DIY halloumi pizza

There's nothing more satisfying than eating a well-cooked homemade pizza after a long day at work. As it was Meatless Monday, we've decided to make an edited version of this pizza (we used halloumi instead of mozzarella).


I like my pizza crust thin. Does anybody remember Pizza Hut's The Edge pizzas? I used to be able to eat a whole lot of those to myself. And Shakey's thin crust pizzas were always a classic quick lunch in college.

But how exactly do you make a super nice pizza crust? Here's how we usually do ours:

3 cups flour
3/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoons salt
pepper

• Save for the flour, mix all the ingredients in a bowl until yeast has fully dissolved. Add the flour and mix thoroughly until all of the flour and water have mixed and a stiff dough ball forms. It helps to have a heavy duty mixer.
• Place the dough ball into a large bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for a couple of minutes before using. Some people actually leave their dough balls rising for 24 hours. You can do this if you have time.
• Sprinkle a flat CLEAN surface with flour (I'm very OC with surfaces). Knead the dough ball for about 2-3 minutes. Lightly cover your finger tips with flour if the mixture is a little sticky.
• Roll out by hand or by a rolling pin for your base. This should be good enough for a 12-inch base, but we usually end up having 20-inch pizzas.
• Sprinkle some flour on some grease-proof paper and place your crust here. You can also use a pizza oven pan (the one with holes in the bottom) but make sure you oil it a bit first.
• You can now customize your pizza w/ all the sauces and toppings you want.
• Cook in a pre-heated oven at 200°C for about 10-15 minutes (times may vary depending on your toppings & your oven. Fan-assisted ovens cook quicker).

I really recommend any pizza lover to try making their own. Since we started making our own pizzas, I've never ordered pizza in restaurants (save for the Geneva trip) as I seriously think we can make it better. It's seriously not as hard as it looks and I swear, it's very satisfying in the end.