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Friday night is Pizza Night at the Frugal Upstate house! For the last 2 1/2 years more or less every week I have made homemade pizza on Friday nights.
The kids love it and look forward to it, feeling like they are getting “junk” food. Yankee Bill and I aren’t exactly complaining about it either-we both enjoy pizza.
One of the great things about homemade pizza, besides it’s very frugal cost, is that you can control what goes into it and on it. I tend to make mine a bit lighter on the cheese, which cuts the calories and fat. We typically make pepperoni and cheese, although frequently we’ll break out to broccoli (if we have fresh on hand) or tomato (with slices of fresh). I’ve even tried my hand at a version of chicken BBQ.
And let’s face it, although pizza toppings would make even a piece of cardboard palatable, there is something about a great crust that really improves the total quality of your pizza.
For the longest time I just used the pizza crust recipe that came in my breadmaker cookbook. It was a decent recipe-tasted fine and all-but wasn’t anything special. I always had the feeling that although I was saving money and being much, much healthier than ordering out pizza (or even buying frozen pizza) I was somehow sacrificing on taste.
So last year when Amy from MomAdvice started experimenting with different pizza crust recipes I watched with great interest. I’m the kind of gal that likes to learn from other peoples experiences, and Amy gave me some great ones to learn from!
She started out in her initial “Homemade Pizza” post by detailing the way her family makes pizza, along with two crust recipes and a sauce recipe. She even gave directions for freezing the dough! I have been known to make an extra crust and parbake it for 8 min or so before freezing it, but I had never thought of freezing the raw dough.
Four months later in “Pizza Dough Revisited” she tried a new pizza dough & sauce recipe from a slow cooker cookbook. That was a success – despite her aversion to dough rolling.
Fast forward another two months and in “Dinner’s in the Bag” she not only shared another new crust recipe, but a way to speed up the entire pizza making process and tips for how to turn one batch of crust into breadsticks.
You’ve got to admire that kind of perseverance. Finally she hit the jackpot, at least as far as I am concerned, with her Pizza Hut Clone recipe.
Yes, it has more ingredients than the other recipes, so it’s a tiny bit more of a hassle to put together. The taste however makes it worth it. I was in a head cold induced stupor the other day and mistakenly made my old recipe on pizza night-everyone noticed the difference and was disappointed.
So without further ado, here is the king of all pizza crust recipes.
At least as far as I’m concerned.
Pizza Hut Style Pizza Dough*
1 1/3 cups water
2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp cornmeal
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp yeast
Add ingredients to bread machine, according to manufacturer’s settings, and run dough setting. After the machine beeps, roll out the dough.
You can roll the dough into two 9×13″ pizzas (great for kid’s lunches!) or into two medium pizzas or a large pizza and an order of breadsticks (as instructed above).
Parbake the crust with a drizzle of olive oil on it at 450 degrees for ten minutes. Remove the crust and add sauce and toppings.
If making breadsticks, add your breadsticks at this time. Place into the oven for another ten to fifteen minutes or until golden and bubbly.
Enjoy!
*Note: Reprinted with permission.
**Note: Photos by Jeff Kubina, Adam Kuban, and Javier Psilocybin respectively.
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FAQs
DOUGH: ENRICHED FLOUR (BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, YEAST. CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: SALT, SOYBEAN OIL, VITAL WHEAT GLUTEN, SUGAR, ENZYMES, ASCORBIC ACID, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE.
What is the secret of pizza dough? ›
There are many tricks to achieving a tasty, homemade pizza dough that rises into a beautiful pizza crust, such as making sure your ingredients are at right temperature, using half bread flour for a stronger dough and half all-purpose flour for a nice rise, substituting honey for sugar to help caramelize the crust and ...
What would make pizza dough tough? ›
If you've been allowing your dough to proof and are still getting a dough that's really tough, you could be overworking the dough. This can cause those air bubbles that you've worked so hard to create to collapse and therefore, cause tough dough.
Does Pizza Hut use frozen dough? ›
The Dough Is Frozen
Former employees have divulged that Pizza Hut no longer makes its dough fresh in the store. Instead, it's delivered frozen and is already shaped for the pan. This has been going on for some time, as a Reddit post from 13 years ago revealed.
What is the fluffy crust from Pizza Hut? ›
What Is The Difference Between Pizza Hut's Original Pan® Pizza And Hand Tossed Pizza? Original Pan® Pizza features a thick, crispy crust that's fluffy on the inside. Hand Tossed Pizza features a thinner, more-traditional crust.
What does adding milk to pizza dough do? ›
Milk (liquid): Strengthens gluten, helps crust brown, softens the crumb. An enzyme in milk slows the growth of the yeast and it can break down the protein in the flour and weaken the dough. Scalding the milk destroys this enzyme.
What's the difference between pizza crust and bread dough? ›
While both pizza dough and bread dough contain similar ingredients, their proportions and preparation methods vary greatly to set them apart. Pizza dough is typically made to be thinner and softer than bread dough, which is often thicker and chewier.
What's the difference between bread dough and pizza dough? ›
The main difference is that pizza dough is often made with a higher protein flour (bread flour is perfect). Bread dough can also be made with bread flour (of course) but some types of bread dough are better made with a lower protein flour like all purpose flour.
Why does my pizza dough keep springing back? ›
If your pizza dough is quickly snapping back or difficult to stretch, your dough is too tight. Cover your dough with plastic wrap and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. After a bit of rest, the gluten in the dough will relax, making the process of stretching much easier.
How long to leave pizza dough out before stretching? ›
Before you begin stretching, warm up your cold dough for at least 30 minutes at room temperature. Gluten, the protein that makes pizza dough chewy, is tighter in cold conditions like the fridge, which is why cold pizza dough will stretch out and snap back just like a rubber band.
If your dough is too cold, the gluten will tighten up and make it harder to stretch out. Always let your dough come up to room temperature before stretching it out.
Why is my homemade pizza crust not crispy? ›
The steam from the base can't escape, so it condenses on your crispy surface and turns it wet and soggy. Use a pizza stone or a pan with holes to get a crispy pizza crust. A pizza stone will keep your pizza hot and its porousness will absorb some condensation.
Why won't my pizza dough stay stretched? ›
The key reason why your pizza dough lacks stretchiness is inadequate gluten development. Gluten provides the elasticity required to stretch the dough without tearing. Proper gluten development requires patience.
What happens if you put too much flour in pizza dough? ›
The Pizza Heaven explains that too much flour results in dense dough because of the low hydration levels in the mixture. With more water in the dough, it becomes easier to stretch and maneuver, and adding less flour will help with lowering the hydration level.
Does Pizza Hut use artificial ingredients? ›
PLANO, TEXAS (May 26, 2015) – Pizza Hut announced plans today to make changes to its ingredients brand standards, beginning with the removal of artificial flavors and colors from its nationally available pizzas by no later than the end of July, the first national chain to make this commitment.
Does Pizza Hut put eggs in their dough? ›
Does Pizza Hut's pizza dough have eggs in it? The only pizza dough that contains eggs at Pizza Hut is Udi's Gluten-Free Pizza Dough.
What does pizza dough contain? ›
Making pizza dough is all about the ratios. All you need is flour, water, salt, sugar, oil and yeast. The ratio you'll need depends on the crust you want to serve.
