Pizza Crust From a Box

Well, it was actually a pouch. But let me start at the beginning.

I'd been reading Randy's and Larry's pizza threads, and you all know pizza is one of my main food groups. I always want pizza.

Tonight after finally leaving work after 7, I needed to go to the grocery store for a variety of things, and while there I got hit with an incredible pizza jones.

I started thinking how great it would be to have pizza tonight, but it was way too late to get home and start mixing dough. I wandered by the frozen pizzas, trying to scope out the brands everyone had said were ok, but I couldn't remember what they were. I sort of looked around for those ready-made crusts, but didn't see them anywhere.

I went down the aisle with pasta sauces and.... wait! What's that up there on the top shelf? Pizza crust mix! Made by Betty Crocker. Price... hmm... $1.39. I can risk it!



In the Interest of Science, I brought my mix home and set about making it. Wow, they aren't kidding about the "Easy Prep" part... mix in a 1/2 cup of hot water, let it sit for 5 minutes and you're good to go.

Because I always have a container of pizza sauce ready in the fridge, and always have cheese on hand, a mere 15 minutes after walking in the door from the store, the oven was preheated to 425F and the pizza was ready to go in. Amazing.

I had rather low expectations, so imagine how surprised I was to find that it baked up thin, light, crisp, and really pretty good!



This is about 1/8 inch thick.

Even the underside was evenly brown and nicely crisp... and since the pizza stone didn't belong to me, it didn't make the move to the new house, so this was just from a perforated metal pan.




All in all, I am surprised and pleased with my $1.39 experiment. Was it as good as my crust? No. Was it a little bland in flavor profile? Sure. Did it live up to the promise of easy and quick pizza crust when I was already coming home late? It sure did.

Will I use it again? I don't know. But it's nice to know there may be an option for a pizza emergency on a night I have to work late!

Yes, this is the modern descendant of the old Chef Boy-ar-Dee and Jeno's pizza-from-a-box of the 1960s. With those, you got a can containing pizza sauce as well as the leavened flour for the dough. You mixed up the dough, let it rise, rolled it out, spread on the sauce, added cheese and whatever toppings you wished, and popped it in the oven.

Results were just as you describe and illustrate. Not great, yes you can do better completely from scratch, but within acceptable range.

-Paul W.

A couple of stores in our area sell private label pizza dough already rolled out and usually, ironically I think, displayed right next to the frozen pizzas.

I've used them a couple of times when I under-estimated the demand for pizza, and they come out a step below what I can make from scratch. Robin has a quick pizza dough recipe in the archives, and I find I can make a better pizza dough while I'm sauteeing the onions, following his approach.

I'm not tempted anymore to buy either the frozen pizzas or the pre-made dough -- hand made is almost as quick, especially since it takes time to heat the pizza stone/cooker.

The only pizza competition here is with one of the superb pizza joints in this area -- frankly we prefer the ones I can make hot off the stone.

Wow...Cynthia...I am really surprised by the results. Thank you for the report and the pics. I am shocked that it actually looks like pizza crust! Great to know if I am ever in a pinch too...thanks again!

Cynthia, that's really good to know, and I'll share something else with you here along the same vein.

My mother-in-law and her friend visited us for two weeks over the summer. They spent the whole time cooking for us, which was nice. They even made us a Thanksgiving dinner right in the middle of summer, which was a real treat for my husband. One night when I came home from work, there was a gorgeous turkey pot pie in the oven with a beautiful crust. It tasted amazing. Light, buttery, flakey. I asked if they made the crust and learned it was a box mix! I think it may have been Betty Crocker also. I would not hesitate to use it. Not a pro at making crusts anyway.

Oh, the humanity...

Oh, the humanity...

Larry, do I detect just a hint of sarcasm there?

>sniff< What? Me sarcastic?

[Jenise]

Great report, Cynthia.

In the Interest of Science, I brought my mix home and set about making it ...

Intrepid, Cynthia! Thanks for the great report. (Remark above reminds me a little of one in Mrs Beeton, the 19th-c. British national cookbook.*)

this is the modern descendant of the old Chef Boy-ar-Dee and Jeno's pizza-from-a-box of the 1960s. With those, you got a can containing pizza sauce as well as the leavened flour for the dough.

Version I knew in the US in 1960s is the same one I'm holding in my hand now, Appian Way brand (currently owned by Dial Corporation), crust mix and pizza sauce. Got one last year partly for emergency, mostly for nostalgia. (It was a great novelty as a kid. We were used to making bread at home, using the dough occasionally for pizzas, but that was always someting of a Production and these little kits were quick.) I prefer though to make extra dough (it's the very simplest of bread doughs, as already mentioned here) and keep slabs in the freezer. That stores pretty well and quickly comes up to temp. (and resumes rising) in a lukewarm oven.

* “These interesting facts, discovered in the laboratory, throw a flood of light upon the mysteries of the kitchen. ...” -- Mrs. Beeton, article 548 (1861, taken from the Chancellor Press facsimile edition)

Nice report, Cynthia. One factor, sodium in one quarter of the crust:

Sodium 340mg 14%

Can anyone eat just one slice of pizza?

Robin's instant pizza dough mix is ready as quickly, I think, and one can control the salt, not only in the crust but also in the toppings.

Ross, on subject of sodium, that number might be usefully be compared to some other convenience foods I've examined, including certain east-Asian packaged noodles with seasoning delivering circa 4 grams of sodium per package.

Some of these foods play amazing games like listing the required per-serving nutritional analysis but saying "servings per package: 4" when the product is plainly packaged and sold as a single serving.

But I've never seen Robin's instant pizza dough mix.

Oh, and the 1/4 of the crust came out to be 2 slices. I am also not supposed to be ingesting much salt because of a very potent sodium channel med I take, but sometimes I just need my pizza fix!

Well, "instant" is a bit of an over statement, but here's how I've interpreted the recipe -- Robin got on a "Perfect" pizza kick awhile back and started a wonderful discussion on the entire subject which is still on the old FLDG. He sort of disowned the quick version, but as he admitted, it's still better than store bought pizza.

My quick version of Robin's quick version:

6 ounces (180g) white bread flour, or half-and-half bread flour and all-purpose
[1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt -- not used here]
1/2 teaspoon instant dry yeast -- you can double the instant yeast for a little more flavor.
4 ounces cool water (room temperature)

Mix water and instant yeast well with a half teaspoon of sugar, and let sit for a couple of minutes while doing other prep.

Mix the flour and the yeast/water/sugar. Let it rise until you are ready to cook. Then roll out in the normal way.

***

This is pretty much the same way I make pizza crust normally except with Italian OO Fino, and a couple of hours of rising.

I'll admit that supermarket pre-made quiche crusts in France have supplied me with the foundation for more than one quick dinner.

Can't seem to find the same quality (for rock bottom prices) here in the US.