Stuffed crust pizza is really easy to make at home using a little extra cheese and my pizza crust recipe. Skip the pizza delivery tonight because homemade tastes even better!
And for this month’s savory recipe: we’re going ALL IN. And by that I mean cheese ALL INSIDE pizza crust.
We’ve made pizza pull apart rolls, but today I’m showing you how to make real deal stuffed crust pizza, a recipe that will test every ounce of your self control. We’re using my trusty homemade pizza dough and some basic pizza toppings, but feel free to go hog wild. Hawaiian pizza or BBQ chicken pizza would be A+ with this stuffed pizza crust!
Are you a pizza crust person? Pizza would be nothing without its crust foundation and today’s recipe is for crust people. But if you’re not really a crust person, you’ve gotta be a cheese person. Don’t fret because today’s recipe is for cheese people too.
What a weird sentence…?
Let’s get started.
How to Make Stuffed Crust Pizza
Start with pizza dough. Now you can definitely use store-bought here, but I urge you to give homemade pizza crust a try. I have both a regular pizza dough recipe and a whole wheat pizza dough recipe. You can use either for this stuffed crust pizza. This dough is super stretchy and soft, which is exactly the kind you need for assembling a stuffed pizza crust.
Shortcut alert! Use string cheese. I know it sounds weird, but I swear by this little hack. The perfect shape, width, and texture for creating those melty cheese pockets inside the pizza crust. If string cheese isn’t your thing, create narrow piles of shredded mozzarella or cut fresh mozzarella into thin pieces to line around the edges.
But again, string cheese is the easiest. You’ll need 7 of them.
My #1 Tip for Stuffed Crust Pizza
Here’s the part that can make or break your stuffed crust pizza. Make sure you tuck it into the crust super tight—like I’m doing above. Fold the edges over the crust and firmly press down to seal shut. Any gaps won’t necessarily be a problem, but the cheese will melt out onto the pizza and not stay inside the crust. Just keep working with it to make sure the edges are folded over and snug shut.
The only things breaking open that cheesy crust are a pizza cutter and your big giant bite! And yes, it really is this easy to create stuffed crust pizza at home.
Because of the string cheese, the pizza won’t really be perfectly round. Rather, more like a heptagon with 7 sides. I haven’t heard any complaints though. 😉
Homemade Stuffed Crust Pizza
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: one 12-inch pizza
- Category: Pizza
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
This is a simple recipe for homemade stuffed crust pizza on top of from-scratch homemade pizza dough. Feel free to use store-bought dough if needed. Yields one 12-inch pizza or you can make two pizzas from the whole dough recipe. If doing so, double the string cheese and the topping ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1/2 recipe homemade pizza dough (or 1 lb. store-bought pizza dough)
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) olive oil, divided
- 1 Tablespoon (8g) cornmeal
- 7 string cheeses, unwrapped*
- 1/2 cup (127g) homemade or store-bought pizza sauce
- 1 and 1/2 cups (6oz or 168g) shredded mozzarella cheese
- big handful pepperoni (or any other toppings you like)
- optional: sprinkle of dried herbs such as basil, oregano, or an Italian seasoning blend
Instructions
- Dough: Prepare pizza dough through step 3. If using store-bought frozen pizza dough, make sure it’s thawed.
- Preheat oven to 475°F (246°C). Allow it to heat for at least 15–20 minutes as you shape the pizza in the next step. If using a pizza stone, place it in the oven to preheat as well. Lightly grease a large baking sheet or pizza pan with 1/2 Tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with cornmeal, which gives the crust extra crunch and flavor.
- Shape the dough: When the homemade dough is ready, punch it down to release any air bubbles. Divide the dough in half and freeze half the dough for another time—see freezing instructions in the pizza dough recipe. On a lightly floured work surface using lightly floured hands or rolling pin, gently flatten the dough into a disc. Place on prepared pan (if using a pizza stone, place the dough directly on a baker’s peel dusted with cornmeal) and, using lightly floured hands, stretch and flatten the disc into a 12-inch circle, about 1/2-inch thick. If the dough keeps shrinking back as you try to stretch it, stop what you’re doing, cover it lightly and let it rest for 5–10 minutes, then try again. Once shaped into a 12-inch circle, lift the edge of the dough up to create a lip around the edges. I simply pinch the edges up to create the rim.
