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personal pizzas
Pizza is great for sharing, but personal pizzas mean everyone gets to add their own favorite toppings!
hey curious cook—
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Prepare Ingredients
Gather Baking Equipment
- 2 rimmed baking sheets
- Bench scraper (or kitchen scissors or knife)
- Ruler
- Plastic wrap
- Rolling pin
- 1-tablespoon measuring spoon
- ¼-cup dry measuring cup
- Oven mitts
- Cooling rack
- Spatula
- Cutting board
- Pizza wheel or chef’s knife
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Spray 2 rimmed baking sheets well with vegetable oil spray.
Place room-temperature dough on clean counter. Use bench scraper to divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Pat each piece of dough into 3½-inch circle.
Spray piece of plastic wrap lightly with vegetable oil spray. Cover dough pieces with greased plastic. Let rise on counter until slightly puffy, about 15 minutes. (This is a good time to make your sauce!)
Sprinkle clean counter lightly with flour. Remove one piece of dough from under plastic and place on lightly floured counter. Flip dough over to coat with flour. Use rolling pin to roll into 7-inch circle, rotating dough in between rolls.
Rolling Personal Pizzas
Sprinkle clean counter lightly with flour. Remove 1 piece of dough from under plastic and place on lightly floured counter. Flip dough over to coat with flour. Use rolling pin to roll dough, starting in center.
Rotate dough clockwise in between rolls to create even circle and to make sure dough does not stick to counter.
Continue to roll into 7-inch circle. (If dough snaps back when you roll it out, cover it with greased plastic and let it rest for 10 minutes, then try again.)
Transfer rolled dough to one greased baking sheet. Repeat rolling with one more piece of dough and place on same baking sheet.
Spoon 1 to 2 tablespoons sauce into center of each pizza and use back of spoon to spread into even layer, leaving ¼-inch border around edge.
Sprinkle each pizza with ¼ cup mozzarella cheese and 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese. Top with your favorite toppings (see “Food for Thought,” at bottom of this page).
Place baking sheet in oven and bake pizzas until edges are browned and cheeses are well browned and bubbling, 10 to 12 minutes.
While first 2 pizzas are baking, shape and top 2 more pizzas, repeating steps 4 through 7 with remaining 2 dough balls, sauce, cheeses, and toppings. Place pizzas on second greased baking sheet.
Food for Thought
Make It Your Way
Add some toppings to your pizza to make it just the way you want it. But keep this in mind: less is more. Adding too many toppings (especially if they are heavy or wet) will make your pizza soggy and steamy instead of crunchy and crispy. Scatter a few toppings evenly over the pizza, making sure you can still see the cheese in between them, and you’ll be good to go.
Add these toppings BEFORE baking: Pepperoni slices, cooked sausage, cooked bacon, cooked chicken, quartered cherry tomatoes, sliced bell peppers, sliced mushrooms, pitted olives, crumbled feta or goat cheese, fresh mozzarella balls.
Add these toppings AFTER baking: Torn fresh basil leaves, a handful of baby arugula or baby spinach, small spoonfuls of pesto, small spoonfuls of ricotta cheese, extra grated Parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper flakes.
All About the Crust
There are so many kinds of pizzas in the world. Thick, thin, deep dish, slab, square, and beyond. Here, we’re creating personal pizzas with crispy crusts. To become crispy, the crust needs to bake quickly and therefore needs as much heat as possible. The oven’s heat source is usually on the bottom of the oven, so we try to get the baking sheet as close to it as possible! That's why we bake 2 pizzas on one baking sheet at a time.
