Pizza is stupid cheap to make at home. Domino’s is currently offering Minecraft pizzas that are less than twice the size for more than twice the cost. But making it at home means no grease soaked collectable box.
Cost per person before toppings: $2.77 It is very hard to fit even a dollar worth of toppings on a pizza.
Do you have a recipe? Those look great!
Recently upgraded from steel to a proper gas oven and let me tell you the result speaks for itself
Got a bread machine for a wedding present. Wife makes bread from scratch so what would I need that for. Turns out it also makes just dough. It has made approximately one pizza crust dough a week for 32 years. No exaggeration.
I do the same and even make it a few days ahead now. Resting the dough in the refrigerator makes it even better for me.
This is my goto recipe
Pizza dough
Makes 5 x 200g balls
200ml warm water 175ml beer, at room temperature 7g (1 sachet) fast-action yeast 50ml olive oil 600g Italian “00” flour, or strong white flour 2 tsp salt Tomato sauce Your choice of toppings
Bought a pizza oven a month ago. A bit expensive, but we’re gonna break even in no time.
You can’t not include a photo of the oven itself.
It looks like you’re on the fast track to recovering your investment.
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Cut the pizza into smaller stripes and dunk them in queso.
I like where you’re going with this. But I’m over the age of 50 and I don’t need to hasten my death.
I can never get the dough right, always a soggy disappointment. I have now started using baguettes and it’s a hit. Crunchy bottom.
First, if you don’t already use one, get a pizza stone or steel and thoroughly pre-heat it before you send your pie with your peel. I have a lodge cast iron one.
Second, if it’s mostly only getting soggy in the middle, that’s probably due to the liquids pooling there as it bakes. You can spread the sauce thinner in the center to compensate. If you add an olive oil drizzle, do that lighter in the middle too.
It depends a lot on your oven. You want to get temperature from the bottom. I once only had an oven that was a bit challenged doing that so I pre-baked the pizza without toppings for some time so it would not get soggy.
Other than that, I learned the hard way to really follow a decent recipe for the dough and give it enough time to proof - especially experimenting in winter turned out bad because I prefer room temperatures which are quite low.
That can be a serious issue. I solved the issue by putting a cast iron skillet on the bottom rack and making sure my oven was cranked up all the way. Cast iron skillet acts as a heat battery to make sure that you get a firm bottom crust. If you want to butt up just a little bit, make sure you butter your pizza pan. Or use oil. But having that heat battery is essential.
Last weeks pie.
I don’t follow any particular recipe for the dough. I only rough measure, don’t weigh anything. I started with a pretty standard no knead bread dough and messed with it until it worked well for pizza. 3+ day cold ferment.
Toppings are whatever I have.
I frequently use a no knead dough myself. It lasts for about 14 days in the fridge. Days 3 to 10 are the best for pizza.
Does getting a cheap $4 unfrozen Aldi Pizza, adding grilled chicken tossed in buffalo sauce, covering it with more cheese, and cooking it in the smoker you found on the side of the road, count?
Got Costco’s 4 pepperoni pizzas for $15. Good deal there
I’m sure that’s allowed
The judges say they’ll allow it in the modified category. 👍
We doctor up pizzas all the time. Our current fav is the costco Detroit pies with more cheese, onions, olives and whatever else we have lying around.
I used to doctor pizza. I’d grab a $5 freezer cheese pizza and add my own toppings. But these days that’s almost twice as much as it costs me to make from scratch.
Agreed. Really the only time we use ever frozen is if it’s been a busy day and we failed to plan dinner.
We just got a Costco, we’ll have to check that out.
To be honest, the Aldi Pizza… Wasn’t that good. It’s the second time we’ve gotten it, the first time we were really rushed and didn’t doctor it at all, it wasn’t great.
I thought maybe doctoring it and smoking it would help, and it did, but not enough to make it worth it.
Really we should just make pizza from scratch like OP intended.
Scratch is the best way for sure, but those square Detroit pies are like crack. Very tasty…and salty!
Much appreciated 😊
Aldi fridge pizzas punch so far above their weight.
I’ve been doing it for years!Yoo how did you do that crust??
I actually put remarkably little effort into it rofl. It’s 3 cups flour, 2 1/4 tsp yeast, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 2 tbsp olive oil, and I only let it rise for about 5 minutes while I’m getting other stuff ready. Pizza stone in the oven set to 425F and I roll out the dough and make the pizza on a paddle using corn meal to keep it from sticking. The crust on the first one uses a crimping technique which is handy to keep everything in, but I don’t always do it. It’s easy though, you place your left index on top of the crust, then pinch a little bit with your right hand and fold it over your index finger. Put your left index on that fold, and pinch another bit over that, spin and repeat.