- Add cheese filling: Arrange the string cheese around the edges of the crust, leaving a 3/4-inch space. Fold the edges of the dough over the string cheese, pinching down to seal. Do your best to completely seal the string cheeses inside. Let the dough rest for a couple minutes if you’re having trouble sealing it completely.
- Cover dough lightly with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and allow to rest for a few minutes as you gather the pizza toppings.
- Top & bake the pizza: Using your fingers, push dents into the surface of the dough to prevent bubbling. Brush remaining olive oil all over the dough. Top with pizza sauce, the mozzarella cheese, then the pepperoni. Sprinkle lightly with dried herbs, if desired.
- Bake for 14–16 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven.
- Slice hot pizza and serve immediately. Cover leftover pizza tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Freezing and reheating instructions below.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: See homemade pizza dough recipe for how to freeze the pizza dough. You can freeze the baked and cooled pizza or pizza slices. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place wrapped slices in a freezer container or bag. Freeze up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
- Reheating Instructions: Reheat leftover cold pizza in the microwave or cover with aluminum foil and bake on a lined baking sheet/pizza pan in a 350°F (204°C) oven until warmed. (About 10 minutes for slices, 15–20 minutes for whole pizza.)
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Pizza Pan | Pastry Brush | Pizza Cutter
- Whole Wheat Pizza Dough: Feel free to use my whole wheat pizza dough recipe instead. You only need half of the dough to make 1 pizza, so freeze the extra dough according to those directions or make 2 pizzas.
- String Cheese: String cheese is the perfect shape, width, and texture for creating those melty cheese pockets inside the pizza crust. Instead of string cheese, you can create narrow piles of shredded mozzarella or cut fresh mozzarella into thin pieces to line around the edges.
I would get the block cheese and either cut it or cheese grater it alot cheaper persay
My family loved this! I’ve never had or made a stuffed crust pizza but it sounded good. The string cheese is such a great idea. I used a 1 pound dough bought from a restaurant . My family wanted mushrooms along with pepperoni and I used extra mozzarella . I put a little olive oil on the crust after I assembled it. Thanks for an easy and delicious recipe.
Our group of family and friends were at our house for football. I made 2 pizzas. One was pepperoni and the other was Canadian bacon and black olives. They loved them!
I made 1 and 1/2 times the pizza dough and it worked out perfectly for 2 large pizza pans. I followed the directions for oil and corn meal on the pan and oil on the dough. I used jarred pizza sauce but sprinkled Italian seasoning on it. I used plenty of shredded mozzarella on the pizza and parmesan asiago cheese. I also put a bit of oil on the stuffed crust and sprinkled it with garlic salt. I ended up baking each pizza for 20 min and broiling for 2 min. I will definitely do this again.
A must Try! So Easy! So Good!!
I love this recipe so much!
Hello! I really want to try this recipe and it looks amazing. This is probably a preference thing; but does the cheese in the crust have a plasticy texture? Most stuffed crust recipes I’ve tried turned out like that. Thank you so much!
Hi Cat! We don’t think so — we find it to get perfectly melty. String cheese is easiest, but you can also use thin piles of shredded mozzarella or cut fresh mozzarella into thin pieces to line around the edges. Let us know if you give it a try!
I found your recipe, looking for a tried and trusted way to stuff pizza crust.
The only change I made was to cut the string cheese in half, both lengthwise and cross-wise. The crust was more round, since there are now 14 segments and the amount of cheese is just about right for me.
The nice thing about this is that I can roll the dough out to get my wife’s “thin crust” but still get the cornicioni. So, thanks for sharing this!
Doug
Great recipe, Sally. Thank you for sharing it.
