A Pizza My Mind

In the peculiar times we live in, we're looking for great food that's not boring and is easy to make. Pizza fits the bill, but it's too easy to order one to be delivered or add them to your shopping expedition - and these days, shopping is an expedition, what with the long queues, all spaced 2 metres apart and only being in let into the supermarket 5 people at a time.

One of the other things we're looking for is family activities, ways to keep our minds active and entertained without resorting to Netflix or video games or Facebook. Not that I'm knocking any of those things - goodness knows they're a lifesaver sometimes, especially when the terrestrial TV channels aren't showing anything decent and you've watched all the DVDs in your collection - but sitting on the couch vegging out with a bowl of popcorn in your lap is not exactly the most stimulating of family activities, is it? This is where pizza comes in. Making pizza dough and creating your own personal pizza is a great activity that everyone can get involved in and requires almost zero skill. That's why I am going to give you some easy pizza dough recipes that are guaranteed to work and everyone can help with.

These recipes are just as good as the classic one I used many years ago from an edition of Woman's Day that is freezable for up three months - here's the link for that. https://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/food-drinks/recipes/a9194/easy-pizza-dough-recipe-120432/

But these two are so simple they are impossible to mess up. This first one comes from a great website called Save The Student:

Ingredients

• 225g self-raising flour
• 45ml olive oil
• 90ml warm water
• A sprinkle of salt
• Tomato puree
• Grated cheese
• Toppings of your choice!

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC (gas mark 4)
• Place the flour and salt into a mixing bowl
• Slowly mix in the olive oil and warm water to form a dough ball (if it's too sticky, add more flour; if it's too dry add more water)
• Sprinkle flour onto the rolling pin and the kitchen surface you'll be rolling the dough on, so they don't stick
• Roll out the dough ball to form a pizza base
• Place the pizza base on a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 5 minutes
• Remove the base, cover with tomato puree and top with cheese, then load up your toppings
• Cook in the oven for a further 10–15 minutes
• The best part: remove from the oven and enjoy!

I thought that was pretty simple, and it costs around £1.50 per pizza. However, this next is even easier - the dough requires only two ingredients - natural yogurt or Greek yogurt, and self-raising flour. Here we go.

Ingredients

Serves: 8

• 190g self-raising flour, plus more for kneading
• 200g plain Greek yogurt
• cooking spray

Method

• Mix flour and Greek yogurt together in a bowl; transfer to a work surface floured with self-raising flour.
• Knead dough, adding more flour as needed to keep dough from being too sticky, for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Spray a 30cm round tin with cooking spray and spread dough to edges of pan.
• Note: Make sure to cook in a very hot oven, otherwise your base will not brown on the bottom nicely and will be soft.

Add your own sauce and cheese and boom!

So there you have it, guys. Go make some pizza!

Kooshti Sante!