Mini Pizzas with Homemade Pizza Crust and Sauce

 

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

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

Yield: 2 dozen mini pizzas

Homemade Mini Pizzas

Print

Tasty pizza with homemade dough and homemade pizza sauce. You can make them any size you want!

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

Pizza Sauce:

• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• 1/4 tsp dry oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/8 tsp onion powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Pizza Crust:

• 2 1/4 tsp SAF instant yeast
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 1/2 cups flour (approximately)

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

-You can make 2 large pizzas instead of 12 mini pizzas. Prebake crust for 7 minutes, then bake an additional 15-20 minutes.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 322Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 633mgCarbohydrates: 59gFiber: 3gSugar: 2gProtein: 9g

Originally posted 11/08/2008. Updated September 2019.

See all my MAIN DISH RECIPES.