Give your classic pizza a delicious makeover with this cheesy white sauce. Made with homemade pizza crust, cheese sauce, and fresh mozzarella. Nothing beats a chewy, yet crisp, crust filled with lots of cheesy goodness.
We make pizza often. And, while the classic Margherita will always be close to my heart, this white pizza is comfort food. Unlike regular white pizza that is usually topped with ricotta, this one is topped with a cheesy white sauce.
And, the best part is, I make my white sauce from scratch with extra cheese. Perhaps I should call it a cheese sauce. Then, I top it with more cheese of course. Isn't that comfort food?
Table of Content
About this pizza
A chewy yet crisp dough for the base, and filled with extra cheese goodness is what this pizza is all about. So, if you like cheesy, then this one is for you. Also, for me, pizza means homemade pizza dough and homemade tomato sauce. And yet, you can certainly buy ready-made pizza dough.
There are four components to this white pizza:
- The dough - Today, I am using my overnight pizza dough. And yet, you can also use my classic pizza dough or no-knead pizza dough. This makes a soft chewy base with crusty edges.
- The sauce - Today, we are using a white sauce made with butter, milk, flour, and cheese. But, you can also skip the white sauce and spread ricotta, pecorino, and mozzarella.
- The toppings - I have topped this with mushrooms. And yet, you can try other toppings such as artichokes or broccoli, etc.
- Cheese - I like to top my cheese with a combination of mozzarella, parmesan, and other white cheese. But you can stick to just mozzarella.
In addition, the process for making pizza is also simple and easy.
- Make the dough - 10 mins
- Let the dough rise - 6 hour up to 24 hours
- Prepare white sauce - 10 mins
- Divide the dough and let it rest - 30 mins
- Preheat oven - 20 mins before
- Roll the pizza dough - 15 mins
- Add the toppings and bake - 15 mins
And, if you don't want to use white pizza sauce, you can also use homemade tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes or pizza sauce in 5 mins, as we did when we made our Classic Margherita Pizza. Also, don't forget to read my 10 tips to making better homemade pizzas.
Ingredients and substitutes
- Flour - While bread flour is highly recommended for pizza. However, when making my overnight pizza dough, I prefer plain all-purpose flour. You can, of course, also use bread flour.
- Yeast - I'm not a slave to any particular brand, but I use instant dry yeast or fresh yeast. We have discussed yeast here - baking with yeast a beginner guide.
- Water - The temperature of the water you use for yeast has to be warm - not hot, nor cold. Almost the temperature of the liquid you give a baby. Approximately 105 to 115 F.
- Sugar - The sugar here is not for sweetness, but to feed the yeast. This helps the yeast grow and nurture the bread. So, don't omit it, and no it will not make your dough sweet. And, if you don't fancy sugar, try honey or agave syrup.
- Oil - Like sugar, oil is also food for our yeast. It helps the yeast grow and develop flavor. We also use oil to brush the edges, which gives us a nice crisp edge.
- Salt - Use fine grain salt, which will dissolve in the dough easily.
Step by step instructions
Prepare dough
- In a measuring cup, combine warm water, yeast, sugar, and oil – mix well.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt.
- Then, pour in the yeast mixture into the flour mixture.
- Today, I am kneading by hand but you can also use a stand-mixer as I shared in my other classic pizza dough recipe.
- Combine with a spatula or your hands.
- Once all the flour is incorporated, transfer the dough to a well-floured surface.
- Knead for three minutes until you have a soft elastic dough.
- Bring all the dough into a ball and do the finger test.
- Tip – finger test – when you stick a finger in, the dough should spring back.
- Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel.
- Then, place into the refrigerator overnight - up to 24 hours
Divide, rest and roll
- Preheat oven with pizza stone for at 200 C / 390 F for about 30 minutes.
- Lightly punch the dough to remove all air.
- Divide the dough into three (for 3 x 12-inch thin-crust pizzas) or two (for 2 x 12-inch thick-crust pizzas).
- Tip - Let the dough rest again for 10 minutes (it will become easier to stretch).
- Roll one piece of dough to about 12 inches.
- Tip - Place parchment paper on a pizza peel or you a pizza pan - (parchment is less messy than cornmeal or flour).
- Transfer pizza to the pizza peel or pizza pan (see video).
- Tip - Let the pizza base rest for 5 to 10 minutes - this will prove it a bit and make those edges puff when baked.
Prepare white sauce
- In a heavy bottom saucepan, add oil and butter (the oil prevents the butter from burning).
- Add the flour - cook on medium-low for a minute.
- Then add ½ cup milk - keep stirring continuously until thick.
- Add the remaining milk - stirring continuously again until thick.
- Finally add the cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
- Taste and adjust seasoning.
Top and bake
- Tip - Brush the edges of the pizza with olive oil. This will give a nice golden crisp crust.
- Spread pizza sauce and add your toppings. (I've used a white sauce today with mushrooms in the video - see other pizza links below).
- Generously sprinkle with cheese – I like to use a mix of mozzarella, parmesan, and cheddar.
- Transfer the pizza to the preheated oven from the pizza peel to the pizza stone (or baking tray).
- Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes until the edges are crisp and golden and the cheese is melted beautifully.
- Top with fresh basil leaves.
- Pizza is best eaten fresh out of the oven. Be careful of hot melting cheese especially when serving kids.
Frequently asked questions
Firstly, pizza is always at its best fresh out of the oven, but it does have a long shelf-life and can be reheated and served again.
We have used very little yeast in this dough, just ¾ tsp compared to the usual 2 ¼ tsp. That's because we give the dough ample time to rise and develop flavor. However, if you want a pizza dough that will rise in an hour use my homemade pizza crust from scratch recipe.
