PIZZA!

We tried to make pizzas ourselves the other day and although we are amateurs, the pizzas turned out to be really yummy (again we are no picky eaters...)! So I thought I'd share how I made them here since there isn't anyone I know who doesn't like pizzas!

I was roughly following Jamie's recipe although most part of my pizza-making is more free style. But it's worth reading his cause it is very simple too!

Jamie's pizza dough:  http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pizza-recipes/pizza-dough

First, the DOUGH.

Ingredients for the Dough:

• 1kg plain flour (i used self-raising flour because of plain flour emergency haha! it worked well too)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 tablespoons olive oil (this makes the dough taste really olivey and yummy!)

• two 8g sachets of yeast
• 650ml water

Put all these into a big mixing bowl, or on a clean table surface. Mix them all up and knead the dough. Usually I am not patient enough when I see food, so after kneading the dough I only leave it to set for about 20 minutes. But it is better if you leave more time (eg. 1 hour) for the yeast to do its trick and the dough to rise to twice its original size.

 

 

 Once it is ready, roll it out on a flat surface sprinkled with flour (to give the bottom more texture and to avoid sticking). Something to mention is that I used a coffee container as my roller here since I don’t have a proper one… it worked perfectly fine so I guess it’s ok to be creative haha.

  

Ingredients we put on our pizza:

• ·         Mushroom
• ·         Tuna
• ·         Sausage
• ·         Tomato (remove the gooey watery bits in the middle to avoid making the pizza soggy)
• ·         Black olives
• ·         Red onion
• ·         Red pepper
• ·         Ham
• ·         Pepperoni
• ·         Salami
• ·         Buffalo mozzarella
• ·         Sliced mozzarella

 

Smear the surface with lots of tomato puree. We put red pesto in one corner and it turned out great too. Then simply slice all the ingredients up and then spread them out on the pizza evenly, or in person-dedicated-quarters so you can have more of your favorite stuff. Shower the surface with cheese GENEROUSLY.

Put the tray of pizza into a pre-heated oven, leave it in there for about 20-30 minutes, depending on how thick your crust is. Right before serving, add some fresh rockets and basil leaves, they really do the trick. Tada… here’s our lovely homemade pizza!

With this amount of dough, we were able to make two huge square pizzas. It was great fun making these homemade pizzas cause the customized ingredients taste very fresh and yummy! And it really doesn’t take that long! Next time I’m going to make star-, heart-, bear-shaped pizzas topped with only olives and cheese!!

What’s your favorite pizza toppings?

e.
[how can it be snowing so hard when it's 6 degrees out?!?!??!]

Quick snack for the weekend: Cinnamon Bread Sticks

So I went to my friend's house-warming party the other day and his fiancee made this really yummy appetizer: Cinnamon bread sticks! I love love cinnamon.. love it with apple pies, love it with donuts, and definitely with bread! And it is real easy to make:

Ingredients:

• Slices of bread
• Cinnamon
• Sugar
• Butter

First, pre-heat your oven to 180 degree.

Mix the ground cinnamon and sugar, and spread it evenly on a plate.

Butter a slice of bread, on both sides, and place it on the plate so the bread can get a generous amount of cinnamon and sugar. Same for the other side. 

Repeat for the rest of the slices.

Oven the cinnamon-ed bread, until both sides are crispy and golden brown.

Cut the bread and style it the way you desired. As you see in the picture my friend made it like a Jenga tower haha, it looks presentable and adds fun to eating! 

Enjoy with a cup of tea or hot cocoa!

Have a lovely weekend xx

- Cora