DIY Pizza Party!

Individual DIY Pizzas made by my guests

DIY Pizza Party is easy to do... and when you've got a perfect recipe for homemade pizza dough, things are so much simpler! =)

Brenda's Pizza Dough:

Ingredients:

500g Plain Flour, sifted

1 sachet Instant Yeast

300ml Lukewarm Water

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp dried Oregano

1 tsp Garlic Powder

Olive Oil

Method:

1. Mix the yeast in the water with 3 tablespoons of the sifted flour. Set it aside for 15 minutes for the yeast to activate.
2. In a bowl add the oregano, garlic powder and salt to the flour. Make a well in the flour and pour the activated yeast mixture in.  The activated yeast mixture should smell yeasty and look foamy.  Use a spoon to mix the flour with the liquid so that it comes together as a dough.
3. Turn it out onto a floured table, and knead the dough for 10 minutes. This part is an excellent arm workout! ;)
4. Shape it into a ball and coat it *thinly* with olive oil. I pour out about a teaspoon of the olive oil in my hand, and then lightly cover the dough with it.
5. Leave the dough in a bowl to double its size. Cover the bowl with a towel and put it aside for about 1 hour.
6. Punch down the dough, and weigh out about 110g of dough for each serving. Roll out circles (or something like circles ;)) on cut-out baking paper, so that each person can have their own pizza to put their favourite toppings on. =)  Each dough recipe should make about 7 or 8 smaller pieces.

Brenda's Homemade Pizza Sauce:

Ingredients:

2 large tomatoes

1 large onion

a handful of fresh basil leaves

3 cloves of garlic

a little pepper

1 small can of tomato paste

1 tablespoon of olive oil for frying

Method:

1. Blend all the ingredients together, except for the tomato paste.
2. In a saucepan, heat up the olive oil.  Add in the blended ingredients to the oil and fry until some of the fragrance is released.  Add in the tomato paste and heat it up until it bubbles and come together.
3. Allow the sauce to cool before use.

Pizza Sauce, and other favourite toppings: Ham, pastrami, onions, capsicums, egg, basil...

...baby spinach, olives, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, pineapple slices, mozzarella and cheddar cheese... 

Adding a raw egg on the pizza is Pizza alla Bismark. 

Into a preheated oven set at 220 deg C for 15 minutes

DIY pizza parties tend to get my guests excited because for some of them, it's a fun way for some creative cooking expression.  For others, it's a good way to avoid foods they don't enjoy, but don't have to worry about whether their avoidance of certain items might lessen another person's enjoyment of it.  For kids, they pile on their favourites with no worries about that yucky stray pineapple slice that seems to hide under a mozzarella because they can simply not put that in! :)


Of course, among my guests, many were only too happy to share a slice of their pizza version with another, and it certainly adds to the overall conversation and atmosphere.


Along with the pizzas, I also serve a cream soup; in this case, my cream of mushroom soup.


Have fun at your own pizza party! =)