Easy Homemade Pizza with Shortcut

Quick homemade pizza dough with a shortcut for the pizza sauce.

As with many improv recipes, I was trying to avoid going to the store, worked with what I had on hand, and this delicious pizza was produced. The best part is that pasta sauce is great for pizza sauce. I love a good garlic pasta sauce. This saves so much time. You’ll have your pizza in no time. Homemade dough may seem intimidating, but this process is faster than you may imagine. Besides the fact that you can have as many toppings as you’d like without being charged $1 xtra per topping. Now that we are on the topic of toppings, have fun with it! Chorizo is a gamechanger for all the meat lovers out there. Oven roasted garlic is heaven for all the garlic lovers out there (whole garlic baked in foil paper @400F x 45 min). Fresh basil is a delicious touch to any pizza. Oh and cheese! Lets not forget that you can choose your own cheese to make it YOUR perfect pizza. I use a combination of mozzarella, munster, and gouda. But you do you. Make YOUR perfect pizza!

Any Tips?

YEAST: liquids too hot can kill the yeast. Warm water between 120-130 F is good. Perhaps use a thermometer for the first time, just to know what 120F feels like. It feels warm enough for a finger to be in 3 seconds, but everyone has a different tolerance to heat. If the water is too hot to touch then it's definitely too hot for the yeast. PASTA SAUCE: if the pasta sauce is too runny and too close to the edge , then the sauce will run off the pizza and create a soggy mess. Try to get a thicker sauce and keep the sauce a good 1-1½ inches from the edge to ensure a crisp crust.

Any Tools?

Your hands and some muscle. Kneading the dough requires some brawniness if done without a stand mixer and dough hook.

Easy Homemade Pizza with Shortcut

Large pizza with crisp, garlicky edges; topped with loads of cheese, pepperoni, jalapeno slices, and fresh basil.

Serves

2 Large Pizzas

Prep time: 45 min

Bake time: 13 min

Total time: 1 hr

Ingredients

Pizza Dough :

180 grams All Purpose Flour

180 grams Bread Flour

1 ½ tsp Salt

1 tsp Thyme

1 tsp garlic salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 packet ( ¼ oz/7gm/2 ¼ tsp)rapid rise instant yeast

2 tsp sugar

1 cup warm water

½ cup Corn flour

Pizza Toppings :

20 oz Pasta Sauce of your choice

3 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

Fresh basil (optional)

Additional toppings of your choice

Technique

1. Combine warm (120F) water, sugar, and yeast. Let sit.

2. Combine APF and BF with salt, thyme, garlic salt and olive oil.

3. Combine flour mixture with yeast water. If the dough is a little dry add 1 Tbsp of water. If the dough is a little sticky add 1 Tbsp of APF. Mix dough till one big ball is formed.

4. Knead dough: flour hands and surface. Fold the dough in half. Then press down and away on the dough. Rotate the dough and repeat x 10-12 min until the dough is soft and elastic.

5. Let the dough rest x 10 minutes.

6. Preheat oven at 450F

7. Divide dough in half

8. Prepare surface with corn flour and roll out dough into a large circle. Start from the center and roll outward. Rotate the circle and repeat. Be gentle, not forceful.

9. When ready, transfer dough to pizza sheet.

10. Optional. Add garlic oil (olive oil w/ garlic) to the edge of the circle. (Brushing olive oil and sprinkling garlic salt works too.)

11. Add pasta sauce. Then layer on cheese and additional toppings.

12. Bake for 13 min or until pizza is golden brown on bottom.

13. Optional. Top with fresh basil and enjoy.

Updated

December 2022