Quick and easy kids’ recipe for pizza (from scratch)

A super-simple pizza recipe using a version of Jamie Oliver’s basic pizza dough recipe and Pizza Express style tomato sauce.  These are a fraction of the cost of store-bought pizza and a whole lot more fun!

My childhood friend Supermum gave me this recipe for pizza dough and it’s soooo good, I just had to share it.  Whenever I’ve made pizza in the past, it has risen in the oven to make deep-pan pizza, but we were able to flatten this dough out and it stayed perfectly thin and crispy!  Supermum’s dough recipe is a version of Jamie Oliver’s…

You will need:

• 1 sachet of yeast
• 325ml warm water
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 500g bread flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 200g good quality tomato passata
• salt and pepper (if the passata doesn’t already contain this – most do)
• a handful of fresh basil leaves and stalks
• 250g grated firm mozzarella (and cheddar, optional)
• whatever other toppings you want (we like goats cheese and frozen med veg mix / salami and parma ham)

COST: pennies
AGE: toddlers and up
TIME: 30 minutes (plus an hour to prove)

https://www.instagram.com/p/dcrxUCGevL/

How-to:

1. Mix the yeast, water, sugar and oil together and leave to froth for a few minutes.
2. Meanwhile, mix the salt and flour together, then make a well in the middle.
3. Pour your bubbly liquid mixture into the well and use a spoon to stir in the dry ingredients until your dough forms.
4. Now, Supermum uses a dough hook on her mixer for 5 minutes, but as we don’t have such fancy kitchen equipment, Pickle and I kneaded ours by hand for 10-15 minutes.  Pickle loved squeezing the mixture between his fingers and making handprints in it.
5. Cover the dough with a damp tea towel and leave it for an hour.
6. Then knead the dough once more, quickly, to knock the air out of it.
7. You should have enough for 3 large pizzas (or 3 medium and 4 small) – divide it up however you want to and either use it straight away, or freeze*
8. Pre-heat your oven to 220c.
9. Choose your size of pizza, take a lump of dough and roll it into a ball.  Flatten that ball out and squish it with your fingers until it forms the base of your pizza (aim to make it 1/2 cm thick).  Place your pizza base on an oiled metal tray.
10. To make the tomato sauce, whizz up your passata, basil (including stalks) and salt and pepper (optional) in a blender (you can freeze this too if you want)
11. Use the back of a tablespoon to spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over your dough base.
12. Sprinkle on some grated firm mozzarella (and cheddar if you like).
13. Add any other toppings you like and bake in the preheated oven for 10-20 minutes (please keep a close eye on your pizzas!)
14. Slice and enjoy…

https://www.instagram.com/p/dcsADGGevr/

I mean seriously, how good does this look?  DROOL!

*Supermum’s top tip: use greased sandwich bags and leave some room for expansion, as the dough will prove again as it cools.  To defrost, take the dough out at breakfast and it will be ready to use by tea time.

If your little ones enjoy cooking, why not make some delicious chocolate-dipped cookies for pudding..?