Pizza dough

I absolutely love the recipe for pizza dough in the Basic Cook Book. Sometimes I let it prove for the full hour, but occasionally, when I don't have as much time, I will make the dough and just let it rise long enough for me to prepare the toppings. I find this results in a nice, thin crusted pizza and the kids enjoy this. Its particularly good for their simple ham and pineapple or a plain Margherita pizza. If i am adding more toppings I will usually let it prove for a bit longer, so it gets a bit thicker as it cooks. This way its sturdy enough to hold the toppings as you eat it without flopping over!

I use non stick pizza trays, which I purchased from Myer when they were 50% off. Gotta love a good bargain! They are really good, they don't need oiling before adding the dough to it. I usually roll the dough out as much as I can on a baking mat with a rolling pin, then I pick it up and stretch it out a bit. then I give it one more roll with the rolling pin to flatten and even it out. By this stage it is usually about the right size for the tray and i can just push the edges out a bit to neaten up the circle.

These trays give the base of the pizza a nice brown bottom, and they cook pretty quickly. I usually leave them in for about 11 minutes on 220℃.

I had run out of mozzarella cheese today, so these ones were made with a regular block of tasty cheese. I had a fresh pineapple in the fridge so I chopped that up, and sliced up a few pieces of double smoked ham. I was going to sprinkle on some herbs as well, however my 4 year old has an aversion to anything that looks remotely green, so I left it off tonight.

I only made one pizza today, so I used half of the dough I made. The rest of the dough I wrapped in cling wrap and put in the freezer. When I need to use it, I will just take it out of the freezer an hour before (or a bit sooner if its a really cold day) and let it defrost. Once it is defrosted I just continue using it as normal. You can leave it a little longer to re-prove it for a thicker crust pizza.

Happy thermomixing!