Dad – The Pizza Hero

Often it seems mum’s seem to dominate the kitchen space in most homes and dad rules the garage. This of course is a broad generalisation and of course if you are a single dad you soon have to pick the slack in the kitchen otherwise you will be surviving on takeaway food or TV dinners.

What ever your situation is though, kids love to mess around with food in the kitchen and this is a great way to spend some quality and useful time with them. Whatever the age there are recipes to suit. We don’t really want to get the toddlers too close to a raging deep fryer used for cooking doughnuts or fish n chips, but for a teenager, its crucial they get used to the more , lets say risky forms of cooking. Toddlers can have fun with other types of food preparation though. Making Pizza is one recipe that spans all ages.

I’m a single dad of two kids 5 and 6, and pizza night generally co-insides with the end of the week and more often than not a movie rental.

The great thing about making things with the kid’s is that they are far more likely to eat it if they are involved in making it. I prove this fact over and over again. If I want to introduce the kids to a new taste or food I get them involved from the first step. Let them help buy it, prep it and cook it and you may have a 50/50 chance of them eating it.

Now most kids love pizza and soon adopt favourite toppings which more than likely don’t match yours or their siblings. With pizza this is not a problem, make one each or segment up a large one. ( I usually let them make one each). Now before I get into a recipe with you, the older your kids are the more likely it is that they would have had at some time eaten a store or delivered type of pizza. You need to make your pizza better than those to be a winner otherwise they may just think you are being tight and won’t get on board. Of course it’s all in the base really wether you like it thin or thick it’s up to you. I’m going to lead you through the Pizza Dough recipe and leave the toppings up to you but try and get the kids used to just using 2-4 toppings otherwise it turns quickly into a cheese pie and pretty gross. A simple time saving suggestion for the base sauce is to buy a jar of Thick Pasta sauce from the supermarket and just spoon it on. (leave a gap of at least one inch from the edge of the pizza for the dough to be able to rise properly.

So here’s a great dough recipe of mine for you from www.theworldrecipebook.com.
This will give you one good sized base.

• 2 tsp dry yeast


• 1 cup warm water


• 2¼ cup bread or strong flour


• 1¼ Tbsp olive oil


• 1 pinch salt


• 1 tsp sugar

1 In a large bowl mix together the yeast, water, oil, sugar and salt.

2 Now using a wooden spoon mix in the flour, keep mixing to form a ball of dough, if it’s a little wet ad a little more flour. Now knead the dough on a floured bench for 2-3 minutes.
Pre heat your oven now to the hottest it will go (make sure the oven is empty of junk and clean) You can use any type of tray to cook pizza, I use a pizza stone and you can get these from most good kitchen stores. If you are going to do this a lot I suggest you buy a stone otherwise just use a flat tray. Leave your tray or stone in the oven to get hot, this ensures a crisp base and quicker cooking which is essential if you want to be a pizza hero!

3 Cover with the mixing bowl you were using and leave it to rest. Now the kitchen needs to be a little warm for the dough to rise. It will double in size in around 20min if its warm. You can now squash it down and roll it out or squash it down (this is also referred to as knocking back) and cover it and put it in the fridge for later use. It will keep fine if covered for 2-3days. I usually roll my dough out on flour and then pick it up and put it onto a sheet of baking paper before I put the topping on. (Don’t forget this step)
So there you have your pizza dough. Add your base sauce when you have rolled it out (the kids love that part) then add your toppings, remember go lighter rather than heavier, quality over quantity! Top with grated cheese, remove your stone or tray from the oven using a DRY tea towel or oven cloth and slide your pizza and baking paper onto the hot tray/stone. Put back into your really hot oven (fan on if you have that option) and your pizza will be ready in 5-10 minutes.

TIPS
I usually make the dough the day before or when the kids get home from school, let it rise on the bench and forget about it until 20 min before dinner. The kids love the rolling part and adding the toppings.
You can even make lots of dough, separate the dough after the first rise and fr eeze it for future use. Take it out in the morning , leave it in the fridge and it will be ready when you all get home in the afternoon.

My kids love the whole process and scoff at shop pizza’s so convert your kids today and have some fun in the process.

By Stephen Smith

www.theworldrecipebook.com
Stephen Smith is a qualified Naturopath, professional chef and a single father of 2 small children.

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