Homemade Pizza : from zero to hero!

Making pizza from scratch is fun and gives you all the freedom to choose everything that fit your taste bud starting from flour to meat to toppings and cheese. While kneading can be a bit of labouring, but think of it as a good exercise and you will enjoy the hard work. I loves making my own pizza because I know there’ll be extra veggies to cover these extra cheeses. 😀

This pizza dough recipe is adopted from Jamie Oliver. Jamie is one of my favourite chef. He makes cooking so lively that I’ve fallen in love too deep into cooking that I don’t think I can find the way back 😉

Ingredients:

1. 1 kg white bread flour or Tipo ’00’ flour, or 800g strong white bread flour or Tipo ’00’ flour, plus 200g finely ground semolina flour
2. 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
3. 2 x 7 g dried yeast sachets
4. 1 tablespoon golden caster sugar
5. 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6. 650 ml lukewarm water

Directions

1. Sieve the flour/s and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle.
2. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well.
3. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid.
4. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.
5. Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
6. Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands – this is called knocking back the dough. 

TIPS: It is important to use a high protein flour (high in gluten) to get the elasticity of a pizza slice just like what you seen in pizza commercial ads. 

Toppings ingredient

1. WHATEVER YOU LIKE 😉 or you can try these:
2. Preheat the oven at 180 degree and grease the baking tin with some olives oil. Dust some flour to avoid sticking. Or you can use glass or wood baking tray. 
3. Heat a pan and fry some chopped onions. Stir until brown and add grind meat. You can use any meat you like red or white and before hand I squeeze these meats. Because I purchase a frozen one, the meat is shape in patty. I add some black pepper to marinate the meat. Then, as the meat is half cook, I add the veggies. Some chopped carrots, cabbage and mushroom will do the magic. No need to fry them too long because cooking doesn’t stop yet.
4. For sauce, I use tomato soup mixed with tomato paste and some salt for seasoning.
5. Spread the tomato sauce on pizza dough, add the fried meat and veggies, and because my family loves black olives, we sprinkle these over too. You can add capsicum and more tomatoes too.
6. Then, come the best part, shredded some cheese as you much as like.
7. Cook the pizza until cheese turn brown.  
8. Option: You can also add cheese at edge side of dough rounding. My siblings love this dearly!

~~~***~~~

RESEPI DUH PIZZA DALAM BAHASA MELAYU

• 1 kg tepung berprotein tinggi
• 1 sudu teh garam
• 2 paket yis (7 g setiap satu paket)
• 1 sudu besar gula kastor
• 4 sudu besar minyak zaitun
• 650 mL air suam

Chocolate chip Cupcakes

My sister has been insisted on making cupcakes. But the thing is, I’m bad at making frosting. Not because the recipe isn’t good, but I just doesn’t have what it takes to handle icing. Cooking in any sort i.e boiling, frying, baking, and even smoking need attitude. And maybe I’m not ‘attitude enough’ when it comes to food decorations.

Some said, muffin is the ugly version of cupcake. Really?! Geez, it makes me feel bad…  But, anyway, I end up making muffins which I let my sister believe these are cupcakes. She wouldn’t know the truth, not until she’s 20 at least 😀

This recipe is adopted from Martha Stewart. 

Caption: Muffin  Cupcake and Chrysanthemum Tea

Ingredients

1. 3 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
2. 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
3. 1/4 teaspoon salt
4. 7 ounces (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
5. 1 3/4 cups sugar
6. 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
7. 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
8. 5 large egg whites, room temperature
9. 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Caption: From top left, *Whisking butter and sugar to fluff. *Separating white eggs. *Adding more and more chocolate chips.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks, and fold into batter.

