Thin Crust Pizza

We've had enough of porridge and soupy food for the past 1 week so I decided to pamper the kids with pizza today. I've not baked pizza for the longest time, if I need to put a figure to it, I think it was like 3 years ago when I made pizza using my AMC roasting pan. I didn't like to use my oven then as I was using a 3-in-1 microwave oven and it was so tiny I could only bake 1 tray at a time. It was relatively easy to "bake" with the AMC pan but I can't get a crisp crust and the cheese layer doesn't brown.

I like to involve my children in the kitchen if the task ain't too difficult. Today, the two younger ones helped to remove the stalks of the fresh button mushrooms (we don't have the habit of eating the stalks). It was a mess especially when my 20 months girl was literally ripping the mushrooms apart and I heard lots of scolding from my DS2 hahahaha!

I sauteed the mushrooms with some butter and used them as toppings with long yoke/bak kwa and tomatoes. This is one randomly mix and match combination with no proper theme but what the heck, who says there must be a theme to homemade pizza? :P


We love our pizza with loads of cheese so I had them flooded with mozzarella cheese (that's about 125g cheese on each pizza pan).

The 2 older kids helped to spread the tomato paste and laid the ingredients. Not too bad for a 7 yo and a 4 yo ;-)

Again, loaded with more cheese :)

I've made some changes to the original recipe by adding a bit more water as the dough was too dry. Also, original recipe does not require pre-baking the crust but I do not wish to race with time should something crop up so I sent them to the oven and baked for 8 - 10 mins and left them to cool till further use. We like this better as the pre-baking process helped to keep the crust crisp.

I sliced each pizza into 8 wedges and DD1 ate 4! I'm glad my whole family enjoyed their dinner tonight, even DD3 who's a fussy eater ate a slice ^-^

Thin Crust Pizza

(Recipe adapted from Kitchen Capers)
Dough (Yield: 2 pcs 12 inch pizza)

Ingredients

130ml Water

3 TBsp Olive oil

1 tsp Salt

2 cups All purpose flour

2 tsp Yeast

Method

1. Put all ingredients in breadmachine. Knead using dough cycle. If the mixture is too dry, add 1 tbsp of olive oil/water at a time to form dough.
2. After the kneading cycle is completed, let it proof in machine for 30 - 45 mins or till double in size.
3. Punch down dough and divide into 2 equal portions.
4. Roll out each portion to a round, about 12" in size. Place dough on baking tray lined with parchment paper or on a well greased pan.
5. Dock with a fork all around the crust.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 8 - 10 mins. Set aside till further use.
7. Spread tomato paste over the dough and covering near end of edge (about 1 cm away). Add your favourite toppings and cheese.
8. Baked pizza in pre-heated oven at 200C for 10 - 12 mins or until the crust has turned golden brown and when the cheese has melted.
9. Serve and enjoy!