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Homemade Pizza 🍕🍕

You don't need a wood-fired pizza oven to make a delicious homemade pizza! Homemade pizza is so easy to make and can cost a fraction of the price...


Homemade pizza is a fabulous way to use up scraps from the fridge or freezer. We make our own pizza bases, but you can of course buy ready made pizza bases or shop-bought pizza dough that you just need to roll out, or of course, you can just buy a cheap shop-bought frozen pizza and funk it up yourself using up whatever is leftover in your fridge.


Anything goes here, and nothing needs to be expensive....


Homemade Pizza

Have to say, hand on heart... the tastiest pizzas I've ever had are the one's I've made myself! And I worked at Valentino's Pizzeria for years, so I know my pizzas!! (Rudolph or a Lyonnaise anyone?!) That said, I'm no 'homemade' expert... I just followed a loose Jamie Oliver pizza dough recipe one day which I've adapted to make it work for me (my recipe below).


Jamie's recipe was a 'mix and knead yourself' but rather than mixing it all myself, I just bunged all the ingredients into a bread making machine on a dough setting. My first attempt of making Jamie's pizza dough using a bread maker turned out very wet and sticky. I had to add loads more flour to it and it made way more pizza dough than I needed. So the next time I adapted his recipe and voila...! I've been using my adapted recipe in the bread making machine ever since 👍


💡Tip! If you can't be bothered making your own pizza dough, you can buy shop-bought dough (often found in the reduced section) or pick up a pack of 2 Sainsbury's Pizza bases from Alliance for just £2!

Easy Homemade Pizza


Makes:  4 pizzas

Cost to make: Approx. £1.00

Cost per serving: Approx. 25p



Homemade Pizza Dough Ingredients...


  • 540g of bread flour or pizza flour (approx. 55p)

  • Plain flour for rolling out (approx. 10p)

  • 1/4 tablespoon of table salt

  • 1 x 7g sachet of yeast (approx. 25p)

  • 1/2 tablespoon caster sugar

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

  • 325ml lukewarm water


Use Bread or Pizza Flour
You can use any Bread or Pizza Flour

Jamie's recipe will tell you to use 'Italian Tipo '00' flour but there's really no need. I've used lots of different bread and pizza flours and they've always come out well. I just tend to use whatever I've bought on offer at the supermarket!


How to Make Homemade Pizza Dough in a Bread Maker...


  1. Add the flour, salt, caster sugar and oil to the bread maker.

  2. Using a measuring jug, measure out 325ml of lukewarm water.

  3. Add the yeast to the water and stir (water must be lukewarm to activate the yeast)

  4. Add the water and yeast mix to the bread maker.

  5. Set your bread maker to the 'dough' setting and press Start (takes about 90 minutes).


If you don't have a bread maker you can simply knead everything together yourself. It just takes a little more time and effort. Here's Jamie's method - Jamie's Pizza Dough.


Homemade Pizza Dough

When your ready to make the pizza bases, take the pizza dough out of the bread making machine. Use a plain white flour on your surface and roll out your pizza dough to the required size. My kids like to roll out their bases into heart and face shapes! Just keep sprinkling with flour so the dough doesn't stick. Don't be shy with the flour!


Part bake your bases! We use pizza trays to part bake the pizzas bases as its easier to transfer to the oven, but if you don't have pizza trays, you can use a baking tray. Pop your pizza bases into the oven at around 180 degrees for about 8 minutes, or just until they are starting to get a little colour. You want them sturdy enough to add your toppings to, but not yet cooked.


Part Baked Pizza Bases
Part Bake the Pizza Bases

Pizza Dough Ingredient Substitutions...


  • Flour – I've made pizza dough loads of times and used various flours including white bread flour, wholemeal bread flour, pizza flour and I've tried a seeded bread flour too which turned out amazing. Jamie will tell you to use 'Italian Tipo '00' flour but just use whatever is cheapest at the supermarket!

  • Oil - olive oil is usually used in pizza dough recipes, but if you don't have any, just use what you have such as a vegetable oil or sunflower oil. It really doesn't matter!

  • Sugar - if you don't have caster sugar, just use granulated!



Pizza Dough Variations...


  • Garlic or Herbs – get creative and throw some garlic or herbs into your pizza dough! The beauty about making 'homemade' is you can adapt to your personal tastes.

  • Can't be bothered? - there's no need to make your own pizza dough. You can buy shop-bought pizza dough or pre-made pizza bases or you can just use a pitta bread or a naan bread as your base and add your own toppings! 🤩



Build your own Pizza!


This is the fun bit! The kids LOVE making their own pizzas and we regularly make homemade pizzas on a Saturday night as it ticks the 'family entertainment' box too! 😆


Literally, anything goes when it comes to building your own pizza. The best part about pizza building is that you can use up any scraps from the fridge or freezer. I buy random bits I find in the reduced section that I can use on pizza and throw them in the freezer until I need them. We scored big time in the Co-op recently and bought 4 cured sausages for 50p each down from almost £10 each. They were fabulous for Pizza Night!


Homemade Pizza Ingredients
Anything goes when you Build your own Pizza!

Tomato Sauce - I often make a Homemade tomato sauce which is perfect as a pizza sauce, but if you don't have the ingredients (or can't be bothered to make homemade) you can use a jar of 'pizza sauce' or a jar of Passata. You can pick up a jar of Passata for around £1.05 or cheaper. We used a jar of Waitrose Essential Passata, actually we only used half the jar for pizzas and used the rest up in a sauce pasta sauce the next evening.


BBQ Sauce - you can also of course opt for a barbecue pizza sauce if you're not keen on traditional tomato pizza sauce. Barbecue pizza sauce goes particularly well with chicken or onions. You can just use a regular shop bought BBQ sauce and add it as a pizza sauce.


Kids Build their own Pizza
Get the kids involved building their own pizzas

Cheese - use whatever you have! A cheddar cheese is great and if you can find a cheap bag of mozzarella then great! We've also tried goats cheese on ours... literally anything goes! If you're going with cheddar it's (usually) cheaper to buy a large block and grate what you need rather than buying pre-grated cheese.


Toppings - you can literally use up any food scraps from your fridge! Peppers, onion, roast chicken, ham, spinach, salami, cheese pieces, mushrooms, tomatoes, roast potatoes, garlic, herbs, chilli.... anything goes! Just chop it up and throw it on... 👍


If the kids are getting involved, you can chop up the veg and meats etc for them to just build their own pizza. I've found this to be a great way for the kids to eat veg too as they want to make faces using the veggies on their pizza!


Once you've built your pizza, pop them in the oven at around 180 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the edges have started to brown. Once cooked, take the pizzas from the oven and sit them on a wire cooling rack for a few minutes. This will give you a crispy pizza base! 😋😋


Build your own homemade pizza
Homemade Pizza
Enjoy those Homemade Pizzas! 🍕🍕



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