Okay, it is therapy time with Annie!
Have you found yourself a victim of the 21st century? Do you think baking bread means buying the par baked buns from the supermarket and cooking them for 4 minutes?? Does your recipe for homemade pizza consist of one frozen pizza and a bag of grated cheese? If you have answered yes to any of these questions then I have great news for you ~ you don't know what you're missing!!!!
Today I'm going to share my pizza dough recipe with you (and the toppings to accompany) and you are going to be equiped to host a pizza making night that is fun for both young and old. The children love to get their sleeves rolled up and create, the teenagers like to build and challenge each other and the adults...well we pretty much fall in both categories.
I recently made a huge batch of dough for my son Oskar’s 11th birthday party. We cleared off our dining table, covered it with flour and gave each child a ball of dough and let them at it (there were 11 kids!). They had heaps of fun (and made their own dinner!). Have a go and enjoy I promise you’ll be hooked ☺
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:
Pour one cup of lukewarm water into a bowl. Add to it two sachets of compressed yeast and one tablespoon of sugar (this “activates” the yeast).
Meanwhile, oil your oven trays and prepare your toppings.
Measure 3 cups of bread making flour (I use Anchor Bread and Pizza Flour) into a large bowl. Add a good pinch of salt and two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl of flour and mix it in.
Now for the fun bit!! Sprinkle your kitchen bench/countertop with flour and plonk your dough onto the surface. Now get kneading. Have both hands opposite each other and fold the dough from right to left. Turn the ball a quarter of a turn and make the same movement. This warms the dough and incorporates air into it. Knead your dough for about two minutes. This is a great upper arm and ab workout as well so knead away!!
Place your dough into a greased bowl (with room for it to grow) cover with a plate or plastic wrap and put in a warm place. If you don’t have a warm sunny spot to place your bowl just stand it in a larger bowl of warm water. Leave for half an hour.
Now you have a beautiful bowl of soft yeasty pizza dough! Knead it a couple of times. Divide it into two or three portions depending on how thick you like your base and roll it out.
Place the base onto the tray and top with a thick pasta sauce to which you have added a little salt and sugar. Alternatively you may have pizza base that you like, if so then use it instead of the pasta sauce.
Finish with your favourite toppings and a layer of combined tasty, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Bake in a hot oven (about 210-220C) for 10 to 15 minutes ~ If you are looking for a lighter option use a little parmesan and lite mozzarella and when removed from the oven sprinkle with roughly chopped flat leaf parsley and basil.
Just another familyroom tried and true recipe. Enjoy friends.
Annie x
(ps - hope you enjoy the photo, not something we do at our place but gosh it looks great!)
8 comments:
Love it Annie. We have Pizza Nights at home and they are great. I find it a perfect way to entertain guests as well, it's a very interactive meal and allows creativity to flow. We often have a night where the kids make theirs then the adults start to create.
My hubby and Belinda's are leading the men for sure in their ability to create incredible homemade pizza's.
I use lavash bread and actually took a photo the other night (during a Pizza Night) that I was going to put on here. I might get it up next week. Fun.
Thanks.
Susan
I've never made pizza dough on my own. I am the person who buys and adds bits here and there. You've convinced me so I'll give it a try. I'm a little worried about flour ending up everywhere but hey why not.
Sylvia
I think my last meal on earth would be home made pizza and a great red!
Sylia one of the things I do to avoid the flour mess, well some of it, is performing the whole exercise on a big cutting board on the bench so all you have to clean up is the board.
This is also bc I don't have much bench space!
Works for us and you could also put it on the kitchen floor to get the kids involved.
Yumm
Lv Jane
I just had an iron chef birthday party for my 10 year old daughter. My daughter and 5 of her friends donned their chef hats and aprons and made old fashioned pizzas with a very similiar recipe. Thanks for sharing it. Oh yeah, the Family Room blog has so many international readers please remember to keep all recipes in common measurements (ie. tablespoon, teaspoon etc. because I have no idea what a sachet is as we purchase yeast in bulk quantities).
Thanks for the ideas and comments friends.I Love the process of making pizza, it really is all about your senses, I love the way the flour goes everywhere and the feel of the dough and ohh the smell!
Sorry about the measurement thing, 1 sachet =7g.
Annie xx
Annie,
1 sachet = 7 grams OK that is fine in the world of metric measurements but what about moi... I'm an Imperial measurement girl! I can't see getting out the kitchen scale to measure what is seemingly a pinch or a tablespoon of yeast.
Katielady,
You can usually jump online and google a site that will automatically convert metric to imperial or visa versa. My suggestion, do this before you start making the dough and have the information on hand otherwise you could end up with a mess around your keyboard.
Enjoy and thanks for the comments.
This is great Annie. How too easy it is to dial for Pizza! This is a great idea for when I have my nieces and nephews over during the holidays.
Michaela.
Post a Comment