Pizza Dough

Its round ish pizza

The Junior Jam Tarts love making pizza, its inexpensive, its a fun family activity, and, because you control the ingredients healthier that its shop bought counterpart.  I went to a party where the food included homemade pizza and decided if they could do a super base so could we. I've since discovered pizza dough can be frozen and now make it in double batches. Either dividing each into 4 for  10" thin crust pizzas or in half for larger pizza's. It thaws in about an hour. If you want a thicker base simply stretch the dough less. As its in american cup measures its especially easy.

Ingredients

1 tsp yeast

1 tbsp sugar

¾ cups warm water

2 – 2.5 cups plain flour

1.5 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

Spinach, Olive & Goats cheese Mummy Pizza

Method

1. Combine the yeast, sugar and warm water in a bowl. Stir well to dissolve the yeast and sugar. Let sit for 3-5 minutes to let the yeast bloom (or “wake up”). You’ll see foam on top when it’s ready

2. Combine 2 cups of the flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir well to evenly distribute the salt. Add the olive oil (it will get stirred/mixed in during kneading). The extra half cup of flour is for might be added during kneading - I've never needed the whole half a cup

3. Once the yeast water is foamy on top stir it into the flour mixture. Stir it until it forms a loose ball. Pop onto the counter and begin to knead the dough. Knead well for 10 minutes, sprinkle flour on the board / worktop sparingly as you knead. If you add too much flour the dough will end up dense. Keep your hands and the dough moving quickly and its less likely to stick

   4. Let the dough rest for at least an hour before using

   5. Either use the dough that night, lightly oiling the bowl and covering or use the next day.Otherwise divide and coat in lightly in oil and freeze. NOTE: make sure the dough is at room temperature before stretching out

   6. Our pizzas never turn out perfectly round, and we have no real method for stretching out – within the family we have the 'stretch and turn', the 'rolling pin' and the 'squash and squish' techniques - they are all fun!

   7. Top the base and bake at 180 for 10-12 minutes or until your pizza looks cooked