one for the weekend

Homemade pizza is a crowd pleaser around here and if you've never bothered to make your own dough here is a quick and easy recipe for you to try. Setting out the topping ingredients for everyone to top their own is fun and in my experience another great way to encourage children to eat vegetables. You'll notice in the photo there is no cheese on the table. I hand that over once the pizza makers have at least one vegetable on the base!

Pizza dough


Ingredients
4 cups white spelt flour
a pinch of salt
a pinch of raw sugar
1.5 cups warm water
2 teaspoons or 1 x 7 gram sachet dried yeast
1/4 cup olive oil

Method
In a small bowl mix water, sugar and yeast and set aside for a few minutes of until it looks foamy on the surface.

In a large bowl combine the flour and salt.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture and the oil. Using a spoon gently mix until just combined and then using your hands bring the dough together into a ball.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in bowl and roll to coat in oil. Cover with a clean teatowel and put bowl in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes or until dough doubles in size.

Once risen punch dough down and turn back onto floured surface, knead lightly and break into balls about the size of a tennis ball or a bit bigger than a golf ball for smaller pizza makers. (When I write pizza maker I am referring to children not those machines you see on infomercials :)

The fun begins. Flour a clean surface for each pizza maker to work and give them their ball of dough to roll out with a rolling pin or if you don't have enough rolling pins a tall smooth drinking glass or bottle does the job.

Once the pizza maker is happy with their rolled out base, lightly oil a tray and place the base on and spoon on tomato puree. Let the topping begin.

Once topping placement is complete sprinkle with grated cheese and bake in a preheated oven 180C for around 10-12 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the dough.

Happy weekending. We're off to Melbourne for a city adventure. Hope you all fit in some relaxing time.