Mini Pizzas from Scratch
Making your own pizza at home isn’t hard! The best thing about making homemade pizza is that you have total control over the ingredients, so you can make a better quality pizza. Need a lighter pizza? Use less cheese and meat, and add more veggies. It’s totally up to you.
I don’t keep pizza sauce on hand, so I love this simple recipe for homemade sauce. I always have the ingredients on hand, and it is a cinch to whip up. Plus, it makes just enough for one batch of pizza, so I don’t have to store any leftover sauce.
Ingredients needed for homemade pizza sauce:
- tomato sauce
- dried oregano
- dried basil
- onion powder
- salt
- garlic
Combine all the sauce ingredients together in a saucepan and heat just till simmering. Remove from heat. Alternately, you can combine the ingredients an hour or two before you want to make pizza and chill the sauce till the flavors blend together.
Homemade Pizza Crust
It’s true that you can make pizzas from a canned biscuits, canned pizza dough, or even flour tortillas. But nothing beats the fresh flavor of a chewy, made from scratch pizza crust. Because you want your dough to be chewy as opposed to light and fluffy like bread, there is no rise time. You can have pizza in the oven in just minutes!
Ingredients needed for homemade pizza crust:
- yeast (I use SAF instant yeast)
- sugar (white sugar or brown sugar will both work)
- warm water
- salt (adds flavor, and keeps the yeast from rising too much)
- olive oil
- all purpose flour
Combine yeast, sugar, and warm water in a large bowl and let sit for about 10 minutes. Add salt, olive oil, and enough flour to make a soft dough. You can let the dough raise, but you don’t have to. Break the dough into about 12 pieces, and roll or press them into circles. Place on baking sheets that have been sprayed with non stick cooking spray. Poke all over with a fork. Prebake mini pizza crusts at 475 degrees for about 5 minutes.
Remove crusts from oven and spread with pizza sauce. Top with cheese and any other toppings you desire. For these pizzas, I just added cheese and pepperoni, but the possibilities are endless. My family also used ham, pineapple, olives, and green peppers. Other times we’ve used sausage, onions, and even chicken and tomatoes. Get creative!
After you have all of the toppings on the pizzas, pop them back into the hot oven. Bake till the crust is golden brown and the cheese in the center of the pizza is melted.
How long do mini pizzas take to cook?
If you prebake the crust, the pizzas only need an additional 10 minutes or so, sometimes less. The more toppings you add, the longer it will take to bake them. Pre-baking helps ensure that the crust won’t be soggy even if you pile on the toppings.
Of course, you can skip the pre baking step, and just cook them for about 15 minutes. I just think it makes the final results a little more delicious.
If I don’t want mini pizza, can I just make regular size pizza with this recipe?
Absolutely! You can make two medium sized pizzas (about 12″ across). You will need to prebake the crusts for 7 minutes, then bake for an additional 15-20 minutes after you add the toppings. If you like a lot of sauce, you may want to double the sauce recipe.
So yummy!
Suggested pizza toppings:
- mozzarella cheese, or a mix of mozzarella and cheddar, pepper jack, or your favorite cheese
- ground sausage, Italian sausage, or sliced smoked sausage
- pepperoni or salami
- green bell pepper, yellow or red peppers
- sliced ham or Canadian bacon
- crumbled bacon
- diced onion or sliced green onions
- sliced olives
- pineapple tidbits
- sliced or diced tomatoes
- diced or shredded cooked chicken
- fresh basil or spinach leaves
What do you like to put on your pizza?
What can I serve with Mini Pizzas?
- Green Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing
- Corn on the cob, or even Skillet Fried Corn
- Carrots and Zucchini
- Frozen vegetables
MORE KID FRIENDLY DINNER RECIPES:
- Taco Soup
- Grilled Pork Chops
- Ham Potato Bake
- Cheeseburger Biscuit Cups
- Creamy Chicken Pasta with Bacon
Mini Pizza Recipe
Homemade Mini Pizzas
Ingredients
Pizza Sauce:
- 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
- ¼ tsp dry oregano
- ½ tsp dried basil
- ⅛ tsp onion powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 clove garlic minced
Pizza Crust:
- 2 ¼ tsp SAF instant yeast
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 ½ cups warm water
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 ½ cups flour approximately
Toppings
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- Optional: pepperoni sausage, canadian bacon, peppers, olives, mushrooms, pineapple, bacon, etc.
