Crazy Dough: One Easy Bread Recipe with Endless Variations

First thing’s first: what is Crazy Dough? Well, what if I told you that from one simple yeast dough you can get endless variations of completely different bread, from pizza dough, naan, focaccia, cinnamon rolls, and even loaves of cheesy bread. All you need is this one easy master recipe.

What is Crazy Dough made of?

This unique dough starts with the basics: flour, water, yeast, and sugar. But it gets a texture and flavor boost from a few eggs and rich creamy yogurt. And like many of my doughs you do not need to mix this dough on a machine, you simply mix it by hand and let it ferment.

What can you make with Crazy Dough?

With this seriously crazy dough base, you can add sweet or savory toppings and stuffings. You can roll, twist, and bake this into a variety of shapes, allowing you to successfully experiment with all kinds of different bread-based baked goods. I’ve created an amazing series of 8 different recipes around this one dough that I released over 8 weeks. You will be blown away by how easy this is to make and how versatile it really is.

My favorite thing to do is whip up this master recipe and keep it in the fridge all week long to be turned into whatever my friends and family are craving that day. No special machine needed, and messy kneading. Give this a try and you will see why this is called Crazy Dough.

How to Use Yeast

Yeast is a super important part of this dough. It not only gives it flavor, but the reaction that takes place between the yeast and the sugar is what allows the dough to come alive and grow! You will want to use dry yeast in this recipe and activate it by combining it with the sugar and WARM milk. The warmth of the milk and the sugar wake up the yeast and after 15 minutes will form a bubbly foamy mixture.

This is exactly what you’re looking for. Once added into the other ingredients, this will add air into the dough as well as that lovely yeasty fermented flavor you get in authentic bakery bread, rolls, and pizzas.

What can I use instead of yogurt?

If you don’t have yogurt you can replace it with sour cream, buttermilk, or a non-dairy yogurt of your choice. The trick here is to make sure whatever you use is rich and creamy, not runny, and neutral in flavor. My favorite yogurt to use in making Crazy Dough is thick plain Greek yogurt.

Do I have to use eggs?

I highly suggest you use eggs in this recipe as they are really important to the richness and texture of the bread. If you can’t eat eggs, you can replace the eggs with equal amounts of yogurt or a flax egg. This will not yield the exact same texture but will still make a lovely homemade bread.

Can you make Crazy Dough with gluten-free flour?

If you would like to use a gluten-free all-purpose 1:1 flour you can. Just like with any other substitution, this may affect the texture of the bread. Gluten-free flours will make for a more crispy bread with less of a chewy texture, so depending on what you are making the Crazy Dough into this can work.

Get all of my Crazy Dough Bread Recipes:

• Cheesy Bread
• Pizza
• Naan
• Nutella Bread
• Focaccia Bread
• Pretzels
• Stuffed Bread
• Cinnamon Rolls