Pizza

Home-made pizzas are so tasty, and also pretty easy to make. I use a Bill Granger recipe for the base, because the dough is stretchy, non-sticky and easy to handle.

I also make my own tomato sauce, so it isn't the quickest meal I make. Actually, considering the time and effort that goes into making these pizzas, and the speed at which they are demolished, sometimes I feel like buying them instead!

But I enjoy mine more than bought ones, and not just because mine cost a lot less!

In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt and yeast. Combine water and honey and add to the flour mixture. Stir in, and add olive oil.

Mix together with a spoon, then put your hands in and bring together into a dough. Knead for several minutes, either in the bowl or on a floured surface.

Leave covered in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours until doubled in size.

Push out air and remove from bowl. Divide into four pieces, and knead each piece lightly.

Put the four pieces of dough in a warm place and cover them. Leave for 20 - 30 mins until doubled in size, or just puffed up a bit.

Roll out each ball of dough to make a (rough in my case) circle. Apparently these should be 30 cm diameter, but I can only ever manage 25 cm at the most.

Put a little oil on your hands and on the rolling pin if things are getting a bit sticky.

I put my bases on a metal tray lined with baking paper. Not very authentic, but it saves on mess and cleaning up later.

Spread with tomato sauce of your choice ( I make mine with simmered tinned tomatoes, herbs and seasoning) and toppings - in this case sliced cabanossi, sliced mozarella and grated cheddar.

Cook in a 220 C oven for 10-12 minutes. Leave to cool for a couple of minutes, then cut into pieces (preferably with a pizza cutter because it's much easier) and serve.

I do mine one at a time because I find they cook better on the middle shelf.

This one had cabanossi, red capsicum and cheese.

My favourite has just cheese. Not very pretty or glamorous, but tasty!

Ingredients for dough:
500 g bread/bakers flour
1 tbsp salt
2 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tbsp honey
300 ml warm water
50 ml extra virgin olive oil

Pistachio Biscotti

I've always been impressed by people who can make their own almond bread or biscotti, and thought it would be really difficult to do. It's actually very easy, it just takes a little while because you cook them twice.

I followed a Bill Granger recipe, and supposedly they will last for a month in an airtight container - but I don't know how anyone ever manages to keep them that long. Oli helped me with the flour sieving and stirring.

First you beat eggs and caster sugar together for 3 mins with an electric hand-mixer, and sieve in flour. Mix in until almost combined, then stir in almonds and pistachios. Form into a dough with your hands, divide into two and on lightly floured board, make each half into a 15 to 20 cm loaf. Transfer to a baking sheet and flatten to 2 cm thick. Bake 20 cm until firm (see above) and cool completely.

When cool, cut into 7 mm-thick slices and bake at 120 C for 20 min, turning over once. Cool completely on wire rack.

Very easy to make, and the bit I thought would go wrong (cutting the loaves into slices) was no problem.

Ingredients:
150 g caster sugar
2 eggs
350 g plain flour
50 g shelled pistachios
50 g whole almonds

Two of the biscotti looked like little shocked faces - a bit like the biscuit version of the painting "The Scream"!

Banana Buttermilk Pancakes

I had some buttermilk hanging around in the fridge, and decided to use it to make some banana buttermilk pancakes (Bill Granger recipe).

I usually make little plain pikelets, so I made some of these too in case the banana ones weren't popular (they are the smoother ones at the back of the plate).

The batter for the buttermilk pancakes was very thick so I added some milk. I also decided to make them small so they'd be more manageable.

They had an interesting tangy flavour because of the buttermilk, and the banana tasted good (you add slices to the top of each pancake then add more batter before turning), but I had trouble browning them. I have much more success with making the normal pikelets, and the boys prefer them (they add jam, syrup or lemon and sugar) so I'll just stick to them in future!

PS Banana pancakes taste nice cold the next day! Have just found a Nigella recipe for banana pancakes where the banana is mashed and added to the batter, which sounds like a better idea.