Kids Dish

One of the nice things about not hosting during the holidays is that there’s no need to cook. I have not had to prepare a meal other than a bowl of noodles with cheese and butter or a sandwich since last Tuesday. I think I’m going to have to ease my way back into cooking. My in-laws came over for dinner tonight bringing leftovers and left behind two jars worth of homemade tomato sauce. Tomorrow I think I’m going to make pizza.

I discovered (in my yeast bread frenzy) that pizza dough is ridiculously easy to make. If I’d known this sooner I probably would have started making my own years ago. But hindsight is 20/20 and now I know, so pizza is soon to be a regular menu item especially since I got a pizza stone for Chanukah.

Pizza dough

1½ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon active dry yeast
½ cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Dissolve yeast in two tablespoons of warm water with a pinch of sugar. Let it sit until it becomes bubbly, about five minutes. Stir dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add yeast mixture, water and olive oil, stirring mixture into as close to a ball as you can. Dump the bowl out onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a ball. Use your hands, not a mixer for this, especially if you’re not used to kneading. After a few minutes you’ll notice that the lumps suddenly come together and you’ve got a soft, easy to work with ball.

Lightly oil the bowl you mixed the dough in. Put the dough in the bowl. Turn it to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and leave it to rise for about an hour until doubled in size. If your kitchen is cold like mine is it may take longer than an hour.

Once it’s doubled, preheat the oven to it’s highest temperature with a pizza stone or baking sheet on the rack. Dump the dough back out on the counter, punch it down to get out the air, roll it back into a ball and let it sit for about ten to fifteen more minutes.

Roll out into a 12 inch circle and top with your favorite pizza toppings and bake on the preheated stone or baking sheet for about 10 minutes or until the crust is brown and slightly bubbly.

Sadly the toddler is too smart for his own good and knows that my pizza is different from takeout. I may have to slip it into a box we’ve saved for the entertainment value to try and fool him.