Cooking with kids: Quick pizza dough

Friday night dinners are made by the oldest owl-cat (10 years old). Owl and I have been surprised at how able he is in the kitchen. I think most kids like to get into the kitchen and feel independent, but maybe that is because I did. The funny thing is, my mother hated to cook, so instead of believing me that I liked to cook, she did most of the cooking as a service to me. I am guessing that she thought I would have to do enough of that later. (I love you, Mom.)

Owl had his own night to cook from age 8. He remembers making cinnamon rolls and jambalaya. Owl had a lot of siblings (10). They all learned to cook well with that much experience, and now family dinners are very tasty events.

Kids will need supervision making pizza at first (especially with the oven), but the patience required will come easily as you think forward to all those great meals they are going to cook for you in your old age.

Quick Pizza Dough

Dry stuff:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

Wet stuff:

1 cup warm water

2 teaspoons yeast*

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons oil

0. Heat oven to 425 degrees

1. Mix wet stuff.

2. Mix dry stuff.

3. Add wet stuff to dry stuff and mix very well. You can use a mixer like a KitchenAid or Bosch, but hands work well too. It just takes longer (and then you have crazy dough hands you can chase your little brother with).

4. Let rest 5 minutes.

5. Oil your pan. 

6. Press into pan with oiled hands (pictured below). If there are a few flour lumps, just massage them as you press out the dough. If the dough doesn't want to stretch out, just let it rest a few minutes and then go back to pressing it.

6. Add pizza ingredients (Owl-cats like spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni.)

7. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

8. Enjoy!

*I am baking at high altitude. If this doesn't rise nicely for you sea-level devils, try 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast.

Pressing out the pizza dough.

And for the grownups--deep dish veggie pizza with alfredo