Wahoo! Pizza Night! I don’t know about you but we love pizza over here at the Watt household! We eat it every week and it’s a meal my kids look forward to every week. When we weren’t as focused on paying off our student loan debt, I would frequent our local Papa Murphy’s. Those were the days; it was so easy and convenient!
Going from Take Out to Homemade Pizza
When we chose to go, as Dave Ramsey likes to say, “gazelle intense” about paying off our debt, we knew we had to cut expenses. It was very rare we went out to eat. Yet, I knew we needed to cut down spending somewhere. As a result, Good bye Papa Murphy’s pizza nights (every now and then I’ll cave and make room in the budget for Dominos or good ol’ Papa Murphy’s).
My Homemade Pizza Journey
The First attempt was pretty bad!
I have come a long way when it comes to pizza-making. I finally have a dough and sauce recipe that’s yummy and convenient! (The sauce was created by yours truly!) It’s crazy, but my kids are just as excited about homemade pizza! That wasn’t always the case. I remember making homemade pizza for the first time and it was not good. So, I didn’t make it again for a long, long time. For whatever reason, I didn’t totally give up and decided to try out different recipes. Finally, I found (with the help of an awesome friend) the perfect homemade pizza recipes! (Cue the Hallelujah chorus.) Now we make pizza almost every week.
Dairy Free Pizza
A few of my kiddos and I are sensitive to dairy and so we do a cheese-less pizza. I miss the cheese! But it’s not too bad if you add fun toppings like onions, jalapeños, peppers or sausage. A great thing about home-made pizza is that you can accommodate different needs and wants! Pizza night forever!
Making pizza might seem daunting but the more you do it, the better it gets and it’s totally doable. I hope you enjoy these recipes and find the tips helpful.
Important Tips!
- Do not add too much flour.
- Adding a little seasoning to the dough tastes really yummy!
- Use good cheese. The shredded mozzarella at Sams Club is pretty good for pizza and cheap. (I buy the bulk bag and separate it out and freeze it). The best is getting real mozzarella but that’s pricey, yo!
- Brush the crust with oil after you take the Pizza out of the oven.
- Parchment paper is great for making pizza. It saves time on clean up and makes it easier to maneuver the pizza!
Homemade Pizza Dough
I use Quick and Easy Foolproof Pizza Dough Recipe from Mels Kitchen Cafe. It’s awesome! Namely, it’s easy and much faster than other dough recipes that I have used. Making Pizza used to take so long for me but now I can whip it up pretty quickly!
Another way to make homemade pizza faster is to purchase pre-made pizza dough. Trader Joes and sprouts carry dough but it’s cheaper to prepare it at home. You can decide what works best for your family!
The Glorious Recipes
Pizza Sauce
Equipment
- Blendtec or other type of Blender
Ingredients
- 1 6oz Can of tomato paste
- 1 15oz Can of tomato sauce
- 1 tsp Oregano
- 1/2 tsp Basil
- 1/2 tsp Thyme
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Pepper
- 1-2 clove Garlic
- Dash Red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Roughly chop the garlic.
- Put all the ingredients in the blender and blend. Bam! And it's read to spread on your pizza dough.
Quick and Easy Foolproof Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp instant yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 2-3 cups Flour (see note) (See note)
- Dash oregano and garlic salt (optional)
- Olive Oil for brushing on the crust
Instructions
- In a large bowl or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix the water, honey, oil, yeast and salt. Add the flour gradually until a soft dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The exact flour amount will vary so go by the touch and feel of the dough versus the exact cup measurements in the recipe. The dough should be soft and smooth (not leaving a residue on your fingers but not super stiff, either).
- Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes (more like 5-6 minutes if kneading by hand or if using whole wheat flour).
- Let the dough rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Shape the dough into pizza(s), spread with sauce and toppings, and bake at 475 or 500 degrees on a preheated pizza stone or on a lightly greased baking sheet for 8-10 minutes
- After the pizza comes out of the oven, I brush olive oil on the crust. It prevents the crust from drying out. I will also add some garlic salt to the crust as well.
Notes
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