Home Made Pizzas (with the kids)

I have failed so many times in the past in making edible pizza dough that we’d have pizza at home only if they are delivered by an acne-faced uni student or I pick them up myself on cheap Tuesday nights! But thanks once again to Ms Eufemia C Estrada’s Baking Made EC cookbook this situation has now changed for good. For the first time ever we’ve made our very own pizzas from scratch. I say we, as I did ask the kids to help out. We’d still have cheap Tuesday pizzas, of course, but we now have an alternative when we have more time.

All weekends are good but the last one we had was more suitable for indoor activities than anything else. It was the perfect occasion to get the kids involved in the kitchen. They were only too happy to help as they have been looking forward to this since I mentioned “make-our-own-pizzas” months and months ago.

I made the dough and blind baked 5 mini pizza sizes. It was then the kids’ task to finish off their own versions. I try to limit the choice of toppings. We almost always order only pepperoni pizza so a very good mild Hungarian salami was on top of the list. There was cheese of course, a good blend of tasty, mozzarella and a bit of parmesan. Then there were ham, bacon, sun-dried tomatoes, onion and basil. They pretty much ignored everything else and concentrated on the cheese and the salami.

Chichay's Alien Pizza

Yaya's Pricess Pizza

Kiko's "No-Name" Pizza

The end result was pretty good. The kids ate theirs with gusto. Them taking part in the cooking made the pizzas a little bit tastier!

The recipe below is copied, verbatim, from Ms Estrada’s Baking Made EC cookbook.

Basic Pizza Crust

½ cup scalded milk or ¼ cup evaporated milk plus ¼ up warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup warm water
2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
2 ¾ cup all purpose flour, sifted

1. To scalded or warm milk, stir in the sugar, salt and olive oil. Cool to lukewarm.
2. Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Let stand to rise. Add lukewarm milk.
3. Stir in sifter flour. Turn out on lightly floured board or tabletop and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl; turn over to coat dough in oil. Cover and let rise until double in bulk. It is double in bulk when indentation made with two fingers do not fill up again.
4. Punch down dough and divide into half. Shape each half into a ball and roll out into a 13-inch circle on a lightly floured surface.
5. Place on two lightly greased pizza pans or cookie sheets. Fold under ½-inch all around edges. 6. Bake immediately in hot oven (425F to 450F) for about 5 minutes or until dough is firm but not brown.

Finish off with your choice of toppings and put back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes!