How to Make Homemade Frozen Pizzas
Every once in a while, I just don’t feel like cooking. One of my favorite easy meals is frozen pizzas. They are quick, filling, and oh so easy! Just throw some raw veggies or salad on the side and call it a fabulous meal!
However, I don’t love the list of ingredients found in the frozen pizzas found in the frozen food section at the local grocers. There are some frozen pizzas at the health food store with good, quality ingredients, but they are expensive!
Lately, I’ve been making my own frozen pizzas, and my family has been loving it! Homemade frozen pizzas are incredibly simple to make and much cheaper than carry out or delivery.
I usually make a quadruple batch of pizza dough and then use whatever ingredients I have on hand for toppings. We usually eat one of the pizzas that night and save the other three for later.
Since we eat pizza about once week, I will usually just plan a little extra time once a month to make a big batch of pizzas to freeze.
Homemade Pizza Dough
This recipe makes two pizzas. If you want to make four pizzas, then double this recipe.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups hot water
- 1 T yeast
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 t salt
- 4-4.5 cups flour (I like this kind)
- 2 T Italian seasoning (optional)
- 1 T garlic powder (optional)
Method:
Combine water, yeast, and honey in stand up mixer. Let sit for 3-5 minutes or until mixture is bubbly.
Add olive oil, salt, and seasonings to stand mixer and combine thoroughly.
Slowly add flour until you have a wet, workable dough. You want your dough to be sticky.
Using your dough hook on your stand mixer, knead your dough for 5 minutes (a little longer if using whole wheat flour). I will add a little flour here and there to keep my dough from sticking.
You can transfer your kneaded dough to a greased bowl, or leave your dough in your stand mixer bowl (I do the latter). Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let your dough rise until doubled.
Once your dough has doubled, without punching it down divide into two halves.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Roll the dough out onto a pizza pan (we LOVE this one). Be sure to punch holes in your dough with a fork before cooking.
Cook your dough without the toppings for 7-8 minutes.
Once your pizza crusts have been pre-cooked, you can add your sauce and toppings.
Pizza Sauce Recipe
This recipe is enough to sauce 2-4 pizzas. It depends on how much sauce you like. We are light sauce people.
Ingredients:
- 3 – 6 ounce cans tomato paste
- 1 – 15 ounce can tomato sauce (we like puree – no chunks)
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 Tablespoon basil
- 1 Tablespoon parsley
- 1/2 Tablespoon oregano
- 1/2 Tablespoon thyme
- 1.5 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon honey (or other sweetener)
- 3 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese (optional)
Method:
Combine all ingredients in stockpot or crockpot.
Simmer on stove with lid on for an hour or cook on low in crockpot for 3-4 hours.
Be sure to stir the sauce every 30-45 minutes to keep it from sticking.
When finished, stir in Parmesan cheese and use or freeze. This pizza sauce freezes well in small freezer bags.
Pizza Topping Ideas:
Anything that freezes well will work for topping your pizza with!
- Cheese
- Pepperonis
- Pineapples
- Onions
- Chicken
- Ground beef (turkey or chicken works too)
- Green onions
- Olives
Alternative Pizza Sauce Ideas:
Occasionally, I will run out of pizza sauce or just want something different. Here are some other sauce ideas we’ve used:
- Olive oil
- Alfredo sauce
- BBQ sauce
- Buffalo hot sauce
Wrap each pizza with plastic wrap and finish with aluminum foil.
I like to finish with aluminum foil because it’s sturdier and easy to write on. Label your frozen pizza and be sure to write out instructions for cooking.
To Cook Your Frozen Pizza
Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove aluminum foil and plastic wrap. Place pizza on a pizza pan.
Cook in the oven for 15 minutes or until cheese has melted and started to brown.
We love frozen pizzas for busy weeknights, lazy Saturdays, and for the nights we get a babysitter. These homemade frozen pizzas have been a life saver for us!
Plus making my own frozen pizzas has saved us so much money! When life gets busy, I tend to turn to carry out. Therefore, I’m always on the lookout for ways to make healthy convenience foods to save time and money in the kitchen.
Do you make homemade pizzas? What are your favorite toppings?
Other posts you might enjoy:
- Freeze Your Way to Freedom Series
- Homemade Chicken Alfredo Pizza
- How to Make PB&J Sandwiches for the Freezer
- How to Meal Easier and Faster with a Seasonal Meal Plan
- 10 Kitchen Tips that Will Save You Money
By the way, have you seen my eBook, 20 Minute Meals: Giving Weary Chefs Grace While Keeping Families Healthy? It’s filled with 4 weeks of recipes that only take you 20 minutes to make. I do all the work for you – grocery lists, recipes, menu plans, and more! Learn more here and stop resorting to carry out and start feeding your family healthy foods in less time!
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I made frozen pizzas before my second child was born and it was so nice to have them on hand. I haven’t done it since but I think I’ll take your advice and start making another couple of pizzas when I’m already making them for a meal.
We love to change up our toppings too. The options really are endless! A few more sauce ideas that we have liked are ranch dressing, a Greek-style vinaigrette and pesto sauce.
Oh I will have to try those sauces! I love all the variations of pizza options. I also like the simplicity of plain ol’ pepperoni too. 🙂
Thank you for sharing! I wanted to freeze pizzas but I was afraid I’d end up with soggy undercooked crust. I like the idea of baking the crusts first.
Pre-cooking is definitely the key!
Love this idea..after you have prebaked the pizza dough, when you wrap them for freezing is there a base that you leave the pizza sitting on or do you sit it on foil and wrap up?
Sit it in the foil and wrap it up!
I would love to make these… Especially the homemade pizza dough but I do not own a stand mixer. Is there an alternative way to make the pizza dough without a stand mixer?
Sure! Just mix in a bowl and knead out by hand! I’ve done it both ways! 🙂
I have a bread machine I picked up at a thrift store for $5. I use it to make my pizza dough, because it needs it, rises it in a warm place, and beeps when ready. The only drawback is that you can’t make more than enough for a couple of pizzas at a time in the limited space, but you could just set it throughout the day while you do other things and freeze them as they are ready and wind up with a good size batch.
Chicken Pesto pizza!!! Chop then saute chicken breast (or thigh, or whatever) with Italian seasonings and garlic, top pizza crust with pesto (prepared or homemade), cooked chicken, and mozzarella cheese. SO GOOD!
Mexican pizza – use salsa instead of pizza sauce, top with beans, cooked sausage or hamburger, and Mexican 4-cheese combo.
sometimes when I am feeling lazy, I buy pizza dough from a local shop – not a national chain. If they make their own, sometimes they are willing to sell it by the pound. It just isn’t whole grain… 🙁
I never thought of making my own frozen pizza. Genius. Do you let the pizza crust and sauce cool before assembling and freezing? Thank you so much!
I do let it cool a little bit. I usually go ahead and add the toppings and let it sit on the counter while we eat dinner. Then as I clean up dinner, they are cool enough to prep and move to the freezer.
Thank you for the quick response. I’m hoping to make some this weekend. ????
Hi,
I’m bringing pizza to a family tomorrow who just had a baby. I’m going to be making the pizzas the day of but was wondering if I can still parbake the crust so it doesn’t continue rising then they can bake it when it’s time. Would I just reduce the baking time if it isn’t frozen or should I freeze it. Thanks!
You can follow all the steps and just stick it in the fridge instead of the freezer. That will work just fine. Then, they just need to wait for the cheese to melt and ingredients to heat. It will likely take less time. Great idea!
Do u know roughly how long it takes for the pizza dough to double? Please let me know ASAP this looks delicious!!! Thank you!!:)
A couple of hours … maybe?
Could you grill these after they are frozen?
I don’t know. I’ve never tried it! 🙂
I am definitely going to try this recipe! Looks yummy! I love to make breakfast pizza on a Saturday or Sunday morning. For my breakfast pizza I use scrambled egg, cheese, sausage or bacon, and any of breakfast toppings or veggies you may like. I also like to use liquid nacho cheese for sauce for pizza with pepperoni.
I don’t have a stand mixer, but I have a bread maker. I put the ingredients in the bread maker and let it mix the dough for me. I pre-baked the crust, let cool, assembled the pizzas and placed in freezer.
