Homemade Pizza

PIZZA is  a baked pie of Italian origin, an oven-baked, flat, round bread typically topped with tomato sauce, cheese and and often other toppings, such as vegetables. However, today pizza comes in many shapes and flavors.

 INGREDIENTS:

For Pizza Dough: Makes dough for two 10-12 inch pizzas

• All Purpose flour – 3 1/2 cups (If you use bread flour , that will give you a crisper crust)
• Warm Water – 1  1/2 cups (105°F-115°F)
• Active dry yeast – 2 1/4 tsp
• Olive oil – 3 Tbsp
• kosher Salt  2 tsp
• Sugar – 2 Tbsp

Pizza Toppings :

Prepare your desired toppings. Remember one thing  that you are not going to load up each pizza with a lot of toppings as the crust will end up not crisp that way. Actually I got the delicious pizza recipe from the site http://www.simplyrecipes.com. In that recipe advising,  about a third a cup each of tomato sauce and cheese would be sufficient for one pizza. One to two mushrooms thinly sliced will cover a pizza.

I am preparing Pizza first time, My husband Likes it so much. As an experiment, I added some vegetables in the Pizza.

 My toppings ::

• Tomato Sauce – 1/4 cup
• Mozzarella or Parmesan cheese, shredded or Cheddar Cheese – 1 cup
• Red and Yellow Bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, thinly sliced – 1/2 cup
• Green Peas – 1/4 cup
• Tomato, Thinly slice in round shape  – 4 pieces
• Onions, thinly sliced – 1 small
• Broccoli – 8 nos
• Chicken Pieces, cooked by adding black pepper, red chilly powder and tomato sauce – 10 bit site pieces.

Equipment needed:

• A  Pizza Stone, highly recommended if you want your pizza dough to be crusty
• A Pizza Peel or a flat baking sheet
• A Pizza Wheel for  cutting the pizza, not required, but easier to deal with than a knife.

No need worry if you don’t have Pizza stone and Pizza Wheel, I also don’t  have these things.

METHOD:

Making the Pizza Dough:

• Begin by dissolving the yeast and sugar in the warm  water, in a large mixing bowl; let it stand for 5 minutes.Stir to dissolve completely if needed at the end of 5 minutes.
• Add all purpose flour/bread flour, salt, and olive oil  to the bowl  and mix well, either by hand or with a mixer set to low speed, until the ingredients are well blended.
• Now hand-knead the dough or mix it with a dough hook setting the speed to low for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic about 10 minutes.

If you don't have a mixer, do the following ::

• Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a clean, well-floured surface. A wooden board or clean table is best. Make sure it is at a height where you are comfortable working.
• If the dough is very moist or sticky, sprinkle additional flour over the top.
• Gather the dough into a pile and begin pressing it together. Press the heels of your hands firmly into the dough, pushing forward slightly.
• Fold the far edge of the dough upwards, towards you, and press it into the middle of the ball.
• Rotate it slightly, too.
• Repeat this press-fold-turn sequence for the duration of the kneading process.
• Place ball of dough in another bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn the dough around in the bowl so that it gets coated with the oil.
• Then cover with plastic wrap and set it in a warm place to rise for an hour, or until it doubles in volume (a longer rise will improve the flavor).

Preparing the Pizza:

• For the baking,  If you are using your kitchen oven, preheat it to 400 degree F .  If you are using a baking stone it should heat for at least 45 minutes. Otherwise grease and dust a flat baking sheets with corn meal.
• Remove the plastic cover from the dough and punch the dough down so it deflates a bit.
• Divide the dough in half.
• Form two round balls of dough. Place each in its own bowl, cover with plastic and let them sit for 15 minutes.

If you want to make two pizzas at a time::

• Shape two balls  into disks, stretching them out from the center on a floured surface.

Otherwise place 1 dough ball in a Ziploc bag and place it in refrigerator for later use. You can freeze the dough in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

• Now Work with one dough ball.  Do not roll them, because rolling toughens the dough.
• Using floured fingertips, transfer  one ball of dough  to a lightly floured surface and gently shape into a small, flat disk.

