Cooking with Kids - Homemade Pizza - Mummy Lauretta

Obviously with the Italian influence in our household we love Pizza, in fact Matteo will eat most Supermarket pizzas, his favourite being a really cheap deep pan one from LIDL! I’m a bit more picky as I don’t like a thick base and find some of the pizzas you can buy very salty so I only really eat pizza if we go out for dinner or if we make our own.

Making the dough in a bread machine?

As we only have a small kitchen we don’t have room for a lot of gadgets, I literally have room for my kettle and (smoothie) blender that I use every day, add some post, a lunch box, two fruit bowls and some water bottles and it’s more than cluttered! If you’re lucky enough to have a bigger kitchen than us and have a bread maker you can do the first bit of this recipe in it, saving some time. You can find some other Bread machine recipes by Panasonic (including one for a jam) at the following link:

https://www.panasonic.com/uk/dhp-slide/the-ideas-kitchen.html

Pizza is a Saturday night tradition

The boys love having pizza because it’s the only meal where we let them eat on the sofa watching TV. We usually watch a film together if it’s Saturday evening. This time we watched Paddington again. You can see the boys laughing in the last photo below!

The Pizza Recipe

This recipe is inspired and adapted from Jamie Oliver’s basic pizza recipe which appears in his book Jamie at Home. You can also find it here. I use one fifth wholemeal spelt flour to add some more fibre. We also like to use half normal mozzarella cheese and half mozzarella di bufala as it just adds so much more flavour. This makes two large pizzas plus two small pizzas so perfect for two adults and two children.

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

400g strong white bread flour (we use Doves Farm Organic)

100g wholemeal spelt flour (we use Doves Farm Organic)

1/2 level tablespoon fine sea salt

1 x 7g sachet dried yeast

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (we use Il Casolare)

1 heaped tsp golden caster sugar

325ml lukewarm water

Tomato Sauce

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large clove garlic

500g carton of passata

Salt & pepper

Handful of fresh basil leaves, torn

Toppings

125g ball of mozzarella

125g ball of buffalo mozzarella

Sprinkle of oregano

Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Anything else you like!

Method

The dough

Measure out the flours and add to a large mixing bowl/your bread maker with the salt.

In a measuring jug add the water, yeast, sugar and olive oil and then pour onto the flour mixture.

If using a bread maker follow the users instruction manual to programme the machine to mix and prove the dough.

If using a hand whisk with dough hook(s), mix for about five minutes until the flour is fully incorporated and the dough springs back when pulled. You can also mix and knead by hand if you don’t have a hand mixer.

Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove for two hours or until doubled in size. I normally put up in the boy’s bedroom near the radiator in winter.

The sauce

While the dough is proving, make the tomato sauce. Warm the olive oil in a frying pan and crush in the garlic, heat for a minute until it just starts to sizzle and pour in the passata.

Season and tear in the basil leaves and then leave on a low heat to simmer for about half an hour.

Rolling out the dough

When you’re ready to roll out the dough, pre heat the oven to 200 degrees C (fan). Oil three trays (we use two round pizza trays and one normal baking tray) and put to one side. Empty the risen dough onto a floured surface and cut into three equals parts.

Roll out you pizzas to your preferred thickness and transfer to the oiled trays. You can cut the third portion in half again to make two mini pizzas for the children.

Assemble your pizza

Using a metal spoon, spoon the tomato sauce onto the pizza bases and spread out. You may have some sauce left over which you could freeze and use for another time.

Add toppings of choice and put in the oven to cook. Check after ten minutes and then every 5 minutes until cooked how you prefer.

Enjoy!

The dough should grow from this: