Thanksgiving leftovers pizza recipe

(FOX 13) - Black Friday can only mean one thing, right? Yes, everyone is shopping, but it's also the first day of Thanksgiving leftovers. 

If meal after meal of turkey and stuffing doesn't sound appealing, we have a new twist on leftovers that's easy to make and very versatile: Thanksgiving leftovers pizza. 

Whether you want to make your own pizza crust (recipe below) or use a store-bought version, topping your pie with Thanksgiving dinner is as easy as it is tasty.

Homemade pizza crust is surprisingly simple. It just requires you plan ahead. We suggest mixing your ingredients while you're making Thanksgiving dinner.

Pizza crust (recipe makes 4 small-medium pizza crusts):

4 cups flour (bread flour is preferable, instead of all-purpose)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 packet instant dry yeast

2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cups hot water (110°F)

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons olive oil

Directions:

Step 1: Pour yourself a glass of delicious cranberry apple sangria. Here's a recipe that's just as good with or without the wine. Or try this bubbly, pear-thyme cocktail.

Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, dissolve sugar in hot water. Sprinkle contents of yeast packet over water and let sit for 5 minutes. The yeast should form a foam layer.

Step 3: Mix in 3 1/2 cups of the flour, salt, and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, use it to incorporate ingredients until it forms a ball. Otherwise, use a spatula or spoon, or even your hands, to mix the ingredients. 

Add the rest of the flour if the dough is too wet. 

Step 4: Coat the mixing bowl with remaining olive oil and let sit, covered, in the refrigerator overnight. It should double in size.

About an hour before you're ready to have pizza, take the dough out of the refrigerator and knead it with flour for about five minutes. Let it sit, covered, and come to room temperature. 

Making the pizzas:

Divide the dough into four balls. Roll or press out each ball into a square, circular, or rectangular pizza shape. Place the dough on a cookie sheet before topping your pizza. 

For toppings, we tried two varieties.

On the first pizza, we spread mashed potatoes on the bottom. Then we sprinkled around some stuffing, chopped turkey, and dollops of green bean casserole. We topped it with cheddar and mozzarella cheese and cooked it for about 8 minutes.

For our second pizza, we started with the mashed potatoes and stuffing. Then we sprinkled around bits of ham and dollops of cranberry sauce. We topped it with mozzarella cheese and cooked it for about 8 minutes. 

Once the pizzas were out of the oven, we topped them with extra crispy fried onions leftover from the green bean casserole.

Your pizza variety may differ based on what you have leftover, but everything tastes good on pizza crust, so feel free to experiment! 

Follow up your pizzas with these mini pumpkin ice cream pies.