G’day… There goes another weekend! They just zip by don’t they?
It rained a reasonable amount today – but not with the enthusiasm of yesterday, so we could at least go out for a bit without getting completely saturated!
This completely unimpressive photo is my ‘before’ photo. In about a month I am really hoping there will be so much green with tall corn and massive zucchinis etc. It just looks a bit underwhelming right now!!
And look who I caught in action!! Screecher, our oldest chook has discovered she can fly to the top of the pallet fence and take a stroll on the wild side!! (Wing clipping night has to be soon!!)
Anyway, this post was meant to be about pizza.
We enjoy pizza… we used to buy it when we lived in the city. But when we moved to Tasmania and I didn’t go back to ‘normal formal paid 9-5’ work, I learned to do lots of things that meant avoiding spending excess $$
Making pizza’s was one of those things.
Its actually pretty hard to go back to the bought pizzas once you make your own unless you are going out to the fancy-pants gourmet pizza places.
If you don’t make your own bases… here is the recipe for mine. Its pretty easy & straight forward.
In a small bowl, put one tablespoon of dry yeast, a teaspoon of caster sugar and a cup of lukewarm water.
Mix and leave until it froths up nicely.
In a large bowl sift 2 & 1/2 cups of plain flour, and add one teaspoon of sea salt flakes (I often use normal salt) and a tablespoon of olive oil (again, vegetable oil quite acceptable)
Add yeast mix to the flour and mix in – using well floured hands and bench, start to knead into dough. Takes a few minutes to get it to the nice smooth elastic consistency.
Place in clean bowl and cover with damp cloth
This whole mixture now has to be left to rise, so perfect opportunity to go down to the supermarket to go shopping and forget the icing sugar for the cake you baked the day before (yeah I know… sigh)
Aaaanyway… skipping forward
I like to break this into 3 lumps, although the original recipe says 4
Roll out to vaguely pizza shape
Add toppings as you desire… we usually have same one every time because we are boring and we like it.
Topped with chicken pieces and sprinkled with cheese, we have our favourite pizza!!
Do you make pizza? Is pineapple important? What toppings are essential??
Who knows… maybe we will branch out one day.
Enjoy whats left of your weekend and hope Monday is kind to you!
Cheers
Your pizza sounds and looks delicious. What temperature do you bake it at and for how long? I’m going to give it a try this week. Thanks.
I had the oven at 200C And about 20-25 minutes I think. Enjoy yours!! xx
In our world, adding pineapple makes it an “Hawaiian” pizza. We love the Mediterranean Pizza, with shrimp, usually from a can, added. Our youngest son loves the “white” pizza, without tomato sauce but ricotta cheese instead. Sometimes my husband likes to put on thin sliced dill pickles on his pizza.
Hawaiian is really popular here too… I just think pineapple on everything is good 🙂 The ricotta cheese idea sounds fab!!
Try chicken and spinach leaves and mushrooms and onions….with cheese, of course…YUM!
mmmmm I do like the sound of that. Maybe I should plant some spinach… never have grown it because its not on our dinner plates often!
yeah – pizza season in NE OH. I like to make the dough a day ahead, or even have it in the freezer. after taking it out of the fridge and bringing it up to room temperature, it is so much cooperative to work with. Lisa, your pizza looks yummy. i don’t usually use pineapple, but i am going to give it a go next time! Thanks for the suggestion!
karen
Thanks for the advice about pre making. I still have a little dough in the fridge that I thought I might make up tonight to finish it off. Good idea to have some in the freezer. So when busy with guests out and about, can just take that part of prep out of the equation when making dinner!
Hope you like the pineapple! 🙂
We always have pepperoni. We don’t do tomato sauce like we used to. I discovered a white sauce made by Classico that we love, mostly cream seasoned with herbs. I also cannot do without fresh mushrooms & sliced black olives.
I am rather keen to try a white sauce version of pizza!! Maybe I will have to make a series of small ones next time as a taste test to see what really takes our fancy!!
Since I don’t eat dairy or meat and my husband does it’s easier to go out for pizza or bring home a pre made one. Way to much work to have all the ingredients on hand and I can only make one at a time in my little oven.
We love pineapple on a pizza! But according to my husband it has to be fresh not tinned
It does make it easier if both people are eating the same thing – I completely agree with you getting someone else to do the cooking there!! 🙂
I don’t mind fresh pineapple, but I so love the tinned stuff!! 🙂
Thank you for the recipe, we live out in the country so I make our own pizza too. I’m looking forward to trying your recipe for dough though. I usually throw on leftover meat (roast/burger/sausage/ham), onions, canned pineapple tidbits (a staple for me!!), and some peppers (capsicum) if I have them. I also like to put some flax seeds into the dough for texture and the fun of it. For the sauce I like to use basil pesto if I have it or I take the juice from the canned pineapple and mix it with tomatoe paste and spices to make the tomatoe sauce. Then too it off with lots of cheese. We all like pizza night at our house, ha ha!
oooooo Basil pesto for the sauce!!! Now I have to go and have a serious conversation with my tiny basil plants!!
I haven’t thought about putting leftover meat on the pizzas… always specifically doing the chicken. I should branch out by the sounds of things!
Is your pizza dough much different from the one I use?
I would LOVE to make a pizza oven. Its on my to do list that lurks in my head – maybe one day!!
Mine is super fast compared to yours, that’s why I’m looking forward to trying your recipe out! This is my idea of fast food, ha ha!
1 c warm water
1 tbsp white sugar
2 1/4 tsp yeast (I have also used regular yeast and it still turns out but I proof the yeast first)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 c flour
1/4 c flax seeds
Mix and let rest for 10 min. This is when I preheat the oven and prepare the toppings. Oil up the pan (I don’t have a pizza stone- one day though!) stretch out the dough, top, and bake for 18+ min 🙂
When you make your pizza oven please show us all! And your pesto too. I have been using store bought pesto as my basil didn’t really take off this spring.
Thanks a bundle for that. I’ll write it up and give it a go sometime! 🙂