Made-in-advance cracker-like pizza crust recipes?

November 7, 2008 3:08 AM

Quick Pizza: What is the fastest way that I can have a pizza-resembling thing in my mouth without buying anything premade? Rules allow for pre-making things at home, as long as those things keep and don't take up too much space.

Last passover time, I had a box of matzo in the house and realized that if I dumped tomato sauce and cheese on top of a matzo, and stuck that in the toaster for 5 minutes, suddenly I had a pizza-resembling thing in my mouth that tasted awesome and took care of lunch. Unfortunately, matzo is *really* *expensive* out here.

So, basically, I could use some pre-made crust/large cracker recipes that are good and don't get stale rapidly (I.e., where I could spend a sunday and make enough crusts for 2 weeks, and at the end of the 2nd week, they're still actually usable). Bonus points for not requiring refrigeration/freezing (our fridge/freezer is 4 feet tall, total).

Thanks!

posted by sdis to food & drink (19 comments total)

English muffin + sauce + shredded cheese + toaster oven = English muffin pizza.
posted by knave at 3:11 AM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Yes. And you can do the above with crumpets, which are particularly good because the sauce and cheese sinks into the holes. Takes 10 minutes.

Or, you could use a portobello mushroom.
posted by randomination at 3:17 AM on November 7, 2008

No pre-made includes the pizza base, right? So you want to build a mini pizza from scratch.
posted by zippy at 3:31 AM on November 7, 2008

You certainly could make your own dough, roll it out, and then freeze it on a sheet pan until hard. Transfer to a plastic freezer bag and store until you want it. You'll want to test cooking temp and times and whether to thaw or not in your own oven, but it'll work.
posted by Science! at 3:35 AM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

If you're willing to count flat loaves of Lebanese bread as "not pre-made", use those.

If not, you can make damper dough and roll it into a flat round shape, and it works surprisingly well as pizza base.

The simplest damper dough is just self-raising flour with a little bit of salt and just enough water to make a dough that holds together rather than the runny glue you'd make for pancakes. Lots of damper recipes will tell you to mix well and knead, but in my experience, the more gently you mix your dough the better the texture of the baked product will be.

Plain flour and beer instead of self-raising and water makes an excellent damper, even if the beer is mass produced crap.
posted by flabdablet at 3:43 AM on November 7, 2008

Pizza frita: make and freeze pizza dough, then when you want pizza, defrost and roll out a portion of dough, then drop into a pan of hot vegetable oil (has to be medium-high hot or it will be greasy) for ~30 seconds per side. Top and grill. I personally will make home-made pizza in the oven again after discovering this.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-and-pizza/fried-pizza-fritta
posted by primer_dimer at 3:52 AM on November 7, 2008 [4 favorites]

Bagels, baguettes, english muffins, all work as pizza crusts with an absolute minimum of fuss. Granted, they aren't crackers, but works. Stick on some spaghetti sauce and cheese and whatever toppings you happen to like and you've got a pizza in less than 20 minutes with a minimum of cleanup. No prep work and nothing to wash.

On the other hand, though it's perhaps a little unconventional, you can do the same thing with corn chips in the microwave. Kind of like pizza nachos.
posted by valkyryn at 3:59 AM on November 7, 2008

Flour tortilla.
Spread with pesto.
Add crumbled feta, sundried tomatoes
Bake on a stone (or in a large toaster-oven) between 375-400 degrees for about 7 minutes.
Slice into quarters.
Thank me in the morning.

This works for any toppings. If you go with more traditional sauce and cheese, be sure to rub olive oil around the edges of the tortilla first.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:35 AM on November 7, 2008

At my supermarket they sell these little pouches of pre-made Naan (a Indian flatbread) that are delicious and the perfect size for an individual pizza. There are like three in a pouch, and while they don't last long once open, they keep reasonably well still sealed.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:58 AM on November 7, 2008

Pita bread + sauce + cheese = awesome. Esp. whole-wheat pitas.
posted by jbickers at 5:06 AM on November 7, 2008

For snacks, I like tortilla pizzas - put a tortilla in a pan, add sauce and cheese, turn the heat on and cover till the cheese is melted.
posted by entropone at 5:22 AM on November 7, 2008

Although you would probably have to experiment, you can make any kind of bread and then freeze it. I would assume that you can do the same thing with a pizza crust. So you can make a bunch of pizza crust at the same time by any recipe you can find (google pizza crust recipe) and cook them without any toppings. You would probably want them to cool before wrapping them in something that breathes a bit, like paper grocery bags. Although plastic wrap might work better (you might have to experiment with this). Then freeze them in your freezer. Anytime you want to use one, take it out unwrap it and put toppings on it, then put it in the oven.

For the purpose of this, I am assuming that you are counting any time of crust that you would buy as premade. You can also find recipes for pizza sauce made from tomatoes, this would also be easy to make a large batch and freeze in containers that would contain a single serving.

