Individual Pizzas

I’ve had great difficulty lately fixing dinner and eating at home. I do typically have a meal plan for the week and do the weekly shopping for those written out planed meals…and then end up going out for fast food. I could give you several reasons for why this is, but why go there?

Together, Sam and I came up with some dinner ideas for this week.  Dinner tonight was Sam’s suggestion- pizza. I tweaked her suggestion a little by suggesting we make our own individual pizzas.

We used to make personal English muffin pizzas when I was little and we always had a blast doing it. Instead of English muffins I made half this focaccia bread recipe I’d found in a Pike Street Market cook book I had borrowed from the library. It’s been our go to pizza recipe for many years now.

4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages quick rise yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ¾ to 2 ¼ cups hot water
Salt and pepper


Mix together the first three ingredients in a large bowl. Add 1 ¾ cups hot water and stir well. If dough seems to dry, add a bit more hot water until if forms a ball. Turn onto floured board and kneed until smooth. Place in a lightly greased mixing bowl, turning once to grease surface, cover and let rise in warm place for at least 30 minutes. * Flatten dough into pan until ¼ to ½ inch thick, cover and let rest in warm place until puffed, about 20 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle top with fresh or dried herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Bake in 450 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned and puffy.


*Separate the dough into four pieces (eight if making the full recipe) and flatten each piece onto a pizza pan. Top with sauce and your favorite toppings. Follow baking instructions above.

Sam wanted pepperoni on her pizza so I bought a Hempler’s pepperoni stick and thinly sliced off several rounds. Since the pizza was so small these mini rounds worked really well.

Sam said her pizza was delicious and ate one entire pizza…crust and all!