What is the best way to spend the night in with a friend? Pizza. Not just any pizza, a homemade pizza. As much as I love getting a pizza for take away, it is not the same as a making your own pizza. It is super easy, fun for everyone and surprisingly cheap. Here are the easy steps on making a delicious homemade pizza.
You could make your own dough, however time is limited before I get hangry (hungry and angry). I usually buy my pre-made dough from Trader Joe’s but this time I bought the Garlic and Herb Pizza Dough from Fresh and Easy. The best thing about pre-made dough, there is instructions printed on the back of the bag! If you forget my steps, at least you have other steps to follow. Kneed the dough in flour; after that, let the dough sit for awhile so it can rise.
Since I had an extra set of hands, Stephanie, my friend, was kneeding the dough while I was chopping veggies. You can add whatever you want on your pizza but I love adding veggies on mine. I usually go for tomatoes, bell peppers, mushroom and fresh basil for my pizzas. ** To have a fresh basil jar in your kitchen, check out my post “Mason Jars + Herb Garden”
Start shaping the dough into the size you would like. I like the classic round shape but do whatever shape that floats your boat. There is no judgement on what shape and size you want your pizza to look like. I find the most challenging part is stretching the dough; it is very easy to rip the dough so be careful. Otherwise you have to go back and reshape again.
Put the dough onto a non-stick sprayed baking sheets and start adding pizza sauce onto the dough. My friend that introduced me to make homemade pizzas was absolutely in love garlic. One of her tricks was mixing the pizza sauce with some fresh minced garlic. Since then, I cannot make a homemade pizza without minced garlic. If you are a garlic lover, try it and thank Jess later. My favorite brand for pizza sauce is the Trader Joe’s brand.
Since I am vegan, I use vegan soy cheese. My favorite vegan cheese brand is Daiya. This brand is the closest thing that taste like normal cheese; when you are cooking with Daiya, it melts and stretches like regular cheese. One of my favorite health food stores sells vegan pizza slices and uses American Cheddar and Mozzarella on their pizza. Stephanie and I just stuck with the Mozzarella Style Shreds. I like to layer the cheese first and add my veggies after. Stephanie layered the cheese first, then veggies and added more cheese on top.
Put the pizza(s) in the oven for 450 degrees and leave the pizza in for 18-20 minutes. When it is lightly brown on the bottom, they are done. Try NOT to burn the pizzas!! Burning pizza is like a sin.. and it will smell your house up. Just trust me on this.
While the pizza is cooking in the oven, prepare a side salad. You are probably thinking, “Laura, WHY?!? Why in good holy pizza name would you say that?!?” I absolutely love pizza but pizza is a major carb overload. To not to feel as guilty when eating the carb party, I eat a nice side salad. My go to salad is romaine lettcus, sliced avocado, grape tomatoes and shredded carrots with balsamic vinegar.
18 minutes later and the pizza looking lightly brown, take the pizza out and it is time to eat! Just so everyone knows, my friend and I thought each of us needed a bag of dough to ourselves.. We did not. I have a huge leftover pizza in the fridge at the moment. For anyone that decides to make individual pizzas, just split a bag of dough. Another thing we did not realize was we could of made STUFFED CRUST PIZZA! Now that would of been amazing. Also, just know you might go into a food coma after eating.
I hope this mini pizza tutorial was somewhat helpful. Everyone that tries to make their own pizza, please comment below! Also if anyone has a good homemade dough recipe they would like to share, please do! Happy Sunday and good luck everyone!
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