Pizza and a Movie

Toppings to please everyone.

Everyone loves pizza, right? Well, not my kids...not until we started making it ourselves. We all look forward to our Friday Pizza and Movie night now. The kids can help as much or as little as they like, whether by kneading dough, adding toppings, or just watching during the afternoon snack. The first few times we made pizza, the children loved helping but refused to eat anything. Once they finally ate some, they were hooked and now pizza is becoming a vehicle for them to try new and exotic toppings like pepperoni or red onion.

I used to be incredibly intimidated by baking, what with all the precise measurements or even weighing (how fussy!) and odd lingo like "knead until smooth" or "punch down." I have discovered, to my delight, that I can kind of blunder my way through many breads and doughs and they turn out just fine. 

If my 4-year-old can knead, so can you!

With this recipe, some kneading is required (about 5 minutes). I just stretched and turned mine...basically was experimental and had fun with it. I prefer my approach, but if you want a tutorial, here is a nice one from epicurious.com. I'm warning you though, it is a lot more meticulous than my Fun-with-Flour Method and I also don't go to the trouble of dividing the dough into two balls...this is supposed to be fun, easy dinner! Note repeated use of the word "fun" here. I use a pizza peel and pizza stone, but you could bake this on a cookie sheet if you don't have one. Just check it a little sooner and adjust the cooking time as needed.

If you don't have the inclination to make your own pizza dough, you can buy raw pizza dough from your grocery's deli, which can be frozen -- just remember to pop it in the fridge in the morning and you can use it that night. You can also get a totally premade crust in the bread aisle if that floats your boat. If you find your family loves Pizza Night, then at some point do try to make your own crust. It is easier than you think!

Doughball, ready to rise. Looks fancy, doesn't it?

I plan on about 20 minutes to make the dough, then I give it about 1-2 hours to rise. In the winter, I turn my oven on "hold warm" while I make the dough, then turn it off before putting the dough in. I have cut the dough in half before rising and frozen part of it and this works just fine, so if you only need one pizza...or wanted to make a double batch and freeze half, it will work.

Our timing: make dough, tidy up/check email/play outside (who knows where this time goes?) for 30-45 minutes, decide on movie, get everyone settled, watch half-hour or so of movie, take break to make pizzas when you realize everyone is hungry, eat pizzas while watching remainder of movie. See how demanding and precise it has to be? ha!

Tasty Pizza Dough

adapted from an unattributed recipe on foodnetwork.com

Mix well in a large bowl: 

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I use a mix of half unbleached white and half white whole wheat)

1 1/2 tsp salt

After mixing, make a little well in the center and add:

1 TBSP sugar

2 1/4 tsp yeast (one packet if you use packets)

1 1/3 cups warm water

Allow this to sit for about 5 minutes or so until the water portion becomes quite foamy. This is the yeast working! My kids love to watch the "burps" made by the yeast. When it's nice and foamy, mix in 3 TBSP olive oil and then you get to knead. Use a well-floured surface! Let the kids help! I knead for about five minutes or so until it seems smooth and firm but still slightly springy. Then it goes back into the bowl we can use our hands or a brush to lightly coat the finished ball with olive oil. Let it rise until "doubled in size" or 1-2 hours, depending.

Note: I seem inclined to forget to add the olive oil until halfway through the kneading and I've worked it in late with good results. This is what I like to call error proof!  Making the pizza itself takes about as much time as you want to devote to chopping things. I use a few spoonfuls of regular jarred tomato sauce, followed by cheese, then other toppings.

To cook pizza:

Preheat the oven and pizza stone to 450 degrees.  Lightly flour your pizza peel, cut the dough in half and put it on the peel to stretch. The other half will fall limply back into the bowl and look funny and that's okay; just ignore it. You can add a tiny bit of flour to keep your hands from sticking, but you shouldn't need a whole lot at this point. You can toss it if you want, but you're more likely to tear it that way, so I suggest just stretching. 

Once it's the size you want, add a bit of sauce and toppings as you like! May I suggest that a little fresh mozzarella goes a long way? This is also a neat place to use up leftover vegetables or bits of this or that. The chicken pizza with corn cut from a leftover cob, green pepper and red onion was pretty tasty!

Put in the pizza and cook for about 12 minutes or until the crust begins to brown and feels crisp when you tap it. We make two back to back.  Scheduled for tonight: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. When the kids are older, Pizza/Movie night will probably be followed by Family Game Night but for now there is only so much Go Fish, Chutes & Ladders and Uno that we can take. 

Make it fun, make it work for you, but do make some dinner and eat together as a family! Our world will thank you.