thank you
Hi Patricia, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
can this be made with 00 flour?
Hi Sharon, we haven’t tested this recipe with 00 flour, but it should work–it just may change the texture a bit. If you give it a try, please report back how it turned out!
I thought, “Sally’s Baking Addiction, thats the one!” And it is.
I fid make 4 smaller ones, to pass to friends. One-third Sprouted spelt flour. I do know how that and einkorn act and react.
No need, though. Thanks for a good recipe
I have used this recipe three times with varying toppings. Each one has been fantastic ( a tribute to the recipe, not the cook). The flatbread holds up really well to tomato sauce and generous amounts of cheese and vegetables. The extra dough freezes well and is a snap to defrost. A+ for this recipe.
One on a Traeger on a pizza stone and one in the oven. The oven one was good bUt… highly recommend the pellet fired version. Typical Costco pellet blend. Same temp.
I’ve made this several times and it has turned out great!
One question — after the rise, is it possible to roll out just one half of the dough and save the other half in the fridge to roll out the next day? I am worried that once the dough has been punched down, it’s a case of either use it or lose it…
Hi Slynne, Sure can! See the make ahead directions in the recipe notes for detailed instructions.
I cooked on my cast iron skillet like I do with my pita bread. It turned out great. Thanks!
I loved this recipe so much and thanks for sharing the tips !
Valuable information
I made this two ways. One with regular all purpose flour and one with gluten free flour(1 to 1). The Gluten free flour one did not turn out. I even made it twice, the second time using a new package of yeast thinking the other one may not have been good even though the date had not expired.
Neither gluten free ones turned out. very dense and flat. I even gave it extra time to rest/expand/rise, and it didn’t . Is it possible that gluten free flour doesn’t react well with yeast???
The one made with regular flour was perfect and delicious!
Thank you , Jennifer Elders
Hi Jennifer, We’re not experts in baking with gluten free flour. It may be best to search for a flatbread recipe specially formulated for gluten free flour instead for best results!
It was fantastic! I put tomato sauce, cheese, and some vegetables on and it was super delicious.
I would highly recommend it!
I forgot to rate it in my previous post! Five stars for sure!!
I first made this during the pandemic in 2020 for the April baking challenge. We have had it many times since then. It never fails to please. Absolutely delicious!
Love this. Can we par bake the crust.?Then freeze it and top later and bake? If so can you help with timing etc? Thanks so much!!
Hi Lesley, you can absolutely par-bake the crust and then freeze it. Though I haven’t tested it myself, I’ve done it with my pizza dough. I recommend baking for 8 minutes. Cool completely, then cover and freeze. Thaw, then top and bake for at least 10 more minutes.
Wonderful and so easy! Thank you for the recipe! BTW…I tried them a second time with GF King Arthur flour and they did not rise. It could have been operator error. But, with regular all purpose flour they were great.
Fabulous recipe. I did half whole wheat and half plain flour and it tasted great without altering the texture too much. Haven’t tested all wholewheat but assuming it might become a bit dense
Has anyone tried using gluten free flour substitution? Thanks.
Hi Jean, We have not tested this recipe with gluten free flour but let us know if you try!
Question:
1. if I am going to freeze or refrigerate the dough do I let dough rise before placing in fridge or freezer. It says let rise 45 min before placing in fridge for up to two days….is it really necessary to do this rise before placing in fridge or freezer?
2. If I am baking right away is the 45 minutes enough of a rise time? It says slightly risen but in the video it looks to me that it has doubled in size?
Thank you so much
Hi Nancy, yes, we do recommend allowing it to rise for the full 45 minutes outside of the refrigerator/freezer. If baking right away, this is enough time to allow a slight rise before baking. Hope you enjoy the flatbreads!
These are great. First time the tops of mine burnt because I doubled recipe for family of 5 and the ones on higher shelf needed to be lower in oven. Got it right tonight by lowering shelf to just above the other one and cooking at 450. Definetly a family favorite and a quick, easy recipe. Thanks so much!
I have a question: should the flatbreads be baked on the middle or lower rack of the oven? Thanks!
Hi Missy, I usually bake them on the middle.
Super tasty recipe that was so easy for a first timer!
I made your flatbread yesterday. It was excellent. I skeptically prepared it by hand (usually use my Cuisinart but I didn’t want to clean it up afterward) and it worked perfectly and was ready so quickly just as you wrote in the recipe. I doubt I’ll be buying premade pizza/flatbread dough anymore.
Made this tonight and it was delicious! Such a great crust – chewy inside and a little crisp outside. Your recipes never let me down!