I’m a hospitality junky. Any opportunity to bring someone to our house and feed them, I’m all over it.
Up until last year, we lived in studio apartments and one apartment where the cigarette smoke was so thick you could bite it (thank you neighbors). Kind of hard (if not cruel) to invite people into your home that way. So when we finally got a living room (and something for people to sit on, which was another story), I was thrilled.
One frugal way to turn a simple dinner party into a fun memorable evening is by making your own mini pizzas. Serve them on homemade pizza dough with gourmet toppings in mismatched glass and ceramic containers. Easy, tasty, cute, fun.
After all, almost everyone loves pizza, and it tastes even better if it looks cute too.
Ingredients:
- 1 Batch of your favorite homemade pizza dough, rolled into balls and sitting in a bowl with a damp rag over them (I like to to use a variation of my very-little-bother-bread, recipe below). Plan to make one pizza per person, then make a few extras in case
- Place any or all of the following toppings in small bowls and jars of assorted sizes (They don’t need to match. In fact, it’s more fun if they don’t!):
- Pizza sauce
- Mozzarella cheese or Italian blend shredded cheese
- Parmesan cheese
- Baked chicken, cut into chunks
- Pepperoni
- Green, yellow, orange, or red peppers, sliced
- Fresh sliced tomatoes
- Roasted garlic (broil it in a toaster oven for five minutes each side)
- Caramelized onions
- Sliced olives
- Olive oil, to drizzle
- Cornmeal, to sprinkle on the pans before placing the dough on them (optional)
After the guests arrive, simply roll out fist-sized balls of dough (photo below), place them on the cookie sheets, and allow everyone to top their pizzas accordingly. Bake, following the directions of your preferred pizza dough recipe. Play some Italian or big band music, and round out the night with a loud, creative group game, like Last Word, Taboo, or Catch Phrase.
Fun, memorable evening, and the most expensive part was the $3 bag of pepperoni.
Very-Little-Bother Pizza Dough
(Credit for this recipe goes to my mom – homemaker extraordinaire)
Makes about 2 large pizza crusts or 6-8 mini pizzas
INGREDIENTS
- 2 1/2 C. Warm water
- 1 T. Yeast
- 1 T. Honey
- 1/3 C. Olive oil (can substitute coconut oil or butter in a pinch)
- 2 t. Salt
- 6 – 7 C. Freshly ground whole wheat flour (white flour or a combination of the two also works)
- 1 T. Grated parmesan cheese
- 1 t. Garlic powder
- 1 t. Dried basil
- 1 t. Dried oregano (may substitute dried Italian herbs for basil and oregano)
DIRECTIONS
- Place water, yeast, and honey in a small bowl
- Stir it together then let it sit until bubbly
- Meanwhile, Combine salt, herbs, cheese, and 6 cups of flour in a large bowl
- Add oil to the liquid mixture, then add the liquids to the dry mixture
- Stir until dough becomes stiff
- Knead in the bowl or on a floured surface, adding flour as necessary until dough is smooth and no longer sticky (should only take about a minute)
- Cover bowl with a clean, dry towel, and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes
- FOR LARGE PIZZAS:
- Take half of the dough and place it in the center of a buttered cookie sheet
- Using your hands, smooth and flatten the dough to the edges of the cookie sheet, creating a uniformly thin crust
- Top as desired and bake at 415 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly
- FOR PERSONAL PIZZAS:
- Take small wads of dough (see picture below), and roll them out in flat circles, using a rolling pin
- Top as desired and bake at 415 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-15 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly
Do you have any frugal entertaining secrets? Any recipe that you always turn to because it’s an inexpensive, reliable crowd-pleaser? Let’s talk about them in the comments!
8 comments
4 pings
Trish
08/23/2010 at 4:34 PM (UTC -6)
Forgive my dubiousness, but does this crust really work with 100% whole wheat flour? I would love to do that, but have always (like a sheep) followed the advice to use some white flour. I mean, the crust doesn’t end up with a hockey puck-ish consistency? This really is a great idea for entertaining.
Steph
08/24/2010 at 3:48 PM (UTC -6)
Trish – Great question. I’ve made homemade hockey-pucks before, thanks to the density of whole wheat flour. So far, I’ve had great luck with the consistency of this recipe. I think the keys are NOT adding too much flour and NOT kneading it too much – just enough to hold it together. Letting it rise at least one time also helps the consistency.
Also… do you use freshly ground whole wheat flour? In my experience, store bought whole wheat flour turns my baking a lot more dense, because essentially the store bought stuff is rancid – whole wheat flour loses most of it’s nutrients after only 48 hours of being ground. After that, it’s a lot harder to work with anyway.
Natalie
08/24/2010 at 7:00 PM (UTC -6)
Most of the time my hosting recipes are pretty expensive but i do love to do breakfast parties… All day long! Most dont have to have meat and i think its even fun for none cooks to try making breakfast foods for the 1st time with friends! These foods are generally cheaper than dinner and u can be very creative with it. Last time i did it we worshiped with our community group on a sunday making a big breakfast together!
Steph
08/25/2010 at 5:11 PM (UTC -6)
Natalie – Sounds fantastic!
Jennifer
03/30/2011 at 11:19 AM (UTC -6)
Love it! Any suggestions for other easy options to accompany the pizzas?
Steph
03/30/2011 at 12:04 PM (UTC -6)
Jennifer – Glad you like it! Since writing this post, I’ve also successfully served toppings like cooked turkey bacon, little sausages, a garlic sauce (as an alternative to classic pizza sauce), and this weekend I’m planning to offer spinach, Kalamata olives, and sundried tomatoes.
Amy Trujillo
03/12/2012 at 8:31 AM (UTC -6)
Steph- I’m hosting my son’s birthday party this weekend for around 50 people, any suggestions for quantity of toppings?
Steph
03/12/2012 at 1:53 PM (UTC -6)
Whew, good question. I’ve never made it for that many people, but here is what I might do: Make a list of the toppings I’m planning to offer and order them from most popular to least popular (example: pepperoni would probably be on the top while roasted garlic and anchovies might be closer to the bottom). Then I might assume that if everyone puts at least 3 peices of pepperoni on their pizza (some won’t use any, some will use more, I’ll need a package(s) of at least 150 peices, or 10 ounces (found this resource for measuring ingredients you might use: http://southernfood.about.com/library/info/blequiv.htm). And go on down the list. You’ll probably need 1/4 cup cheese (or 2 ounces) for each pizza, spinach might take 1-2 bags, depending on whether your guests are mosty kids or adults, etc.
That’s one way.
But honestly, if it was me, beyond calculating the pepperoni, crust, sauce, and cheese, I would probably just buy a lot of most everything else and whatever is leftover would go in the freezer to top our pizzas, casseroles, etc. in the future.
Hope that helps and that you have a fantastic birthday party! How old is your son turning?
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