Quick "Crazy Crust" Pizza

Last night I really wanted pizza but did not want to spend the money on delivery. Lets face it, by the time you pay tax, delivery fee and a tip for the driver, you could have bought three pizzas for carryout or stocked your freezer with DiGiorno, Tombstone, or Totinos pizzas from the grocery store. 

 

I've been going through my recipe box using recipes I've never tried or have not used in quite a while.  Fast food is convenient for sure but it is not always healthy or gentle on the monthly food budget. So if you have about an hour to spare - you can have pizza at the cost of a few pennies - maybe nickels and dimes.

 

This recipe makes up about one 12-14" crust which is enough for 2-4 people depending on whether you have a pizza monster. A pizza monster is cousin to the cookie monster.

 

Ingredients for the crust can be mixed up in the time it takes your oven to preheat to 425 degrees (give or take depending on how hot/cold your oven runs).

 

1 cup of flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. oregano

1/8 tsp. pepper

2 eggs

2/3 cup of milk

 

I also added 1 tsp. of McCormick Perfect Pinch Garlic & Herb seasoning into the dough mix.

I would think you could substitute a blend of Italian seasonings (rosemary, thyme, basil, etc.) if you did not want just oregano. Experiment.

 

Combine the crust ingredients in a large bowl. The mix will be runny like cake batter so the pan you use must have definite sides. I have a round pizza pan with about a 1/2" lip. If you only have a rectangular cookie sheet - use it.

 

The cookie sheet should be greased and floured.

 

Bake the crust in the oven at 425 degrees on the low rack for 20-30 minutes or until the edges turn brown. You can lift it a little towards the end to make sure you are also getting a nice golden color on the bottom.

 

 The crust will appear bubbly - don't worry about trying to "pop" the bubbles. Once you take it out of the oven to add sauce and cheese, the bubbles will deflate almost entirely.

For the sauce I used what little spaghetti sauce I had left in a jar.  It does not take a lot of sauce. You will want to spread it out to the edge but not all the way to the edge, maybe about 1/4 to 1/2" from the edge. Sprinkle your cheese (your choice) over the sauce and pop back into the oven for about 10-15 minutes on the low rack in the oven. Remove, cut and serve.

 

My oven is sensitive - or rather - my smoke detector is sensitive. So I put my sauced and cheesed pizza on the middle rack for about 8 minutes to melt the cheese. Then I set the oven on broil for about 3 minutes to get the top of the cheese a little golden. If you broil, keep checking on it. It can go from golden to burnt in a matter of seconds.

One additional thing I did to the edge of the crust - I sprinkled garlic powder on the edges before putting it back in the oven. Once it came out with the cheese all gooey and melted, I brushed the edge with butter and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

 

All in all, the pizza was very tasty.  The crust edges were nice and crispy but the rest was maybe a tad chewy.  This could be a result of baking it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes (my oven is not typical).