Learning to make pizza from scratch has saved us hundreds of dollars…

The other night I got caught up playing some games with our family and quickly realized that I didn’t have time to make the dinner that I had planned before everyone would go into full hungry meltdown mode. I was able to get a pizza whipped up and made before we would have been able to be out and back to pick one up or have one delivered.  I wanted to share with you all how fun, easy, and convenient learning to make your own pizza can really be.

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Making your own pizza is so quick and easy, and with a little bit of shopping or food storage prep you can be sure to have the ingredients on hand all of the time. You’ll find the simple recipe for your pizza base below.

Here is the big thing. It takes practice. It might feel really hard, messy, and inconvenient the first few times you do it, but it WILL get easier over time, and you will have a new meal to add to your list of convenient and cost effective dinner ideas. 

Topping Your Pizza

This is really whatever you want! Have leftover bbq sauce and chicken in your fridge? Its bbq pizza night. Leftover pesto? Build off of that. Think about all of your favorite pizzas and get creative. Maybe not even your favorite pizzas, turn your favorite foods into pizza (mashed potato pizza, cheeseburger pizza, taco pizza, the possibilities are endless). You can even top with cold items (spinach, arugula, goat cheese, and dressings) after you pull them out of the oven. Salad on top of a pizza is one of my all time favorites.

When you consider all of the different topping combinations you can put on pizza, it really can fit in to your meal plan at any time of the day.

Convenient and Inexpensive

Its wild that one of our quickest and easiest “go-to” meals can end up being so expensive. Price of the pizza, tax, delivery fee (if you’re getting really “convenient”), and then a tip for the driver. Your quick and convenient meal can easily rack up a pretty big cost. On top of all that are you really saving time with delivery or take-out? Not to mention how amazing your house will smell. 

The pizza below takes about thirty minutes to make. Out and back for pickup times depending on where you live in regards to a pizza parlor that timing might be about the same, but then add in your gas costs. In regards to delivery, these days, no one is delivering you a quality pizza in less than 30 minutes. 

Now… I will say, we still go out for pizza. We have some fantastic pizza places around here, and we love supporting them and experimenting with new toppings that we might not normally have around the house. We probably eat pizza more than your average household, so learning how to make this staple at home has made our pizza loving family so happy!

Making Your Pizza Dough

Ingredients for a Quick and Easy Pizza Dough:

We’ll explore some pizza crusts with a bit more prep time at a later date, but I feel like the quickness of a 30 minute pizza takes the cake. You do need a fast acting pizza yeast for this, but it’s worth having some of this on hand to really save you some hassell on nights that pizza needs to happen quickly.

• Pizza Yeast (you can find packets at the market/grocery store in the baking section) I use these and this 4-pack (of  3-packs) is a decent deal if you need to order online, but it should be readily available at the market.
• Flour
• Sugar
• Salt
• Olive Oil
• Warm Water 105-110 degrees is best

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Directions:

Mix pizza yeast, a cup of flour, 2 teaspoons of sugar, and 3/4 teaspoons of salt together, then add 2/3 cup of warm water (don’t go hotter than 110 degrees), and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix this all together until it is blended. Slowly add in about a cup or so of additional flour, blending and mixing together until you get a cohesive dough. My absolute favorite way to mix a dough of any kind is with a Danish dough whisk. Don’t add too much as you can always add more later, but cannot take any out. The amount of additional flour you add might vary based on the temperature in your house or if you went a little over on the oil or water measurements. 

Old Country Dough Whisk

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Once you have your dough ball, dump it out onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes. If it is sticky (like sticking on your hands) add more flour, if not kneading will actually create a smoother texture. Once you have a nice smooth ball its time for the tricky part. 

You don’t need to be able to throw a pizza in the air… though, I am fully convinced that if you make pizza often enough, you will be able to at some point. You just need to flatten and press your dough out. This recipe makes a typical 12” crust, but I press and toss mine out to about a 14-16” crust.

When I first started out I would just barely flatten the ball and then get out my rolling pin. I still sometimes do this when I am in a hurry. Your rolling pin can also help you move your dough to your pizza pan/sheet/stone, similar to moving a pie crust into a pie pan. 

I use an aluminum pizza pan with holes on the bottom and I find that as long as my dough was well floured and it gets cooked thoroughly I don’t have to deal with it sticking. You can also make square or rectangle pizza’s on a regular sheet pan. If you do this make sure you line with parchment paper so it doesn’t stick. 

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Top the pizza as you like and cook at 425 degrees on the bottom rack of your oven for anywhere from 13-16 minutes. If you are just making a plain cheese pizza you will probably find yourself cooking on the shorter side of the cook times, more toppings often equals more cook time, but really start looking at it after 13 minutes. If you want to get really fancy/or just a crunchier crust, you can move your pizza straight to your oven rack after the first 11 minutes and then finish it off that way. If that is your goal you might also want to invest in a pizza paddle.

We watch a lot of sports in our house and I don’t like to miss a bit of the fun myself, so a quick and easy meal on a big game night is almost always the way to go. Easy and quick prep, easy and quick cook! So get in your kitchen and start creating your new favorite pizza!

What are your favorite pizza toppings?