Children making their own Pizza, what do I need?

[Ineedsomesleep]

Do you buy your bases or make them? If you buy them, what do you use? What do you use for the tomato base?

Super simple Jamie Oliver recipe here Takes about five mins to make/knead, 1 hour to rise.

For the base we use passata with a little tomato puree added and a pinch of sugar. Keeps it nice and simple, haven't had anyone object to it yet!

Takes about 13-15 mins at 180C.

I use tortillas/flat breads for the base if in a hurry.

I use the jamie Oliver recipe from the Italy book, adjusting quantities according to how much dough I want (1kg will make an enormous amount! I usually use 500g flour for 2 adults and 2 children). Also, I often use half strongwholemeal flour/half white bread flour for a slightly healthier version.

For topping I usually use a bit of onion chopped and fried and sometimes a bit of finely grated courgette/carrot too because my children refuse to eat enough vegetables. Then add some tom puree and passata, some herbs (oregano or mixed herbs), salt and pepper adn a bit of sugar. and cook for a while until it looks about right. But I think that weblett'es version is probably more authentic, tbh.

I noticed when cooking a pizza express pizza the other day that it recommends drizling the top with olive oil before cooking too.

Thanks everyone, these are all good suggestions, but more are welcome

You can also do mini pizzas using muffins.

Use pitta bread for the bases, passata as sauce base, and anything else you have in fridge/cupboard. Let their imaginations run wild!

BorntoFolk, havr absolutely no idea what you mean sorry, can you enlighten me please.

Riven no G&T but I alweys thought the golden rule of cooking with children was first, open the wine......

Sorry! I mean using English muffins (i.e. not blueberry or choc chip ones!) as bases. Cut in half, toast and add tomato sauce and toppings and whack under the grill. Not very authentic but quick and easy.

I make up a pizzaiola by frying off half an onion and perhaps a little garlic, then throwing in a tin of chopped toms and some oregano or mixed herbs. I cook this for about 10 minutes (I think). Half this will be enough for two or three big pizzas - although you may need to emphasise that less is more when it comes to tom sauce on pizzas. T'other half goes in the freezer for next time.

I make the pizza dough in my breadmaker but it's easy enough to do by hand, using something like Jamie Oliver's recipe. Or a bag of pizza dough or ciabatta mix.

Toppings - sounds obvious but it's important to make sure these are drained properly ime.

I make Sarah Raven's pizza dough from Garden Cookbook. I make lots and freeze some. Also use it for dough balls. If you are going to make your own dough, and I would, its sooo much nicer ( and you can get it much thinner ), I would invest in a pizza stone to cook it on. Makes the end product much crispier.

For tomato sauce, get a tin of chopped tomatoes, throw in a few peeled whole cloves of garlic and a few tablespoons olive oil and reduce over a low heat for 15 mins or so. Fish out garlic cloves and whizz in blender. Keeps in an airtight container in fridge for a week.

Agree with otter re less is more on the sauce front, too much and the pizza goes soggy.

We also add mozzarella, grated cheddar and basil.

We've done a few pizza parties over the years too - make a coupler of batches of dough and then get the little ones to roll out (or do some pre-rolling for smaller ones) then use passata (sieved tomato stuff) for the base let them add their own toppings and put on trays. HINT - write the names on a small piece of paper next to each one. Serve up and they generally scoff the lot no probs and a cheapo party!!

Nerves of steel and a stiff drink

If you're prepared to go (gasp!) readymade, Napolitana do bases and sauce, you can get 'em in Tesco.

Use bread as a base, readty made tom sauce & piles of grated cheese, herbs to shake & you're done

I tend to use plain naan breads for pizza bases when I'm doing a children's pizza party. You can fit four of them on each shelf in the oven which you can't easily do with round pizzas.

My DCs love "spicy pork" on their pizzas, which is just pancetta that I fry in a dry non-stick pan with paprika and a little bit of dried chilli.

Someone to clean up afterwards!

My ds (4) loves to make pizza, have done pretty much everything suggested above depending upon time/attention span. I made a half white half wholemeal scone base the other day with ds for quickness (no sugar obviously). He rolled it out fairly thin (and a bit wobbly!!!)then topped with a mixture of ketchup and tomato puree, grated cheese, red onion, mushrooms, baby tomatoes and olives - he fair scrummed it down.