Pizza recipe and topping ideas

Pizza is a great party food, especially if you need to feed a crowd. Here are some great dough recipes and topping ideas for easy to make pizza party food.

Pizza is almost the perfect party food. You can make the toppings as simple or as elaborate as you like, and you can prepare them all ahead of time to save stress during the party. There’s hardly any dishes to wash, and leftovers are great for the next day’s lunch. Yep, no doubt about it – pizza makes party food easy.

If you have some favourite topping ideas you would like to add to this article, please drop us a line. Happy Cooking!

Pizza Dough Recipes

Making pizza dough shouldn’t be a big chore, so we’ve put together two easy dough recipes which rise in about an hour. If you have a bread maker, it will do most of the work for you (just follow their instructions), otherwise try out these great recipes which you can make by hand or with an electric mixer.

Basic Pizza Dough 1

You will need:

• 2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast (Make sure the date is current, and once opened, keep it in the fridge)
• 1 cup Warm Water
• 3 cups Flour
• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil (plus extra for coating)

To make:

1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and set it aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and salt, and make a well in the centre.
3. Pour the olive oil and yeast mixture into the well, and stir until it begins to form a ball.
4. Turn the ball out onto a clean floured surface, and knead well for about 5 minutes.
5. Once the dough becomes smooth and elastic feeling, lightly rub the ball with olive oil, and place it in a glass bowl. If you like, rub some extra oil around the sides of the bowl, to make sure the dough doesn’t stick when it rises.
6. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel, and put it in a warm place to rise. It should take about 1 hour for the dough to double in size.
7. Once the dough has doubled, break the ball into 4 pieces, and roll or stretch out each one to form an 8” circle.
8. Cover with toppings, and cook at 220^oC for approximately 15 minutes.

• To make a wholemeal version, take away 2 cups of the plain flour and replace it with 2 cups wholemeal. Wholemeal dough may take a little longer to rise

Basic Pizza Dough 2

You will need:

• 2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
• 4 cups Flour
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1¼ cups Warm Water
• An electric mixer

To make:

1. In a large bowl, mix together 2 cups of flour, the yeast, and the salt.
2. With an electric mixer, slowly beat in the water for about 2 minutes.
3. Beat in another ½ cup of flour, with the mixer on medium speed. When the dough is stiff (about 2 minutes), stir in the last 1 ½ cups of flour.
4. Turn the dough out onto a clean floured surface, and knead well for about 5 minutes.
5. Once the dough becomes smooth and elastic feeling, place it in a glass bowl, cover it with a clean tea towel, and put it in a warm place to rise. It should take about 1 hour for the dough to double in size.
6. Once the dough is risen, break the ball in half, and roll or stretch out the dough to make two 12” pizza bases.
7. Cover with toppings, and cook at 220^oC for approximately 15 minutes.

Pizza Topping Ideas

There is no limit to what you can put on a pizza, and children are particularly good at coming up with weird but delicious combinations. Don’t be afraid to think outside the square, and serve up something a little different for your guests. You’ll be surprised by what kids will eat if it’s served on a pizza, or if you’ve called it something like ‘Pirates’ Delight’. If you’re worried about what your guests will and will not eat, give them the plain bases, and let them add their own toppings.

Here are some common, and not so common, topping ideas to get you thinking. You can make any of them a little different by adding barbeque sauce or something spicy, and of course you’ll need to add the cheese to melt it all together.

Main Course

• Ham and Pineapple – make it special by adding the pineapple in whole circles
• Bacon and Egg
• Roast Vegetables – great for using up leftovers from last night’s roast
• Chicken Nuggets and Creamed Sweetcorn
• Lamb or Beef Chips, Capsicum, Red Onion and Tomato
• Sliced Turkey and Cranberry Sauce
• Triple Cheese – Mozzarella, Tasty and Smoked
• Shrimp, Bacon, Pineapple and Red Onion
• Broccoli, Mushrooms and Tomato
• Chopped up Sausages, Bacon, Salami, and Ham
• Chicken, Zucchini, Mushroom and Tomato
• Butter and Crushed Garlic

Dessert

• Stewed Apple and Crumble topping
• Sliced Pear and Custard
• Butter, Cinnamon and Sugar
• Mashed Banana, Cinnamon and Sugar
• Frozen Mixed Berries (This only works on home-made dough that hasn’t been pre-baked)

Pizza Alternatives

If the idea of making big pizzas for everyone seems a little daunting, or if you just want to try something different, have-a-go at one of these alternatives to traditional pizza. Either use some of the topping ideas above, or simply use spaghetti and cheese for younger guests.

Inside Out Pizzas

Roll out your home-made dough as normal, and make a pile of pizza toppings in the middle, leaving plenty of space around the outside. Wrap the dough in on top of itself to form a ball, making sure you firmly press everything together so the toppings don’t fall out. Bake your inside-out pizza on an oven tray for about 25 minutes at 180*C.

Pizza Stack

Sprinkle grated cheese into the bottom of a jelly mold, and then cover it with a layer of bread which has been spread with tomato paste. Add a layer of grated cheese combined with chopped capsicum, ham, and onion, and then cover that with another layer of bread. Keep layering it up until you reach over the top, making sure that your final layer is bread.

Squash the layers down using the jelly mold lid, and then firmly press the lid into place. Put the mold in the fridge for about an hour, to give enough time for everything to mold together.

To cook the pizza stack, tip the jelly mold upside down onto an oven tray, and allow the stack to gently fall out. Bake at 190^oC for approximately 20 minutes.

Pizza Pockets

Stuff Pita Breads with pizza toppings, and bake them at 180^oC until everything is melted and warmed through.

Mini Pizzas

Make miniature pizzas on slices of bread or English Muffins. Toast the bread under the grill to start with, them flip them over, cover in toppings, and put back under the grill until all the cheese is melted.

Pizza Bread Cases

Lie slices of buttered bread face down in muffin tins, and then fill them with all sorts of toppings. Bake at 195^oC for approximately 15 minutes.

For ideas on how you can make a Pizza Party extra special, make sure you check out the Pizza Party article in our Birthday Themes section.