Pizza for the win!

You already guessed ; there is something that pops on people’s mind when the word ‘pizza’ comes up. Pizza could make one reminisce hangouts, picnics, game nights, movie nights, dates and just fun.

Now it’s coming home to you without ordering the box.

There are two ways to bake pizza. Some add the pizza sauce with beef toppings and Mozarella cheese and bake once and for all. Toppings vary but what is mostly constant in toppings is the Mozarella cheese, and some can do without it too.

There are no limits to different types of toppings, depending on the chef. You can have varieties such as chicken, beef, pepperoni, suya,  hot and spicy and veggies.

Let’s dig in!

For the Pizza dough

Flour

Yeast

1 teaspoon of Salt

1 teaspoon of Sugar

Olive oil (1 teaspoon)

For the pizza sauce

Fresh tomatoes or tomato paste

Onions

1 or 2 ball pepper

Seasoning to taste

Little brown sugar

Powdered nutmeg

Cinnamon

Oregano spice

Basil leave (optional)

Preparation

Add two cups of flour in a dry bowl, add salt and the sugar (that is all the dry ingredients)

Add 3/4 yeast powder in 1/2 cup of warm water

Add  olive oil, and allow to foam

After 3 minutes, pour the yeast water on your dry ingredients. I.e the flour, sugar, salt already in the bowl and mix together until it becomes sticky

Place on a board ,add flour and begin to knead for about 10-15 mins until it becomes a dough.

Make it into a  ball shape and place in a bowl that has little  oil

Cover for 1 hour to make it rise

For the sauce

Add very little oil in a pan to fry

Add the chopped onions; you may add chopped garlic also.

Add tomato sauce and the blended tomato and pepper

Add seasoning to taste, a pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon spice, brown sugar or honey, oregano spice and basil leave (optional)

Simmer for 5 -7 minutes

Bring out your dough afterwards it must have risen in one hour.

Poke your finger inside, if it comes back up, it is well done, knead once again using rolling pin to flatten.

Place it inside a pizza pan (optional) to get a round shape and cut the excesses away.

But you can bake the pizza shaped dough first for about 5-7 minutes

Remove it, flip over, and add sauce, toppings and Mozarella cheese before baking again (this is to avoid a soggy dough).

Remove from oven after about 15 minutes, use pizza cutter to cut to as many as you want.

Your pizza is ready

Serve hot!

Recipe note: If you are using beef or chicken toppings, chop your beef into small cubic sizes and cook before adding it. Also cook your chicken and shred it for the same result.

Courtesy: Hope Fajana, a budding chef who loves to bake and who shares her recipes digitally via her mail, hopelantiki@gmail.com

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