Make your own pizza!

Pizza is a favourite take out meal of mine. I love the massive carb and cheese fest. What’s great about making your own though, is that you can have it exactly as you want. Triple cheese? No problem. Different meats? Great. Chocolate spread? Whatever floats your boat. 

I’ve found a great recipe for a simple dough base- http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4683/pizza-margherita-in-4-easy-steps

You can put things into the dough too, for example; I put some garlic granules. You could use cheese or herbs etc.

Then I simply put it together how I want. 

Firstly though, as I want a deep pan base, I let the dough rise for a good couple of hours. Then I let it to rise again after the toppings are on. For a thin and crispy base, you don’t have to let it rise. So it makes a great quick and easy meal. 

After letting my dough rise, and kneading it again, I pushed it into my pizza pan. Then I choose my sauce to be a mix of tomato puree and BBQ sauce (remember to not spread all the way to the edges, you want a crust)

Grated Mozzarella was liberally spread over the sauce, then on goes:

Sliced tomatoes

Pepperoni

Onions 

Sweetcorn

And a sprinkling of basil

Then ‘cos I want more cheese in my life, more Mozzarella and finally mature cheddar. 

It was cooked on gas 6 for about 30 minutes.

Here’s the beast! 

Come to Mama!

I was forced to share shared it with the Husb’ and I’m gutted there was only 1 piece leftover 😦

The World’s best ever share ‘n’ tear garlic bread and pizza plait

Woah, that’s a big statement! The World’s best ever garlic bread?! Well maybe not (as I’ve not tried them all!) but my husband says it is and I think it is….so it must be right?!

I came across this recipe on Pinterest, one of my most favourite and the most addictive website ever! (I’m full of the big statements today huh?)

Here’s the website which the photo on Pinterest linked to (which I adapted slightly): http://www.consultantdietitian.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=125:garlic-pull-apart-bread&catid=41:breads-muffins-and-biscuits&Itemid=68

As well as the garlic bread, I was making a pizza plait along side it. I doubled the dough recipe from here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4683/pizza-margherita-in-4-easy-steps

Here’s how I made them-

Garlic bread ingredients:

Half of the dough recipe from the BBC good food link above (remember I doubled it to make the pizza as well, so really it’s one quantity of the dough recipe)

Approx 4 tablespoons butter

1 beaten egg

Lots of grated Parmesan and extra mature cheddar

4 cloves of finely chopped garlic

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons dried parsley

1. Make the dough from the above link and knead for 10 minutes. Allow to rise for 1- 1 1/2 hours.

2. After the dough has risen, divide it into two for the pizza and garlic bread and put one aside. Pull off small pieces and roll into balls. Arrange in a lightly buttered dish/tray.

3. Make the garlic butter. In a bowl/jug, put in the butter and mix in the beaten egg, chopped garlic, salt and parsley, and cheeses.

4. Spread the butter mixture all over the dough balls.

5. Cover with cling film and allow to rise again. (I went out to the supermarket for an hour or so and left it to rise) It should double in size (mine filled the dish and was bursting at the seams!)

6. Cook in the oven on gas mark 4 for approx 30 minutes or until its golden brown.

Here it is in all its glory! I will seriously never buy garlic bread again. Truly scrummy.

Pizza plait:

I made this when the garlic bread was rising.

Ingredients:

The other half of the dough

Tomato puree

BBQ sauce

Extra mature cheddar

Pepperoni

Half and onion

A little egg to seal the sides

1. Roll the dough out onto a greased baking tray. Lightly with a knife, divide (only marking not cutting) the dough, evenly into three sections. On the outer sides, cut 8 even slits. (you can roll it out better than mine, I was just in a rush to get it ready)

2. In the middle section, spread over BBQ sauce and tomato puree, then add the grated cheese, pepperoni and onions (you can use whatever you want obviously, I was just using what we had in)

3. Lightly brush over beaten egg on the ends of the strips so that they stick together. Then, starting from one end, carefully criss cross the dough sections, taking one from one section and then folding one from the other section over. Repeat until it’s all plaited.

(again not very good as I was in a rush!)

(Hehe it looks like a mouth with teeth!)

4. Wrap the tray loosely in cling film and allow to rise. (The garlic bread and pizza were both left to rise when I went out and then cooked together when I got back)

5. Cook in the oven at gas mark 4 for approx 30 minutes or until golden brown.

I accidentally cooked mine a little too long… it was rather hard but still really yummy.