Girl Next Shore Cooks: Would you like to make your own pizza?

I’ve been eating a lot of pizza lately. Whenever I’m home late I find it very convenient to ring the local Papa John’s for a medium thin crust half Mexican and half Papa’s Favourite. But actually, I prefer making my own when I have time.

Yes, you read that right. Fun fact: I can actually make my own pizza. And no, I’m not talking about rolling out puff-pastry and topping it with the remnants of your fridge. Proper pizza! From scratch! Believe it or not, it’s very easy and heaps of fun to make because you get to be super creative by controlling everything: how thick or thin your crust is and whether it’s shaped like an elephant or a mobius strip; how much sausage, cheese, or chocolate you top it with; and how you serve it and whether you eat it with utensils or bare hands.

The dough is pretty easy to make and it doesn’t involve egg and yeast. You’ll need:

1/2 cups of self-raising flour
60g butter
150ml milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
Optional for a more interesting way to eat your crust: dried mixed herbs, pepper

Here’s how to:

Preheat the oven to 200C / Gas mark 5.
It would be super cool if you have a food processor for this next procedure, unless you fancied a little bit of a work out. Mix the flour and salt into a bowl. Add the butter until the mixture gets a bit crumbly.
Pour the milk into the mixture and mix until the dough softens. If it’s a bit of a stiffy, add a bit of water. Add your dried mixed herbs/pepper.
On a clean flour-powdered surface, knead the dough (this is quite therapeutic!) and roll out into whatever shape you fancy and however thick you want. I like my pizza thin so I really roll it out to achieve a 1mm crust in results.
Place on oiled/buttered baking tray. If you have one of those pizza trays (the ones with holes) that would be ideal.
If you like thick crust pizzas, pack the dough in the oven and leave for 3-5 minutes before putting taking it out and putting your toppings. Cook for a further 10-12 minutes (or until the crust is golden brown and crispy) et voila!
If you like thin crust pizzas, you can put your toppings before putting the whole thing in the oven, cook for 11-15 minutes (or until the crust is golden brown and crispy) et voila!

My toppings of choice? Good old Peppadew…