Thread: Rainy Day Pizza From Scratch

Saturday was a rainy day here in Don Muang so I decided to make pizza from scratch with my kids. Was not sure how Thai flour would turn out but we gave it a go. I have never really been a baker.

Got the yeast and mixed 1 teaspoon with a teaspoon of sugar in a cup of warm water. Wait until it begins to foam and do its thing. Then transfer to a mixing bowl and add your other ingredients.

Then add your salt and for us a little garlic powder.


Now you add your olive oil, I used 1 tablespoon and a little more.



Now we are ready for the flour. The recipe was for three 14 inch pizzas so 2 1/2 cups flour.






From here we have the sticky start, you can them transfer to a flat dry surface to knead the dough.




Now its time to transfer, we just cleaned and used our counter top, you have to knead it for 12-15 minutes.




Smaller hands better kneading. Adding more flour to keep it from sticking to the surface you are working on.




Ready to coat in olive oil and let rise for at least an hour.




Now it has set covered with cling film and a dry cloth for about an hour and fifteen minutes, should double in size.




Then you punch it down and let it rise for another say 45 minutes.




The second rising and getting ready to rock and roll.




Now we had planned on enough for three but with the way it rose, we ended up using half the dough to make two nice size pizza's one 15 inches or so the other close to 12.

Cutting the dough.



The kids had been helping all along and the making of the shape is not easy as the dough is very elastic. We used a floured Chang bottle as the rolling pin.



Now begin to add the home made sauce. I used a tomato sauce that I sauteed off with some diced onions, and garlic. Rosemary, basil, and oregano were used to season it.






Now its time to add the cheese. We used just over 250 grams of mozzarella on the bigger one.



Then the thinly sliced onions, red bell, and we use Dixie sausage as our pepperoni.



A final layer of cheese as this house is addicted to gooey mozz.



Getting ready for the oven. I decided to make Hot Wings with it as a side dish.



15 minutes on bake for the wings at 170 then about 5-7 under the broiler.

Well lets see what happens after it bakes for about 20 minutes. It should have been shorter but I only have one pizza stone and I had to make it on the stone. Thus I could not preheat the stone and the cooking time was longer.


Out of the oven pizza number one.



with the wings ready to serve.



The big moment slicing that baby and seeing the gooey cheese.






The second one ready for the oven. Here is where the problem occured, how to get it off the plate and onto the hot pizza stone. It was done. But I am going to make me one of those pizza shovels or what ever they are called.




All in all a great day. From 1pm shopping at Foodland until 7pm serving time the kids had fun and really did help. Mom has discovered CSI and watched and slept her way through the whole process.

It really was a nice meal. Things to think about for the future. Higher quality flour, another pizza stone or flat pan, and a giant spatula or pizza shovel.

Going to do a beef stew soon, found the little pearl onions I need yesterday as well.

Enjoy!!!

Looks super!

Originally Posted by SEA Traveler

Looking good AO. and the fact that you had the kids involved and made it fun for them is commendable. I usually go the easy route and get the premade pizza shells. But then again I don't make pizza at home that much and the easy way out in this case is best for me. So, how did the pizza taste anyway?

So much better than the pre made base I buy from Foodland. The fact you can freeze it makes it really simple. Let it rise a long time as the yeast here is quite strong. Hell the damn thing was growing on the stone as we waited for the wings to finish. Literally it was starting to come over the edges of the pizza stone in the last few minutes before going in the oven.

Thanks.

All good AO. used to make my own often but have turned into a lazy fat slob lately and stopped, you have provided inspiration to get me going again, Thanks

You can't beat your own pizza. I do a mean deep pan as those skinny ones don't do it for me (saying that, I wouldn't say no!).

Is this better than that Pizza Supreme you did a while back ?

Where's the Garlic Bread ?

I've PM'ed you my delivery address

It was better SS as the dough was home made. Made two big pizzas and the wings so did without the garlic bread. Thought there would be some left over but it was not to be.

Got that PM

ss
69/138 Mu 3
Amphur My Loo
Nakorn Nowhere 123456
Land of Smiles

Awwwww, bro, I can smell that! I'll have to attempt to make some when hubby's here in June.

Considering I've just had Pad Krapow Mushroom for my sunday lunch..I was reluctant to open this...my fears were confirmed as I'm now spitting bits of computer screen in my old woman's direction..

Looks bloody lovely..

Yummmm!!!

Higher quality flour? You mean high protein? 12% protein or more rises the best. I can't buy it in the supermarket in Aus. Shits me......

Great photos, aroi....

Originally Posted by Bazzy

Higher quality flour? You mean high protein? 12% protein or more rises the best.

I was talking to an 'expert' the other week and he was telling me that the flour here isn't very good for bread because of its low gluten content. Apparently the French have/had the problem too which is why they make the best bread in the world.

I guess more isn't always better.

Looks very good, adding too much cheese is a mistake that many people often make when making pizza.

Originally Posted by English Noodles

adding too much cheese is a mistake that many people often make when making pizza.

agreed but this was a kid project and they wanted this. The next one they want to do Margharita pizza and will use just a bit of higher quality mozzarella and nice Roma tomatoes.

Looks great.
Never actually made one from scratch before.
By chance were the quantities you used available on the net so you could cut and paste easily enough? That sauce look awsome.

easy recipes available all over the net. I just did thin crust pizza dough and found many including you tube videos and pix of the stages of making it. Its dead easy, I had just never been much of a baker before.

oh cool, i will check it out.

Here in the sandpit we have the same problem, low gluten levels in the flour.

An American friend gave me something called 'Vital Wheat Gluten', you add a couple of teaspoons of it to the flour when you're mixing the pizza base, and bingo, off it all goes.

website on the packet is Hodgson Mill Home

I've no idea if it's available in Thailand, but they can't be the only people making this stuff.

BTW, good result with the pizzas Aging One

Looks Lovely - You reckon that you can put a pizza stone on a BBQ ? My bachelor style convection oven is too small and as it opens from the top loses all the heat.
Also the wings look goood! What did you put on them before sticking in the oven.
Nice one AO!

Yup the stone will work on a barbie, I use a mix my kids brought back from the states, but McCormick makes a package at about 50 baht that is 80% as good, I also like to add a drop or two of Wolf Garlic hot sauce, about 40 baht a bottle, its all dead easy.

Thanks Ao,
Off to buy a pizza stone - seen them at True Value. Also will look out for the chicken mix from McCormicks.
Thanks again - an attempt at peri peri chicken on the cards for me tonite!