Traditionally, tomato sauce or pizza sauce is very common. Today, I am using a white sauce. But, I also love to use pesto, BBQ sauce, roasted red-peppers sauce.
Tomato sauce and cheese alone make a great Margherita pizza. And yet, you use many other toppings like pepperoni, pastrami, sausages, mushroom slices, spinach, artichokes, olives, onions, feta cheese.
Traditionally, mozzarella is used. Personally, I like to use a combination of mozzarella, parmesan, and cheddar or other white cheese.
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Recipe
Description
Video
Ingredients
Overnight pizza dough
- 1 ½ cup (360 ml) Water warm 110F/38 C
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- ¾ tsp Instant dry yeast
- 1 tsp Salt
- 4 cups (500 g) All-purpose flour
- ½ cup (60 g) All-purpose Flour for kneading
White sauce
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 3 tbsp Butter
- 4 tbsp All-purpose flour
- 2 cups (475 ml) Milk full-fat
- ½ cup (60 g) Cheddar cheese
- ¼ cup (25 g) Parmesan
- ⅛ tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Pepper
- ⅛ tsp Nutmeg - fresh grated
Toppings
- 1 cup Toppings mushrooms peppers, onions, olives, basil,
- ½ cup (50 g) Parmesan cheese grated
- 2 cups (200 g) Mozzarella cheese grated
- 1 cup (100 g) White cheese (optional) Emmatel or cheddar grated
Instructions
Overnight pizza dough
- In a measuring cup, combine warm water, yeast, sugar, and oil – mix well.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt.
- Pour in the yeast mixture into the flour mixture.
- Today, I am kneading by hand but you can also use a stand-mixer as I shared in my other classic pizza dough recipe.
- Combine with a spatula or your hands.
- Once all the flour is incorporated, transfer the dough to a well-floured surface.
- Knead for three minutes until you have a soft elastic dough.
- Bring all the dough into a ball and do the finger test.
- Tip – finger test – when you stick a finger in, the dough should spring back.
- Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel.
- Then, place into the refrigerator overnight - up to 24 hours
Prepare white sauce
- In a heavy bottom saucepan, add oil and butter (the oil prevents the butter from burning)
- Add the flour - cook on medium-low for a minute.
- Then add ½ cup milk - keep stirring continuously until thick.
- Add the remaining milk - stirring continuously again until thick.
- Finally add the cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
- Taste and adjust seasoning.
Divide, rest and roll
- Preheat oven with pizza stone for at 200 C / 390 F for about 30 minutes.
- Lightly punch the dough to remove all air.
- Divide the dough into three (for 3 x 12-inch thin-crust pizzas) or two (for 2 x 12-inch thick-crust pizzas).
- Tip - Let the dough rest again for 10 minutes (it will become easier to stretch).
- Roll one piece of dough to about 12 inches.
- Tip - Place parchment paper on a pizza peel or you a pizza pan - (parchment is less messy than cornmeal or flour).
- Transfer pizza to the pizza peel or pizza pan (see video).
- Tip - Let the pizza base rest for 5 to 10 minutes - this will proof it a bit and make those edges puff when baked.
Top and bake
- Tip - Brush the edges of the pizza with olive oil. This will give a nice golden crisp crust.
- Spread pizza sauce and add your toppings. (I've used a white sauce today with mushrooms in the video - see other pizza links below)
- Generously sprinkle with cheese – I like to use a mix of mozzarella, parmesan, and cheddar.
- Transfer the pizza to the preheated oven from the pizza peel to the pizza stone (or baking tray).
- Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes until the edges are crisp and golden and the cheese is melted beautifully.
- Top with fresh basil leaves.
- Pizza is best eaten fresh out of the oven. Be careful of hot melting cheese especially when serving kids.
Recipe Notes
Tips for making better homemade pizza
I have explained these tips in detail here, but I thought I'd give you just the main points as a takeaway.- Use a pizza stone.
- Pizza peel or pizza tray work better.
- Use parchment paper on the pizza peel for a less messy affair.
- Work with soft, room temperature dough.
- A well-preheated oven is best for pizza.
- Don't overdo the sauce and toppings.
- Choose the right toppings.
- Brush the edges with oil.
- Let the rolled pizza base rest.
- Hold on to the cheese for a crips pizza crust.
For a crisp crust
- Prebake the pizza without the cheese.
- Bake for 7 minutes
- Then top with cheese and bake until crisp and golden
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
BDGT
Looking forward to trying this but I have a couple of questions.
1- Do you need to remove the dough from the fridge and let it warm up before you shape the dough and if so for how long?
2- Following the recipe for the white sauce using 2 cups of milk, how many pizzas with this cover?
Thanks for the help!
PS: I am going to try out your recipe for soft hamburger buns this afternoon as they look wonderful.
Veena Azmanov
Hey BDGT,
Yes, you can keep the dough out for an hour to come to room temperature.
This whole recipe is for three pizzas but you can use more or less sauce per your taste
I hope you enjoy the burger recipe.
Cookilicious
This looks like my kind of pizza! I love white sauce. Thanks for this idea.
Veena Azmanov
I hear you. I love white pizza too.
Alisa Infanti
This pizza was a nice change from my regular go-to. The white sauce was amazing!
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Alisa
Priya Shiva
Looks yum! I love homemade pizza. It is so much better than those store bought ones..
Veena Azmanov
Definitely so much better than store-bought pizza
Liz
Yum!! White pizza is one of my favorites (although let's be honest, I love any kind of pizza!) so thank you for this recipe!
Veena Azmanov
You are welcome Liz.
Jovita
This pizza looks amazing! I love that it's meatless. And thank you for such a detailed post!