I love homemade pizzas! Nice toppings. On the subject of toppings and price, if you do want something delicious and a bit more expensive: Fig & Prosciutto pizza.
- Flatbread
- Fig Spread + a little pizza sauce
- Fine shredded mozzarella
- Prosciutto
“Pizza sauce” Dont you just put tomato sauce?
Tomato sauce will be bland. You want a marinara, which has a lot of italian spices in it. You can use tomato sauce if you also add your own oregano, basil, etc.
There are different kinds of tomato sauce, some are made for pasta, some for pizza, etc. I prefer basil pizza sauce.
I just do crushed tomatoes with salt, oregano + whatever other spices I’m in the mood for at the time
Pizza sauce typically contains tomato paste. Everything else is optional. Oregano? Basil? Olive oil? Sugar? Garlic?
I agree. So many options that make pizza sauce different from pasta sauce.
I usually just use canned tomatoes for the sauce, sometimes my Aldi even has San Marzano. If not I use any kind. Just crush the tomatoes with your hands, add a splash of olive oil and salt.
I splurged for a pizza steel, which pretty much means you’re cooking with the same tools the takeout is, so you can satisfy even very picky eaters who want it to look like the restaurant.
One thing that I’ve found really matters is making the dough well ahead of time. A lot of people say the day before, I age it in the fridge for usually 5 days, but between 3 and 11 have all worked great.
The longer it goes the less bready and more crusty it gets, but it also gets stickier which eventually becomes too much of a pita to deal with.
it also gets stickier which eventually becomes too much of a pita to deal with
Oil your hands and/or roll the dough ball in flour. You’ll still have to wash your hands after but oil is way easier to wash off than stuck-on dough
If I’m baking bread that week I will make enough to be pizza crust and it might age between two and 14 days. If I’m not making bread then it’s usually a day to hours ahead of time and a different recipe.
Aged dough is the best but even 1-2 hours ahead is gonna be great. I’m parital to Adam Ragusea‘s pan pizza recipes.
Charlie Anderson is also great.
I ended up using 12:7:1 bread flour:water:olive oil. 1.5mL fine salt and 1mL of instant yeast per 100 total grams.
So, 720g flour, 420g water, 60g olive oil + 1.5 tsp salt and 1.5 tsp yeast gives you 4 300g crusts.
That yields a crust firm enough that you can eat the whole pizza out of your hand if you want, which I usually want because then I don’t have to wash a cutting board.
Working in a pizza shop:
Dough was made the day before for tomorrow.
Dough made in the morning could be ready for the evening if it was real busy.
Made pan pizza a few weeks ago and it beats the pants off of delivery for a fraction of the cost. Gotta love home made
Cast iron makes a great pizza crust.
One tip I like, is to sprinkle corn meal on the pan to lift the dough ever so slightly. It makes the crust just that bit more crispy on the bottom and chewy on top.
I have to try this. I have an Ooni and I am not really happy with how it cooks pizza. Too hot so constant turning and if you’re too generous with toppings, it never cooks in the middle. Always needs an oven finish. I have a 12” pan that should work a treat for next time.
Ooni is amazing but you have to make the dough “alla napoletana” and it will Cook in 1-2 minutes max at 350 °c. Search a video of italian people preparing it
It wont make a great “pinsa” or “NY style” but the napoletana is on his own league
I’ll try it, thanks for the tip!
Been using this recipe (serious eat is my goto) in a (big, oblong) air fryer that only does 210C, so you have to par bake it on baking paper for ~ 6 min before toppings. Comes out as good as delivery pizza (so not as good as it could be, but I no longer have a normal oven). The food processor thing works surprisingly well, but you have to be careful in timing, too long and it gets super sticky and annoying (equivalent to over kneading I guess), pull it when it’s in the ball phase (like 12 seconds) and knead a bit manually with flour, divvy into balls and fridge for a few days.
Now I’m going to experiment with cast iron and/or the Weber, thanks for the inspiration.
I make French Bread Pizzas with a big Cuban loaf from the grocery store. The trick is to coat the bread with garlic olive oil, and toast it for about 5 minutes before putting the sauce, cheese, and toppings on. That way, it’s toasted all the way through, without burning the toppings.
Personally I love a French bread pizza. Go to the day old bread section and get a loaf for 74¢ and cut out a lot of the work. But my wife hates it so I seldom do it anymore.
Hates it? What’s to hate?
I do French Bread pizzas when we have a big extended family get together. I prep all the loaves, and put all the toppings in dishes, and let everyone build their own. They can put on as much sauce or cheese as they want, and then I cook them. It’s fun!
She isn’t big on bread crust texture. While you and I love that shatter she can’t stand it.
