My Pizza Dough Recipe

Here's a copy of the pizza dough recipe I use most every week. I use it not only for making pizzas, but calzones, cheesy bread, and French Bread. A photo follows at the end of the recipe.

What you need:

• 1 ½ Cups warm water (about 110 degrees)
• 3-3 ½ Cups flour (amount varies with humidity)
• 1 ½ tsp. Yeast
• 1 ½ tsp. Brown sugar
• 1 tsp. Salt (I use onion salt for more flavor. If you do this, you can omit the onion powder)
• 1 tsp. Garlic powder
• 1 tsp. Onion powder
• 1 tsp. Oregano

Putting it Together:

• Set your bread machine to the "Mix Dough" setting and then add the brown sugar, water, and yeast. Let proof for about 5 minutes
• Add 1 cup of flour and then olive oil, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and oregano
• Start the machine and add the remaining flour ½ cup at a time. Let the machine incorporate the flour before adding more. Once all flour is added, make sure the dough is not too wet or dry (add flour or extra water as needed)
• Once the dough cycle is complete (about 1 hour 40 minutes), remove dough and gently roll into a ball
• OR remove dough from machine after it is finished kneading- about 20 minutes- and place in a large, oiled, bowl. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and place in a warm area until doubled- about 1 hour), then remove dough and gently roll into a ball
• Let rest for 10 minutes and then you are ready to create your pizza
• You will have enough dough for 1 very large pizza or 2 smaller ones. Also, you could get 2 smaller pizzas and 2 calzones out of this recipe.

Here are a few ideas for you...

Taco Pizza

How to Make Calzones

My Version of Papa Murphy's Cheesy Bread


Here's a photo of the dough after it's been "de-fluffed" and shaped. This is the photo I used for the Cheesy Bread, so the dough is in a log shape. If you are making two pizzas with this recipe, then the log shape is fine, as it makes it easier to divide. If making one pizza, the dough should be in a ball shape.

How to Make Calzones

I've been having some fun playing with pizza dough and trying out new things. One of the things I have been playing around with recently is calzones. I got tired of just making pizzas (because I have SO much trouble rolling the dough into a circle) and cheesy bread, that I decided to try something different...hence, I began playing with calzones. This is just like making individual stuffed pizzas and you can have a lot of fun with it. Just let your creativity take over and see what deliciousness occurs.



What you need

• Your favorite pizza dough or use My Pizza Dough Recipe


• Your favorite pizza sauce or you can use my Papa Murphy's Garlic Sauce recipe (a terrific white sauce)


• Cheese and any other ingredients you may want to add, such as: green onions, olives, salami, ham, roast, bacon; the list is only limited to your imagination


• Parchment paper to line your baking sheet

My Version of Papa Murphy's Garlic Sauce

I have to admit that I am a very big fan of Papa Murphy's pizza, but I can't always hop in a car and go get one. This being the case, I hunted around for a recipe that I could make at home, yet still tastes very close to the real thing...and by taking a few recipes and tweaking them, I think I found it! This recipe calls for using Ranch Dressing and I found that by making the dressing myself, I can come closer to the actual Papa Murphy's sauce.

Before I get to the recipe, let me tell you that the garlic used in this recipe gives the sauce a bite, but when heated, the flavor mellows very nicely. So, if you use this as a dip, expect a bite. Some other uses are: as a pizza sauce (duh!), cheesy bread, mix it in mashed potatoes, use instead of mayo to add a bite to your sandwich, or put a dab on your steak. Just use your imagination, you won't be sorry.

If you just want to use the ranch dressing portion of this recipe, just omit the minced garlic and the Parmesan cheese.

FlatBread Pizza

I am in the process of researching Biga, which is an Italian bread starter. I'm planning on trying my hand at baking some rustic breads. So, while I delve into the wonderful world of rustic breads (and clean the BBQ, so we can actually use it this summer), let me share something The Boss did this weekend...

My wife met-up with some of her friends this weekend and had lunch at the FlatBread Community Oven. They are the only Neapolitan pizzeria in Idaho to be certified by the Verace Pizza Napoletana Association, and one of only 28 restaurants in the United States to carry the certification. They bake their pizzas in a 900 degree wood-fired oven.

She ordered the CAPRICCIOSA, which has: Fior di Latte (type of mozzarella), Artichoke Hearts, Herbed Portabello, Olives, Prosciutto, Fresh Basil, and Pomodoro (sauce).
Here's a shot of the pizza she ordered...

