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FeedHow to Save Time, Money and Make the Perfect Pizza!
About five years ago, I decided to stop buying pizzas and started making my own at home. We eat pizza every Friday and the kids look forward to it all week long. As I was preparing the dough this past week, I started thinking about the amount of money I have saved our family on just this simple and lovely tradition of preparing the family pizza.
It’s safe to say that we would spend $15 on a pizza for our family of four. If you multiply that number by four, I am saving us $60 each month. If you calculate that over the course of a year, it is $720! Then when I think about the five years that I have been doing this, I realize that I have saved my family, $3,600 on only a little effort.
Maybe you have never made pizza before and are a little intimidated by the process – that’s okay! I promise that once you find the perfect recipe, creating pizza at home will be easier than you think!
Tips to Get Started
It's All About the Stone. One of the best investments I ever made was to buy a pizza stone. I have two of them I use to make our pizza and the other is used for an additional pizza or cheese bread. The stone is the true difference between a fantastically crisp crust and a soggy and doughy crust. Pick up your stone in just about any store that sells kitchen supplies.
The stone is the only real investment I have ever had to make in this process. The only other major tool that’s nice to have is a bread machine, stand mixer or food processor for mixing the dough. Extra tools that can be of use are a pastry brush, a rolling pin (unless you are good at shaping and throwing dough without a rolling pin) and a dough scraper.
Buy Your Baking Supplies in Bulk. I don't use my wholesale club membership very often except for our family's eye care needs and for the occasional party. I won't ever let my membership lapse though because with one trip to buy my baking supplies, my wholesale club membership has earned its space in my wallet. I make a trip twice a year to buy all of the necessary supplies for my baking and pizza-making needs.
Don't believe me? Here are the current prices from my local Sam's Club:
- 25 Pounds Bread Flour-- $6.59 (needed depending upon the recipe)
- 25 Pounds All-Purpose Flour-- $6.68 (needed depending upon the recipe)
- 2 Pounds of Yeast-- $4.16
- Cheese (5 pounds for $10.43), pepperoni (5 pounds for $11.88) and crushed tomatoes (102 ounces for $2.68) can also be bought at a fraction of the price, but in the past I have lacked the capacity and ambition of storage for all of the ingredients.
Bag it Up. Half of the battle for me is getting all of the ingredients out and assembling them for our pizza night. Instead of doing this process once a week, I started bagging four bags of ingredients at a time and storing them until our pizza nights roll around. Simply add a label to the front with what liquid ingredients need to be added and then enjoy a month of Fridays with minimal effort.
Hit the Salad Bar- If you don't want to waste money and only need a handful of vegetables for your pizza, consider visiting the salad bar at your grocery store for the toppings. Salad bars are a great place to visit for a colorful splash to your pizza or to make a supreme pizza without making the grocery investment of buying several vegetables that may not get eaten.
The Recipes!
I hope that these recipes will give some ideas for ways to incorporate a homemade pizza night into your routine. Choose your recipe (based on your cooking equipment) and then jump down to the Friday Night Pizza Routine for cooking directions. It’s that easy!
Basic Pizza Dough For Beginners (Courtesy of America's Test Kitchen Baking Book)
4- 4 1/4 cups bread flour
1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups warm water
To make this dough in the food processor: Pulse 4 cups of the flour, yeast and salt together in a food process (fitted with a dough blade if possible) to combine. With the processor running, pour the oil then water through the feed tube and process until a rough ball forms, 30-40 seconds. Let the dough rest for two minutes then process for 30 seconds longer. If after 20 seconds the dough is sticky and clings to the blade, add the remaining 1/4 cup flour one tablespoon at a time as needed.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and form it into a smooth round ball. Place the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with greased plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1 /2 hours before using.
To make this dough with the bread machine: Add ingredients as follows: warm water, olive oil, flour, salt and then add yeast at the top. Turn machine on and select the dough setting. When the machine beeps, you can roll out the dough onto your pizza stone/pan.
Now follow the Friday Night Pizza routine below.
Add a side of cheese bread: Because of the amount of dough this makes, I am able to make one large pizza and an order of cheese bread on the side. To make the cheese bread, just roll out the dough and then brush with olive oil and sprinkle garlic salt and Italian cheese blend or mozzarella cheese on top. I bake this at 450 degrees for twelve minutes or until the cheese and dough is a nice golden color. Serve with an extra side of sauce, highlighted in the pizza routine below.
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Pizza Hut Style Pizza Dough
1 1/3 cups water
2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp cornmeal
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp yeast
To make this with the bread machine: Add ingredients to bread machine, according to manufacturer’s settings and run dough setting. After the machine beeps, roll out the dough. You can roll the dough into two 9×13″ pizzas, two medium pizzas or a large pizza and one order of breadsticks.
Now follow the Friday Night Pizza routine below:
Once you have the dough, it’s time to make some pizza! Regardless of the dough, my approach towards making the pizza is always the same.
Amy’s Friday Night Pizza Routine
1 ball of pizza dough
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup 5 or 4 cheese blend
Toppings of your choice
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. While the oven is preheating, cook the crushed tomatoes, sugar and salt in a pot over low heat for fifteen minutes. Bake the crust only for eight to ten minutes. Pull the crust out and then top with the crushed tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, five-cheese blend and toppings of your choice. Put pizza back in and cook for ten to twelve minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is nicely browned.
