Frugal Babe

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Easy Homemade Pizza

October 25, 2008 By Frugal Babe

We’re going to a Halloween party tonight, which will be the first time I’ve dressed up for the holiday since 1997.  My husband thinks he dressed up as recently as 1999.  So we’re obviously not pros at this.  Our plan is to head over to our local thrift store this afternoon (which just happens to have everything half price on Saturdays) and see if inspiration strikes us.  We have a costume for our baby, thanks to my husband’s sister.  She sent us an adorable sheep costume that she made for her daughter several years ago.  So he will be a sheep.  What we will be is yet to be determined.  Maybe we could dress up like a mom and a dad?

On a completely different topic, I invented an easier way to make homemade pizza last night, and thought I’d share.  We love Friday night pizza around here.  Back in the day we used to buy premade crusts (or sometimes even premade pizzas), but these days I usually do the whole thing from scratch.  The last couple times I’ve made pizza, my dough hasn’t really risen, and the crust has been a bit dense.  I think our jar of yeast is a dud – my husband had trouble getting bread dough to rise too, so we’re pretty sure it’s the yeast.  Anyway, I had forgotten to buy new yeast, and remembered when I went to make pizza last night.  It was 7pm and I didn’t feel like going to the store, so I decided to improvise.

I got out my basic biscuit recipe (1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup oats chopped in the food processor, 1 Tbsp baking powder, 1/3 cup butter (we use Smart Balance), 3/4 cup rice milk, and a pinch of salt) and whipped up a batch of biscuit dough.  This takes far less time than making yeast pizza dough, so that was a bonus.  I floured a glass 9 x 13 baking dish, and squished the dough onto the bottom of the pan.  It was pretty thin, but that’s ok – it puffs up as it cooks.  I then baked it for 5 minutes at 425 degrees.  While that was baking, I assembled my toppings (a little spaghetti sauce, a bell pepper and some basil from our hydroponic garden, some red onion, a few tomatoes from our greenhouse, chopped garlic, and a little grated cheese).  After the crust had baked for five minutes, I added the toppings and put the pizza back in the oven for ten more minutes.  My husband and I both loved it.  The crust turned out great – I think I’ll do it that way from now on, even when we do have new yeast.  But last night I was just happy that I came up with a way of making pizza crust that didn’t require a trip to the store, and allowed me to go with the frugal and time-saving option of using ingredients I had on hand to make dinner.

Filed Under: food 16 Comments

Comments

  1. Green Me says

    October 25, 2008 at 12:16 pm

    I’ll have to keep the biscuit dough in mind for the future — clever indeed!

    In regards to your pizza dough, you might want to try some wheat gluten — a tsp per cup of flour. I thought my yeast was a dud too, but I think that it is just the nature of whole wheat flour, especially organic. Many wheats have been bred to be high gluten, which is better for bread, but most of the organic/whole wheat flour is not. The last few batches I’ve made with the same flour and yeast, just added gluten have turned out perfect!

    Reply
  2. FrugalBabe says

    October 25, 2008 at 2:07 pm

    Green Me – Thanks for the tip! The strange thing about the yeast is that the pizza dough and bread recipes had always worked in the past (using the same organic whole wheat flour) and aren’t working with our current jar of yeast. But I’ll try getting some wheat gluten and see if that does the trick.

    Reply
  3. Michelle says

    October 25, 2008 at 2:28 pm

    Thanks! Love this kind of stuff. EASY is great :)

    Reply
  4. NaturallyFrugal says

    October 25, 2008 at 3:33 pm

    That’s a great recipe! I can use that to make pizza for my boyfriend and I, and the biscuit dough is an added bonus b/c it doesn’t have yeast, which he can’t eat. He’ll be happy to know I’ve found a pizza dough recipe that we both can enjoy!

    Reply
  5. neimanmarxist says

    October 25, 2008 at 6:13 pm

    biscuit dough for pizza! what a great idea!

    Reply
  6. Lisa C says

    October 25, 2008 at 9:31 pm

    Thanks for the great tip!

    Reply
  7. Frugal Trenches says

    October 26, 2008 at 2:34 am

    For the last month I’ve wanted to start making whole wheat pizza for the weekends, I’ll be trying this one out next weekend! I’ll let you know how it goes!!
    Thanks for posting it!

    Reply
  8. Kelly from Almost Frugal says

    October 26, 2008 at 5:27 am

    My favorite Halloween costume was going as a pile of laundry. Black leggings, a black tee shirt to which I safety pinned some socks, onesies etc. Then I stuck some clothes pins on the hems of my shirt and pants. It took about two seconds to assemble and didn’t require buying anything.

    Reply
  9. Stefanie says

    October 27, 2008 at 12:15 pm

    That pizza sounds delicious!

    I found a costume for $1.50 at our local thrift store on one of the half off days. If you’re still looking for costumes, Kmart has them half off now. I know, not as cheap as you might like, but I did see some cute ones between $12.50 and $20 on their website.

    Reply
  10. Stefanie says

    October 27, 2008 at 12:18 pm

    And if I had paid attention while I was reading your post, I would have noticed that your party was 2 days ago, lol.

    Reply
  11. Jenny says

    October 29, 2008 at 3:09 pm

    What did you end up finding for costumes?

    Reply
  12. Saver Queen says

    November 4, 2008 at 2:43 pm

    Thanks for the dough recipe! I recently posted a blog entry on the same topic, only I have been using pre-made dough. I make up a few at a time and then freeze them for an easy meal. I’ll try your dough recipe next time!

    Reply

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