Pizza

I used to make pizza all the time. I love pizza. It's not a normal part of our repertoire anymore. Today, as I'm off and between jobs, I decided to make pizza.

I used the bread machine to make the dough. It's the first time I used the new machine. The dough is a little too "puffy". So next time I make pizza, I will have to roll the dough out thinner, and also pre-bake for 10-15 min instead of 8. I hope it bakes up more later. I don't have a pizza stone, and I'm not really interested in purchasing one. I'm interested in how to make decent pizza/dough with my baking pans.

I thought I'd do a cost comparison on pizza. So for two medium pizzas, here's what we've got for options:
1. Rusty's takeout. Best local pizza.
2. Dominos takeout. Cheaper
3. Trader Joe's dough and purchased sauce, my own toppings.
4. Homemade dough and sauce, my own toppings.

Here's the breakdown for dough:
TJ's (2 packages): $2.38

My own dough: $0.95
1.5 c whole wheat flour: 0.28
2 c. white flour: 0.31
3 T olive oil (one for dough, other for baking pans): 0.33
2 T sugar: 0.02
1 tsp yeast: 0.01

Breakdown for sauce:
1 c of TJ's spaghetti sauce: 0.55

My own sauce: 0.49
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes: 1.59
1/2 onion: 0.10
2 cloves garlic: 0.06
1 tsp italian spices: 0.10
1 T olive oil: 0.11
Makes 4 cups. Now, TJ's is almost the same price. I could make mine cheaper with the #10 can of crushed tomatoes, which decreases the tomato costs to $0.67, and the total recipe cost to $0.26

Toppings: $3.92
1 bell pepper: 0.50
1/4 c. sliced kalamatas: 0.57
1/2 onion: 0.10
4 T homemade pesto: 0.60
2 oz diced ham: 0.40
8 oz shredded mozzarella: 1.25
diced tomato: 0.50

So here's the pizza summary: (2 medium)
Rusty's: $36.53
Dominos: $25.12
TJ's dough, sauce: $6.85
My dough, sauce: $5.33

No matter how you slice it, compared to the premium pizza takeout, I am saving $30, for about an hour of work. Considering my income tax rate, I am "earning" $46 an hour by making my own pizza. (which is more than my hourly rate).

Of course those calcs don't include the calculation time...I just do that for fun!