Instructions
Sauce
- 1. Heat all ingredients in a saucepan or in the microwave. (Or you can make it an hour ahead of time and let it sit to achieve similar results.)
Crust
- 1. Mix yeast, sugar, and water in a large bowl and let sit 10 minutes.
- 2. Add salt, olive oil, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead a few times just till smooth.
To Bake
- 1. Preheat oven to 475 °. Divide dough into 12 pieces. Roll or press each piece of dough into pans that have been greased. I like to sprinkle the pans with cornmeal, but this is totally optional.
- 2. Poke holes in crust with a fork. Bake for about 5 minutes.
- 3. Remove pizza crusts from oven. Spread with sauce and toppings and bake at 475° for about 10 more minutes or until crust is golden and cheese is melted.
Notes
- Serving size is 2 mini pizzas.
- You can make 2 large pizzas instead of 12 mini pizzas. Prebake crust for 7 minutes, then bake an additional 15-20 minutes.
Nutrition
Originally posted 11/08/2008. Updated September 2019.
See all my MAIN DISH RECIPES.
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I almost never leave comments but had to for this recipe. It came together quick and the kids really enjoyed it! I’m wondering if you’ve ever experimented with adding sourdough discard to this for a boost of flavor?
Funny you should ask that – just this week I started experimenting with sourdough discard crust! I’m still testing it, but even the first batch was pretty dang yummy. I just need to keep tweaking to get it perfect. 🙂
We love these pizzas! I make them every 2 weeks without fail. We eat some fresh and I freeze the rest for my girls school lunches and they are perfect every time.
I am so happy that you are making them so often! I love the idea of freezing them for school lunches. My daughter would love that!
Have you tried making the crust & baking it one day? And then finishing the pizzas with toppings the next?
Yes, I have done that and it works great. You can just wrap up the crusts and store them at room temperature or even in the fridge. I’ve also had great results freezing them for another day. 🙂
This pizza base recipe is fantastic. I had to add flour because where we live is extremely humid. Fortunately I cook bread a lot so knew what I was looking for. But they cooked up beautifully. The base is soft and chewy. I made them up and refrigerated them for lunches. A real winner.
So glad you loved them Mindy! I live in a desert, so I can see why you would need to add more flour than I do. 🙂
Thank you! The recipe looks great and I can’t wait to make it. I am a bit confused about the amounts. At the top, it states to yield “2 dozens” but later refers to “12 pieces” and under “Nutritional Information” it says “Yield:6”. How many mini pizzas should the recipe yield and what is the rough diameter of one? Looking forward to making these!
Sorry, that was confusing. It should have said it makes 1 dozen mini pizzas. One serving is 2 mini pizzas. I’ve updated the recipe to make it more clear. Hope you enjoy them!
Can the mini pizza be frozen for quick snacks
I haven’t tried it, but I think they should be just fine frozen. I’d let them cool, wrap them individually, then place them in ziplock bags. It’s definitely worth a try!
Can I make these pizzas on regular baking pans instead of a pizza stone? I never made pizza on anything other than my pizza stone
I am quite the baker and I bake thing such as cheesecake, angel food cake, etc. I absolutely love this recipe!!! 😊 thank you!
I’ve never actually made angel food cake from scratch, but I really should. Glad you love the pizza recipe!
Can we freeze the dough for next day? Do u recommend prebaking then freeze or no bake at all till the next day? Thank you☺️
I think you could probably freeze the dough, but it would probably be better to just pre-bake and freeze the crust.
This is a great way to serve pizza when the kids have their friends over – no more fighting over what topping to have on a shared pizza since they have their own.
My kids would love these mini pizzas! They’re the best easy weeknight meal!
About how many people does this recipe feed or how many pizzas does it make? What size?
Thank you!
It should serve 6-8 people.
Thanks!! Super easy, quick and yummy!! Kids loved them.
This looks delicious, Kara! My kids love making their own pizzas too. Thanks for using our SAF yeast 🙂
Thanks Carol! I really do love SAF yeast. 🙂