Food & Beverage

Dirt-Cheap Stovetop Pizza in under 14 Mins!

I've been spending the past couple of weeks trying to make homemade pizzas and also got some very helpful suggestions from people on here (thanks very much)! I've been focusing on two different versions:

  • A dirt-cheap stovetop version that requires minimal time and money to make using baking powder and frying pan.
  • An extravagant version that takes a whole lot of time and care and uses more expensive ingredients including yeast and oven.

I think I've gotten to a point of nearly mastering the dirt-cheap version as far as time/cost (the aim is to produce the thing as quickly and as cheaply as possible with minimal preparation/cleanup). The whole thing cost only around a dollar worth of ingredients to make for a 12-inch and I managed to make it in under 14 mins (timed myself and raced against the clock) all the way from mixing flour and water to the final product.

I vetted out the result with my family-in-law (including kids) and they're used to me cooking for them and giving me their brutally honest opinions. They all loved it! Success! We all agreed that it wasn't quite as good as restaurant pizza but like a hundred times better than the frozen kind and the kids even liked it more than the nearest fast-food pizza chain they have (Big Bear's).

Dirt-Cheap Stovetop Pizza in under 14 Mins!

So I wanted to share my techniques so far in case any pizza lovers out there want to try the same thing. That said, the bulk of the idea is covered in this video:

The difficulty I found with following the video is that it's quite time-consuming and messy kneading the dough and transferring it. I could probably speed it up with lots of practice but it took me nearly an hour the first time. She's also using some nice grated mozzarella cheese which is kind of hard to get and slightly expensive at least here. So I tried to optimize cost and time a bit and have some tweaks:

  • Mix flour and baking powder in a bowl (like 0.25% to 1% baking powder ratio). I just eyeball it and don't measure for speed.
  • Add water and stir. I just pour it from the sink and you wanna do this in little increments and stir so that the dough is sticky enough to start sticking together into a large clump but no more than that. This part becomes fast with a little bit of practice. Do not add too much water or else the dough gets too sticky and soft and it's really time-consuming to repair that slowly adding in more flour. Too little water is better than too much.
  • Coat a frying pan with oil using your hand to spread it out (this coats our hands in a thin layer of oil which makes it easier to handle the dough without it sticking). Rub your hands together to get both oily.
  • Take the dough out and kind of squish it up and knead it into a ball using your oily hands.
  • Put it directly in the center of the pan and start smushing it with your fingers until it has a reasonably even degree of thinness and forms a circular shape. Don't need to be perfect with this. We're not aiming for a beautiful pizza, just a tasty one.
  • Cook it on high heat for a few mins until the bottom is sliding easily on the pan and feels quite firm. Then flip it.
  • Now add your toppings and follow the rest of the video.

For the cheese, I used a dirt-cheap Torokeru (quick-melt) cheese I can get for super cheap here in Japan although you can use whatever cheese you want. It has a very light taste so I sprinkle some salt on top.

Dirt-Cheap Stovetop Pizza in under 14 Mins!

It comes in square slices and I don't bother to shred it or anything. I just lay the squares on the pizza and overlap them a bit. For the edges, I just quickly tear the cheese in half or quarters. Just cover the whole surface with cheese.

For the pizza sauce, I just use a cheap and instant tomato sauce for this version. I'm working on an extravagant oven version with my own homemade sauce, but for this one, we just want to keep it cheap and easy and fast.

Dirt-Cheap Stovetop Pizza in under 14 Mins!

Done! It's not the most beautiful pizza but dirt-cheap and super fast. I recommend trying it for people who, like me, always thought pizza has to be something very time-consuming and expensive to make at home.

Dirt-Cheap Stovetop Pizza in under 14 Mins!
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