That's a bingo! That's a pizza!!

I have been craving pizza for a while now but if my dear trainer, Matt, comes to know that I have been drooling over Pizza Hut's any topping, any size for $10 deal, we'd be in big trouble. So, since I was on a chapter of bread I decided to bake some pizzas. Home-made pizzas have been considered painful and time consuming but this is not true. In fact you can make pizzas that are tasty, low-fat and with your favourite toppings in no time at all. Trust me, these pizzas are better than any store bought pizza because they are as healthy as they can get and they're made from scratch, which leaves you feeling great. For the sauce I used organic store bought marinara sauce, which was absolutely gorgeous, but you can make your own from scratch, just by cooking tomato puree, diced tomatoes, finely chopped garlic and onions. To this sauce add a bit of sugar, oregano and salt and you'll have the perfect pizza sauce in minutes.

Here is the recipe to make fine pepperoni pizza from scratch:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 and 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast
• 1 cup of water
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 3 and 1/4 cups of bread flour or unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp of salt

Step 1 - Mix, rest and knead the dough:

Pour the warm water into a bowl and add the yeast to it. Let it rest for ten minutes till the yeast is active and the mixture becomes creamy. The mixture won't bubble up like the other recipes as we haven't added sugar.

In a separate bowl whisk together the 1 cup of water with the olive oil

Add the yeast mixture to the water and oil mixture

Sift in the flour and salt and mix it till it all comes together. This would take about 3 minutes.

Cover the bowl with a lint-free cotton towel or plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes so that the dough can hydrate.

Step 2 - Mix and rise the dough:

After it has been left to rest for 20 minutes, knead the dough for an additional 6 minutes.

Scrape the bowl and make a smooth ball out of the dough. Slightly oil the dough and place it in a bowl that is greased lightly with olive oil.

Leave the dough to rise for 40-60 minutes till the dough doubles in size.

Step 3 - Prepare the oven and divide the dough:

Pre-heat the oven at 400 degrees fahrenheit or 200 degrees celsius.

Divide the dough into 2 or 4 equal parts, depending on whether you want 2 large pizzas or 4 smaller ones. If you don't want to make so many pizzas all at once you can put the rest of the dough into a ziploc bag and it refrigerates well, up to 24 hours.

Place the dough onto a floured surface and press firmly to expel any air bubbles. Do not knead the dough further as this will make the dough lose its fluffiness.

Roll out the dough.

Step 4 - Topping your pizza

This is the best part of baking your own pizza.

Place the pizzas onto a baking pan that has been covered with butter paper or wax paper.

Coat your pizzas generously with sauce. Be sure to add enough sauce as it tends to dry out as it bakes.

It's silly for me to tell you what to add and what not to add to your pizza; go nuts! Here's what I did; I added reduced fat turkey pepperoni which is much healthier than regular pepperoni. If you can't find pepperoni or low fat pepperoni, try sliced chicken sausages, or chicken bits; basically, just go nuts!

Bake your pizza for about 15 minutes or till the crust turns brown. Don't overbake your pizza or your crust will be too crispy. Pull it out of the oven, cut it up, and enjoy! Done!

Mustard & Cheddar Bread! (on Oscar night)

So, last night was the Oscars and Hurt Locker won best picture as everyone knows by now. We just kept giggling and making jokes about how Kathryn Bigelow kicked her ex-husband's tushi (James Cameron) and took home two Oscars! Well, that was fun.

For the Oscars night I had Chris and Ami over and I cooked dinner. No, it was not any fancy theme party. Since, I had some errands pending I spent our whole Sunday working it out! Due to that misfortune I could not plan anything exciting. I just ended up making this mix pot of beans and tomato puree, mustard, chicken, cheese, pastrami ribbons, you know the usual things you find around your kitchen. With that I served up some home-made bread and a blueberry and nut salad. For dessert I served what I like to call "what I like to call Baklava."

Ingredients:

• 1/4th cup warm water (please make sure the water is not boiling hot or too warm as I have learned the hard way that it kills the yeast; and you don't want to kill your sugar-loving friends)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 1 cup of warm whole milk (this means no slim milk!)
• 2 tbsp of butter
• 3 cups of bread flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 3 tbsp Mustard
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1. Mix, rest and knead the dough:
• Mix the water, yeast and sugar in a small bowl and whisk to blend. The mixture should sit for 10 minutes till the yeast is active, foaming and bubbling.
• 
• In another bowl mix the butter, mustard and milk.
• 
• In a larger bowl mix the flour and the salt.
• 
• Now pour the yeast mixture and the milk mixture into the flour and the salt.
• 
• 
  
• 
• Mix for about 2-3 minutes till the dough comes together. Then add the cheese and mix for an additional 5-6 minutes.

• Cover the bowl with a damp cloth (use a lint-free cotton towel; if you do not have one use plastic wrap)
• 
• 
Rise the dough - first rise:

• Lightly oil another large bowl.
• Scrape the dough into the bowl and lightly coat the surface of the dough with oil.
• 
• Cover the bowl with a damp lint-free cotton towel or plastic wrap for about 45-60 minutes or till the dough has doubled in size.
• 
• 
  

Punch the dough and shape the loaf

• Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.
• 
• Press the dough down firmly so as to expel some of the air bubbles but don't knead the dough again or it will be too springy.
• Shaping the dough is complicated if I explain it through words so I will try my best. Place the dough in the shape of a rectangle. The size of the pan I used was 9 inches by 3 inches. So, I roughly spread out the dough in these dimensions.
• I then folded this rectangle into half.
• 
• Press the part where it joins with the heel of your palm.
• 
• After this, I turned the dough that currently rested horizontally and I placed it in a 90 degree position or vertically.
• 
• I then rolled the top end towards the bottom end using my thumbs to tuck in the dough at the seams.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Once, the dough had formed a roll I pinched the ends.
• 
  
  

Proof the dough - second rise - glaze and bake

• Lightly coat the loaf pan with oil or butter.
• Place the dough, seam-side down into the pan.
• 
• Lightly oil the top of the dough, to keep it moist. Cover the pan loosely with a damp cloth or lint-free towel and allow the dough to rise once more until its top is half an inch to one inch above the rim of the pan. This might take about 45-60 minutes.
• 
• Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Farhenheit / 204 degrees Celsius.
• Brush the top of the loaf with a thin film of beaten egg.
• 
• 
• Bake for 35-40 minutes at 375 degrees fahrenheit / 190.4 degrees celsius until the bread is golden brown.
• 
• 
• 
• Pull out of the oven, let it cool completely and then slice with a serrated knife.
• Done!