Home Made Pizza!

I am a complete and utter sucker for cooking and baking, and am frequently found in the kitchen trying out some new recipe. In the past I've made some mean enchiladas and some gorgeous home made cheese and onion pies among many other delicious cakes and snacks. I really do enjoy it and it's something I like to do on my own to make other people happy and well...full. 

Yesterday I went to the supermarket with my lovely boyfriend Kieron and he saw a packet of pre-made pizza base and decided he wanted pizza. I however wanted to make the base from scratch, so set off into the shop to find yeast and bread flour. Then went home with all my ingredients and very excitedly made two gorgeous pizzas from scratch.

Here's how I did it! 

Ingredients -  

• 300g strong bread flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 200ml of water
• 1 bottle of tomato purée
• 125g of cheese - preferably mozzarella but I used a four cheese mix for one of the pizzas
• variety of toppings e.g - tomatoes, sweetcorn, meat, peppers, onions, mushrooms, pineapple, or whatever takes your fancy

Step ONE

Make the base - Put the flour into a large mixing bowl and then stir in the yeast and salt. Make a well in the mixture and pour in 200ml of water and the tablespoon of olive oil. Bring together with a large wooden spoon until you have a fairly wet, soft dough. Now you need to flour a worktop/surface, put your dough on it and knead for 5 minutes. Once you've finished kneading, set the dough aside for an hour to rise. 

Step TWO

Once you've set the dough aside for an hour, you need to roll out the dough. Do this on a floured surface and use a rolling pin covered in flour to roll the dough into a round shape. The dough needs to be super thin as it will rise more in the oven. Then lift the dough onto a baking tray/pizza tray/tin-foil covered in oil. 

Step THREE

Now it's the fun part! You need to apply the tomato puree onto the top of your pizza. This is easily done by using a spoon to smooth it out over the top. Once you've put on as much puree as you like, you need to start putting on your chosen cheese. Make sure you fill the whole of the dough with the cheese! Once that's done it's time to put your toppings on! 

Step FOUR

Pop in the oven on gas mark 8/240C/220C fan, leave to cook for 10 - 15 minutes, but keep checking on it to make sure it doesn't overcook/undercook. Once you're happy with how it looks (usually the edges of the pizza will look golden, that's how you know it's done!) take the pizza out of the oven and eat! 

You can use this recipe to make one big pizza or you can halve it and make two (or three, or four smaller pizzas!) I have to say this is literally the best pizza I have ever made with this recipe. It's gorgeous!! 

SHARE: