Interesting Pizza Dough Recipes for Kids and Families

The pizza dough experiment is a success. As I mentioned in my last post, you can buy 20 balls of pizza dough at Sam’s for $19.98. I knew that was a lot of dough but we stored most of it in the freezer and thaw them out as needed. On Monday morning I take one ball out of the freezer and drizzle a little olive oil on it. It takes 24 hours to thaw and the oil helps to keep it from sticking to the bag. I often don’t use it on Tuesday and the dough will begin to rise again in the bag. The first time I forgot to bake it on Tuesday, I thought it might have gone bad but it’s just fine. I’ve waited as long as Friday before actually using the dough. Here are some of the meals and desserts we’ve prepared using our copious quantities of dough.

1) Make your own personal pizza.
Separate the dough into several small balls and let the kids prepare their own dough and pizza using available ingredients. We used a bowl of tomato sauce, a bowl of broccoli, grated cheese and crumbled hamburger.

2) Doughnimals
Separate the dough as above but allow the kids to create dough creatures. We covered ours with cinnamon sugar and baked them for 15 minutes at 350. That was our dessert.

3) Garlic-butter rolls.
Ball up several small bits of dough and bake. Serve in hot butter and minced garlic. Great with spaghetti!

4) Classic dinner roll.
These rolls should be a little bigger than above but without the butter and garlic.

5) Just Bread
One night we separated our dough into two balls and baked it in loaf pans. Great bread that lasted a few days.

6) Giant Calzone!
There have been several nights that I wanted to use my dough but didn’t have the best pizza ingredients. Instead, I sautéed what I did have available, placed it on top of one side of the flattened dough and folded it over the top sealing it at the edges. I grated a little bit of cheese over the top and baked it for 20 minutes at 350. Easy meal. Our ingredients often include rotisserie chicken or turkey sausage, spinach or broccoli, onions, cherry tomatoes and seasonings. I use a lot of sweet basil, garlic and Italian blends.

7) Dessert Calzones
Using the same idea as above we have made some truly decadent desserts. By far the most outrageous was a peanut butter, chocolate chip, cream cheese calzone! We just mixed the ingredients and used that as out filling inside the dough. The table was absolutely silent - so I know it was good. There’s lots of room for creativity here. One night we did the same thing using sweetened blueberries and cream cheese.  This could also be a fun “do it yourself” project giving the kids an opportunity to pick their own fillings from healthy options. Sliced apples, strawberries, blackberries, cinnamon, fresh mint, etc.

8) Pepperoni Cheese Roll.
Spread the dough thinly and place pepperoni and grated cheese over the entire surface. Roll and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. There is enough dough to make two. We made our second one with black olives, roasted garlic and very thinly sliced onion. Great party food.

9) Apple in a blanket.
Pigs in A Blanket. Anything you want in a Blanket!
Wrap your choice in a thin slice of dough and bake!

I’m guessing there are many more ideas. If you have any, please let me know and I’ll add them to our list!