I substituted a half-whole wheat/half-all purpose flour sourdough crust baked on a pizza stone. In my opinion, Preheating the pizza stone and baking the pizza at 475F rather than 450F (like all other recipes I have tried) really made a difference with the crust! It was truly amazing!
Many thanks!
First time making any type of dough and let me tell you, this was so easy to make! My family love our homemade pizza! I highly recommend it to everyone!
Hi Sally, thank you so much for this amazing recipe. It is in the oven cooking now and I found all of the steps super easy and it came out perfectly. If I add fresh spinach next time to my toppings which stage of cooking would be best to add it?
Hi Louise, I usually add all the toppings right before baking (including spinach), but you could add the fresh spinach halfway through if you’d like.
Hi Sally! Can I stuff the crust with pepperoni slices?
Absolutely. I would wrap them/place them under the string cheese.
I did this for supper and It was amazing!!thank you Sally
Made this recipe with my kids. They loved it. The quick and easy steps my 7 year old son could easily follow made this a fun evening for us all.
Love this Pizza crust recipe! Made this tonight! So crispy and my husband told me he will never eat pizza from the frozen isle again! Best pizza ever!!!!
I made this tonight and it was amazing! The family loved it and I will be trying more of your pizza recipes! The crust was phenomenal. I made the double batch of crusts but I wanted a bigger pizza so i just took a little dough out and made probably a 16 in. pizza. I cooked it on my pizza stone in the oven which did take longer but that was due to the stone and size I’m sure. I used cut up long blocks of mozzarella in place of sticks. It turned out great! Cant wait to try more of your recipes!
I tried it on a veggie pizza, I did not make the dough myself, I just honestly didn’t have the time (and I’m lazy). Delicious with string cheese in the crust, brush the top of the crust with olive oil seasoned with a little bit of garlic salt. I dusted the bottom with cornmeal because that’s what it looks like was under yours. Mmmmmm, delicious! Thank you for the beautiful easy recipe.
Sally, this stuffed crust pizza dough/recipe was absolutely amazing. I am constantly watching what I eat and decided to splurge (as everyone should occasionally) because I have been craving pizza very badly lately. This recipe couldn’t have been more perfect. I used a Fleischmann’s yeast packet that had been sitting in my pantry for a few months (Since Christmas, I think, and still not expired) and threw all of the ingredients into my bread machine. About an hour and 15 minutes later, I had my dough. It was proofed and ready for rolling. I used the string cheese, as you instructed, and even my husband enjoyed it and he’s not a very “cheesy” guy. So easy! Easy cleanup too! Found a quick and easy sauce recipe online. Everything from scratch. This pizza was so perfect. THANK YOU!
Hey Sally 🙂
I just wanted to say THANK YOU! Your site has been such a great help to me especially since I live in China and Pintrest and other really awesome websites are blocked 🙁 HAHA Nevertheless, i feel really grateful to have found your website! I’ve tried many of your cookie recipes and I finally tried your PIZZA CRUST recipe today! WOOH! Did it turn out GREAT 😀 Thanks so much again, and I look forward to more of your amazing and inspiring recipes!
So I have to admit, I’m not usually a huge pizza person (I know! I know!) but I made this tonight and I’m on my fourth piece with no regrets. I love all of your recipes, literally every one I’ve tried as been amazing and I’ve tried a lot. Thanks for always providing quality recipes that I know will work.
Thank you for reporting back about the stuffed crust pizza!
Hello! I just finished the dough and it took almost 1/2 cup more flour to get the dough to stop being a sticky mess and into something I could knead. The dough seemed fine once it stopped being sticky and kneaded beautifully. Is this simply because of environmental factors? (The weather is dry even though there’s a few inches of snow in the ground.) Will this affect the finished pie? Thanks for your help.
Pizza will still be excellent. I have to add more/less flour sometimes too. 1/2 cup isn’t anything to be worried about. Hope you enjoyed it!
If you freeze (or partially freeze) the string cheese it will keep it from losing so much of its shape and melting out flat. Should be able to get warm enough to melt still 🙂