While it may sound like a good idea, entertaining a lot of guests can be quite overwhelming. "What should I cook?" "How do I make it look pretty?" "How long will it take?" These are all questions we struggle with when planning a gathering, but it doesn’t have to be that way! Take the guesswork out of your next get-together and host a party where your guests take part in the preparation of the food. How do you do that exactly? Why not host a homemade pizza party?
Pizza parties are the newest trend right now. Not only does cooking as a group bring everyone together, but it’s also a great way to ensure that each guest is enjoying their meal. The perfect way to kick off your weekend, a homemade pizza party is a fun and memorable way to host your closest friends and family!
Pre-Make Your Pizza Dough
When planning a pizza making party, the dough makes all the difference. When making a pie, creating the homemade pizza dough is by far the most tedious step. It takes time and precision and serves as the foundation for your pizza. While some guests have different preferences between thin crust, thick crust and deep-dish, it will be a lot of work to please them all. Instead of focusing on the different types of crusts, we recommend creating a standard crust with a tasty flavor.
Depending on the dietary restrictions of your guests, it’s best to provide at least two options of pizza crust: traditional and gluten free pizza dough. That way, everyone gets to enjoy a slice! We also recommend making your dough at least a day before your gathering. If your dough is pre-made, then the only pre-party prep will be getting the pizza toppings ready and picking up appetizers and drinks. Pizza dough also takes a while to make, and if made the day ahead, you’ll be able to spend more time socializing with your guests and spend less time prepping in the kitchen. When making your dough, keep in mind how many people you are expecting at your homemade pizza party. Most homemade pizzas are 10-14 inches, which can feed up to two people. Plan on one pizza per couple. This means that if you invite ten guests, you’ll need to make five full pizzas.
When choosing your dough recipe, pick one that is simple and quick to bake. That way you won’t have to spend all day in the kitchen preparing for your pizza making party. Try out this Perfect Pizza Crust recipe for a dough made in just an hour!
Unsure about which flour to use? We love using our Artisan Bread Flour. The perfect all-purpose flour for your pizza crust recipes, it’s milled from U.S. grown wheat and mixed with barley flour. Barley flour helps yeast breads rise, meaning that you’ll end up with the crispy, golden brown pizza crust that you know and love. It’s also a high protein flour, which is great for gluten development and for use on a preheated baking sheet or pizza stone!
To accommodate gluten-sensitive guests, try out our Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix! Free of wheat, dairy and whole grains, this mix is easy to make and can be topped with your favorite sauce and ingredients. To prepare, just add eggs, warm water and olive oil! The mix contains a yeast packet that helps create the crispy, browned crust of a perfect pizza. The crust is chewy, crispy and embraces the yeast flavor of a traditional wheat crust.
Pre-Chop Your Toppings
There’s going to be a lot of hands in the kitchen, which means that you’re going to be making these pizzas quite quickly. Don’t count on any downtime to chop and divide the toppings. Instead, have all of the toppings pre-chopped before guests arrive. This will help keep things organized and clean.
We also recommend dividing the toppings into categories. Create toppings sections like veggies, greens, fruits, meats and sweets. This will help guide guests to their favorites and keep toppings from getting mixed at your pizza making party.
Remember, when it comes to toppings, you can’t be too prepared. While you don’t have to go over the top and provide a ton of toppings, we do suggest that you plan for a few different flavors. Start with crowd-pleasers like pepperoni and mozzarella, and then follow up with something exotic like spinach, artichoke hearts or even hummus as a spread.
Topping Categories & Ideas
Veggies
When throwing your homemade pizza party, you’ll find that everyone has different tastes and preferences. While some people like to load on the toppings and build layers of flavor, others prefer to keep it simple with just a few toppings. Providing your guests with a variety of veggie options is the perfect way to meet everyone's needs. Here are a few of our favorite veggie toppings to get your pizza making party started:
- Red peppers
- Sun-dried tomatoes
- Sliced olives
- Fresh basil
- Sliced onions
- Sliced mushrooms
- Roasted garlic
- Fresh greens like kale and arugula
Fruits
When you think pizza toppings, fruit usually isn’t something that comes to mind. Though, when paired correctly, fruits are a fun and tasty topping choice. To choose your fruit toppings, first, think about the toppings you’ve already bought and which fruit would pair nicely with it.
Here are a few fruits we love topping out pizzas with:
- Fig
- Strawberries
- Pomegranate seeds
- Pineapple
- Pears
- Apples
- Plums
- Mango
Meats and Veggie Meats
Meat is a very traditional pizza topping and while not for all, many guests will want to add a meat topping or two to their pizza. To accommodate vegetarian and vegan guests, providing meat substitutes like tofu and eggplant is a great call.
If you’re expecting a lot of vegetarian guests, then we recommend providing veggie meat topping choices as well. Veggie meats and meat substitutes can be found at almost any grocery store and can range from sausages to deli meats and even pepperoni!
Here are a few meat and meat-like toppings that guests can add at your making pizza party:
- Chicken
- Pepperoni
- Bacon
- Sausage
- Ham
- Eggplant
- Tofu
- Cooked Mushrooms
Make Sure You Have Enough Pans or a Large Pizza Stone
Now that you’ve prepped your dough and have chosen your toppings, there is one last step that's extremely important, actually baking the pizzas! While this step is done during your homemade pizza party, some prepping needs to be done beforehand.
First, make sure you have something to cook on and enough of it! Will you be using flat cookie sheets, a baking stone or a pizza peel? Whatever you’re using, you want to make sure that you have enough. Though your oven may only be able to bake one or two pizzas at a time, you’ll want to keep everything flowing in the kitchen while they’re cooking. Providing enough baking sheets will allow guests to begin assembling their pizzas while another is already in the oven.
If you’re purchasing a pizza stone, buy one with a rectangle shape. When cooking multiple pizzas at a time, speed matters, and it can be hard to get a pizza perfectly positioned atop a round stone. Buying a rectangular pizza stone, about the size of your oven rack allows less room for error.
Open Windows - Things Are About to Heat Up!
Open your windows, turn the AC on high, or invest in a few fans because things are about to heat up! Pizza typically cooks at temperatures upwards of 500 degrees Fahrenheit and you’ll want to preheat your oven before you begin baking. This means it will get hot in your house, especially with the guests you’ll be inviting over! To keep everyone comfortable, make sure that there is adequate airflow in the kitchen and any other room your guests will be spending time in.
Lastly, don’t forget to provide drinks and appetizers! Making a pizza is hard work, and all the delicious toppings will have stomachs growling and mouths watering. Providing drinks and appetizers for guests to snack on at your pizza making party will keep hungry friends from turning into “hangry” guests.
While this may not be a quiet dinner party, your guests are used to; we guarantee that it will be a great one! Inviting friends and family over for a homemade pizza party is a great way to bring people of all ages together to enjoy each other's company and a great meal.
For more pizza-making tips and recipes, visit our website at Bob’s Red Mill today.
