Pizza Recipes

This is a quick and easy pizza crust recipe that we've used a million times. It's a very hearty crust, so if you don't like a thick, filling crust, this is not the recipe for you.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Put 1 1/4 cup of warm water in a bowl. Add one package of yeast and stir. Stir in 1/2 cup oil, 1 TBSP sugar. Gradually add 4 cups flour (one cup at a time; the last cup won't stir in completely. You'll have to knead it by hand. You can also make a tasty wheat crust by exchanging whole wheat flour for 1-1 1/2 cups of white flour.) After stirring in the flour, turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Roll/press onto greased cookie sheets. (I can get two round pizzas out of this). Bake for 10-15 minutes. We use Classico spaghetti sauce for our base sauce, then add cheese and toppings as usual. The heavier the cheese and toppings, the longer you'll need to bake it. It takes about 25 minutes for one with lots of veggies.

Pizza is fun to do. Depending on how old your kids are there are easier ways to do it with out so much work making it from scratch. I buy the dough in the can in the biscuit area or biscuits depending how I feel. I also use the canned pizza sauce, cheap and very good.
I get each kid a pie plate and spread the dough out on that and bake it till it is almost done. Then I but bowls on the table with all the sides. I use lunch meat most of the time. Then I let the kids put whatever they want on their pizza's.
Now they are older and not into helping mom so much. I buy a loaf of french bread, cut it in half, spread with pesto or pizza sauce in a jar/can. Top with your favorite stuff and bake. YUMMY!!!
Good luck and Have fun!!
D.

Do not be intimidated by homemade crust, it's really easy and very hard to mess up. It does require planning ahead (for the rising time) but I find if I mix it up at the end of nap time, it's ready to go at dinner time. (Mix it up around 3, it rises from 3:15-4:30 or so, punch it down, let it rest, shape it around 5, in the oven at 5:15, dinner at 5:45.) And if the time goes a little long, don't worry about it, dough is quite forgiving. Others have offered crust recipes that look good to me, I'll just add my encouragement to say: do it!

As for sauce - I usually just saute up some garlic and onion (2 cloves minced garlic, maybe 1/4 cup finely chopped onion, more or less depending on your taste) with some olive oil until they're soft and golden (on low, 15 minutes or so.) Stir that into regular old "tomato sauce" from a can (no herbs, no spices, no added anything, 15 oz is standard size, I believe.) Add herbs to your taste - I'll usually throw in a tablespoon each of oregano and basil, 1/2 tablespoon of thyme, if I've got fresh rosemary I'll chop it finely and throw in 1/2 T of that as well (I'm not fond of dried rosemary, but that'll work too.) If you like your sauce spicy, toss in a few dashes of ground cayenne or red pepper flakes. No need to cook it or anything, it'll all cook on the pizza. Just stir it up well, and spread thinly over the dough. (It may take you a few times to figure out exactly how much sauce you want. It can be really easy to put on too much, which just makes your pizza drippy - unless you like your pizza that way!)

A pizza stone will make the crust crispier, if you like that, but it's not necessary. If you want a crispy crust, just try preheating your (flat, no edges) cookie sheet in the oven. For easy transfer of your topped pizza, roll out the pizza dough on parchment paper (in the aisle with tin foil and ziptop bags), then when you're ready, just get someone to help you lift it onto the cookie sheet. (If you think you're going to do a lot of homemade pizza, a pizza peel - one of those flat wooden paddle-thingys that you slide under the raw pizza to put it in the oven - is worth investing in- not expensive, you can get them at Target, and they make life much easier.) But parchment paper works ok, too. You can bake directly on the parchment, no need to remove it.

HOT OVEN - don't be afraid to go 500 degrees. Keep an eye on it, it'll cook fast (10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your crust) but that's what the professionals do.

And definitely let yourself experiment - it'll take you some practice to figure out how thin/thick you like your crust, your sauce, your toppings - and even what order you want to add your toppings, and which ones (like mushrooms, or other fresh veggies) you want to cook ahead, and which ones you want to cook on the pizza in the oven. (My husband feels like fresh veggies make a pizza very soggy, and so we given them a quick saute in olive oil before topping the pizza - but not everyone feels that way.) So give yourself license to experiment, and promise yourself to make it a couple of times this summer, so you can remember what you liked and didn't like and what you want to do differently next time. Have fun!

