Thursday, October 27, 2011

{31 Days} Cooking from Scratch: Homemade Pizza

Pizza – from scratch is the best.thing.ever. 

Even if you’ve used a store-bought crust & done your own topping thing, you’re still missing out.  Try your hand at a homemade crust & you’ll be wondering why they still sell frozen pizzas. 

Pizza Crust

Pizza crusts come in all shapes & sizes.  Our favorite go-to crust is a no-rise recipe; ready to go in 40-minutes.  Other crust recipes we enjoy include:

Whole Wheat Deep Dish Crust
French Bread Pizza
Thin, but chewy pizza crust {we love this one}
Bread Machine Dough

Most of these recipes make two pizza crusts – if your family doesn’t need to pizzas, save the other crust for later.

 

Freezing Pizza Crust

Super easy to do.  Prepare the crust as directed, then wrap the dough up in plastic wrap and freeze.  The day you’re planning to make pizza, take the dough out of the freezer and place the dough in a lightly greased bowl.  If you will be gone all day, leave the dough, covered, in your refrigerator.  If you take the dough out about 4 hours before dinner, leave it on the counter to thaw. 

At dinnertime, prepare the crust as directed in the recipe. 

Topping Ideas

Just by switching up the toppings, you have an entirely new pizza, even if you have it on your menu once a week!  Better yet – try a breakfast pizza for dinner.  Yum!

Sauces

Proteins & Cheeses

Veggies

  • Chicken
  • Chicken sausage
  • Ground beef
  • Pepperoni
  • Italian sausage
  • Eggs
  • Bacon
  • Beans

 

  • Mozzarella
  • Cheddar
  • Monterrey Jack
  • Feta Cheese
  • Parmesan
  • Peppers
  • Spinach
  • Mushrooms
  • Olives
  • Zucchini
  • Tomatoes
  • Broccoli
  • Asparagus
  • Lettuce
  • Pickles
  • Green Onions

 

Calzones & Stromboli

For a change up, try a pizza pocket, calzone or stromboli!  The dough is the same – it’s just how you prepare and package the goods. 

Baking Tips 

  • Bake the pizza in a pre-heated oven.
  • Bake the pizza at around 400 – 500 degrees F for 15ish minutes.  Baking at a higher temperature helps form that bubbly cheese we all love.
  • Try grilling pizza in the summer – it’s the best. 

Give it a try – maybe even for Halloween?  A quick, fast & festive dinner before trick-o-treating. 

{Shape the pizza crust as a pumpkin; use spinach leaves for the top of the pumpkin and pepperoni for the face; if desired, mix in pumpkin puree with the pizza sauce}

What’s your favorite pizza topping combo?  I’m always looking for new ideas. 

7 comments:

  1. we love homemade pizza around here. I've been using Pioneer Woman's recipe for pizza dough, but I am going to try your thin crust recipe as that's what my hubby really likes.

    I made your homemade sandwich bread by hand and I was really pleased with it for my first time making bread! Thank you for all of your help and assistance :)

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  2. I totally agree with you, homemade pizza is awesome! I love homemade BBQ chicken with caramelized onions on pizza, awesome flavor and use of left overs :) Really there's no pizza I can't get behind! Your post has inspired me to make pizza for the family this weekend, its been too long :)

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  3. the pumpkin pizza is a super idea.

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  4. Your pumpkin pizza is the cutest thing ever! :) We love homemade pizza...especially from the grill!

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  5. Homemade pizza is one of my favorite things. And they are so adaptable to anyone's taste and budget!

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  6. We live a few miles from the NYC border and there's no lack of great pizza all around. But we all love to make pizza at home - it's delicious, cheap and fun.

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Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear from you; especially how you're finding JOY in your kitchen.

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