Imagine coming home to a freezer stocked full of Homemade Frozen Pizzas, ready to pop straight into the oven. Cooked from frozen, I have a cheeky tip to make sure your pizzas come out fabulously crispy. The ultimate economical freezer meal – these cost $2 each!
These frozen pizzas are a freezer meal favourite along with Burritos, Cannelloni, Lasagna and hearty Beef Stew!
Homemade Frozen Pizzas
I always feel smug when I know I have a stash of really good freezer meals. My favourites are things like burritos, stews, soups, quesadillas, garlic bread (BEST standby ever!), lasagna and these homemade frozen pizzas.
I have grand plans to do an Ultimate Homemade Pizza Guide one of these days, complete with homemade pizza dough options and the RecipeTin Family pizza menu. Until such day arrives, you’ll need to make do with my quick ‘n easy pizza made with store bought flatbreads. 🙂
I like to make big batches and freeze them so I have a stash of homemade frozen pizzas ready to cook on command!
Flatbreads for pizza base
Throw-together pizzas are a staple quick meal for many households, I expect. Though I wonder – do most people use store bought pizza bases?
I can honestly put my hand on heart and say that I have never in my life used a store bought pizza base. That is – something sold labelled as a pizza base. Because I balk at the price of just ONE pizza base – usually around $3 each. And because I know that using Greek pita bread makes a terrific base for a thin and crispy pizza – for $0.40 each ($4 for a 10 pack).
Here’s the flatbread I use. It’s labelled as “Greek Pitta Bread” and it’s supposed to be used as a wrap for things like Greek Chicken Gyros. But it’s perfect for pizzas because they are thicker than tortillas / usual wraps (see comparison below to tortilla – it’s about twice as thick). I get mine from Harris Farms and I’ve seen them in other fruit & veg stores as well as Middle Eastern grocery stores.
Lebanese Bread is a great alternative which I use frequently too. I find that it’s a little drier used as a pizza base because they are like pockets so they’re comprised of two thin layers, whereas the Pitta Bread is more like a thick tortilla. However, they are still terrific used as a pizza base and they are crispier. These are sold in supermarkets in Australia (Woolies, Coles) but they are cheaper in Harris Farms and from Mediterranean / Middle Eastern stores!!
Homemade Pizza Sauce
You may find this ironic, but I use store bought pizza bases with homemade pizza sauce. I’m weird like that. I have this “line” when it comes to store bought things.
Bread is on the “buy” side.
Sauces are on the “make” side.
So I’ve made this recipe using a homemade pizza sauce. But actually, I think it might cost around the same or possibly a bit cheaper if you make 10 pizzas using a store bought pizza sauce!
Pizza Toppings
As for toppings, it always catches me by surprise how little is required to top a pizza. And also because you don’t want to overload the pizza because a) it compromises the crispy base b) the more you put on, the higher risk of it all sliding off when you take a bite (talking from first hand experience, hot melty cheese and toppings on chin = painful).
I actually measured the exact amount of toppings I used for each pizza. 25g / 3/4 oz salami. 10g / 0.33 oz olives, 1 1/2 mushrooms. 1/10th of a green capsicum and onion. 2.5 tablespoons of pizza sauce. And 75g / 2.5oz shredded cheese.
Just to be clear – that’s 10g / 0.33 oz olives. Not 8g. Just to be absolutely exact…. 😂
Set up an assembly line, and knock these out one by one. My recipe makes 10 pizzas because I like to use the entire packet of flatbread.
Best way to cook pizzas from frozen
As for how to cook these Homemade Frozen Pizzas, these are Thin and Crispy pizzas, and this is the best way I know how to make the crispiest pizzas in an everyday home oven – by cooking them directly on the rack. (Obviously make sure it is clean!)
Or, if you want to be more normal and/or have these pizza baking trays with holes in them, they will work just fine too. BUT not as crispy as baking them straight on the rack (plus you can fit 2 on each rack, if you have 2 racks that’s 4 pizzas in the oven in one go).
