Every Saturday evening, I make pizza together with our son Penguin (that’s his nickname by the way, in case you’re new to our blog). On every other evening of the week there are two different meals served at our house, as Penguin will only really eat a couple of different meals other than pizza, and they’re both a bit too dull for me and hubby. So every Saturday night is Pizza Night, and we then enjoy preparing and eating together, as all three of us love pizza!
Firstly we make the dough, using:
- c. 800 g plain flour
- One pkt (7g) dried yeast
- Salt (about 0.5 tsp or so)
- 500 ml water, heated up to around 40-45 degrees (to activate the yeast)
- c. 1 tbsp oil (we use olive oil)
- A sprinkle of dried oregano
We start by putting the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl, and give it a stir. Then put water, oil and oregano in a jug, and pour it into the large bowl of flour etc, and mix it all together to form the dough. Leave it in a draught-free spot with a towel over it, to rise, for about an hour.
While the dough is rising, we prepare the tomato sauce, cheese and other toppings for our pizzas.
For the tomato sauce, we use:
- 500 g tomato passata
- a clove of garlic, chopped
- a drizzle of olive oil
- salt, pepper and dried oregano
For toppings, we usually have mushrooms, onion, peppers, greek olives, a few baby plum tomatoes, and sometimes feta cheese. Plus of course grated cheese. We make three different pizzas, so we can each have the toppings we want.
When Penguin was younger, he didn’t usually want much other than cheese and olives on his pizza, and only the thinnest layer of tomato sauce. Nowadays he likes pretty much all the toppings I’ve mentioned above, except for the baby tomatoes.
We usually grate cheddar for our pizzas, although grated mozzarella is supposedly what would normally be used on a traditional pizza, isn’t it? We get the cheapest available cheddar from Tesco’s, and it works well for us (with the odd exception of there being a more ’crumbly’ batch sometimes, which doesn’t melt as well as the usual stuff).
While preparing the toppings, turn the oven on. We have a fan assisted electric oven and set it at 225 C.
Then, when the dough has risen and everything else is prepared, we get the dough out onto a work surface, kneed it, and split it into three. Penguin rolls his lump of dough out to roughly the size of a large plate (I usually still need to help a little with this, but he’s gradually getting better at it). Then he lifts it onto the baking tray, which I’ve prepared with a sheet of baking paper. The tomato sauce goes on first, then the toppings and last the cheese. Then the edges of the pizza are rolled up, before it goes in the oven, for about 10 minutes. When it comes out, we like to sprinkle some oregano on top.
Penguin’s pizza then sits on the side to cool down a little, while two more pizzas get done (both a usually bit larger). I like mine really thin and roll it out so that it just about fits on the baking tray, while hubby likes his with a thick base.
It’s nice that we can easily vary this so that we all get our pizzas how we like them. And there’s usually some left over, so me and Penguin can heat it up for lunch the following day! If the weather is nice, we like to take our pizza leftovers out into the garden, for a pizza picnic.
Do you have pizza night on Saturdays at your house too? And do you like making your own pizzas? Please feel free to share with us in the comments! x
Linking up with:
Sensational Learning with Penguin 
What a fun way to spend time together. Great teaching moment, too! I like the idea of having a pizza night. 🙂
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Thank you, it’s been working well for us for a long time now, and is one of the few things we do every week without fail (fingers crossed I don’t jinx it now!). As you say, great both for learning and having an enjoyable time together 🙂 xx
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I love a pizza ( who doesn’t!) #kidsandkreativity@_karendennis
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I’m glad to hear it, thank you Karen 🙂
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We don’t have a regular pizza night but what a fun thing to do. Sophie and I have made homemade pizza a couple of times and she loved it. Reading your post makes me think that I should do it more often 🙂 #KidsandKreativity
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Thank you Louise! I’m happy to hear that you and Sophie too have enjoyed making pizza together. I think it’s really nice to be able to choose your own toppings, and homemade is always tasty 😋xx
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I would LOVE to have a regular pizza night! We love making our own pizza, however sadly my daughter seems to still be afraid of melted cheese! Thanks for linking up to #KidsandKreativity, hope to see you back next time! x
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Does she like to eat pizza without cheese on it? For me, cheese is one of the best bits, but of course it’s totally possible to just put tomato sauce and things she likes as topping, and skip the cheese. Our boy likes to eat cereal without milk and ice cream cones without the actual ice cream, so… 🤷🏻♀️😅xx
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Aw I love that you do pizza night every Saturday – so lovely! 🙂 #KCACOLS
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Thank you Hannah! It’s a good tradition for us 🙂 x
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My grandchildren do a similar thing at the weekend it’s a great idea #kcacols@_karendennis
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That’s lovely to hear, thank you Karen! x
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I love that you are making homemade pizza! Pizza is less of a treat when it’s from the freezer.
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That’s very true Jeanne, homemade always tastes better! x
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Oh, now I want a pizza. #KCACOLS
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I’m glad to hear you like it. Time to get baking then! 😉x
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We have pizza at least once a week (one of my boys only hot safe foods). I should do the dough making with him as he does enjoy cooking we are often a bit lazy with pizza buying ready made! #KCACOLS
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Well I have to admit that there are many things in life that I’m ‘lazy’ with, too. We can’t always do it all 😉 It sounds like pizza-baking could be a hit at your house too though! x
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Aw we always used to have pizza on a Saturday night too when I was younger! Love a pizza night and great when you make it yourself you can just do it exactly how you like #KCACOLS
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Oh that’s so lovely to hear that you too used to have Saturday night as pizza night! Homemade pizza is delicious, and as you say you can make it just as you like it xx
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Awwww, I love that Saturday night is pizza night. We normally have homemade pizzas on Sunday in our household 🙂 #KCACOLS
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Thank you, it’s a lovely thing to make the weekend feel a bit more special I think 🙂 Great to hear that you make your own pizzas too! x
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That pizza looks delicious! I think pizza is such a great way to get kids to try new things, if it’s on pizza and my daughter helped make it then she’s definitely more likely to eat it #KCACOLS
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Thank you Katrina! That’s so true and a very good point! Our boy didn’t use to like mushrooms, for example, but now happily has them on his own homemade pizza x
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I love a good homemade pizza – so much better than supermarket ones or takeaway ones. It’s a fun activity to do ith the kids too #KCACOLS
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Thank you Rosie, I totally agree with you on all accounts! x
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