Our favorite pizza has been made with a KitchenAid mixer, homemade from scratch for the last few years. With one batch recipe, I can get three crusts that are 14′ across. For each meal, we typically make six pizzas, because leftovers are the best! This post is all about how to make pizza dough using a Food Processor.
Since making homemade pizza these last few years, we have come up with more than a dozen different varieties. Some are basic like sausage while others are more complex like crab Rangoon. We use BBQ, Alfredo, Marinara and Ranch for sauces. Shredding mozzarella, parmesan and asiago cheeses make a fantastic blend without making the pizza greasy. Cheddar cheese has a tendency to add grease to the pizza when the cheese melts. If we do add it, it is in a very sporadic and limited amount.
So far I have really enjoyed my Cuisinart Food Processor. My mother-in-law Christina gifted me this beaut for a joint Christmas & Birthday gift. Do you name your gadgets? I typically do not, but I feel she needs a name! Let me know some names you think my chrome food processor needs!
It took me a few months to bust it out and read the manual. In July I had a major surgery and took a few months off for recovery. Before that, I just didn’t have the initiative to get her out and practice. But for the dozen times I have used my Cuisinart, it has been an epic success. Just today, as I am writing this blog, I am engulfed in the smell of a lasagna cooking in the oven made with homemade pasta; prepped in the Cuisinart Food Processor. I cannot wait to taste it! After years of trying to make “the best pasta”, I think I have nailed the perfect one, thanks to my Cuisinart!
Cost Breakdown to Make This Pizza Dough
Making dinner to feed a family of six is a weekly battle. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE to cook! But it seems like every six months our food consumption doubles. Well, maybe not doubles… but it has increased by $20! $150 to $170 is a big increase on one income. With a husband who is 6’4″ and three boys, two of which are almost as tall as my 5’6″, I am sure that our food budget will blow up in the next decade. So, to combat this ever growing conundrum, I look for recipes that get the most bang for our buck. I can make six pizzas, from scratch, for half the price of buying them. And let me be clear, I am cheap. I do not buy the $10 pizzas either. This thrifty momma of four buys the “el-cheapo” $2 pizzas if we are in a pinch.
If we would buy pizzas at our local takeout, we would still need six pizzas and at a whopping $16.99 each. That is a grand total of $101.94 for six pizzas. WITHOUT delivery charge. Y’all, that is 3/4 of our food budget for a week. So, I make dinners from scratch.
6 2/3 cups flour $0.80
4 1/2 teaspoon yeast $0.10
2 teaspoon sugar $0.04
2 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt $0.01
6 teaspoons oil $0.06
This was a doubled recipe and I made four pizzas out of the two doughs this time.
The total cost to make four pizzas, for dough alone, was $1.01.
$1.01 is a price I can get behind! That is $0.17 a pizza for crust.
With all of the rest of the ingredients, pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, alfredo ingredients, tomatoes… The total cost to make four pizzas for this meal, using my Cuisinart Food Processor to make a double batch of pizza dough, was under $10.00.
Not bad for an hour of work!
Had I bought my “el-cheapo” pizzas at the grocery store at $2.85 each, we would have needed 6-8. Literally.
Eight pizzas, bought from ALDI, would be $22.80. And those are just sausage, pepperoni, or cheese with marinara on a thin crust.
To be a true comparison, my pizzas in size and ingredients, would be more like the Take & Bake style pizza that ALDI sells for $6.59 each. They are fresh and really delicious. But still, that is around $39.54 for six pizzas like I would make. I love saving our family money!
*ALDI and INSTACART are not sponsors for this post*
15.4 oz
$2.85
30.5 oz
$6.59
Food Processor Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients:
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/3 cups water
3 1/3 cup flour
1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 teaspoons oil
Directions:
1. In a measuring cup, mix 1 1/3 cup water into 1 teaspoon sugar and 2 1/4 teaspoon yeast.
**Pro-Tip** I buy yeast in a bulk amount. A 2-pound container at a local grocery store is $7.29. That is 700 times I can use a recipe calling for 2 1/4 tsp, or 243 times with a serving size of 3 tsp or 1 Tablespoon. That comes to a cost of $0.03 per Tablespoon!
2. Let the mixture rest for 3-10 minutes or until frothy.
3. Insert the metal blade into the base of the Cuisinart Food Processor.
4. Measure 3 1/3 cup flour and put it into the processor bowl.
5. Measure and add the 1 1/4 teaspoon salt and add it to the flour.
6. Cover and turn on the machine and pour the frothy yeast mixture in the tube and process for 45 seconds.
7. Add the 3 teaspoons oil one at a time and process for an additional 60 seconds.
8. If dough sticks to the sides of the bowl add more flour, 1 Tbsp at a time, until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl.
9. Roll the dough on a clean and floured surface into a circle, rotating the dough often so the circle is even. I made this dough into two pizza crusts so it was initially cut in half. Use a rolling pin, roll the dough to a 14-inch circle; making sure to rotate the dough often so it stays even.
10. Oil baking sheet slightly and sprinkle with cornmeal so the dough does not stick; lay the rolled out crust onto a baking sheet. I feel the cornmeal on the baking sheet adds to the overall flavor and gives the pizza a more “authentic” texture like it was fresh from an Italian Pizzeria.
11. Prepare your pizza and bake at 400 degrees for 17-19 minutes. This was a mushroom alfredo pizza with green onions. You guys, it was SOOOOOO good! Alfredo is always homemade in our house.
Alfredo Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups stock
1/3 cup of each asiago, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses
Directions:
1. Melt 4 Tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan.
2. Add 1/4 cup flour and whisk into melted butter. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
3. SLOWLY add stock and whisk into the flour and butter until smooth.
4. Add cheese by the handful and whisk until smooth.
5. Season your alfredo with salt, pepper or any other seasonings you prefer.
*Lately ours has had dried dill! It is super delicious.*
Making pizza dough from scratch is so easy to do with the right tools. I have in the past used just a spoon to make dough, and let me tell you… it is not fun. And quite messy. Making it in a KitchenAid mixer was a life saver! And now, with a food processor, my life just got easier. Just add the ingredients, turn on the processor, let it do it’s thing, and voila… pizza dough!
Food Processor Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/3 cups water
3 1/3 cup flour
1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 teaspoons oil
Directions
1. In a measuring cup, mix 1 1/3 cup water into 1 teaspoon sugar and 2 1/4 teaspoon yeast.
2. Let the mixture rest for 3-10 minutes or until frothy.
3. Insert the metal blade into the base of the Cuisinart Food Processor.
4. Measure 3 1/3 cup flour and put it into the processor bowl.
5. Measure and add the 1 1/4 teaspoon salt and add it to the flour.
6. Cover and turn on the machine and pour the frothy yeast mixture in the tube and process for 45 seconds.
7. Add the 3 teaspoons oil one at a time and process for an additional 60 seconds.
8. If dough sticks to the sides of the bowl add more flour, 1 Tbsp at a time, until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl.
9. Roll the dough on a clean and floured surface into a circle, rotating the dough often so the circle is even.
10. Oil baking sheet slightly and sprinkle with cornmeal so the dough does not stick.
11. Prepare your pizza and bake at 400 degrees for 17-19 minutes.
