Before We Make Pizza At Home Lets Discuss Pizza.

make pizza at homeToday Americans eat approximately 350 slices of pizza per second!

And of those 350 slices per second that are eaten over one third of those pizza slices are pepperoni slices. Very few American’s make pizza at home so you could assume that these pizza slices are not too good for the diet.

Pepperoni is Number 1

This makes pepperoni the number one choice of pizza toppings in the United States but it also made me a little curious about the origins of pizza.
Pizza as we know it today is a bread-like crust covered with seasoned tomato sauce and cheese and often including other toppings. These modern pizzas using tomato sauce are known as Neapolitan pizzas and is typical of what most of us would think of when we make pizza at home or dial a pizza.

If you make a pizza at home today you are only limited only by your imagination and what ingrediants you have available – you can have thin or thick bases and almost any topping that you wish.

Some people prefer to make pizza at home that has very minimal toppings while others like to make pizza at home that is loaded up so they are a full meal.

Let’s look back at the history of the pizza

The word pizza is believed to be from an Old Italian word meaning “a point,” which in turn became the Italian word “pizzicare,” which means “to pinch” or “pluck.”

We always think the origin of pizza would be Italy but the exact origin of pizza remains a little vague. There were references as far back as the 6th Century B.C. when it is said that the soldiers of Darius the Great (521-486 B.C.) baked a kind of bread flat upon their shields and then covered it with cheese and dates.

Darius the Great was of the Persian Empire which included what we now know as Egypt, the Middle East and up as far as Greece – but not Italy.

In reality pizza could have been first created by anyone who learned the secret of mixing flour with water and heating it on a hot stone. Early pizza was flat bread (leavened bread) that was cooked on a hot stone with flavored toppings added.

The modern pizza as we know it today was not created until 1522 when tomatoes were brought back to Europe from the New World (Peru). Again we think that tomatoes are from Italy as they grow so well in Italy and are also now used in so many of the Italian dishes including pasta and pizza.

When tomatoes were first brought back from Peru they were thought to be poisonous. Soon however the poorer people of Naples added tomatoes to their bread dough and created the first simple pizza.

Italy then proclaimed the Neapolitan pies (pizzas) to be the best. At that time, the Tavern of the Cerrigloi was a hangout for the Spanish soldiers of the Viceroy. It is said that they flocked there to feast on the specialty of the house – the pizza.

By the 18th Century pizza was becoming a staple diet for the poorer people of Naples and was also becoming known and popular with the visitors to Naples who would venture into the poorer sections to taste this peasant dish (pizza) made by men known as pizzaioli.

And that is how we believe pizza was adopted by the Italians.

Pizza Comes To America

It was not until the late 19th century when pizza was first recorded in the United States and until as recently as the 1940’s (after World War 2) when American’s started to enjoy this “new” food – the pizza.

Pizza was introduced in the Midwestern United States in 1943 with what is known as the Chicago style deep dish pizza when Ric Riccardo and Ike Sewell opened their pizza restaurant Pizzeria Uno on the corner of Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue. The concept was expanded in the mid-1990’s and the “new” Uno became a full-service restaurant. Today there are over 160 Uno Chicago Grill restaurants in 24 states but also now around the World.

Seeing how popular pizza had become, Pizza Hut was established in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas. This heralded the start of the modern pizza industry in America which includes both eat-in, takeaway and delivery and has contributed to today’s statics where Americans eat approximately 350 slices of pizza per second.

Make Pizza At Home – Using A Breadmaker

More recently we have seen another phenomenon with the introduction of bread making machines that can be used in your home. Not only do these machines take the hard work out of making bread – they also take the hard work out of making dough for pizza bases and other recipes too.

Using a breadmaker at home is convenient but also can be a healthy and fun option.

Make Pizza At Home – It Is A Healthy Option

Because you can decide what recipe and therefore what ingredients you wish to use. You can make your pizza bases using ingredients that suit your diet whether you require gluten free pizza bases or low carb pizza bases.

Make Pizza At Home – It Can Be Fun Too!

Have fun – we have homemade pizzas almost every Friday night and it is a great casual way to embrace some family time with the children rolling out their own pizza bases and then adding the toppings themselves. This way we get to relax with a drink and we know the children will eat up their own homemade pizzas.

Which Breadmaker?

Choosing our bread making machine was not a hard choice either.

We knew we wanted an easy to use model that was big enough for a family to make pizza at home as well as breads and other recipes – therefore the 2 pound option was going to be our preference.

We also knew that we would be using the breadmaker every day and therefore we wanted a known and reliable model.

Finally we wanted a model which we could pre-programme so that our bread or dough is ready when we are. We did not want to get home on a Friday night and have to wait for the machine to make pizza at home  – we wanted to be able to pre-programme the machine to be ready when we get home.

Once we established our criteria the choice was quite easy – we now have a Breadman bread maker which we use every day.

We selected the Breadman TR2500.

Make Pizza At Home

Simple Pizza Base Recipes

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

Ingredients
• 1 ¼ cups luke warm water
• 1 cup semolina – this gives the pizza base a crispy, chewy texture when cooked
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 ¾ cups plain flour
• ½ teaspoon caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons dried active baking yeast
Place all ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle. Remove after rise cycle and use with your favorite pizza recipe.

Another Tasty Pizza Base Recipe

Ingredients
• 1 cup flat beer – different beers will flavor your pizza base
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 ¼ teaspoons yeast
Put beer, butter, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast in a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
Select Dough setting. Remove after rise cycle and use with your favorite pizza recipe

These are two simple pizza base recipes that we use when we make pizza at home, but there are hundreds of different pizza base recipes that you can use to get the pizza base or pizza crust you love!
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With a Breadman TR2500 Breadmaker it is now even easier to make pizza at home