Cooking Activities for Kids: Homemade Pizza

My two grandkids, ages eight and five, spend the night with us on Saturday nights. We always have pizza, and three out of four times, we get Hideaway. It’s easy, delicious, and evokes nostalgia for my husband and me, who are OSU alumni. That fourth Saturday of the month is the one my grandkids look forward to the most. It is “make your own pizza” night!

Cooking with children is fun, but it can also be a lot of work, taking planning, shopping, preparation, follow-through, and cleanup. We take some shortcuts that gourmet cooks might disapprove of, but they suit our family just fine. One of the great aspects of pizza making is that you can go from buying ready-made crusts to making your own crust and choosing easy store-bought pizza sauce or making your own sauce using organically grown vegetables. Make it as simple or as involved as you choose. It would be nice to take the grandkids grocery shopping, but to avoid everyone getting hangry, I do the shopping ahead of time. Every family has its preferred toppings, but my grandkids are fairly set on what they want.

Our Ingredients

• Jiffy pizza crust: It’s easy, cheap, and requires only the addition of warm water. One box per pizza.
• Olive oil: to use on hands before handling dough, and the kids also prefer it to tomato-based pizza sauce
• Pizza sauce: for my husband and me
• Cheeses: we use pre-grated mozzarella and parmesan. We are obviously not gourmet cooks.
• Pepperoni
• Canadian Bacon
• Fresh Mushrooms
• Black Olives
• Pineapple: My five-year-old granddaughter says there is no debate over whether pineapple belongs on pizza! She uses half the can on hers!

I cover the table with a washable covering to reduce cleanup time. We use cake and pie pans that have been lightly coated with PAM or a similar spray. After thorough handwashing, everyone gets a big spoonful of dough on their pan and is responsible for working it into the pan. I bake the crust for five minutes in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees.

Then it’s time for everyone to get creative and top their pizzas. Sometimes they make faces out of their toppings, and occasionally interesting designs. Then the pizzas are returned to the oven for about twenty minutes. Timing will vary with crust thickness and your preference, so check periodically.

Let cool for a few minutes, have everyone admire their finished creation, then slice with a pizza cutter and serve. My granddaughter, a true Oklahoma girl, likes a big dollop of ranch dressing to dip her pizza slices.

At this point, adults handle all the chopping and the hot pans. My grandson, Cal, is old enough to chop responsibly, but his sister isn’t ready for that, so I simplify and do it myself. The last thing I want to do is make a trip to the emergency room with my five-year-old granddaughter with a knife injury!

This is a fun activity for all ages. The bonus is that it’s also delicious and almost impossible to mess up. The kids both get exactly what they want on their pizzas, with no sibling arguments. I haven’t conducted the financial analysis of the cost of restaurant pizza versus homemade pizza, but it is likely a small cost saver to make your own. If you’re a family into cooking, you can go fancy with homemade dough, higher-quality cheeses, and a variety of toppings. We’re more about convenience, ease, and fun at our house on Saturday nights. My grandchildren’s parents are the cooks in the family, and their pizza nights are more elaborate.

Because we’re the grandparents, not the parents, we usually watch a Disney movie while we eat pizza, and the kids are allowed to have a Sprite, Root Beer, or Kool-Aid, drinks that are not part of their daily routine. We also almost always have homemade cookies, alternating between their favorites. My grandson prefers no-bake chocolate cookies, and my granddaughter prefers Rice Krispies treats or chocolate chip cookies.

Saturday night sleepovers are a tradition that I hope my grandkids will hold in their memory banks, even after they are too cool for us and prefer to hang out with their friends on the weekends. Pizza, movies, summer swimming, and playing board games are all essential ingredients for a successful sleepover, but it’s the love and attention that lay the foundation for lasting memories. A delicious pizza doesn’t hurt either!