As I missed last month challenge of the KBO, I did this month challenge wholeheartedly. The challenge is mini pizza, but I’m supersizing it to a normal portion.

I’m using this recipe from Jamie Oliver that I’ve copied from another blog (wrote it down sometime ago during blog hopping and forget to write down which blog this was). The recipe has been modified to make 1 thin pizza dough.

Verdict: I love it! The crust is crunchy and tasty. Even I loved the border crust, the part that I usually throw away in the bin. The man in the house asked for 1 2nd helping the day after and my baby boy loved it too. The first pizza I baked was a bit ‘brown’ as I forget that my oven is quite hot and need to adjust the temperature slightly from the mentioned temp in the recipe. The second one I made a couple of days later is much more of a success. Not only was this one perfectly baked, but the toppings selection also matched my taste as well. Tomato sauce, mozzarella, fresh basil, and some extra virgin olive oil. That’s the bomb! Btw, the toppings I used for the first one was tomato sauce, chorizo, red peppers (paprika), and some left over parmezan. Didn’t hit the note quite well that one.

The recipe stated that the dough needs to rise once and then you can use it. I let it rise twice as I was waiting for the dinner time. Have no idea if it makes a better taste or not. Next time I’ll try to do it just once.

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So this is the recipe:

- 130 ml luke warm water (actually some recipe stated the precise temperature neeeded, but I just use my hand to feel it. It shouldn’t feel hot nor cold to the hand)

- 1/2 tsp sugar

- 1 tsp instant yeast

- 200 gr flour ( I used bread flours for better taste)

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tsp salt ( I used coarse salt, instead of fine)

How to:

1. Mix water, sugar, and yeast. Let the yeast comes to live and froth for about 10 minutes.

2. Mix flour, oil, and salt. Bw, do you know that salt kills yeast? And that sugar feeds it? Fun fact…

3. Mix the frothy yeast mixture to the flour mix and mix it well. Use your hands if the spoon can’t do the job anymore.

4. Here comes the fun part: knead the dough well till it becomes smooth, springy, and bouncy. Appoximately 10 minutes. If you have no idea how to knead dough look for a Youtube tutorial. (Don’t you just love all the people who shares this kind of thing?)

Kneading is fun, in the beginning you will have some loose parts and it’s easy. As the gluten in the flour comes to live, the dough will feel stretchy and without realizing it you will puff along as you work on the dough.

5. When the dough is ready, put it in a bowl that has been oiled. Oil it well I must say. Put the dough in the bowl and turn it over so that all the surface is well oiled. Cover with clean wet towel and let it rise for an hour (or two, if you forget it like I did. It’s not a disaster..)

6. When the dough has doubled in size, you can start shape it accordingly. (Again, look for youtube for tips and tricks )  In the meantime, warm up your oven for 220C.

7. Put whatever toppings you like and bake it for appox. 15-20mins. Definitely check after 15 mins.

Tips & tricks:

1. In this cold cold country, the temperature is not really ideal to let your dough rise. What I did: warm up my oven in the lowest temp (mine is 50C) and then shut it down when it comes to temp. After 5 minutes I put my dough in and it will rise happily.

2. During the 2nd rise, I took the dough out of the oven,  punch it down, and put it again in the bowl. And I let it rise on the room temp with the damp cloth on ofc.

3. Kneading and shaping your dough will need some flour on your work top. Don’t use too much flour as it will make your bread/pizza harden.

4. One way to check if your dough is ready for rising, is by doing the windows check. Pinch a little bit of the dough and stretch it as far as you can, if the ‘window’ is clear enough so that you can see the other side then it’s done.

5. Many said: use semolina for a better structure. Next time beibeh…