My Maiden Pizza!

Before

Ever since a DIY article in The Star Newspaper appeared probably a few years ago that teach reader to make a home make pizza; it had put a seed into my mind about trying this idea out. But it seem somewhat complicated. So I checked the Internet for resources and basically watched two videos. I see that the techniques and ingredients are not exactly the same and anyway, some of the ingredients are not easily get over here. But I think I can improvise. Anyway, I had been informing Jia Yin and Meng Lan of my project quite a while back and after a period, I felt like the boy who called wolf... So after carefully going over the tutorial videos and making notes, I finally decided to get my hands busy and fulfill my promise... As I rarely cook nowadays, I gingerly went about the project during one lazy Sunday but the project went off with a glitch which was irritating as Meng Lan who told me we had all the ingredients discovered we do not have the all important yeast! But no matter, she was going to the town for grocery shopping and she will get some at the supermarket but this will entail delays as she will take almost two hours as she need to go the the wet market first... well, I can always prepare and cook the pizza source first. The pizza source came off more or less okay and after the yeast arrived, I started on the pizza dough and it was when I put the amount of water as dictated in one of the tutorial that I discovered that there was simply too much water as the dough was so very soggy! Lesson learned, do not trust 100 percent in recipe... I should have added water slowly until it is enough... its like doing carpentering, there is a rule of measuring twice before cutting as once you cut, there is no turning back... Anyway, eventually, I gradually added more dough as advised by my overseer-Meng Lan before letting the yeast do its magic. But after two hours of fermentation, I see that the dough is still too soft and soggy and I though this pizza project is not turning out well; but Meng Lan observed that more flour is required and also another half hour is needed to let the dough grow. So the command was followed. Eventually, I was able to get the still somewhat soft but much better conditioned dough rolled and the source which was then ladled on to the rolled dough. Then I added some sliced sausages as were two slices of cut up cheese. There into the electric oven it went. I fired the oven at the maximum heat but as I monitored it, I turned the heat down after about ten minutes and let it cook for another 5 minutes. The verdict? The pizza was slightly overcooked but it was very crispy; but all in all, it turned out better than I expected for a maiden effort. Hurray, I finally did something I had wanted to do for a long time... this small success later gave me the ambitious idea of DIY an outdoor over... and since there are mountains of resources in the Internet, I think I might get it done.... yeah, I can not only bake pizzas, bread, cakes, but roast chickens and how about a roast turkey for Christmas?

Mission Accomplished!