When I was growing up my Dad, who was the main cook in our family, would buy us a supermarket pizza as a treat every Friday. This tradition still continues in our household however I cannot bring myself to buy a pizza, not because they aren’t very good, but because I can’t bare to spend £5 + on something I could make myself.

Now I must say that I really don’t have anything against people buying pizza, there is no judgement here, I am just very mean, well maybe just frugal.

Pizza dough is often considered a bit of a faff, however I recently discovered something that revolutionised my pizza world, are you ready for it... you can freeze pizza dough (WHAT!?!?) yes I know I was amazed too, but it really works. I make a full batch every other week, freeze half of it to defrost and enjoy the following week = GENIUS

Pizza is the perfect recipe to make with little people, they love getting their hands stuck in to the dough, it gives them plenty of exercise with a full 5 minutes of kneading, plus you can sneak lots of veggies into this home made sauce.

Top Tip - Place your baking tray in the oven when you pre heat, then take the tray out when you are ready to add your toppings, this will give you an ultra crispy base - don’t do this if you are baking with children as you can easily get burnt.

Gluten Free - This can be made gluten free, just use plain GF flour and add 2 tsp of Zantham Gum to the mix

Ingredients

Dough

• 325g Strong Flour
• 5g Yeast (make sure it is in date)
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Tomato Sauce

• 1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes
• ½ Onion
• 1 Clove Garlic
• 1 Tsp Dried Herbs
• 1 Tsp Sugar
• 1 Tsp Salt

Method

Dough

1. Tip the flour and salt in to a bowl and mix well, add the yeast
2. Measure out 180ml warm water and pour in to the bowl with the oil
3. Using your hand mix all the ingredients together to form a ball
4. Sprinkle flour on to your work surface
5. Tip the dough out on to the surface, using the palms of your hands knead the dough for 5 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, press lightly into the dough with your finger, the dough should spring back. If it doesn’t keep kneading.
6. Place the dough back in to the bowl and cover with cling-film
7. Leave somewhere warm to rise for 1 hour or until it doubles in size
8. Pre heat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6

Tomato Sauce

1. Peel and dice the onion
2. Place a medium sauce pan on a medium heat, add the oil
3. Add the onions to the pan, stir well then place the lid on, check every few minutes to make sure it doesn’t burn
4. Peel and crush the garlic
5. Once softened add the garlic to the pan, stir for 1 minute then add the tomatoes, herbs, sugar and salt
6. Leave to simmer away for 10 minutes then take of the heat

Assemble

1. Once the dough has doubled in size, knead it again for 1 minute – this stage is called “knocking back”
2. Split the dough into 2 or 4 balls depending on how many pizzas you want to make
3. Sprinkle a light dusting of flour
4. Roll out the dough, remember to move the dough a little after each roll so that it doesn’t stick
5. Sprinkle over a little flour on to a baking sheet, then lay each pizza on to a baking sheet
6. Spread over the tomato sauce and garnish with your toppings
7. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes for the small pizza and 15 minutes for large. They may take longer depending on the thickness, just keep an eye on them