Taco Pizza

We didn't have any taco shells, so I decided to breakout the old pizza starter instead, so I guess that you can call this being pseudo-frugal, As you can see from the shape, I've given up, for now, on the round pizza variety and decided to play it safe and just form the dough into the shape of the baking tray. Hey, on the highway of life, if it's easy, I'll take that off-ramp.

I pre-bake the crust (you can use the pizza dough recipe from My Pizza Dough Recipe and after it cools, I slather on the sour cream and then sprinkle the cheese over the top. I cook the meat and once it cools, I spread that over the top and then cover with the remaining cheese and bake.

Anyway, here's the cost breakdown of this meal:
Meat...$5.13
Cheese...$2.85
Sour Cream...$1.50
Spices...I have no idea, but it's under $1.00 (I make my own taco seasoning)

Total...$10.48 (I just added the $1.00 for the seasoning)

Okay, I can see that you might be saying, "what's so frugal about that???" That's kind of pricey for a meal. Well, I would have to agree, but this wonderful pizza provided three meals for my family. The per-meal cost for each person was: $1.16.
($10.48 / 3 people= $3.49 / 3 nights = $1.16)...not too bad, actually.

Tony's® Pizza Giveaway

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Tony's Pizza. All opinions are 100% mine.



I was being particularly lazy the other night, so I decided to grab a pizza out of the freezer and pop it in the oven. I had already planned on heating some of my infamous soup for my wife, so the pizza would be for my daughters. Well, I hadn't tried a Tony's Pizza for years and I was looking forward to trying it again. I opened the box and the first thing that caught my eye is the fact that it's not round; it was square with rounded corners. Well, that's different, but as I've been told, it's not the shape but the taste that matters. So, I popped it in the oven and about twelve minutes later it was ready.

The pizza was just large enough to make a good meal and it disappeared very quickly. I stole a portion from one of my daughters and I have to admit that the new crust is much better than the original. The texture is lighter and it tastes more like what pizza crust is meant to taste like. The toppings were very good, but they need to be a little more generous in the amount they put on the pizza. Yes, I understand it helps to keep the cost down, but it's just a thought. Finally, the sauce was very good and it was something both my daughters commented on. One of my kids NEVER likes sauce on her pizza, but she really enjoyed the flavor of this pizza sauce.

Now, as for the price: we got this at Winco and they charge a whopping $0.98. This is a great deal for the amount of pizza you get. This is a great pizza to give the kids or to have if you just want a nice snack.

Tony's® Pizza would like you to try their new crispy crust pizza, so they are giving away coupons for a free pizza. I have five coupons to give away, so if you would like one, just comment and let me know and I will then contact you for your mailing info and send you your coupon for a free pizza. After all, free is good, right?

legal stuff... Tony's® Pizza contacted me and provided the coupons for myself and my readers.

My First Pizza

Several weeks ago I made a new sourdough starter that I want to use for pizza dough. Well, last week, I decided to give it a test run and see how it tasted. Even though we didn't have the ingredients available for the type of pizza I wanted to make; even though we don't have a pizza stone; even though we don't have a pizza peel (fancy name for a spatula on steroids), my impatience won the battle and I went ahead and made one anyway.

As you can see from the picture, I won't have to worry about Domino's begging me to come work for them any time soon, but even though it looks like an extra from the 1950's classic The Blob, I'm told it still tasted good. Now, since this was the first time I used this starter, there was not going to be a lot of extra dough to play with, so I went ahead and made two smaller ones. The one on the right was for my daughters and the one on the left was for my wife.

My daughters' pizza was just a simple cheese pizza. I took their crust and brushed it with olive oil and then layered-on the cheese. For my wife's pizza, I went to the freezer and defrosted some of the tomato sauce I made last year and spooned that on the crust. I then took some vegetarian sausage that she got (we had a free coupon for it) and put that on the pizza. Then a slice of American cheese torn-up and placed around the top. Any exposed crust was then brushed with olive oil.

These little beauties were then covered and stored in the refrigerator until about one hour before cooking time. At cooking time, I set the oven to 450° and cooked them about 15 minutes. I then served the pizza and went into the next room and did our taxes (fun times, huh?). Anyway, when I came out an hour later, I expected to find leftover crusts, because my daughters NEVER eat the crust; they always pawn them off on my wife, but this time they ate them...go figure.

Taking another quick look at the picture, you can see that I need to do a lot of work on my dough rolling and shaping, but I guess that will come with practice...and I intend to practice a lot.