Yum. sounds like pizza monday night at my house. Should be fun with a little kid helping! Thanks

Bubble up Pizza
2 cans pizza sauce
8 oz. shredded mozzerella cheese
1 crushed clove garlic
1/3 cup chopped onion
pizza toppings of your choice
3 (7.5 oz.) cans refrigerated biscuits

Preheat oven to 375. Mix sauce, garlic and onions and any other toppings in bowl. Cut biscuits into quarters and layer half of them in bottom of greased 9 x 13 dish. Cover biscuit pieces with half of the sauce mixture and top with half of the cheese. Repeat layers. Bake for 23-28 minutes or until golden brown.

My hubby is the king of homemade pizza! We have tried about a million dough recipes and pre-made dough from Trader Joe's, Sprouts, the supermarket, both fresh and frozen. The BEST way to go is to buy the raw dough from a local pizza place. Most small, family-type places will sell you a dough for $1.00-2.50, depending on the size. We haven't had luck with the chains (Pizza Hut, Domino's, etc) because their dough is frozen. Most family places make dough daily and throw out the leftovers, so they are fine with selling some.
We have a ton of fun doing pizza! My three year old loves helping toss the dough in the air :)
The best way to bake it is on a pizza stone in a 450-500 oven or on a pizza stone set on the grill. Let me know if you need any further tips...we've tried just about everything...lol...

I use to make my own crust with 1 cup hot water, 1 package of yeast, 1 tbl spoon of sugar. Let that desolve together, then add 2 tbls of oil and 2 cups of flour. Cover and let set for 10 minutes or so then spread it out on a greased pan. I have found that I really like the betty crocker pizza crust mix and so that is what I do now. I use to make my own sauce by taking tomato sauce and adding italian seasoning, oregano, garlic, salt, pepper and a touch of chili powder. Heat this together and then put it on the crust. I have found that I like Prego traditional spaghetti sauce as pizza sauce better. We used that for pizza sauce when I worked at day care. My grandkids like to make mini pizzas from canned buttermilk biscuts. I put two biscuts together and let them spread them out in a circle and add their toppings and sauce. They really have a good time with that.

I buy fresh pizza dough from the supermarket.

For the sauce, I use a can of diced tomatoes...either buy the kind w/ italian seasoning or add your own. Drain the tomatoes in a strainer, chop them up even smaller, drain again before topping dough. (keeps from getting dough soggy)

I brush the dough w/ olive oil and then bake for about 10 min. before adding toppings.

If you add veggies, it's a good idea to first roast them in the oven or zap them in the microwave for about a min.

For years, we have used the Chef Boyardee boxed cheese pizza kit found in the pasta area of the supermarket. It comes with the dough mix, sauce, and parmesan cheese. Just follow the directions on the package and add the toppings of your choice plus mozzerella cheese. Unlike the package directions though, we put the parmesan on top of all. There is a pepperoni kit, but it is cheaper to buy the cheese and your own package of pepperoni if desired. It makes 2 full sized pizzas. Cheap, quick, easy.

I use the roll of pizza dough from Pillsbury. I use melted butter and sprinkle it with garlic powder instead of red pizza sauce. Then I add on Jimmy Dean Sage sausage cooked with some onions mixed in it. I top it with what ever topping I like to add like sauteed mushrooms sometimes mixed with bell peppers.

I always cook the veggies a bit to make the cooking time easier. I cook my crust about half to 2/3's way so it gets done in the middle. Since everything is cooked and hot the pizza only needs time for the cheese to melt

I top it all off with some shredded mozzarella cheese and heat until the cheese is just melted enough to be yummy.

I make homemade pizza-kind of. I use my breadmaker (Toastmaster) to make the dough. There were recipes that came with the machine. I think you can still pull the recipes off their website. One tip I really like: use Prego Heart Smart-Ricotta Parmesan. Yummy sauce (we like cheese:) Also, instead of using regular pepperoni (too fatty), there is turkey pepperoni (Hormel) which seems like a healthier option and tasty.