Homemade Pizza

Homemade pizza is loads of fun and they taste TONS nicer than the ones you buy in the supermarket. (They are also much cheaper.)  Here’s how to do it!:

It is also a great way of learning to make dough for bread. You will learn how to use yeast (one of cooking’s most magical ingredients) and how to knead the dough.

If you are a bit nervous, try buying a pizza packet mix from the supermarket.  These cost about 65 pence and will make two big or four little pizzas.  You will find them in the baking section with the bread mixes.

Equipment you will need

A large mixing bowl
A wooden spoon
A chopping board
Baking trays - if you have more two, you can cook two pizzas in the oven at the same time.
Some smaller bowls

Ingredients

For the base:

A pizza base packet mix - which makes it extra easy. (You’ll also need some extra flour for when you knead the dough.)

- or -

400 grams of plain flour (and some extra for when you knead the bread)
1 sachet of fast action yeast
1/2 teaspoon of salt (Remember teaspoons are the small ones!)
1 teaspoon of honey or sugar (this is for the yeast to feed on!)
1 tablespoon of olive oil (Tablespoons are the big ones!)

 
For the topping:

A carton of tomato pasta sauce  (use the cartons in the chilled foods section )

2 packets of mozzarella cheese

How to cook your homemade pizza:

1. If you are using a packet mix, pour both sachets of mixture into a mixing bowl and follow the packet instructions until you have a ball of sticky mixture in the mixing bowl. (You are making both packets together – so use double the water!)

2. If you not using a packet mix, mix the flour with the salt and yeast in the mixing bowl.

Then mix the olive oil, honey (or sugar) with 250 ml of warm water.  (The water needs to be ‘hand hot’ – that means it should feel nice and warm when you put your hand into it.  Too cold, and it won’t wake up the yeast. Too hot, and you will kill it!)

Go back to your mixing bowl and make a hole in the middle of the flour (this is called ‘making a well’) and pour the warm water mixture into the hole.  Now use your wooden spoon to slowly mix the flour and water together. Start in the middle where it is most runny, and by moving your spoon round and round, draw in the flour until every thing is mixed together.  You will now have a ball of sticky mixture in the mixing bowl.

3. On a large clean surface, scatter some of the extra flour.  This will stop the dough from sticking. Put some flour on your hands as well.  Things are going to get messy!  Empty the sticky mixture onto the floured surface.

4. Using your hands, knead the dough.  You do this by folding the outside of the sticky mixture into the middle and the pushing it down with the ‘heal’ of your hand (this is the hard part just above your wrist and below your thumb).  Do this again and again, sprinkling more flour onto your hands and the surface as you go along, to stop it sticking.

5. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes.  By then, it will not be sticky any more and will look like a smooth roundish ball.  Poke the mixture with your finger.  Does the hole you have made with your finger start to spring back and disappear?  If the answer is yes – the dough is perfect.  Well done! If the answer is no – you just have to knead it some more.  Try another minute, then do the poke test again!

7. Now it is time to let the yeast do its work and make the dough rise.  Yeast is a living organism that you bring to life by adding warm – but not hot – water.  You have given it food to eat by adding honey or sugar to the mixture.  The yeast will produce gases that will fill your dough with air and make it go bigger!

Divide the dough into the number of pizzas you wish to make – 2 big ones or 4 little ones (or 3 medium sized ones!).  Put the balls of dough into bowls greased with oil.  Now you just have to put them somewhere warm to let the yeast grow and work its magic…

Depending how warm your house is, this could be easy or difficult.  An airing cupboard would be just right.  Or perhaps by a radiator.  Don’t put it in a heated oven, because when the yeast gets too hot, it dies and th the dough doesn’t rise.

If you have a double oven, you can put it in the top oven whilst the bottom oven is warming up to take the pizzas.

Cover the bowls with cloths and leave the mixture to grow.  This will take about half an hour, depending on how warm it is kept.

Have a little rest

(I make these pizzas using this recipe almost every Saturday night.  But last night, the mixture didn’t rise much.  I don’t know why.   If this happens to you, don’t worry.  Just make your pizzas anyway.  They will still be good!)

8. Now, whilst the dough is still rising, get the rest of your ingredients ready.

Get the baking trays and wipe them with olive oil.  This will stop your pizza from sticking while it’s cooking.

Get your tomato sauce out of the fridge and take the lid off.

Open the packets of mozzarella with some scissors.  Make sure you stand over the sink otherwise the milky liquid is going to get everywhere!  Using a knife, slice the cheese into slices about as thick as the edge of a pound coin – this will make oval shapes of cheese.

Now is also the time to decide on your other toppings.   Check out the ideas below.

9.  Heat the oven to 220 C,  gas mark eight – watch out, that’s very hot.     Now it is time to shape your pizza.  Get your pizza dough, which will hopefully have risen.  Scatter a bit more flour on a clean surface.  Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into the correct shape for your baking tin.   Put the dough in the tin, then spread tomato sauce over the pizza base and arrange the cheese and other toppings on top.   Now put it in the oven!

10.  Check the pizza after 10 minutes.  It will be cooked when the cheese is melted and the pizza crust is starting to brown.

Other Ideas for Toppings

Mushrooms,   ham,  pineapple,  sweetcorn,  tuna,  pepperoni all make great pizza toppings   (chopped chilli & plain yoghurt is my favourite)

Recipes

Homemade pizza is brilliant with homemade coleslaw on the side, or if you like garlic you can use the same dough to make homemade garlic bread.

Pizza Stories

Jaz and Lucy love homemade pizzas so much, they feature in two stories -
Lucy’s Pizza Takeaway Night 
and Pizza Perfecto

Lets us know how your pizza’s turn out!