Pizza Anyone?

It has been quite a while since we had pizza. As it was offering a 30% discount for a certain credit card, tonight we  headed for the neighbourhood pizzahut store to try the new pizza.  Surprisingly  it tasted refreshingly good. It does not have the normal tomato flavour of pizzas.The fish also tasted different from the normal Dory they like to dish out in our local 'fish and chips'.The fish pizza consisted of fish fingers made from the Alaskan Pollock. Initially I thought it would cost a bomb but it was affordable and the price was not much different from that of the the other pizzas on sale.

When the children were in school, I used to prepare quick pizza meals for lunch. I made my own filling usually from chicken breast meat lightly cooked and mixed with mixed vegetables (diced carrots, peas, corn, beans, etc), seasoned with a little salt and pepper. The tomato base I would buy from a supermarket. Nowadays, I cannot find the pizza base anymore as that supermarket has closed. For the cheese toppings I used cheddar cheese instead of the more expensive mozarella. Instead of making my own pizza dough, I would use pita bread. I had quite forgotten about my cheap pizza recipe until recently one of my daughter's friends commented how she enjoyed my pizzas then.

For those keen to try your hand at making the pizza dough, here is the recipe:

Basic Pizza Dough

225g unbleached strong flour

1 tsp easy blend dried yeast (1/2 sachet)

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp cooking oil

125-150 ml tepid water (As yeast contains living organisms, using cold water would not do any good. On the other hand, hot water will kill the yeast).

Method:

Sift the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil and water. Stir vigorously, graduallyy drawing in the flour to form a soft dough. Knead for at least 10 minutes or until the dough feels silky smooth and springy.

Place in an oiled bowl, turning once so the surface is coated. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours until it has doubled in size.

If in Malaysia, I would place the dough near the window as it is a warm place. During my days in England, I would place my rising dough in a slightly warm oven (turned to minimum heat), or somewhere not to far from the room heater.

It is important not to place the dough on a very hot place as this would kill the yeast organisms and leave you with hard dough.

 If you wish to diversify your pizza dough you can vary the ingredients as below and use the same method to knead the dough.

For a rich pizza dough the ingredients are:

225g unbleached strong plain flour

1 sachet easy blend dried yeast

1 tsp salt

5 tbsp tepid water

1 large egg, beaten

4 tbsp cooking oil

Wholemeal Pizza Dough

150g strong wholemeal flour

75g unbleached strong plain flour

1 tsp easy blend dried yeast (1/2 sachet)

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp cooking oil

125-150ml tepid water

That's all for today. I will teach you how to make the tomato base for your pizza in the next post. Aslo in the next few posts, I will help you prepare some yummy chicken and pepperoni pizzas at home.