Trying to feed 16 on a tight budget though can be tough, until I realised the perfect solution that will keep both the kids and adults happy…..
A PIZZA PARTY!
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the cheap supermarket pizzas you can get, but also couldn’t justify the cost of going for more expensive options when you’re in the region of needing around 12 pizzas... which also meant takeaway was totally out of our price range too. So instead, I decided to make the pizza dough instead and was absolutely BLOWN AWAY with the cost saving; so much so I ended up triple checking my calculations myself!
By making the dough ourselves, we made enough dough for 12 pizzas for a TOTAL cost of £2.52… making each pizza base just 21p!
Seriously, 21p!
Now of course, making it yourself does mean you need to add a little extra prep time leading up to the party and on the day, but I was happy to spend a little more time based on how much we were saving doing it ourselves. And the good news is, the dough is freezable so you can make it a couple of weeks in advance; which is exactly what we did.
Of course, once I realised how much we were saving on the pizza bases, next minute I was also making the pizza sauce too – making a huge quantity for less than half the amount it would have cost to go for a tinned option!
I’ll pop the recipes below and some instructions, but if you want to see the full extent of our party prep; check out the video
here
Freezable Pizza Dough
Ingredients
1 x 7g Sachet Yeast
320ml Water (luke warm if proving at room temp, cold if proving overnight in the fridge)
1tbsp Granulated sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
1tsp salt
500g Strong white flour (or ideally 00 grade pizza flour)
Method
1. In a bowl, activate the yeast by mixing the yeast, water and sugar. Cover and set aside for 5 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients; oil, salt & flour and mix until a dough is formed. If you have a stand mixer, use the kneading attachment to knead the dough for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is elastic and you can successfully do the ‘windowpane test’* (see notes). Alternatively, lightly flour a surface and knead the dough by hand. If the dough looks a little dry, add another splash of water whilst kneading.
3. Once the dough is ready, lightly grease a bowl with a spray or brush of oil and pop the dough inside. Cover with clingfilm and allow the dough to prove at room temperature for 60-90 minutes. If you are making this dough 24 hours in advance and don’t want to freeze it, prove the dough in the fridge instead.
4. Once the dough has risen, remove from the bowl, knock out some of the air and split into 4. Either use or freeze at this point! To freeze, just place each ball into a labelled freezer bag and remove as much air from the bag as possible to avoid freezer burn.
Pizza Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves
2 x 400g chopped tomatoes
3tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp light brown sugar
Fresh basil, chopped
Salt & pepper, to taste
Method
1. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onions on a medium heat until softened. Add the garlic and fry for another minute.
2. Add the remaining ingredients to the pan, except the fresh basil. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Allow the sauce to simmer, uncovered, for 25- 30 minutes.
3. Add the fresh basil to the sauce and season. Blitz using a hand blender or processor.
4. Cool down the sauce within 90 minutes and either store in the fridge for 2-3 days or freeze.
