Pizza!

I hate getting my hands dirty... which means making pizza dough, scones, shortbread, and anything in the kitchen I actually have to stick my fingers into and squish around is a rarity.

I also get nauseated and slightly itchy when I see people like Jamie Oliver tossing dressed salads with his hands, and people that unnecessarily stir stuff without spoons.

Having said that, making your own pizza dough makes the pizza amazing and wonderful and not like you've eaten cardboard/lead/construction paper/a pillow. Therefore it is worth it.

This particular pizza dough recipe is another happy accident. It is light and fluffy, and a perfect base for some hefty veggie pizza ingredients. I used to use a recipe given to me by a Home Ec teacher once upon a time when I was a teacher aide. She used it with the students all the time, as it was impossible to mess up.

I planned to share that recipe with you, dear readers, when to my dismay I realised I'd misplaced it. Somewhere among the thousands of printed recipes that are neatly collated into colour-coded sections in folders, it had gone missing. Perhaps it was because I made it so much I kept the recipe on the refrigerator, and we do live in a very windy area.

So I searched for another recipe, and boy, I'm glad I did. This one's a keeper, folks!

Now before you yell at me for my poor choice of olives, just hang on a second. I too like proper olives and believe they are the only ones that should exist. But how old school do these babies look? I love their fakeness!

Ingredients:

7g sachet dried yeast

1 teaspoon caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups plain flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 cup warm water

Method:

1. Combine the water, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl. Whisk with a fork to dissolve. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 5 minutes or until slightly foamy.

2. Add flour and oil, mix to form a soft dough.

3. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes or until elastic. Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover and stand in a warm place for 25-30 minutes (the dough, not you!), or until the dough has doubled.

4. Use your fist to punch down the dough. Go on, it's fun. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth.

Recipe from here.