Frugal Recipe #1 ---Homemade Pizza

I love pizza. My husband loves pizza. Most importantly, my kids will eat pizza! One of my favorite take-out pizzas is a Pepperoni Pizza from Mellow Mushroom.

A l6" large pepperoni pizza from Mellow Mushroom will set you back a whopping $16.00. Add tax and tip (yes, you are supposed to tip around 5-10% even if you pick it up yourself these days) and you've got about a $20 pizza. Let's say you order one take-out pizza from there once a month, ...that's around $240 per year!

I don't really care for frozen pizza. The only kind I will buy (unless I am desperate) is Freschetta's Brick Oven pizza. The problem: it rarely goes on sale, and I haven't seen a coupon for it in years. (found one while clipping coupons this morning) : ) It sells for around $6.00 per pizza. We eat pizza at least once a week... if we buy it frozen we are spending $312 a year ---and I don't even like it that much!

Enter homemade pizza. I was totally intimidated by the thought of it. But, my very first attempt (after watching a few "how to" videos) was quite delicious. Maybe these statistics will help you to change your mind, too. I can make two 12" pizzas with the recipe printed below. The total cost per pepperoni pizza is around $2.00. Hypothetically, if I were to make homemade pizza once a week instead of ordering it out, I would save over $900 per year!!!

Did I mention this pizza is GOOD? I think it tastes better than Mellow Mushroom's! Here is the recipe:

Wendy's Yummy Pizza Dough

INGREDIENTS:

One packet of active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 - 115 degrees F---take the water's temperature with a thermometer! ---this is critically important to your pizza's success!)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups all-purpose flour (approximately) ***(see note below for wheat crust)



DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and honey in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 3 cups of the flour. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Knead dough for about 10 minutes. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth or plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for one minute before rolling out. Roll or stretch out dough onto stone or pan. Poke dough all over with a fork to prevent shrinkage. Add your favorite pizza toppings. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

When I first started making pizza at home, I had no idea how to knead or how to form the crust. Watching videos really helped me. Here is a video from Epicurious:



*** To make a whole wheat crust follow the recipe above, but use 2 cups wheat flour with 2 cups all-purpose flour. You can try 3 cups of wheat flour to 1 cup of all-purpose flour if you would like, but it can be pretty dense and chewy.