• Working from the center of the disk, spread fingers to push the dough to 1/2-inch thick outward  to create a large circle.
• Lift the dough and move your hands along the edges, allowing gravity to pull and  stretch the dough until it will not stretch further.
• If the dough is difficult to stretch, let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes and try again.
• If it is close to ripping while stretching, return it to the floured surface and stretch while flat. 
• Now  continue to stretch it until it reaches 10 to 12 inches. Use your palm to flatten the edge of the dough where it is thicker.
• Brush the top of the dough with olive oil to prevent it from getting soggy from the toppings. Use your finger tips to press down and make dents along the surface of the dough to prevent bubbling.
• Let rest another 5 minutes.

Now  assemble the pizza:

• Prepare your desired toppings.

• Spread about a third a cup of tomato sauce and place the thinly sliced round tomato pieces on top of that, keeping spaces  in between tomato pieces leaving an inch of sauce-free rim.

• Spread Cheddar Cheese on to of that.

• Now add sliced onion, arrange red and yellow bell pepper slices on to of that.

• Now place some green peas and Broccoli on to of the Pizza Crust.

• Finally spread some more cheddar cheese, decoration is completed. I added some cooked chicken pieces also.

Now you can bake your Pizza.

• If you're using a baking stone and have a baker's peel ,(it s a thin metal disk with a handle), lightly flour it, slide the pizza onto it, and transfer it to the stone with a deft yank , the flour will keep the dough from sticking.
• If you don't have a peel, use a flat cookie sheet instead, lightly flouring it, to transfer the pizza from the work surface to the stone.
• If you're using a metal baking pan you should bake the pizza towards the bottom of the, 400 degree F preheated oven.

• You may feel difficult to slide the pizza with all the toppings, so you can lightly grease your baking tray with olive oil  and place the dough disk on that and arrange toppings on top of the Pizza crust, then it will be easy to place them in the oven.

• Bake pizza  until the crust is browned and the cheese is golden, about 10-15 minutes.

Homemade Pizza is ready. Enjoy!!!

Heath Benefits Of Pizza:

• LYCOPENE:  

The luscious tomato sauce that adds a touch of sweetness to your pizza is an excellent source of lycopenes. One of the main ingredients of pizza is the tomato, which contains lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. Lycopenes are natural carotenoids that give the tomato its rich, red color. Lycopene is known to help fight many different types of cancer and help to protect against heart disease. People who eat pizza at least once a week were much less likely to develop colon and mouth cancer as well as stomach and lung cancer. It is known to be especially helpful in fighting prostate cancer. Studies have shown that eating pizza can lower your chance of developing esophageal cancer by nearly 59%. Tomato sauce is extremely healthy, and for this reason so is pizza, but there are additional pizza toppings that can also enhance your health.

• ONIONS: 

Onions are rich in chromium, vitamin C, and fiber. They help to lower your blood sugar, cholesterol as well as blood pressure. Onions are rich in sulfur compounds and flavonoids which help to maintain a healthy immune system and may reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. Onions have also been shown to promote a healthy heart.

• OTHER VEGETABLES:

The red pepper is a great pizza topping. They are sweet and tasty as well as full of Vitamin C, A, and B6.Other vegetables that can add antioxidant and nutritional punch to pizza are artichokes, Asparagus, spinach, broccoli, Green Peppers, and even slices of steamed squash that can transform your favorite pizza into a health food in the blink of an eye. A vegetable  filled slice of pizza is a tasty way to get your daily vegetable quota.

• CHEESE

Layer of cheese that makes your pizza slice rich and gooey is a good source of bone building calcium. Some studies have also shown that a high calcium diet can help to reduce the risk of colon cancer. Despite these benefits, cheese is also high in fat, so cut the cheese in half and double up on the tomato sauce for a healthier slice of pizza.

• BLACK OLIVES:

Black olives are another great addition to pizza. Olives contain ingredients that help ward off heart disease and lower your cholesterol.

• WHOLE GRAIN CRUST:

Pizza crust can be healthy if made from whole grains, you'll be adding fiber to every delicious bite you take.

BUT REMEMBER …….Pizza with high fat cheeses and fatty meats, and a high intake of which can contribute to obesity, itself a risk factor for cancer. Taking Pizza regularly causes high blood pressure, hyper tension, leading to death due to heart attack.

I collected all the above Information about health benefits and Health problems of consuming Pizza From the Sites ::

1. http://ezinearticles.com/?Health-Benefits-of-Pizza&id=1112456
2. http://www.fourgreensteps.com/community/blogs/healthwellnessfashion/unexpected-health-benefits-of-pizza
3. http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/too-much-of-pizza-causes-obesity-and-various-diseases-even-cancer-3057764.html 

If you want to know more details go through these sites ….

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