| Moscow Food Co-op Recipes | |
 Silliness and pizza-making. |
Meals Kids Might Eat:
Pizza!
by Jyotsna “Jo” Sreenivasan, from the January 2006 newsletter
Everyone loves pizza, and the Co-op offers many options for pizza-making—in addition to buying it ready-made from the deli!
In terms of the base, you can use pita, French bread, English muffins, or the round pizza bread sold near the pita breads.
In terms of toppings the variety is almost endless—onions, bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, fake pepperoni, real pepperoni. My kids like pizza topped with canned crushed pineapple. In addition to (or instead of) tomato sauce, check out the Co-op’s amazing selection of pestos and other kinds of yummy spreads (such as several kinds of olive spreads). Try experimenting with parmesan and feta cheeses in addition to mozzarella.
My family was fairly happy with pizza made on pita or pizza bread until a few months ago. That’s when my older son asked me to make the pizza dough in one of his kid cookbooks. I had always been intimidated by the idea of making yeasted pizza dough. Wouldn’t it be difficult to get it to rise?
It turns out that making your own pizza dough is very easy, as long as you don’t wait until 5:30pm to start (as I did once—we ate dinner very late that night). Unlike bread dough, which often calls for two or even three risings, you only need to let the pizza dough rise once.
Making the dough is also a wonderfully relaxing tactile activity for a busy parent and a rambunctious child to share. And the pizza itself is absolutely delicious. After that first experience, pizza with homemade crust has become one of the staple menus at our house.
Pizza with Homemade Crust
(adapted from Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen)
1 cup lukewarm water (body-temperature warm)
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 cups bread flour, plus a little extra for kneading the dough (use unbleached white flour, whole wheat flour, or a combination)
1 teaspoon salt
About 1 cup tomato sauce
Toppings of your choice
About 1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
In a large bowl, mix lukewarm water, yeast, and one tablespoon olive oil. Measure 2 1/2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt into the bowl, and mix with a spoon. Once the dough starts coming together, use your clean hands to continue mixing. Knead the dough briefly in the bowl or on a countertop. You can flour your hands and the dough for this part, but don’t add too much extra flour. The dough should be a little sticky.
Take the ball of dough out of the bowl and pour 1 tablespoon olive oil into the empty bowl. Rub the ball of dough around in this oil until it is coated. Cover the bowl and let it rise. The colder the rising place, the slower it will rise. You might want a cold rising place (such as the fridge) if you are mixing the dough in the morning and don’t want it to ferment before you form the crust.
But if you do want a nice warm rising place, try these ideas. Some people like to put the bowl in the oven with the oven light on. If you have a gas oven with a pilot light that is always on, this would make a perfect place for your dough. For an electric oven, try the following method, suggested by my mother-in-law, Sharon Winstein (who is a cookbook author). Put the bowl of dough in the oven, close the door, and turn the oven on to any temperature for a count of 60. Turn the oven off. If you like, you can re-warm the oven in 20 minutes by turning it on for a count of 20, and then off again. In a warm place, rising will take about an hour.
How do you tell if the dough has raised enough? If it has doubled in bulk, that’s a good sign. If in doubt, poke your finger into the dough. If your finger impression starts to fill up, the dough could use more rising. If the finger impression stays, the dough is ready.
Once the dough has risen adequately, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Divide the dough into as many pizzas as you want. You can make one giant pizza, or six small ones, or whatever you like. Smaller pieces of dough are easier for little hands, of course. You and your child can pat, pull, stretch or roll the dough into the size and thickness you like. Keep in mind that the dough will become a little thicker as it cooks. Don’t worry if the pizzas end up in really strange shapes. It’s okay.
Place your crusts on one or more oiled baking sheets and bake them for 8 minutes. Take them out of the oven and add the toppings of your choice. Bake the pizzas again for 5 to 8 minutes. I like to put the pizzas on a lower oven rack to ensure that the bottom of the crust gets baked. Sometimes it’s difficult to know if the underside of the crust has browned to your satisfaction. You might try prying up a pizza to inspect. If necessary, put them back in the oven, covering the top with foil if the cheese is at risk of browning too much.
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