Classic Cheese Pizza and my first set of Awards

The great thing about pizzas are that you can add whatever you want to them and they still taste good (in the course, you invent unique pizza of your own). All you have to do is to prepare the dough correctly. My son likes to have pizza with lots of cheese as toppings. So here is the recipe for classic cheese pizza.

Pizza Dough

• warm water (110-120 degrees F): 1 1/4 cups
• active dry yeast: 1 packet
• sugar: 1 ¼ tbsp
• flour (sifted) 3 ¼ cups
• salt: ½ tsp
• olive oil / butter flavoured oil: 2 tbsp

Toppings:

• Tomato sauce: 4-6 tbsp
• Mozzarella cheese (shredded / grated): 6 tbsp
• Parmesan cheese (grated): 1 tbsp
• Olive oil: 2 tbsp
• Dried Oregano seasoning (crumbled) (to taste)
• Freshly crushed black pepper (to taste)
• Red chili flakes (to taste)

Procedure:

To make the dough:

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Allow to sit for 8-10 minutes (builds a good froth, so make sure this is in a 2 cup or larger container, glass is best as it holds the heat nicely).
2. In a bowl, mix the sifted flour and salt. Slowly add the yeast water with a olive oil / butter flavoured oil.
3. Mix thoroughly (add flour / olive oil if required) and knead thoroughly for about 6-8 minutes to make a smooth, springy dough (Remember that the dough should be slightly sticky to the firm touch).
4. Remove dough from bowl and place in an airtight bag. Do not seal bag, but leave open in a nearly closed drape (enough to allow gasses from yeast to escape). Set in a warm place for at lest for 1 hour & 15-20 minutes. (This is very crucial & essential otherwise the dough will not rise properly and will result in a tough, unpleasant dough).

Rolling out the dough:

1. Take the dough on to a flat surface, dust it with little flour, roll it flat (size measurement: you can rollout to cover a 14 inch pan for thicker crust / 16 inch pan for thinner crust).
2. Permeate crust with fork over the entire dough base (sp that the pizza crust do not bubble).
3. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise an additional 15-20 minutes. Repeat permeation with fork only slightly.

Toppings & baking:

1. Grease a baking sheet and lay the rolled dough.
2. Pour tomato sauce on the pizza base and spread it evenly with the back of a spoon.
3. Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan. cheese. Very carefully rribble olive oil over the pizza and bake it on the lowest shelf or the floor of the oven.
4. Cook pizza at 475 for 5 mins. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 F after 5 minutes and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until the crust is golden brown (lightly browned) and the cheese is bubbling.

Serve:

1. Sprinkle oregano and some freshly crushed black pepper / red chili flakes (as per taste).
2. Serve hot and enjoy!!!
   

Hey all!!! Sunanda of Sunanda’s Kitchen, passed me these 3 lovely awards: “One Lovely Blog Award”, “Kreativ Blogger Award”, “I love your Blog Award” and a tag.

I am overwhelmed and excited to recieve these awards as they are my very first set of awards in this blogging world.




Thank you very much, Sunanda for the awards. I would also like to thank all the great foodies, dear friends and my readers for encouraging me to pursue my passion for cooking and sharing recipes despite having a tight job schedule.

Some basic information about me:

1. What is your current obsession?
Technical writing and blogging (ofcourse)
2. What are you wearing today?
Something comfortable
3. What’s for dinner?
My homemade biryani and cucumber & mint raita
4. What’s the last thing you bought?
Birthday Celebration Gifts (busy these days planning for my son’s b’day)
5. What are you listening to right now?
Latest hindi movie dance tracks
6. What do you think about the person who tagged you?
Wonderful person…
7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
Paris
8. What are your must-have pieces for summer?
Cotton wear, sun shades and deos.
9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Paris
10. Which language do you want to learn?
French
11. Who do you want to meet right now?
My best friend
12. What is your favourite colour?
Maroon
13. What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet?
Jeans and top
14. What is your dream job?
Love to be an entrepreneur; own company on customer service; publishing cookery books
15. What’s your favourite magazine?
Nothing special, anything that catches my fancy.
16. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?
DSLR camera with full set of lenses
17. What is your favourite pastime?
Reading a mushy romantic novel
18. Who are your style icons?
Greta Garbo
19. Describe your personal style?
Depends on the occasion: Elegant & Classic / simple and gorgeous
20. What are you going to do after this?
Lot of things to do….
21. What are your favourite movies?
It’s a long list, from old English classics to action & thrills, cartoons, romance etc…
22. What inspires you?
Client compliments and appreciation from near & dear ones.
23. Give us three styling tips that always work for you:
Simple, confident and present myself as I am…
24. Coffee or tea?
Cuppuccino (specially the lip smacking ones with whipped cream / dollops of ice-cream on top)
25. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?
Listen to music / read books
26. Which month is your birthday?
July
27. Which other blogs you love visiting?
All good food and recipe blogs, the list is too long……..
28. Favorite Dessert/Sweet?
Frozen desserts
29. Favorite Season?
Spring
30.One thing you love about yourself
My loving and caring nature (my friends tell me so)
31 What is your favourite line?
You have only one life; enjoy it to the fullest…
32. What is the meaning of your name?
Malini is a female gardener (specially tending to flower gardening)

The rules are:
Respond and rework – answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, and add one more question of your own. Then tag eight or ten other people.

I am glad to share these awards along with the tag with following blogger friends…

• Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes
• AnuSriram of Chandrabhaga
• Ivy of Kopiaste
• Jenny of Food Recipes Made Easy
• Ann of A delighted Foodie
• Poornima, Tasty Treats
• Neha of Tasty Recipes
• Purva of Purva’s Daawat
• Indrani of Appayan
• Sanghi of Sanghi’s Food Delights

Congratulations to all…