So if I’m not working late on a Friday we’ll often do homemade pizza’s. Whilst I have often ordered in a pizza or thrown a shop bought one in the oven, I am always shocked by the calorie count of a pizza. I know my version is hardly calorie-light, I console myself with the fact that it at least contains some less calories than the delivered version. I’ve done pizza a few times and meant to post my recipe, but I keep forgetting to take pictures when I do!
This Friday we had 13 for pizza, and that included 5 children. I wanted to keep the menu simple and child friendly, lets face it, so long as you provide wine/beer for the adults they’re happy! I just did a selection of salads, homemade coleslaw and some southern fried chicken (shop bought)for those who don’t eat pizza. I made 4 large pizzas, two meat feasts with salami, serrano ham and smoked ham. One sweet chilli chicken and one with smoked ham, sweetcorn, mushroom and jalapenos. Obviously, you can put whatever you like on yours.
Afterwards everyone made their own ice cream sundae from a selection of goodies we put out. My mom made the ice cream, one vanilla and one apple. She makes THE best ice cream, and my husband is her willing taste tester.
For The Pizza ( makes 4 large):
1kg strong white bread flour
2 tsp fast action dried yeast
4 tsp sea salt
580ml warm water
8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tins chopped tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
3 large garlic cloves
1 tsp sugar
6 mozzarella balls, sliced
300g grated extra mature cheddar
Selection of toppings: sweetcorn, pepperoni, serano ham, mushrooms, jalapenos, pineapple, sweet chilli sauce (use whatever you fancy)
To make the dough combine the flour, sea salt and yeast in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre, mix the warm water and olive oil in a jug and pour most into the well. Don’t use it all, you may not need it. Start mixing the dough with your fingers, bringing it together into a ball. If there is still a lot of flour not coming together add some more of the water and oil mixture. Turn out onto a clean work surface and start kneeding. I usually get my husband to do this bit as its definately a workout! Kneed for about 10-15 minutes until the ball of dough becomes smooth. If you press your finger into it, it should bounce back. This is how you’ll know its kneeded enough.
Place in an oil covered bowl with a damp cloth over it in a warm place for 30-40 minutes to rise. Empty the tinned tomatoes into a non-stick saucepan and add the crushed garlic, salt & pepper and oregano. Simmer vigorously for 30 minutes or until mist of the liquid has evaporated and the tomatoes have reduced.
You could run the paste through a blender to make a smoother paste, though I don’t usually. Set aside to cool. When the dough has been rising for about 40 minutes turn on your oven to its maximum setting and put two trays into the oven to heat. I use the ones with the holes in the bottom, I think it helps make the base crispy. Empty the dough back out onto your work surface. Divide into 4 and start rolling out as thin as possible. Bear in mind it will need to fit on your trays so don’t roll it too much.
When your oven is ready, remove the trays and place the first two rolled out bases onto each tray. Be careful because they’ll be hot and work quickly. Spread a quarter of sauce on each base and put sliced mozzarella and grated cheese on both. Don’t be tempted to put too much sauce, cheese or toppings on your pizza. It will just make it overloaded and soggy. Next put whatever toppings your using on each and put into the oven for 15 minutes until the base has crisped up and the cheese is melted and bubbling. Serve and eat straight away. Whilst everyone is tucking into those two, you can get the next two into the oven.
For the ice cream sundaes I just put a selection of strawberries and tinned peaches in bowls, along with bowl of chopped roasted hazelnuts and salted peanuts in the middle of the table. I also made some jelly and put out some toffee and chocolate sauce. Everyone just helped themselves, my favorite was vanilla ice cream with toffee sauce and salted peanuts. Divine!
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