Homemade Pizza by Katherine

Adapted from Katherine's Yummy Mummy recipes.

Ingredients

Dough:

2 tsp dried granulated yeast

3 cups all purpose flour

-- Katherine prefers 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 unbleached flour for a healthier dough

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup water

Plus

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp warm water

Toppings:

(based on one pizza)

1 can pizza sauce

1- 2 cups grated mozzarella and/ or cheddar (or your favourite!) depending how cheesy you like your pizza

Directions

To make the dough by hand, activate the yeast by mixing in a cup with warm water; let sit for a few minutes.

While yeast is activating, combine other ingredients in a bowl

Add yeast & combine well

Roll dough into a large ball; remove from bowl, coat bowl with olive oil & return dough to bowl; cover and allow dough to rise for an hour or so.If making dough in a bread maker, the allotted time allows for the dough to rise

While dough is rising/ in machine, prepare your toppings

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

When dough is ready, turn onto a floured surface and roll to approx 1/2" thick; place rolled crust onto baking sheet/ pizza pan

Partially cook pizza crust for 10 minutes, or until just turning golden brown (you may need to pop a few bubbles)

Remove crust from oven; scoop & spread pizza sauce over crust, followed by toppings & cheese

Cook for another 10 minutes, or until crust & cheese is cooked & melted the way you like it!

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Here are some Pizza Topping suggestions to get you started!

  
Deluxe Pizza

1 green pepper, diced

1/2 white onion, diced

5-6 mushrooms, sliced

1 can sliced olives

100gr ham & pepperoni, sliced thin

Hawaiian/ Ham & Pineapple Pizza

100 gr ham, sliced thin

1 can pineapples, diced

BONUS: 100 gr bacon= my fave!!!

  
Vegetarian Pizza

1 green pepper, diced

1/2 white onion, diced

5-6 mushrooms, sliced

1 medium- large tomato, sliced thin

1 can sliced olives

Margherita Pizza

1 medium- large tomato, sliced thin

1 bunch fresh basil, chopped 

(approx 1 cup, unpacked)

Sage and Onion Tear & Share Bread

Adapted from bbc.co.uk
Ingredients

5 oz whole milk, plus extra for glazing
14 oz flour
7g / 1/2 sachet fast-action dried yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 oz butter
1 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
15-20 sage leave, chopped, plus extra for garnish
freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Heat 5 ounces of water and the milk in a saucepan over low heat until lukewarm.

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the yeast, sugar, and salt.

Make a well in the centre and stir in the water and milk with a large wooden spoon. Gather into a ball and then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover loosely with oiled clingfilm. Leave to ride in a warm place for 45-60 minutes or until double in size.

Meanwhile, melt the butter and oil in a large non-stick frying pan and fry the onion and garlic over a very low heat for 10 minutes, or until softened.

Scatter the chopped sage over the onions and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat, season with lots of freshly ground black pepper and set aside to cool.

When the dough has doubled in size, tip it back onto a floured surface and flatten with your hands. Spoon the onion mixtures on top and knead for a couple minutes until evenly incorporated. Sprinkle with a little extra flour if it becomes sticky.

Divide the dough into eight balls and shape by pulling the dough from the outside and pushing into the centre. Turn over with the ends underneath. Place the rolls in a circle on a large baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, making sure the dough balls are touching. Cover loosely with oiled cling film and leave to proof in a warm place for 45 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

Brush the top of each roll lightly with milk and place a small sage leaf on top. Brush with more milk and bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool before serving.

What is Sourdough bread and how is it made?

If you have ever mentioned wanting to visit San Francisco, California, the number one thing people always put on their top 10 list (besides visiting Alcatraz and riding the cable cars) is trying the sourdough bread. Sourdough has been around since at least 1500BCE in Ancient Egypt, when we find the first archaeological evidence and written records, but it is likely much older than that. The true origin story of sourdough has long been lost, but it was likely the first form of leavened bread discovered by pre-historic humans.

Sourdough gets its "sour" flavour from wild yeast, which has a symbiotic relationship with the lactobacilli who produce the lactic acid that gives the bread its unique flavour. Cultivated yeast is used in most other breads. To make sourdough is fairly simple, if time consuming. First you have to create a starter dough, though if you're lucky a neighbour already has some starter and you can just ask for about 4 ounces.

Otherwise, It takes about one week to create a starter dough or “mother dough.” After that, only a couple minutes each day to maintain your starter for baking. In fact, some batches of starter dough are hundreds and hundreds of years old! For some reason, the environmental factors around San Francisco work together to make some of the best tasting sourdough in the world.

People have paid upwards of $600 for batches of sourdough starter from San Francisco and the Klondike areas of Alaska for the “authentic flavor.” Unfortunately, the flavor from any starter dough begins changing the moment you move it to a new location. Climate, altitude, types of wild yeast available, different bacteria, etc… all factor in to the flavour of your sourdough. The longer it spends in a new region, the more it tastes like any other sourdough from that region. It can change flavour as quickly as just a few weeks!

If you’re interested in creating your own starter or “Mother Dough” at home, be aware that it takes at least a week to get to the right state to bake with. Depending on how much humidity or temperature variation there is in your kitchen, it may also take longer. Also, there are three things to always remember when creating sourdough starter:

Use Whole grain flour – the yeasts that create the unique flavor live mostly in the cereal hulls, which are discarded to make refined flour. After your starter is made, you can use any flour you want for the actual bread making.

Acidify the flour medium – by using apple cider or pineapple juice instead of water, the yeast has more food and can grown more quickly. Beer also works well and was one of the original ways to make starter.

Maintain the temperature at approximately 24°C (75°F) – this is the ideal thriving temperature for yeast. If you aren’t able to keep it at this temperature, don’t worry, just get it as close as you can (not too warm or too cold). It may just take a bit longer to get your starter to the baking stage.

I found an Instructable that looks to have some fairly good pictures of the process, but there are tons of sourdough starter recipes and methods online so feel free to experiment with your own methods. My husband prefers using half an onion, but others have used pineapple juice, honey, or even beer to get their starter going.