. Of course we need to have it in moderation due to the cheese and we all know chapatis are healthy. But I love trying out new things and if anybody is on the fence about making pizza at home do not hesitate. I assure you it will be a wonderful experience.This time we baked 2 mini pizzas for the kids and 1 big pizza for K and me. All of them turned out excellent and it was truly a kid’s delight. This is my entry for day 2 of the blogging marathon.
1/2 packet quick rise yeast (roughly a little more than 1 tsp)
1/4 tsp sugar
warm water for yeast
water – less than a cup
Tomato sauce – 1/4 cup for 1 mini pizza (I used store bought prego sauce)
Topping vegetables – We used spinach, black olives and mushrooms for kids.
Cheese to top the pizza
Method
Mix the yeast with warm water and sugar and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until it gets all bubbly and frothy. Use warm water and not hot water since we do not want to kill the yeast.
Next add salt and olive oil to the flour followed by the yeast mixture. Mix well and using water make a dough. Knead for 2-3 minutes and keep the dough covered and let it rise. See it has risen and doubled in volume. This took around 1.5 hours for me. If in a warmer area it should take less time.
Punch the dough down and knead for a couple of mintues. Let it rise again. It took around 30 minutes to an hour to rise again.
It has risen again. Time to make the pizza.
I normally make a mini pizza for the kids with the right amount of cheese and vegetables of their choice. For us we bake a bigger pizza with more vegetables and less cheese. Take a small ball of the dough and keep rotating and flattening at the same time as shown in the picture until you get the required size.
Now the daring people can do a pizza toss but since I do not want to mess up the ceiling or the cabinets I leave that to the experts
If you have a pizza paddle by all means use it. I have used a cutting board to assemble to pizza. I dusted with a lot of cornmeal so the pizza could slide out easily.
We also made it extra special for the kids by stuffing with sliced cheese sticks as shown below. I took one cheese stick and sliced it into 4 strips. This is totally optional.
Pizza assembly time. First apply a little sauce followed by the toppings. We used spinach, black olives and mushrooms for the kids. The creative head aka K decided to make a funny face with the toppings. Hmmm .. not bad it does look good
Place on a hot pizza stone in a 450F preheated oven. It is important that the pizza stone be hot to get a nice crust. Look at the cheese all bubbly and yumy. It took around 10-12 minutes for the pizza to be done.
First one done .. 2 more to go. The face is still intact and we unanimously gave it a nick name of ”Mario”.
For mini pizza 2 we added more toppings. Look how yummy it turned out. Yum yum .. kids had a blast and there was utter silence at the dining table. Wait for the stone to heat up before placing the second pizza.
And then to the final pizza for K and me. I made the crust more thin and the result was a pizza which I absolutely loved. We used more vegetables like onion, tomato and bell pepper. Feel free to use whatever you prefer. Yum yum pizza ready. Since we are making it at home we can use little or more cheese and adjust everything to our liking.
One more look at the mini pizza.
Enjoy!
Tips
1. Play around with toppings and use little or more cheese.
Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Priya Suresh, Srivalli, Usha
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid’s Special: Vardhini,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Harini, Suma, Veena
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Aarthi, Kalyani, Pavani, Shylaja
Summer Coolers: PJ, Vaishali
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast: Sushma Pinjala,
Homemade pizza is awesome and tasty.
Mario looks lovely…inspired i am thinking of trying SpongeBob SquarePants :-]
Tempting me
Nice step by step clicks . Pizza looks fantastic
Great presentation and yummy Kids & Adult Pizza…
I had tried pizza..but it hadnt come good all the time..I will surely look for tips from your Post..
Great job, once again
Girl, it's not just kids delight…adults delight too! Tempting picture!
Lovely pics & kudoo to your effort..Tempting pizza..
ooh ! Lovely pics and home made pizza too !! Am still wary of trying out the base-makign at home
but now guess will give this a shot ! 
great one Vardhini
Delicious pizza…
OMG! a marathon?!! We are in for a visual treat.
2 thumbs up for the pizza recipe! Will definitely try it!
wow pizza looks so perfect and yummy !! Thanks for visiting my blog and for ur wonderful comments !! Happy to follow u !!
Mario looks perfect nice pizza.
Pizza looks gorgeous!
yummy and perfect pizza..great job..
It came out really good….
Mouthwathering pizza…will try soon..
Gorgeous pizzas..hmmmm..made me hungry like anything
Lip smacking pizza
Glad to follow u…
That looks like a fantastic pizza! I love making them at home too
Your pizzas are gorgeous! Not only great fro kids but adults too!
Love the 4th picture in the first collage, pizza just before baking… it has big eye, nice nose and a mouth..
I like home pizza a lot better than the ordered pizza.. we have the flexibility to add our choice of topping and make it healthy.
Colorful, healthy and delicious pizza.Well explained
South Indian Home
Delicious pizza……want to grab the whole of it!!!!
absolutely delicious pizza n definitely a kids loving dish…chancea illa vardhini geat job!!! well explained with more step wise pictures..lovely pictures..
What a beautiful creative way. I am going to try out this and ask my kiddo to decorate it anyway he wants
yummy cheesy pizza.. very well explained..
Superb ste-by-step pics… loved your clicks.. and especially mario
…. I am always intimidated of wrkng with yeast.. gotta try soon..
http://krithiskitchen.blogspot.com
Delicious pizzas. Love the way you sneaked in the cheese sticks into the dough itself..
Very tempting and fabulous pizza…
Delicious pizza… love the creative toppings … surely must have been a hit with the kids:)
Reva
Perfectly made and delicious pizza.
Love it..Perfectly baked….Thanks for sharing…
looks very cheesy and colorful.
that looks great….i'm sure u kids just loved it…..thank you for leaving me a comment on my blog…:)
Yum yum! I am sure that your kids relished on those delicious slices.
yummy looking pizza it is always more fun to make pizza with the kids looks fabulous
thank you following you too
I drooling looking at this yummy pizza!!!
Prathima Rao
Prats Corner
super delicious pizza..love it!!
Looks delicious…. First time in your blog… You have a wonderful space… Glad to follow you. I started a blog recently. Take a look at it when you get a chance.
perfect and delicious and the step by step pictorial makes it a delight.
Perfect & delicious pizza with a lovely step by step demo. Great work, Vardhini! Thanks for visiting me & leaving the comments. Happy to follow you
This looks really yum pizza..good enough like the ones in restaurants. And that's one nice idea to add the cheese sticks on side.
Your kids sure must've had a jolly good time munching on these delicious cheesy treats…My daughter also loves pizzas…Very well explained step by step recipe..
Thanks for sharing the step by step recipe… Ur yest has frothed well and the dough had risen beautifully… Loved the addition of cheese sticks in the sides…
Yummy clicks and cheesy pizza…
yummy yumm..gorgeous clicks with nice presentation dear..
Tasty Appetite
Event: Letz Relishh Ice Creams
Lovely and cheesy pizza, fabulous treats for kids, just makes me hungry..
Your looks yummy..i will try it soon
Cheese burst pizza….it would b a double treat for kids…loooks sooper..:)
Pizza looks lovely and delicious. gr8 effort and superb step by step tutorial. Thanks for sharing.
Kurinjikathambam