Question…. typical frozen pizza is made on the shelf, no pizza pan. Have you tried baking the frozen pizza without a pizza pan?
I haven’t, but I’m sure it could be done, no doubt!
You can do this with any dough recipe I presume, correct??
Absolutely!
These turned out great!!!!!!!! I used my moms dough recipe and then once assembled I put on a tray to freeze until hard then used my food saver to package them. I made 4 and there is only 1 left. I made them personal sized since it is just me. My friend and I are going to have a frozen pizza making party!!!! Thanks for the instructions!!!!
Personal sized is a great idea!! Glad they worked well for you!
Do you need to thaw the pizza before you put it in the oven?
Nope! Just stick it right in and cook it just like a frozen pizza from the supermarket. 🙂
I made these last weekend. I cooked a couple right away and stuck the others in the freezer. When my mom tried to cook the frozen one, it took longer than the 15 minutes for the center. The outside crust was browning faster, so she through some foil around the crust only to finish cooking. Did I do something wrong?
Hi, this recipe looks absolutely delicious. I went and got all the stuff to make this today. I’m always pretty busy and don’t have a lot of time to make the sauce, so I was wanting to ask if I could cook it on the stove top, also could I stick the pizza straight in the oven without it being frozen?
Thank You!
Yes to both questions. I think the long simmer of the sauce is delicious and helps with the acidity of the tomatoes, BUT it’s also just fine to simmer on the stove for a pit. The pizza is good to cook right away as well! 🙂
Hi. Your link to flour shows bread flour. Can regular flour be used? Thanks!
I am also curious about the flour. Does it need to be bread flour, or can it be all-purpose? Any changes to make if using wheat flour? Thanks!
I’ve found the flour easy to change out. I just prefer bread flour. 🙂 But anything works!
I like to use fresh mozzarella on our pizzas. Do you think it would freeze well?
I don’t see why not! 🙂
What cheese do you use? I don’t see you mentioning it.
You can use just about any cheese you want, but I usually use mozzarella.
Hi we make homemade pizza all the time but never tried freezing them. We like to use hamburger, sausage, pepperoni and green peppers. My question is 2 fold. Is it ok to free with the green peppersor add once ready to cook and how long do you need to thaw pizza before cooking?
It’s fine to freeze the peppers right on top, and no need to thaw your pizza. Just pop it right into the oven! 🙂
If you don’t want to make your own pizza crust, would a store bought pizza crust work and it would it freeze as good. Great idea of making and freezing your pizzas. Saves time and money. Please respond as soon as you can. Thank you
Hi, Debi! A store bought pizza crust would freeze just fine! The main point of making the dough would be to use your own, whole food ingredients, but if you don’t mind the store bought kind, that’s up to you and what you think is best for your family! If you want to skip and step, it would work just fine if you want to make it quicker.
Store bought crust will be more expensive though – I’ve found at that point you may as well just buy a frozen pizza. 🙂
Maybe I missed this, but do you take pizza out of pan before freezing? Or freeze all together? I use a homemade no rise crust recipe, would that still work? Thank you ??
I leave it on the pan, and yes I think a homemade no rise crust would work just fine!
How long would these be good after freezing? I’m having a baby in a couple months and was trying to get a freezer meal stash started slowly over time so I didn’t have to do it all at once.
I’ve kept them for 3-6 months. I usually prep several during the last trimester and eat after baby comes. Just wrap them well, and it should last for a good long while. Congrats by the way 🙂
Looks delicious pizza recipe. Easy homemade frozen pizza. Can’t wait to try for my family.
Do you have any idea how long these can freeze for?
I would say they are good for a few months. 🙂
Leigh Ann
I am writing to you in regards to freezing homemade pizza.
I’m using my a tortilla wrap as my bottom crust instead of making dough.
I add my own sauce and meat and veggies I bake at 425 for 10 to 12 minutes
Comes out fantastic!!
My question is do you think I can freeze my pizza after I let it cool out of the oven,then wrap in plastic wrap and wrap it in foil?
Thank you
I am going to try baking the crust and freezing from there before putting toppings on, I’m thinking maybe add toppings to frozen crust and bake for 10 mins.