Homemade Pizza

Homemade Pizza

Making homemade pizza is one of my favourite ways to save money without feeling like you’re missing out. I love to batch prep and freeze the ingredients for it. Instead of spending up to £50 on a family takeaway, I spend a little time batch preparing pizza dough, homemade pizza sauce and toppings. Everything goes into the freezer, ready for those evenings when everyone fancies pizza but nobody wants to cook.

Once your dough, sauce and toppings are prepared, homemade pizza becomes almost as quick and convenient as ordering a takeaway. It’s a simple meal planning trick that saves both time and money, making it a brilliant addition to your freezer meal routine.

1. Batch Prep and Freeze Your Pizza Dough

Preparing a batch of frozen pizza dough balls is a great time saver. Once I have made the dough, I divide it into six equal balls and flash freeze them on a lined baking tray.

Flash freezing simply means freezing the dough uncovered until firm. Once frozen, transfer the dough balls to a freezer bag or container so they won’t stick together.

To use frozen pizza dough

• Defrost for 1 to 2 hours.
• Lightly flour your worktop.
• Knead the dough gently until it becomes pliable.
• Roll into your pizza base.

If the dough is still slightly cold after defrosting, don’t worry. It will still roll out and bake perfectly.

2. Freeze Your Favourite Pizza Toppings

Pizza night is a brilliant opportunity to use up leftovers from the fridge or freezer.

Pepperoni, peppers and pineapple are family favourites in our house. Peppers freeze particularly well if you flash freeze them first before transferring them to a freezer bag.

Leftover cooked meats also make excellent toppings. We’ve used everything from roast chicken to leftover Nando’s chicken. If there’s not quite enough for another meal, I freeze it in small bags ready for homemade pizzas.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

I make my pizza sauce using passata, roasted peppers, onions and garlic, all blended together and simmered gently. Season with garlic powder, a pinch of sugar, salt and your favourite herbs or spices before freezing in small jars.

Having homemade sauce ready to go makes pizza night even quicker.

Cheese

Mozzarella and cheddar freeze very well once grated. I usually freeze a mixture of both, as grated cheese keeps its texture much better than freezing whole blocks.

3. Homemade Pizza Saves Money

Takeaway pizza for a family can easily cost £50 or more.

Buying one takeaway every week could cost around £2,600 a year.

Our homemade pizzas usually cost between £10 and £12 for the whole family. Even adding a bag of Aldi oven chips for a couple of pounds brings the meal to under £15.

That’s a huge saving without giving up family pizza night.

When you already have dough, sauce and toppings waiting in the freezer, making homemade pizza becomes just as easy as picking up the phone, but much kinder to your household budget.

To see more budget friendly recipes on my blog go here

mrshawkinshouse

Pizza Dough

Makes 6 dough balls that you can use straight away or freeze

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 300 g strong white flour
• 3.5 g dried yeast sachets are 7g as standard
• 6 g salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 200 ml warm water
• 15 ml olive oil

Method

 

1. Mix flour and salt and set to one side.
2. In a jug mix the warm water, yeast and sugar. The warm water and sugar wake up and feed the yeast.
3. After leaving the yeast mixture to wake up for 10 minutes, add the olive oil.
4. Combine the wet and dry mixtures.
5. Knead for 8-10 minutes with a bread hook in your mixer till smooth
6. Cover and leave in a warm place for an hour or more till the dough had doubled. 60-90 minutes
7. Turn it out onto a floured board
8. Knock the air out of it and split it into parts 2-6 pieces depending on what size pizzas you want to make.

Freeze Dough Balls For Later-Optional

1. Work each portion into a ball and place on a lined baking tray.
2. Place in the freezer uncovered and not touching each other for 30-45 minutes.
3. Place into a freezer bag or container for future use.
4. Remove 1-2 hours before baking and allow to defrost in a warm kitchen.

Use dough immediately

1. Pre heat your oven to 210C Fan.
2. Shape the dough into pizza bases to the size that suits your needs
3. Lightly spoon on some tomato sauce or passata.
4. Top with mozerella, meats, peppers, onions and seasonings of your choice.
5. Bake for about 10 minutes in a hot oven.