HOMEMADE PIZZA

Hi! Just yesterday we made pizza at home, for dinner. I made the pizza right from scratch. You need to get a few things right for this wonderful and filling dish that anyone can savor. First thing being the dough, which needs to be really soft and tender after allowing it to rise for 2-3 hrs. Secondly the ingredients for the toppings especially if you would like to re create a particular type of pizza.

Let me start with the recipe for the dough:

Ingredients:

250 gms of All Purpose Flour
1 sachet of instant yeast (about 11g)
Warm water
1 tsp of sugar
Salt required amount
2 Tbsp of Olive oil

Method:

1) In a large pan, add the flour, sugar, salt, yeast and mix gently.
2) Add the warm water little by little and mix the dough to form a good sized ball of dough(which shouldn't be too watery, if it is add some more dough)
3) Add the olive oil and coat all over the dough, so that it forms a non sticky and fine dough.

Now we need to let the dough rest for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs in a warm and moist place. You can cover the mouth of the vessel with a wet handkerchief. The dough rises slowly and starts letting out  a different smelling gas! You can gently knead the dough after 1 1/2 hrs to release the gas and the dough returns to its almost original size.

Next using this dough, I made four balls of dough after kneading the dough gently for a minute. You can preheat the oven for about 1/2 to 1 hr at 230 celsius. Let the balls stay inside the pan for 10 to 15 mins. The more the dough stays in to raise the more fluffier and tastier the pizza becomes. So you can leave the dough to stay for few more hours to rise. you can also store the dough made in freezer for later use. That way, you can make the dough and let it stay in the fridge until the day you feel like having a pizza!

 After about an hour the flour almost doubles in size and is ready to be rolled into pizza bases.

For making the Pizza:

Take the ball of dough and using some flour knead it well to make a circular base by patting it from center outwards with your fingers. And in the edges you can pinch it a little upwards. Brush a little olive oil on the base before adding the toppings.

Ingredients: 

Kimball's garlic and tomato pizza sauce
Hunt's fresh tomato, basil and oregano tin
Olive oil
Capsicum slices
Mozzarella Fresh Cheese (Made from Cow's milk)
Pepper powder

Method:

1) Take the base that you have patted out of the balls that we rolled. Spread a thin layer of olive oil on it.
2) Apply a layer of Pizza sauce on it and place a few lumps of the fresh tomato pieces on it.
3) Apply a layer of grated cheese on the entire pizza and apply small amount of olive oil around the pizza. You can apply the pepper powder also if you want.

4) Transfer the pizza to a pan to place in the oven. The oven is preheated at 230 celsius for half an hr.
5) Bake the single pizza for 10- 15 min. If you like crisp pizza allow it to stay for a little longer (you can roll out a very thin pizza base for crispness).

You have a very yummy margherita pizza ready!

 A slight variation to this very simple recipe is the addition of capsicum pieces, which adds to the flavor and makes it look very colorful.

I hope you will try out these pizzas and let me know how you liked them!

Rema