The secret to making easy homemade pizza is in the crust! Well to be more specific it is in having the crust already prepared. The crust is time consuming part when you are thinking about making a pizza and likely why more people will choose ordering in on those busy days. It is often just too much to think about going home and taking the time to make the dough. The tip we have for you here is to make a big batch of dough on a day when you have the time, portion it out into pizza portion sizes and freeze it. On those pizza nights, just take your ready made dough from the freezer, let it sit while you are heating up the oven, roll it out, put on the toppings, pop it in the oven and in no time at all the aroma of fresh pizza will be filling the air.

To get the crispiest of crusts bake your pizza peel directly on a hot baking stone. As not everyone has a baking stone, you can also use a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a pizza pan. The recipe ingredients amounts here will make you 12 eight inch pizzas. This dough freezes well and you can make less if you want or double the recipe easily to have lots of pizza dough available.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups lukewarm water*

1 tbsp granulated yeast

1 to 1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt

7 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1/3 cup tomato topping (Use sliced, garden-fresh tomatoes, Italian-style plum tomatoes straight from the can, or prepared tomato sauce, with or without seasonings.)

Fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch chunks or slices

6 fresh basil leaves, whole, thinly slivered or torn

Olive oil for drizzling over pizza

Flour, cornmeal or parchment for pizza peel

* Substitute 1/3 cup of olive oil for 1/3 cup of water for a really flavorful, slightly richer dough.

The second part of being able to make up your pizza easily is to be sure to have the toppings at your fingertips. A great way to do this is also to plan ahead. When you are making up your dough, also make up portion sizes of some of the toppings that can be frozen, such as the meats. Place the desired amount for one pizza of deli sliced meats into freezer bags. If you have a variety of cold meats, be sure to label the bags. Freeze these portions to have at the ready for the pizza.

The same goes with the pizza sauce. If you buy a large can of your favorite sauce, portion it out into freezer bags as well.

Cheese can be frozen as well. You can have all you need to make your pizza ready to go. What a time saver!

You have the option to freeze your pizza dough in balls, or you can pre-roll to disks. Just be sure to put each portion into its own freezer bag and seal it well. You can also defrost your pizza makings in the refrigerator the night before or morning of your pizza meal.