Yesterday I tried something different. I made my own pizza! I'm not talking DiGiorno or even the kind you make from a premade crust (such as Pillsbury). I mean an honest-to-goodness from scratch dough and sauce kind.
My friend Jessie gave me the recipe she found from Allrecipes.com. I always have a little cutie or two to help in the kitchen. This chipmunk is my daughter Piper. She's a big fan of pizza. She immediately pulled the stool over to see what I was up to.
Basically, you let the yeast sit with warm water for 10 minutes then add it to a simple mixture of bread flour (I chose wheat), a lil' sugar, a lil' salt, and a couple tablespoons of olive oil. You then cover it and wait 30 minutes for it to double in size. Only trouble is mine never rose. But where there's a will, there's a way. I just worked with it anyways. I rolled it out like so on my pizza sheet.
Jess recommended baking it just like this for five minutes, which I did. I lightly brushed it with olive oil. Then, I topped it with a sauce I whipped up. It was really easy and good! I made up the recipe. I stirred together a small can of tomato sauce, a small can of tomato paste, a 15 oz can crushed tomatoes, a lil' bit of Italian seasoning and about 1 tablespoon of garlic. Oh, and a touch of sugar, salt, and pepper. It was very good and easily enough for two pizzas (so of course, I froze the half I didn't use!)
Here's my finished pizza. I used one bag of Kraft shredded mozzerella (which I'd gotten for free at a past Fred Meyer deal) and pepperoni. It was very tasty! The only problem I didn't think through…I like to eat at least 2 slices and with it being whole wheat…let's just say that it was probably a little too much fiber for my system. It probably didn't help that I served it with corn and fresh fruit salad. I'll politely leave it at that and use white bread flour next time.
All told, I estimate that this pizza cost me less than $4 total to make, a huge cost savings over take-out and probably better for you too! I'm hoping to try a few different recipes and find my favorite. Then, I hope to freeze some dough for future pizzas.
Have you ever made pizza at home? How did it go? Any tips?
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Ang, I’m glad it turned out well for you!
Looks yummy! I have yet to try homemade pizza, but this sounds pretty easy! Thanks for the tips!
I have the hardest time with pizza dough. They always come out so fluffy. I’m definately watching your posts to see what you find works the best, and I’m going to prebake my crust (tonight actually) to see if that keeps it down.
It’s so gratifying to make homemade pizza. My family loves the Pizza Hut Dough recipe from MomAdvice.com
http://momadvice.com/blog/2006/12/frugal-mommas-test-kitchen-pizza-dough-take-six
I think it turns out better if I let the dough rise a little before rolling it out.
I use my bread machine recipe to process the dough and do not pre-bake the crust (I cannot seem to make a round pizza no matter how hard I try). It makes 2. I make one with tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, pepperoni, peppers, onions, olives, and mozz cheese. I make the other one with olive oil/garlic, spinach leaves, just made garlic chicken (I love garlic!), onions, peppers, feta, and mozz cheese. My family likes this better than takeout pizza.
Oooo Julie, I’ll have to look at that recipe!!! Shelee, I like your topping ideas!!
We have homemade pizza every single week and I have two of the BEST recipes in the world. First the crust, couldn’t be simpler and super yummy. It freezes beautifully too, so I make up enough dough for 12 pizzas or so once a month, divided it up and freeze it. As soon as it thaws, it rises and is ready to go!
Pizza Crust:
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. vegetable or olive oil
2 1/2 cups flour
Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the rest of the ingredients in and mix.
Dump onto a floured surface .
Knead into a smooth dough (five minutes or so).
Roll out and press down onto a greased pizza pan.
Add toppings.
Bake at 450 degrees F. for around 12-15 minutes until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned.
*** For thin crust pizza, one recipe makes two crusts, and works best to roll out each crust, bake at 450 degrees for 7-10 minutes, then top and finish baking.
Then for the sauce. It is the absolute best pizza sauce recipe in the world. I make a huge (like x12) batch every month and then freeze in portions for 2 pizzas at a time. It really is out of this world!
SERVES 4 , 1 -2 pizzas
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
* 1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
* 1 teaspoon dried basil
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 1 small bay leaf
* 1 teaspoon fennel seed
1. In a large skillet, melt butter with the oil. Add the onion, celery and garlic and saute until soft and transparent.
2. Add tomato sauce and tomato paste and stir until smooth.
3. Add remaining ingredients and bring to slow simmer.
4. Simmer for 30-60 minutes.
5. Remove the bay leaf and spread the sauce on your prepared pizza dough.
We will never order out or buy frozen pizza again! Hope you all enjoy!
We make homemade pizza on a regular basis. My kids even requested it for a slumber party. All the other kids were so amazed you could make pizza at home AND it save us money!!
I make pizza every Saturday evening and it’s so quick and easy. The above crust recipe is similar to mine and so good. I also try alot of different combinations such as buffalo wing, (ranchor blue cheese dressing, buffalo wing sauce, chicken that’s diced and sauteed, whatever veggies you want, and cheese. Chicken fajita is good too, saute chicken with onions and peppers, add some salsa and chili powder and cumin, spread on crust and top with cheese. Yeah to you for making your own pizza!
My recipe was very similar. Maybe someone could help me out…I had a REALLY hard time with it being “sticky!” I tried rolling it out (and on a floured surface) and it was so sticky!! And then I had a hard time scraping it off the pizza sheet and I’d sprayed it, too. Thoughts???
http://www.instructables.com/id/Artisan_Bread_in_Five_Minutes_a_Day/
The above recipe has literally been a life changer for me. This is for the white version; whole wheat version is 5 c whole wheat flour, 2.5 c white flour(or I use spelt flour), 2 tbsp yeast, 2 tbsp vital wheat gluten flour(Fred Meyer has it), salt and four cups lukewarm water. Mix with spoon, let stand two hours, and refrigerate. The whole wheat recipe yields 2 loaves of bread or 3 – 4 pizzas. You don’t have to knead it; just take it out, let it stand for an hour, and bake it. Now I bake fresh bread for everyone and never buy it. Cornmeal on the baking sheet will prevent it from sticking.
I’m a bread machine user also. Put in the ingredients and let it do the work. Then roll it out and “decorate”. When we want a change from the ordinary, I make a small batch of homemade alfredo sauce in place of tomato sauce. Then I put ham and mozzerella cheese on top. Soooo good!
We used to live overseas and the only way we were going to get pizza was if I made it totally from scratch (no bread machine, no pre-made dough, no shredded cheese, etc.). There is so much information available online and I found a GREAT website (www.easypizzacrusts.com) with some GREAT pizza crust recipes. My favorite pizza crust (not too thick, not too thin) quickly became our friend’s favorite as well when I would make this. Here’s the link for that crust:
http://www.easypizzacrusts.com/Thin-Pizza-Crust-Recipe.html
To change it up a bit, I would cut wedges of cheese (usually mozzarella) and lay them about 1″ away from the edge. Then I take the edge and roll it over the slices of cheese and tuck the dough firmly around the cheese. Then go ahead with the sauce and toppings and bake. Ta-Da! Stuffed crust pizza! Another HUGE hit with hubby and our friends. Although we live back in the States now, I used to make our own pizzas here (so much easier!)…until Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake Pizza came to town. I’m in love!
I do still love my crust recipe though! Good luck and have fun!
Your daughter has grown so much! She is not a baby anymore! Hugs.
Michelle F.
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