2. [IMPORTANT PART] Reduce speed to low. Mix remaining wet ingredients ( milk and vanilla) in a bowl. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each full.. 

3. Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centre come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

<TIPS> I’ve done some reading and I’ve learned something. To make a fluffy muffins or cupcakes, it is important to alternate between dry and wet ingredients and finish it with dry ingredients. This create a good consistency and store the moist of cake. Besides, try use fresh ingredients (e.g eggs and vanilla paste) and you will see a big difference. Stick to exact flour : egg ratio to get a fluffy texture cake. 

 Good luck!! 

Caption: From top left; *Freshly baked cupcakes. *Attempt on chocolate frosting (seems fail). *Every bite shines you.

**** RESIPI DALAM BAHASA MELAYU ****

Bahan-bahan masakan

1. 3 1/4 cawan tepung yang sudah diayak (bukan tepung naik sendiri)
2. 1 1/2 sudu besar serbuk penaik
3. 1/4 sudu teh garam 
4. 7 auns (1 3/4 bahagian) mentega (unsalted), dilembutkan
   
5. 1 3/4 cawan gula
6. 1 cawan + 2 sudu besar susu
7. 1 sudu besar estrak vanila 
8. 5 biji telur putih, pada suhu bilik
9. 2 cawan chocolate chips (kurang manis) 

Cara-cara masakan

1. Panaskan loyang pada 350 darjah dan susun bekas muffin.
2. Ayak bahan-bahan kering ke dalam satu mangkuk besar.
3. Pukul mentega and gula sehingga sebati dan gebu.
4. Pukul putih telur sehingga gebu.
5. Kurangkan kelajuan pemukul dan campurkan bahan kering dan bahan basah secara silih berganti. Pastikan bahan kering dimasukkan dahulu dan diakhiri dengan bahan kering juga.
6. Bakar kek selama 20 minit atau sehingga bahagian tengah kek masak sepenuhnya. 

Peristiwa ter-jadi.

Kisah ini terjadi pada satu hari di hari raya.

Pada satu hari raya, my jiran datang ziarah rumah and bawak bersamanya buah stroberi. Fuh, mata I dah terkilau-kilau kilauan emas. Buah-buah merah sederhana gemok tu I masokkan dalam peti sejuk sambil berkata, ‘Esok aku ada agenda dengan kamo!”

Semalam, my jiran bagi buah stroberi. So, I cadang nak make use of those stroberi hari ni. I keluarkan empat biji telur dan clean them thoroughly. Dengan kebijaksanaan yang bersaiz nano, I trus separate yolk and white. I whisk white eggs sampai it become quite stiff, quite soft and boleh bentuk mountain-like at the edge of whisker. I add one spoon of sugar at a time. All together satu cup of gula. And, of courselah, bila gula tak melarut dalam telur putih, I pun meneruskan whisking process. To my surprise (remember kebijaksanaan I bersaiz nano okeh), I whisk and whisk sampai suddenly the white eggs flatten again. “Ibbbbbbbbbbbuuuuuuuuu!!” And I scream to my mom. She said, “Its a basic thing to make sure your egg is at room temperature.” Hah! Terbaiklah I. So, apa nak buat dengan egg whites yang dah over whisk?? Plus ada lagi egg yolks yang belum beaten. Dengan kebijaksaan bersaiz nano, maka I pon dump in the rest of egg yolk together with one cup of super-fine flour. The batter become thicker. I bake in 180 oC for 25min. I let it rest for one day sebab I kena balik kampung.

Semalam, I plan nak buat pavlova and suddenly bila white eggs I tak jadi, I turn them into cake yang rupanya ja macam cake tapi rasa macam bahulu. So, hari ni I cadang nak gunakan cake base tu untuk buat tiramisu. I keluarkan cream cheese dari fridge and baru I sedar I tak der heavy cream. Dengan kebijaksanaan nano, I google substitute untuk heavy cream and made one. 1/3 of milk mix with 3/4 of melted butter. Then so-called heavy cream tu I mix dengan cream cheese. Seriously, tak jadi! So, tak tahu dah ape nak buat, I keluarkan cooking coklat. I melt some and mix butter and a bit of milk to make them glossy. Last-last, I combine smanya skali. Susun everything in layers and put them in fridge.

Siang tadi, I combine pavlova and tiramisu into one. I let them cold in fridge. Dengan kebijaksanaan nano, I perasankan diri I yang I ni dah berjaya buat resepi baru. Siap nak namakan resepi I tu LovSu because its a combination of pavLOVa and tiramiSu and of course my name too! Ohooii, puh-leaselah! Anyway, here is how LovSu looks like:

:LovSu:

SELAMAT HARI RAYA peeps!!
Taqaballahhuminha wa minkum