I’m rising up, up up~
So, for mother’s day I volunteered to make dinner, as mom said she was planning on getting take-out pizza. I’m sorry, but take out pizza is a bit ick and oily, so I decided to try my hand at making pizzas.
One slight problem - you see, I’d never actually MADE pizzas before. Actually, I’d never tried my hand at anything involving yeast. This doesn’t seem to be an uncommon fear, as it seems many people who’ve never used the rise-y stuff seem uncommonly afraid of it. However, I was determined to create a feast, so I rolled up my sleeves and went at it with a-gusto!
(no pictures, damn pizzas were devoured before my camera battery finished charging)
Ingredients for pizza base
3 cups plain flour
1 sachet dry yeast (7g)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 tbsp olive oil
1. Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl, then create a well in the middle, pour in the water and oil and mix with a wooden spoon till well combined, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead till almost smooth.
2. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with cling-wrap and place in a warm area for an hour, or till dough has doubled in size.
3. Remove the dough onto a floured surface and PUMMEL IT! That’s right, beat that dough into place, show it who’s boss, beat it till it can’t be beat no more 
4. Place the dough onto a lightly oiled pizza pan/stone/tray, pushing it out to the edges gently, trying to get the thickness as even as possible.
This quantity will make 2 medium thickness pizzas, or 3-4 thin crust pizzas. Unfortunately, I was a bit over-eager with my dough, and didn’t try and maintain thickness, which ended up with some bits being as thick as foccaccia, and others as thin as a wafer. WEIRD. My fingers need a serious talking-to. But otherwise this is quite tasty, and can be topped with whatever you want.
My toppings of choice? Bocconcini, thinly sliced rump steak (leftovers from a previous dinner), onion, red/green/yellow capsicum (bell peppers), mushrooms, pineapple, grated tasty cheese, thinly sliced zucchini and potato.
And no - this wasn’t a consistant topping across the entire pizza! Different toppings were used for each half, resulting in a choice of 4 different kinds! Woot woot!
Now that I’ve conquered my fear of yeast, I kinda want to try my hand at a white loaf, but momma bear just bought one from the baker, so I might wait till that’s been devoured. What else is good in terms of easy, tasty recipes involving yeast?
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Comments
i have some easy recipes here
http://coconutlimerecipelinks.blogspot.com/2005/11/yeast-breadsrolls.html
Hi Chas, thanks for stopping by And you’re totally right - it was dead easy to make the pizza base, so much so that I couldn’t believe I’d gotten it right! Now, if only I’d managed to get the base flat 
Hi Rachel, thanks for the link! Those cinnamon scrolls look like just the ticket for my second attempt at yeasty goodness! Will post my success/failure, as I’m off to bake now 
Just a heads up — when I view your blog at 1024×768 the middle (content) isn’t readable until way down the page (lots of scrolling).
I’ve got a great calzone recipe if you’re interested: http://www.afoodyear.com/2006/02/07/calzone
Hi Ken, that calzone recipe looks yummy and easy (I note the lack of ‘rising time’ for the dough with a big sigh of relief!). Suddenly I’m daydreaming of sundried tomatos!
I’m not sure what the column thing is - my screen setting is also at 1024x 768 but I can view the blog fine, though I have noticed that sometimes when I update, the middle column completely berks out and goes straight to the bottom of the screen for no reason! Unfortunately I’m a complete beginner when it comes to coding, so it may mean that I need to get someone more accomplished to look at it But thanks for the heads up
Yay for the pizzas! I’m glad they came out well 
I lurve making pizza.. which is a good thing as I crave it at least once a week hehe Excellent job, my friend!
Cheers! After finding out just how easy making pizza is, I’ll be making it a lot more often - oh god, the possible combinations of toppings, it’s enough to drive a mind batty with the options!
i havent made pizzas as well before. I usually buy the ready made ones. I mean the base and just make the toppings myself. But when I learned it I was surprised that it was that easy