This quick homemade pizza recipe is so convenient. This passed weekend we went and visited lots of family including a new set of twins!  While we were staying with family my sister in law whipped up homemade pizza for lunch.  I was pretty impressed that she would make something so nice and homemade for lunch.  She told me she makes pizza for lunch at least a couple times a week. The recipe she uses doesn’t require any time to raise, you just roll out your dough, top it and bake it.

I tried this quick homemade pizza crust tonight and it came together in a snap. We calculated that making the pizza from scratch cost around $3.50 per pizza which is cheaper than the $5.00 specials around town, plus the pizza dough has only 6 ingredients. You can control the amount of cheese, the type of sauce, the quality of pepperoni and any other toppings you decide to include.  

Here’s a list of all of the ingredients in a Little Caesar’s Pepperoni Pizza:

PEPPERONI PIZZA INGREDIENTS:

Crust: Enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamine, riboflavin,
folic acid), water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, glucono
delta lactone, yeast, cellulose gum, salt, baking soda, and sodium propionate.

Sauce: Water, tomato paste, salt, sugar, natural spices, dehydrated garlic, dehydrated
onion, citric acid and natural flavors.

Cheese: Low moisture part skim mozzarella and muenster cheeses (pasteurized milk,
cheese culture, salt, calcium chloride, enzymes and powdered cellulose added to prevent
caking).

Pepperoni: Pork and beef, salt, paprika, dextrose, spices, lactic acid starter culture,
natural smoke flavoring, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite, BHA, BHT.

Pretty gross.  So many of these ingredients can be avoided when you make pizza at home.  I also have a great homemade sauce recipe from Nourishing Meals that I love.  Any other pizza sauce recipes that I’ve tried have been too runny, the best solution I have found is to make one from tomato paste, a few seasonings and a little olive oil. I buy a brick of mozzarella cheese and shred it up on my own.  My sister-in-law bought a giant bag at Costco (which keeps cost down) but I didn’t check out the ingredients, often there are additives in bags of shredded cheese to keep the pieces from clumping so just use what you’re comfortable with. Regardless, making pizza at home WILL be healthier than anything you would buy pre-made. Enjoy!

Quick Homemade Pizza Crust 

3 c. flour ( I used 1 c. of whole wheat flour and 2 c. white)

1 T. honey

1 T. extra virgin olive oil

1 c. warm water

1 T. yeast

1/4 t. garlic powder (I like this brand)

1/4 t. salt (I like this brand)

-Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix together well.

-Preheat oven to 475.  If you’re using a pizza stone place it in the oven to heat up.  Mix all of the ingredients except the flour and let the yeast proof (get bubbly).

-Add flour a little bit at a time until the dough comes together  while mixing with a hand mixer with dough hooks or a mixer like this one or this one.

-Roll dough out on pizza pan or carefully slide onto heated pizza stone.

-Top with desire toppings and bake 8 minutes on stone and 10-12 minutes on pan.

 

Simple Pizza Sauce (from Nourishing Meals)

This post was shared on the following natural living/real food websites, go check them out for more great information:  Homegrown & Healthy, Nourishing Joy, The Prairie Homestead, Natural Living Mama, Growing Home Blog, Healthy Roots Happy Soul, Real Food Forager, Whole New Mom, Raising Homemakers, Thank Your Body, Frugally Sustainable, Natural Family Today