Pizza is the most requested dinner in our family. It’s often the dinner requested for birthdays. We usually make it once a month. Making pizza at home is much healthier than having it delivered. And you can get creative as you want with the toppings.
Learning how to make bread has been such a blessing for my family. With simple and cheap ingredients I am able to make delicious bread, cinnamon rolls, and pizza.
I learned how to make bread by hand. But using my dough hook with my Kitchen Aid is so much quicker. Either way you will love homemade pizza. And remind you teen that you can make pizza with english muffins, naan bread, french bread, or tortillas. Switching up the base of your pizza is always fun.
But if you love real crust, and aren’t quite ready to master making your own pizza dough, you can always pick up dough from Trader Joe’s or Winco. Maybe you want to learn how to make dough on your won before you teach your teen. Or maybe you want to learn together.
I’ll share some tips with making crust, but you can find the recipe here. Usually the first step in making bread is letting the yeast get going. You want to let it stand in warm water will creamy. About 10 minutes. The water can’t be too hot or you will kill the yeast. You want your water when it’s just starting to get warm.
After 10 minutes of letting your warm water and yeast sit you are ready to start adding your ingredients. You can use your dough attachment or a good scraping spatula. You are going to want your ingredients to be combined. It’s going to look sticky.
Then I like to spray a large bowl with cooking spray. This helps your dough to not stick to the sides. And you want a large bowl so your dough has more room to rise, which will yield a better texture. Cover your bowl with a damp towel so your dough won’t dry out.
After about 30 minutes you are ready to start kneading. I love working with a silicone pastry mat when making bread. I usually have a cup of flour and I spread some out on the mat. You are going to want to have some flour on your hands as well.
Using a spatula scrape the dough on the mat. We want our dough to not look ‘shiney’. You can sprinkle some more flour on top and start kneading. Essentially you want to massage the dough, working more flour in until it’s more of a matte dough. Using the heels of your palms press down. I usually fold the dough over and using the heel of my palm press down again. Remember you don’t want to use your fingers. Keep pressing and fold over and over until the dough doesn’t seem sticky. You want it nice and matte. You can add more flour when you find a ‘sticky’ area.
You can start rolling our your dough, starting in the center and working your way out. It may not be a perfect circle. Trust me, it will still taste good. My husband is excellant at tossing the dough to help it expand. He places the smoothed out dough on his knuckles and throws it in the air. It’s really impressive.
We like to use pizza stones when cooking pizza for our family. Or you can read my tips here about having individual pizzas for each family member. Top your pizza with sauce and cheese and bake it in the oven. Removing a pizza from the oven is a little different than the spinach rolls. It’s great practice for your teens. Feel free to demonstrate on the first pizza.
Let your teen come up with the topping ideas. Peppers, mushrooms, spinach, ham, bacon, onions, chicken, spinach, or sausage. They have already had some practice with some of these toppings in our Teaching Teens to Cook Series. I love making BBQ chicken pizza with BBQ sauce, chicken, cilantro, and onions. Options are a great way to help kids feel creative in the kitchen. Remember you can find the full recipe here.
Your teen is going to love this dinner! And learning how to make pizza dough will totally bless their life. And it would also be a fun date night for teens. Find tips here on how to throw your own Pizza Party here. Check back tomorrow for my teen son’s favorite dinner. I knew it was a must for our Teaching Teens How to Cook Series.
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