- 1
Ingredients
- 1 pound pizza dough, store-bought or homemade
- 1/2 to 1 cup sauce: tomato sauce or other spread
- 2 to 3 cups other toppings: sautéed onions, sautéed mushrooms, pepperoni, cooked sausage, cooked bacon, diced peppers, leftover veggies, or any other favorite toppings
- 1 to 2 cups (8-16 ounces) cheese, shredded or sliced: mozzarella, monterey jack, provolone, fontina, or any other favorite
- Equipment
- Parchment paper
- Rolling pin
- Baking stone (or baking sheet)
- Plastic wrap
- Aluminum foil
Preparation
Step 1
To make homemade frozen pizzas, parbake the crust and then wrap in a double layer of plastic and foil to protect the pizza from drying in the freezer.
How to Make Homemade Frozen Pizza
Makes one large pizza or two individual pizzas
Pre-heat the oven to 450°F.
Place a pizza stone or baking sheet on a middle rack in the oven as it heats.
Divide the pizza dough in half to make two individual pizzas, if desired. Place the ball of dough in the middle of a piece of parchment paper. Roll it out to your preferred thinness. If the dough starts to shrink back and crinkle the paper, let it rest for a few minutes and then try rolling it out again. If making two individual pizzas, repeat with the second round of dough.
When cool, top the rounds as you would if you were going to bake them right away: spread some sauce on the pizzas, add toppings, and sprinkle cheese over the top.
Place the pizzas on a baking sheet and freeze, uncovered, until solid, about 3 hours.
When ready to eat eat the pizzas, preheat the oven to 550°F (or the temperature at which you normally cook your pizzas). If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven as it heats; frozen pizzas can also be baked on the foil used to wrap them. When the oven has heated, unwrap the pizzas and slide into the oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the crust is dark brown and the cheese in the center of the pizza is bubbly. Eat immediately.
Make Ahead
A great idea! I could have used this last night (when it seemed we had nothing in the house to eat...at least nothing that I wanted). If wanted to make the crust with whole wheat rather than unbleached flour, would one need to make any adjustments to the crust recipe?
With 3 teenage boys pizza is a definite favorite! This is perfect for those times when we are all going in different directions and the guys are left to "cook" on their own. Currently they run to Aldi and pick up a cheap $2.99 pizza.... now I can custom make their favorites and them on hand! Thank you! (it also helps when you have a group of teen boys descend upon your house to play video games!!)
My son has allergic reactions to the ingredients in store bought frozen pizza. I usually make my own with the recipe from Cook Right For Your Type cook them right away though I also par bake mine before I add the toppings. Now I can adapt it for the freezer when my sons and husband are looking for something quick and easy. Thank you!
Preheat to 550? Can that be right?
Or...to save even more time...you can buy a ciabatta loaf and add sauce and whatever you want to that. I usually cut a loaf up into individual pieces and wrap them individually so that on a night I feel like doing nothing I can pop one or two of them into a toaster oven.
I love this idea. My husband is off dairy for the foreseeable future and homemade pizza used to be a once-a-week staple for us. I still love it and want it but don't always want to make it just for myself. Now I'm realizing I could stock the freezer with single serving size pizzas for lunches or anytime he's got another plan. Love it! Thank you!
PS Frugal indeed. I calculated the cost of a homemade cheese pizza once, and it was something like $1.25 plus whatever additional toppings you add. That's a quarter the price of even Little Caesars, which is so bad that even I, a dedicated pizza non-snob, can't eat it.
@norainapeartree - Yes! After cooking my pizzas at 450F for years, I finally followed the advice of pizza experts and tried heating the oven as high as it will go. The result is an incredibly crispy "restaurant-worthy" pizza:
Want Awesome Pizza? Turn Up the Heat! :
I've been spoiling my son with Trader Joe's frozen single serve pizza at $5 a pop! I'm going to make some of these this weekend! I'll come back and post results. Thank you for posting this - I'm excited!
1. Buy a good quality pizza stone. The ones specifically made for BBQs are good. You want a high cooking temperature and cheap ones will break if they are heated above 500 to 600 degrees.
2. Related to 1, set your oven or BBQ as high as it can go. For most people that's 450 to 550 degrees, but some can go higher. Watch your pizza closely. You'll be amazed at the difference this makes.
I love this idea! I just need to make a double batch of dough on our next pizza night...
I love pizza and I make it all the time - especially in my bread maker, now that I have one - it saves so much time because it does all the work for me. My favorite kind is Buffalo Chicken:
I've found that a cookie sheet turned over (you cook the pizza on the back of it) and pre-heated in a 550 over for 30 minutes prior, works even better than a pizza stone. It's easier to get the pizza on and off, as well. I form the dough on parchment paper, cut the paper close to the shape of the pizza, and put it on the back of the pre-heated cookie sheet that way. Easy to get on and off, and I've never had the parchment burn on me. The cookie sheet is a Melissa Clark suggestion.
They also sell pizza dough at Trader Joes. Makes it super-easy for quick meal.
Store some of these in the fridge and get them out whenever you want pizza. Pre-heating the oven is a must. The result on the photos looks amazing and I will soon try it on my own.
YAY! I was wondering what else to put in my friend's new baby taco box (besides tacos) and I know THIS will make her happy!
just had my first homemade part-baked frozen pizza and it was great! thanks so much for this post - this certainly means we'll be able to enjoy homemade pizza much more often, and with way less preparation. :-) I part-baked the dough rounds with tomato sauce and only added the cheese and other toppings right before I put the pizzas into the (really, really hot) oven. the result was extremely tasty!
Maker
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