HOME MADE PIZZA FOR MOTHER'S DAY

This Mother's day was different but special in its own way. Usually, we head out for a brunch, to some local restaurant. Patios which are dog-friendly are our favorite. If they have bottomless Mimosas, then that's a brownie point.

This year we were home, for obvious reasons.   As I write this post, the restaurants in town have already opened up, from this weekend. But it was a different scenario last weekend. so we decided to make some home-made Pizza for our Mother's Day weekend. All of you who had enjoyed our Mommy-Daughter makeup session, which I had posted last week, gave me the idea of doing more collaborative posts with her. This time we decided to bake and cook and turn our home into our own pizzeria. My daughter loves to bake, so it was a no-brainer. 

We had made homemade pizza once before, when I was collaborating with Pizzeria Locale, sadly, who are no longer in town. I had attended their dough making class, and they had supplied us with dough, to make our own pizzas at home.

This time it was different. We decided to make pizza dough from scratch. As a family we love Pizzas. We might disagree on what is our favorite toppings on our pizza is, but as a family, we love our pizza.  But loving something and trying to make it, is a different thing. I bake cookies and cakes, but bread is not my alley. I have challah once, under the guidance of my fabulous boss, and her bread maker. So while I had embarked on it, it was a challenge, no doubt. As pizza dough needs to rest for a day, for best results, we started our prep the day before. We used all-purpose flour and instant yeast, as that is what we had at home. On hind thought, we should have used the food processor for making pizza dough, rather than all that elbow grease. We made two different pizzas, both medium-sized, and both delicious. One was shrimp pizza, as my daughter loves shrimp on everything. The second one, was the species one, for the adults- Tandoori Chicken Pizza. very similar to the one linked above, which we had created with the dough from Pizzeria Locale, a few years back.

We like thin-crust pizza so we tried to go that route, but you can make a normal crust pizza too. Now that we have finally started making pizza dough from scratch, we want to make it a regular feature at home - maybe have a homemade pizza night twice a month or so So if you wanted to make pizza dough from scratch, here's it for you:

PIZZA DOUGH FROM SCRATCH:
Recipe adapted from Sugar Spun Run
Recipe makes one 12 inch pizza dough

Ingredients: 
All-purpose flour: 2-2 1/3
Instant Yeast: 2 1/4 tsp
Sugar: 1 1/2 tsp
Salt: 3/4 tsp
Garlic Powder: 1/4 tsp (optional)
Olive Oil: 2tbsp plus additional
Warm Water: 3/4 cup

Procedure: 
Combine 1 cup of flour, with yeast, sugar, salt, and garlic powder.

Add olive oil and water and mix well.

Gradually add the other cup of flour, or more if needed to make a dough. The dough will be sticky but it can be handled.

Drizzle a large bowl with olive oil, and transfer the dough. Cover with a cling wrap, and let it rise in a warm place. We let our dough rise for around 18-20 hours I think.

Wait for the dough to double in size. If you don't have 24 hours, then give it at least give it 30 mins.

Get everything ready, on what you will need as toppings. Grate some cheese, chop your veggies, or prep your meat of choice.

Deflate the dough with your hands, and roll it out, to form a rustic circle. Transfer it to a pizza pan, or a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Pinch the sides of the dough to make a border kind of. You can use your fingers to make indentations on the dough or you could use a fork to punch in some holes in the dough.

Brush the dough with olive oil.

Assemble your pizza with your choice of sauce, cheese, and toppings.

We made a shrimp alfredo pizza for our daughter. White pizza sauce off a bottle, freshly grated mozzarella cheese, shrimp, salt and garlic powder.

Our second pizza was a personal favorite - Tandoori Chicken Pizza. If you want to know the recipe, then Click Here.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 425 F or until the toppings started turning golden brown. 

Enjoy your pizza! If you do decide to try and make pizza forms scratch, just like we did, be sure to let me know. I would love to hear back! Bon Appetit!