90-Minute Bisquick Pizza with Yeast

I’m all about simple cookin’ this summer. “Bisquick Pizza” fits the bill. Not only is it easy to make — including the crust; it tastes mighty good, too. A cooking challenge for me this summer is “scratch cooking”; a.k.a. creating dishes using fresh ingredients and things “on hand” without resorting to a grocery store trip for an ingredient. I have three goals — quick and easy meals, inexpensive meals and ones which are lower in salt. (That effectively rules out restaurant meals.) I have a box of Bisquick on my kitchen shelf. Can I whip up a “Bisquick Pizza” without losing the wonderful flavor of yeast pizza crust? And, how about lower in salt? The toppings which a person can load onto a pizza crust are endless — I found plenty of low sodium toppings. This process was so easy; I made pizzas three days in a row (until I ran out of Bisquick); we devoured all of the pizzas.

Summer Cooking Challenge — Easy Meals; Low Sodium Dishes

I am putting my nutritionist skills to use by creating low sodium meals. Why? A family member has a new medical diagnosis requiring a very low salt diet. We’re taking this seriously and are carefully reading the labels. For example, no more of those wonderful instant “Vietnamese Pho” soup meals. They are quick and tasty; However, one container contains the sodium for almost an entire day. And, restaurant meals are notoriously high in salt. Those days of eating out are over. We have adjusted our meals to use mostly fresh and frozen ingredients.

Although both Bisquick and cheese contain sodium; the other ingredients in the pizza which I added were salt-free. A slice of my pizza turned out to be 610 mg sodium with half of the sodium coming from the Bisquick. One slice is plenty for a supper entry — it is loaded with toppings. Certainly not salt-free; but reduced in salt with healthy toppings!

It’s all in the Pizza Crust

Much of the flavor of a pizza is the wonderful yeast bread crust. In addition, I wanted a pizza with a substantial crust which I could pick up with my hands — like a traditional one. I wondered if Bisquick would work for a pizza crust. It is is basically a pastry baking mix The leavening ingredients are baking powder and baking soda — but not yeast. Yikes, no yeast bread flavor. Would it be necessary to eat this pizza with a fork?

The answer is, yes and no. We needed to use a fork to eat the first pizza. But, I perfected my technique on the second and third pizzas and we could pick those up with our hands.

My solution to making Bisquick pizza crusts which taste like the real thing was to add a small amount of SAF-instant yeast to the dough. I kneaded the dough and let it rise — like yeast bread. My dough doubled in size in 45 minutes!

For the second and third pizzas, I made smaller crusts. Plus, I pre-baked the crust for 10 minutes at 450 degrees before loading on the toppings. This helped eliminate the problem of a soggy crust!

Bisquick Crust Ingredients.

Here are the ingredients for my crust. Bisquick, SAF-instant yeast, oil and warm water.

I strongly recommend purchasing an instant-read thermometer to check the temperature of the water which you are adding to the Bisquick and yeast. These thermometers are readily available — found in most large grocery stores — and they are inexpensive. Using very warm water (110 – 120 degrees) helps activate the yeast and gets the dough rising quicker.

To make the crust; mix the Bisquick mix and yeast in a large bowl. Add the oil and very warm water (110 – 120 degrees). Stir until the ingredients form into a ball.

Transfer to a well floured pastry board. Place plenty of flour on the pastry board — as the crust will be sticky. Knead for about 10 turns.

Transfer to a well-oiled bowl which is just large enough for the dough to double. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. (I heat the oven to 180 degrees — then turn the oven off.)

Transfer the dough to a pizza stone. Press into a 10″ circle. (I tried a 12″ pizza, but this made a very thin pizza — I don’t recommend it.)

Pre-bake the crust for 10 minutes at 450 degrees. Then I brushed on olive oil and sprinkled on oregano. I like flavor!

“90 Minute Pizza” toppings

My goal was to fix a pizza for supper without making a special shopping trip to pick up topping ingredients. And, there are endless toppings to put on pizza; imagination is the key. I always have ground beef on hand and an assortment of cheeses. Plus, my husband loves onions — these made it onto every pizza. Plus, some surprises.

A second goal was to make the entire thing in under 90 minutes. That meant rummaging around in my kitchen cabinets and freezer for ingredients. I found enough food items to make, not one, but three pizzas.

Pizza #1: ground beef, onion, red bell pepper, Provolone cheese and homemade puree tomato sauce:

For this pizza, I layered the cheese on first; then the sauce an lastly the toppings of cooked ground beef, chopped onions and red bell peppers.

Pizza No 2: This was a Hawaiian-themed pizza. I substituted pineapple for the red bell pepper and Mexican-style cheese rather than Provolone cheese. I used tomato paste rather than puree for the sauce.

For this pizza, I layered on the tomato paste sauce first, then the shredded cheese and lastly the toppings.

Pizza #3. This one was my husband’s favorite. It still has lots of onions — I see a theme here. I added spinach (frozen — I’m using what’s in my freezer) and low-moisture shredded Mozzarella cheese as well as ground beef and tomato paste sauce.

The tomato-paste sauce works well. It is thick and easy to spread — but you have to spread it on prior to adding the cheese.

I am very generous with the ground beef. I’m making this into an entire meal. The ground beef must be cooked prior to adding it on as a topping. (I brown the ground beef in a skillet.) The pizza bakes in a very hot 450 degree oven; but that is not long enough for the meat to cook.

Here’s the third pizza.

A Note about Homemade Pizza Sauce:

I made my own homemade pizza sauce for these pizzas. It is almost sodium-free compared to commercial pizza sauces which are usually quite high in sodium. With the theme of “using only ingredients in my kitchen,” I located tomato paste for the pizza sauce and added Italian-flavored seasonings and a little sugar. To make the sauce, simply stir together the ingredients. This sauce is thick and is just enough to spread on one pizza. Tomato paste contains very little sodium; the salt is optional. I used garlic powder and not garlic salt.

All these pizzas are delicious! They are loaded with toppings; and made a meal-in-one. Here’s the 3rd variation.

90-Minute Pizza

Yes. I successfully made this pizza — from start to finish — in under 90 minutes:

*5 minutes, mix up the pizza crust and knead,
*45 minutes, let the crust rise; meanwhile, brown the ground beef; chop the onion (and red bell pepper), and mix up the pizza sauce,
*5 minutes, roll out the crust,
*10 minutes, pre-bake,
*5 minutes, spread on the olive oil and oregano; then the pizza sauce, cheese, ground beef and toppings,
* 15 minutes, bake.

Whew! 85 minutes. Time to spare.

What about the Sodium?

Simple and easy meals are some of my summer cooking goals. The real objective is creating healthy meals. We’re cutting back on convenience foods and meals from restaurants and using more fresh and frozen ingredients. Although my pizza crust contained sodium; it is loaded with healthy toppings. My pizza is proof that it is not only possible; but also very practical to cook healthy meals from scratch.

Enjoy!