And....

Ok - confession time. I did not JUST buy the multi-cooker at habitat. In addition to paying the excess amount to purchase the multi-cooker, I might have also purchased a pizza stone. And a pair of kitchen shears.

For the longest time, I have been dying to try making the perfect New York slice pizza at home. Not that I have been to New York, so it's not like I know what it tastes like. But nevertheless, I wanted to make  pizza at home because buying pizza is such a rip-off. Plus, I always feeling like I need to buy meatlovers pizza or BBQ chicken or something to make my money worth while. I would NEVER pay for a magherita in Hobart. It's just sauce and cheese and they are not that much cheaper than the other sorts of pizza, so no thank you!

End rant about the exorbitant prices of bread and sauce, aka pizza.

So, it turns out that all my life I have been making pizza the wrong way... the crust was always soggy in the middle where the toppings were. I have tried quickly baking the pizza crust beforehand and then putting the topping on there and melting the cheese but to no avail. SO, imagine how excited I was when I stumbled upon this recipe for a delicious pizza crust. It did call for the use of a pizza stone, but instead I used my metal pizza tray. I put it in the oven and blasted it on full heat so that the pan was also piping hot when I put my pizza dough on it. And I used my wooden chopping board as a pizza peel. It was delicious. My mother was suitably impressed (she was visiting from Malaysia then, and she LOVES pizza). But I think we can do better with a pizza stone.

And we did. It was delicious. I'm never buying pizza in Hobart again.

It was simple, garlic and mushroom pizza. I will update this post with photos when I take them. (of course I'm making it this weekend again)

I also used my breadmaker to do the hard yards for me. I should mention that this is NOT my own recipe, but I can't remember where I got this recipe from now, so I can't credit the person who created it (sorry!) Recipe below:

·  2/3 cup whey (or just water, if you don't have any whey)

·  1 teaspoon sugar

·  1.5 teaspoons of dry yeast

·  1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour or 1 3/4 cups bread flour

·  1/2 teaspoon salt

·  1 tablespoon cornmeal (optional) 

Chuck all these ingredients in the bread maker, press “menu” until you get to “dough”  and press start. Check the dough after 8 mins and touch it, if it is sticky and too soft, add some flour (one TBS at a time). If too dry, add water 1 TBS at a time as well. The dough should not stick to your fingers (but tacky).

I also dusted the pizza peel (in my case, it was still my trusty wooden chopping board) with semolina, which gave it the extra crunch. I just topped it off with garlic, mushrooms, some extra virgin olive oil and some mozarella.

Turns out I can't roll a round pizza - this was taken on my "peel" with the dustings of semolina. 

Delish!

xoxo