As much as we love a good pie from a local pizzeria, (no Domino's or Papa John's for us!) $15 - 20 for a large pie once a week is quite simply not in the budget. So, for the first year or so of marriage we endured a temporary pizza drought until I found this easy and delicious recipe.
Now we enjoy our weekly pizza & movie nights for mere dollars!
After trying about five very disappointing recipes for pizza dough, I was delighted when I came upon this recipe and realized that it required no kneading (my least favorite part about making homemade crust). Not only does your stand mixer do all the work for you, but this is the best homemade pizza crust I've ever tasted! Light, crispy, and flavorful. It freezes well so I usually double the recipe and only end up having to make it once a month. (It's great for making homemade stromboli too!)
I make my own tomato sauce pretty much every week so there's usually enough leftover by the end of the week to make pizza. But just in case there isn't, I always keep a small jar of homemade sauce in the freezer.
I shred my own mozzarella, (it tastes better and you get more cheese for your money) so any time I see blocks of it on sale I buy a few pounds and store it in my freezer (my grandma's tip).
As for toppings, we often just eat our pizza plain but I sometimes raid my refrigerator and try to come up with something creative. I've topped our pies with shredded lettuce & sliced cherry tomatoes, spinach leaves sauteed in garlic and olive oil, homemade pesto, sausage, canned pineapple & pepperoni, roasted peppers...
My pizza stone is from The Pampered Chef. My mom gave it to me and I love it. Just be sure to preheat the stone before rolling the dough out to keep it from sticking.
I usually serve pizza on Saturday nights while we watch a movie (we rent movies from the library almost every weekend :) so I take the ingredients out of the freezer after lunch. Once everything is defrosted, the pizza is ready in just twenty minutes or so.
I love knowing that I have the ingredients to make homemade pizza on hand at all times just in case we ever have family stop over unexpected. It's a little more work but much cheaper than ordering out.
Curling up on the couch with my boys while watching a movie and eating pizza is one of my favorite things to do! :)
I make my own tomato sauce pretty much every week so there's usually enough leftover by the end of the week to make pizza. But just in case there isn't, I always keep a small jar of homemade sauce in the freezer.
I shred my own mozzarella, (it tastes better and you get more cheese for your money) so any time I see blocks of it on sale I buy a few pounds and store it in my freezer (my grandma's tip).
As for toppings, we often just eat our pizza plain but I sometimes raid my refrigerator and try to come up with something creative. I've topped our pies with shredded lettuce & sliced cherry tomatoes, spinach leaves sauteed in garlic and olive oil, homemade pesto, sausage, canned pineapple & pepperoni, roasted peppers...
My pizza stone is from The Pampered Chef. My mom gave it to me and I love it. Just be sure to preheat the stone before rolling the dough out to keep it from sticking.
I usually serve pizza on Saturday nights while we watch a movie (we rent movies from the library almost every weekend :) so I take the ingredients out of the freezer after lunch. Once everything is defrosted, the pizza is ready in just twenty minutes or so.
I love knowing that I have the ingredients to make homemade pizza on hand at all times just in case we ever have family stop over unexpected. It's a little more work but much cheaper than ordering out.
Curling up on the couch with my boys while watching a movie and eating pizza is one of my favorite things to do! :)
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Are you a pizza lover too? Do you order out or make your own?
We use that recipe for pizza dough too! So good and easy. I need to remember to double the recipe and freeze! What a great idea.
ReplyDeleteWe eat pizza at least once a week, if not twice. I love creative you can get with toppings! Our favorite is arugula, bacon, and goat cheese. YUM. We use a sourdough pizza crust, which is a little "different" but in a good way. (And the dough is way easy to work with.)
ReplyDelete*love how creative
Deleteoops! I need a copy editor!