I called this recipe $2 Homemade Frozen Pizzas so I have a $20 budget to account for which I’ve broken down in the recipe below. I live in Sydney, Australia, which is a notoriously expensive city to live in, so especially those of you who live in the States will probably be able to make these even cheaper. 🙂 Plus, I used branded products for everything, rather than value brands.
So…. what do you think? Especially for those of you with busy schedules, I hope you find this useful!
Oh – and I know that this recipe is pretty Australia-specific in terms of the flatbread that I use. I would LOVE recommendations from readers in other countries for flatbreads that are ideal to use for pizza that I can then add into the recipe notes to help other people! – Nagi xx
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
$2 Homemade Frozen Pizzas recipe video!
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$2 Homemade Frozen Pizzas
Ingredients
- 10 Greek pita bread (thick round flatbreads, 25cm / 10" diameter) (Note 1)
- 250 g / 8 oz salami sliced , chopped
- 3/4 cup / 100 g sliced black olives , drained
- 1 large green capsicum / bell pepper , sliced
- 1 large red onion , chopped
- 15 medium mushrooms , sliced (~golf ball size)
- 400 g / 14 oz / 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 300 - 350 g / 10 - 12 oz / 3.5 cups shredded Monterey Jack , Tasty, Cheddar or other melting cheese of choice, or more mozzarella (Note 2)
Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce (Note 3):
- 1/4 cup / 65 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 800 g / 28 oz crushed canned tomato
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup / 125 ml water
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp red chilli flakes (adjust to taste)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
Sauce:
- Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute until fragrant. Add remaining ingredients, stir, and adjust heat so it is simmering gently (about medium heat). Cook down for 40 minutes, then puree with a stick (or cool a bit then transfer to blender).
- COOL before using (hot sauce = soggy base). (Note 4)
Pizzas:
- Top a flatbread with 2.5 tbsp of Sauce. Sprinkle a tiny amount of cheese over the base, avoiding the very edges (glue for toppings - see video).
- Sprinkle over onion, capsicum, salami, olives, mushrooms then cheese. Repeat with remaining flatbreads.
- Stack them using paper in between each pizza. Wrap in groups of 3 or so (whatever you are comfortable handling). Transfer to a large airtight container or ziplock bag and freeze.
- Baking:
- Remove oven shelf from oven and clean.
- Preheat oven to 240C/460F (standard) / 220C / 430F (fan/convection).
- Place frozen (or unfrozen freshly made) pizza directly on shelf. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden on the edges and the base is crispy.
- Cut and serve immediately!
Recipe Notes:
10 pack pita bread (Harris Farms) $4.00
1 capsicum $1.00
1 onion $0.50
Crushed tomato $2.87
Tomato Paste $0.50
Cheese (Costco) $4.50
Garlic, herbs, salt (free!)
Salami $4.00
Olive oil $2
Mushrooms $2.50
Olives $1.50
Total $23.37
Per Pizza $2.33, round DOWN to $2 😉 Australia is a notoriously expensive country to live in so you may be able to do this even more cost efficiently than me! 6. Nutrition per pizza i.e. one whole pizza
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
Raw, cooked, frozen…..what does it matter?
Why did I never think of this before? I used to do something like it as a teenager just using toasted bread, adding the ingredients, and then putting it in the toaster over. Way too much work.
It must be a Canadian thing as we are the only ones who have suggested Indian Naan bread. I used the garlic naan with my own spicy homemade sauce that I make in bulk (lots of tomatoes from the greenhouse) and it worked great. If you cook it in advance and then thaw them, they make a great cold pizza breakfast to remind us of our university days.
Sounds divine Gordon!
WOULD FLOUR TORTILLAS WORK? I ALWAYS HAVE SO MANY LEFT OVER.
I find them a little on the thin side – N x