Pizza from scratch!

We made a trip to Burlington, VT just early this week, and I found a cook book (on sale!) with nice recipes - it's called:


Baking - Love Food - an imprint of Parragon Books.

I used the recipe: Cheese & Tomato Pizza (Page 188) + I of course have tweaked the recipe based on the ingredients I already have at home ^^;

The recipe makes 2 8" pizza.

DOUGH
1.5 cups all-purpose flour + extra for dusting
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp instant yeast OR 1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp canola oil + extra for oiling
6 tbsp lukewarm water


1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl and stir in the yeast. Make a well in the center and pour in the oil and water. Gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the liquid using your hands (the book suggests that if you want, you can use a wooden spoon, but I fond that it took FOREVER....)
2. Set the oven to the lowest temperature. when it's reached the temperature, turn it off.
3. Knead the dough on lightly floured counter for 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Return to clean bowl, cover with clean damp kitchen towel (the book suggests using lightly oiled plastic wrap, but I don't want it to interact with the dough..). Set aside to rise in the oven for about 1 hour, or until double in size.
4. Knock down the dough onto a lightly floured counter. Knead briefly, then cut in half and roll out each piece into a circle about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer to a lightly oiled cookie sheet and push up the edges with your fingers to form a small rim.

TOPPING
2 tomatoes, sliced thinly.
175 g mozzarella cheese, grated
100 g steak or ham or mushroom, sliced
1/3 fresh onion, diced
salt and pepper
2 tsp dry basil (or fresh shredded basil leaves)
2 tsp dry parsley
1 tsp garlic, minced and dried
2 tsp canola oil

1. Set the oven at 450F/ 230 C.
2. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese to cover the dough, and arrange the tomato slices prettily ^^. Season with salt and pepper; sprinkle the other herbs  and your protein (the book suggest that you can also drizzle with oil, but I find the pizza has a nice not-so-oily texture to it without the oil drizzle).
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until the crust is crisp and the cheese has melted. Serve immediately.

Now, enjoy my pictures ^^

    <Ingredients + dough>

    <Ready to be baked!>

    <Almost there!!>

    Voila!

I rate this delicious pizza 5 x YUMS!(out of 5 YUMS!) ^^~