How to make home-made Pizza

Pizza is a food most people associate with eating out or ordering in. Its that yummy treat that you have once in a while when you have that craving for something cheesy with bread. Growing up most pizza I ate was in school. Though it was different from what was in the fast food joint I loved it because my parents didn’t believe in pizza but ugali. Then I went to boarding school abroad and when my friends and I couldn’t stand cafeteria food we would order in Pizza.

Now that I am older and more health conscious (read my metabolism has greatly slowed down) Pizza is something I eat 4 times in a year. Though in this age of “Terrific Tuesday” and sparse toppings, I often get disappointed when I buy Pizza. This spurred me to make my own with all my favourite toppings. I thought it would be hard task but it was a pleasant surprise that the dough was super easy to make and all I needed was instant dry yeast and all purpose flour, For my toppings I used all the leftovers in my fridge. The only thing I will change next time I make pizza is the flour. I read online that using bread flour gives it a “breadier” texture while all purpose flour gives a “chewy” texture.

Enjoy!

This is how my Pizza looked out of the oven. If you look closely at the sides I put foil on the base to prevent the Dough Sticking on the rack.

Serves 5

Ingredients

Dough
4 cups all-purpose flour/bread flour
1½ cups warm water
¼ cup oil
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast

Pizza sauce
5 tomatoes grated.
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 tablespoon mixed herbs

Toppings (The only mandatory toppings the cheese otherwise go crazy on the toppings, I used leftovers)
Grated Cheese (I used pizza cheese, but feel free to use the cheese you like best)
2 chopped onions
250g Mince Meat (Precooked)
¼ Cup Sweet Corn
3 frankfurters thinly sliced
¼ pineapple finely chopped
3 slices ham
¼ cup mushrooms finely sliced
100g Bacon finely chopped

Method
-Put on your oven and let it heat at 175 degrees centigrade 
-In a bowl mix the warm water, yeast and sugar and let the mixture rest until the yeast foams up.
-Add the flour, oil and sugar and mix the dough until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Let the dough rest in the bowl covered with cling film as you prepare the tomato paste and topping.
-In a sauce pan put a tablespoon of oil and add the garlic. Cook until aromatic but not brown.
-Add the tomatoes and mixed herbs and cook until the tomatoes are tender this should take around 10 to 15 minutes. Let the tomato paste cool
-Roll out your dough and place it on the oven rack in which you will bake your pizza.
-Spread the tomato paste on the base
-Sprinkle all the toppings except the cheese.
-Sprinkle the cheese on the top
-Place the pizza in the oven at 175 degrees centigrade. Closely monitor so that the pizza base does not burn. It should cook in 20-30 minutes.