As far as making your own mozzarella, I have no idea =P. Farmer's cheese is pretty easy to make, you can find recipes on the internet for that too.
posted by jefeweiss at 5:32 AM on November 7, 2008

Rock Steady has the right idea. I've been purchasing frozen packets of Naan, either diced tomatoes in a can or a jar of sauce, and some cheese. It's super quick, and super tasty.
posted by Constant Reader at 5:41 AM on November 7, 2008

Depending on how pizza-like you're looking to go, I'm rather fond of the pizzadilla. A large tortilla filled with jarred sauce, cheese and pepperoni pan-fried like a quesadilla. It's done in no time and pretty damn tasty to boot.

Alternatively the tubes of biscuit dough make a pretty tasty pizza crust in a pinch.
posted by bookwo3107 at 6:08 AM on November 7, 2008

I make a lot of 'ghetto pizza' using pita wraps as the base. Add tomato sauce, grated cheese and your choice of toppings and put in a pre-heated 425 degree oven for a few minutes. Three of those make a pretty filling dinner for me. Four if I'm really hungry.
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 6:54 AM on November 7, 2008

Much like bookwo3107's pizadillas, I usually just do mozzarella and toppings (pepperoni, bell peppers, whatever's around and sounds good) in the quesadilla, then dip the cooked wedges in heated pizza or spaghetti sauce.

I'm not sure how homemade you want to go, since it sounds like the expense of matzo crackers was more of a concern to you than any ideal of "made with love" or something. So, I'm going to recommend the Contadina Pizza Squeeze. It's pizza sauce in a squeeze bottle, like ketchup, and it's usually stocked by the pizza sauce in grocery stores. I find that even a small can of pizza sauce is too much for an individual pizza for me, and I hate messing with tupperware for the leftovers (not to mention the moldy pizza sauce when a craving doesn't strike again soon enough). With the pizza squeeze, you just squirt out however much you need and throw the rest back in the fridge. It's not the world's best pizza sauce, but for a "pizza-resembling thing" it's perfect.

I'm doubtful of whether you'll get any recipes for non-refrigerated breads that will keep for 2+ weeks, since the majority of store-bought breads that keep that long are loaded with preservatives. The best I can offer you is this crust which mixes up fast if you keep the basic ingredients around. A tortilla or english muffin is certainly faster, but I would argue that this wins in the "taste to effort" ratio. You can use 1 1/4 cups of normal white flour if that's what you've got:

1/2 package dry yeast (1 heaping teaspoon, if you buy in bulk)
1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 c. unbleached white flour
1/2 c hot water (120-130 degrees, it should be just borderline too hot to touch)
1 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
salt to taste

Turn your oven on to 500 degrees. Combine the yeast, 1/4 c of each flour (or 1/2 cup of the normal stuff), and salt. Stir in water and oil. Stir in an additional 1/4 c of each flour (or 1/2 c of the normal stuff). Knead the dough in extra flour for about 5 minutes. Rest the dough for 5 minutes while you chop toppings and shred cheese, then roll or stretch into a 10-inch round. Top and bake for 15-20 minutes.

The hot water is key - you need it hot enough to warm the entire dough so the yeast will start working immediately, but not so hot that you kill the yeast. It's really not that hard, though, I promise. And if you've got a friend, double the recipe and make a 16-inch pizza.
posted by vytae at 8:01 AM on November 7, 2008

Nthing tortilla pizzas. I ate those a lot growing up.
posted by fructose at 9:10 AM on November 7, 2008

uh...why not just make real pizza? My roommate and I eat homemade pizza for our second dinner 2-3 times a week. It only takes a few minutes and the ingredients are usually ones you have on hand anyway. It goes like this:

1) Make the pizza dough early, any recipe will do.

Experiment with a few and see what you like best/lasts the longest. Split the dough into balls that when spread out are about what you want for 1 pizza. Put the dough into baggies and make sure to get all the air out possible and seal them up tight, either ziplock or twist tie. Depending on your dough recipe you may need to rub a very little bit of oil in the bag or outside of the dough. A very quick spray of non-stick oil would work to i guess. These last anywhere from 1.5-2 weeks. I have had them at 2.5 weeks also with only a little noticeable difference. Take the dough bag out 20 minutes before cooking and let sit at room temp.

[If this is to much work Trader Joes sells bags of dough for $1.50-2$)


2) The rest is self explanatory...you just put on what ever ingredients you want. Thing i always have on hand to do this:

Shredded mozzerella cheese
Marinara sauce (pasta sauce works too if its all you have)
Veggies (onions, peppers, etc)
pepperoni

Pretty much you just spread the sauce, cheese then ingredients. Put in a preheated oven at 350*F for 15-20 minutes.

With the prepared dough it takes about 5 minutes of prep work and then just 20 minutes in the oven.


I would estimate the cost of one of my pizzas is to be around $3 - $3.75.

As long as you have prepped dough this takes just as long as a tortilla / muffin / "x" pizza and is the real thing.
posted by Black_Umbrella at 9:49 AM on November 7, 2008

Bruschetta with melted cheese on some sort of bread like thing is amazingly pizza like, better, in my opinion.
posted by saxamo at 9:05 AM on November 8, 2008