How to Make Homemade Pizza!

We are a family of pizza lovers. It has always been our family’s favorite food. Our weekly routine is every Friday we go to the library and then come home and have pizza. We used to stop at a local pizza place and pick one up if we were running behind for the day and starving, but our favorite was my homemade pizza recipe.  When we switched to a plant based diet one of my first concerns was our pizza Friday. I knew if I couldn’t get that one right I was in trouble and In a big way.

Okay maybe I should be honest here.  I am the biggest pizza lover of them all. I would eat it morning, noon, and night, but that wouldn’t be very mindful of my health now would it! Needless to say this was one of the first recipes I really became determined to get right. After all I couldn’t live without pizza! See I told you I was a pizza lover!

I tried several recipes some I liked, most the kids didn’t and my biggest child (aka my lovely husband) refused to let me think about some. I was getting a little disheartened to say the least. That’s when something my husband always says rang out in my head, Keep it simple. I decided instead of coming up with a whole new recipe I just needed to veganize our old one.  The dough was fine, and so was the sauce. What was the issue?  It was simply the toppings I would have to change.

[box type=”info” align=”alignleft” ]Life lesson- Don’t over complicate things for yourself!! This is a theme I have to keep telling myself, and I am hoping one day it will sink in. My husband says to live by the K.I.S.S. method. Of course I thought he just wanted a kiss, lol, but it is an acronym that stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. (For the record I really do not like the word stupid- I prefer silly).[/box]

How to Make Homemade Pizza, (Vegan Pizza)

I am not sure where I got this homemade pizza recipe from to begin with, but I have been using it for years. I know it by heart, so I am sorry to who ever gave it to me that I cannot give you full credit!

I use a bread machine to do the kneading and rising of the dough. I bought mine for $40 years ago at Walmart and two years ago my mother in law asked me if I wanted hers (of course I said –YES!! ). Great thing with this is that two bread machines means I make 2 pizzas- works out good I think. You can find bread machines at thrift stores or yard sales all the time for very cheap..

Homemade Pizza – The Process

Ingredients (This recipe will make one homemade pizza) :

• 1 cup of warm water ( I was always told to use the water temperature of a bath- not sure how hot that is but it needs to be warm, but not really hot)
• 1tsp of salt
• 1tsp of sugar ( I know that not all sugar is vegan so use whatever kind of sugar you are comfortable with)
• 3 cups of all purpose flour ( I had use whole wheat before and its fine it just gives makes the dough very dense. So just use what you have- whole wheat or all purpose, or a mix)
• 2 ½ tsps of yeast

I put all of this in the bread machine in that order (just follow your bread machines instructions) and press the dough cycle.

My bread machines dough cycles is 1 hour and 30 minutes. If I am in a hurry then I have taken it out of the bread machine earlier but usually I get distracted or I am catching up on cleaning the kitchen or the house so I leave it in the whole time

[box type=”warning” ]Side note- if it looks really wet you can always add a little bit more flour once you get it out of the bread machine. Just knead it a little. And if all else fails just try your best to get it shaped out on the pan. Some days the dough comes out beautiful and other days it looks like a sloppy mess. They all taste fine so just do your best and don’t worry about how it looks the first couple of time you make it.[/box]

While the dough is rising make your pizza sauce. I make mine because it is super cheap! I used to think that a $1 jar wasn’t so bad but then once I found out how easy it was to make and how much cheaper I could do it for- well   I just can’t make myself pay that $1 anymore!

Ingredients for sauce:

• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• 1 ½ tsp of dried oregano (crush it between your fingers before you put it in the sauce)
• ½ tsp of basil
• ½ tsp of garlic salt

I put the tomato sauce in jar (I think a old pizza sauce jar actually) and then put in the spices. I shake it up and let it sit until I am ready for it. (I just keep the unused portion in the fridge for next time.) For tips on how to make your pizza sauce healthier you can go look at my Healthy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe

Side note about the dough- if it looks really wet once the cycle is complete you can always add a little bit more flour once you get it out of the bread machine. Just knead it a little. And if all else fails just try your best to get is shaped out on the pan. Some days the dough comes out beautiful and other days it looks like a sloppy mess. They all taste fine so just do your best and don’t worry about how it looks the first couple of time you make it.

Take the dough out of the bread machine once the cycle is complete  and stretch it gently out into a large circle. I used to like to throw it around like they do in the pizzeria but after losing a couple pizza dough’s I decided that although it was fun that it wasn’t the best idea.

Once you are satisfied with the way your large circle of dough looks put your pizza sauce on. Use as much or as little as your family likes. I don’t use a whole lot because our “Friday Pizza Day” is the day the kids are allowed to watch a movie in the living room floor or in their rooms and pizza sauce is hard to clean up.

Homade Pizza – The Pizza Toppings

After the pizza sauce in on you can add a light layer of nutritional yeast if you would like. It’s a great way to add in B12, but if you don’t have any don’t sweat it. Wondering what nutritional yeast is click here to find out. I always keep some, so my pizzas always have it .

We use this kind of vegan cheese for our pizzas. It’s what our local store carries but it is pretty good. I like to mix the cheeses up in a large bag and just pull out what I need. I gradually cut down on the cheese we used over time so just use the amount you feel is best. What you don’t see in the picture is  the “cheddar cheese” flavor of cheese bag. I like to sprinkle a little of it on the pizza too, but it was the same brand.

Put whatever kind of toppings you like on your pizza.  My kids just like cheese but my husband and I like to load ours up with whatever kind of veggies we have in the fridge.

You can run a little bit of olive oil on the edge of the crust to make it a little golden but we don’t do that anymore because it was just added fat we didn’t need.

Bake in a preheat oven (450 degrees) for 10 -15 minutes. In my oven it is perfect at 10 minutes, but oven temperatures vary so just keep an eye on it to figure out how long your oven will take.

We hope you enjoy our family’s homemade pizza recipe! I am working on making it a little healthier so stay tuned!! If you have a favorite homemade pizza recipe please feel free to add the link in the comment section below!

If you liked this post and found it helpful  please comment, like and share!

How to Make Homemade Pizza