Make Your Own Frozen Pizza

I am ashamed to say that in the last year or so, our family has adopted a nasty habit: cheap frozen pizza.

It’s a guilty pleasure sort of thing really. I mean, there is nothing more unhealthy than a $2 Tony’s pepperoni pizza, but when you get home late with two hungry kids and no motivation to cook, the frozen cardboard with 5 pepperoni slices becomes a wonderful solution to the problem.

Please keep in mind that we live here:

And delivery or take out isn’t really an option. There is a Pizza Hut here, but honestly I can never remember to call ahead and order.

Anyway, the guilt has started to set in any time I feed my children this manufactured food product that will probably make them hit puberty 5 years earlier than they should, so I did a little research. I found a wonderful article on The Kitchn about properly storing frozen pizzas. So, I took my favorite pizza dough recipe and doubled it, planned out a pizza night with the kids, poured myself a tall cocktail and set about making pizzas for dinner and the freezer.

Here is what you will need to make your own stack of frozen pizzas (besides the ingredients):

• Aluminum foil
• plastic wrap or large clear plastic bags
• 12 inch cardboard cake rounds (not totally necessary but kind of nice to have the support for the pizza)
• baking stone (you can get one for about $10 at Big Lots.)
• Pizza peel (also from Big Lots. You could use a baking sheet with no lip, but honestly get the right tool for the job)
• Sharpie
• Here are some great ideas for toppings for your frozen pizza!
• Make Your Own Frozen Pizza
• Ingredients
• Dough
• 2 packages of yeast
• 4 cups of warm water ( 105 degrees)
• 2 T salt
• 1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
• 8 c. Bread flour
• Plain cornmeal for dusting
• Pizza Toppings:
• 1 jar pizza sauce
• 2 bags shredded mozzarella
• 1 small bag of pepperoni
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

Anything else you like on your pizza

Instructions

For the dough, first mix together yeast, water,and oil and let stand for 5 minutes.

Sift the flour and salt together, and then gradually add it to the yeast mixture. Stir until a dough forms, then knead until the dough is soft and pliable. You can do this with a stand mixer or ( if you don’t have a stand mixer) by hand.

Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled, 45 minutes – 1 hour.

Place your baking stone in your oven and preheat the oven to as high as it will go. Mine goes to 550 degrees.

Punch down the dough and divide into eight pieces. Shape each piece into a ball by folding it in on itself. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, then use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 12 inch round. If you think you can do this by hand...go for it!

Place a small handful of cornmeal on your pizza peel and then place the stretched dough on top.

If you are making pizza to eat NOW: top your dough with sauce, cheese and toppings. Give it a little shake with your peel to make sure that you can slide it off onto the baking stone. Then slide onto the hot stone and cook for 8 minutes or so until the crust is browned and the cheese it melted. Use your peel to remove the pie to a cutting board to cool.

If you are making pizza to FREEZE:

Do not add any toppings to your dough. Simply slide the stretched dough to the hot stone and par-bake for 3-5 minutes. You want the dough to be just cooked and still pale. Remove from the oven to cool completely.

When the crust is cool, place it on a 12 inch cardboard round. Add pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap, then wrap with aluminum foil. Label with your sharpie and freeze for up to 3 months.

To cook from the freezer:

Preheat the oven to 550 degrees, remove the pizza from it's wrappings and either place on your baking stone to cook or onto the aluminum foil that it was wrapped in. Bake until the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbly. Slice, Serve and enjoy!

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http://eatinonthecheap.com/2015/01/23/make-your-own-frozen-pizza/