Schooling in the Kitchen–Pizza with Homemade Whole Wheat Crust!

DAY 2

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway this week, and visit some of the other TOS blogs linked below!

First off let me say the SECRET to successfully cooking in the kitchen with kids is BE PREPARED!!  Have all the ingredients and supplies out.  We like to use our kitchen table (since our kitchen is so small), I pull out everything that we will be using and put it on the table so I have it all right there.  Tragedy strikes if ever I have to turn my back to grab something! 
Making Pizza dough is a great science experiment as well as a yummy snack!
Here is what you’ll need:
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1 T sugar
1 pkg yeast (or 2 1/4 t)
3 T olive or vegetable oil
1 c very warm water
I use my bread maker….but here are the instructions to make it by hand:
Mix 1 c of the flour, the sugar, salt  and yeast in large bowl.  Add 3 T oil and the warm water.  Beat with electric mixer on medium speed 3 min, scraping bowl frequently.  Stir in enough remaining flour until dough is soft and leaves sides of bowl.  Place dough on lightly floured surface.  Kneed 5 to 8 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30min.
Heat oven to 425F.  Divide the dough and let the kids form their pizza shapes.  Partially bake for  7-8mins or until crust just begins to brown.  Add toppings and bake for 8-10 mins or until cheese is melted.  (this makes a thinner crust pizza).
I provide little bowls with the toppings in them and spoons for my kids to put their own pizzas together.  The possibilities are endless…you could make Hawaiian style pizzas with BBQ sauce, ham and pineapple.  Traditional pepperoni pizzas, the works, etc….  Make faces, or other themes.  Or just provide a variety of choices and let your kids imaginations run wild! 
For the science portion – Talk about the changes that take place in the dough, Check out this neat experiment that blows up a balloon with yeast!  They can hypothesize or make observations on a science journal page. 
For more fun BREAD TYPE projects, check out BOUNTIFUL BREADS Unit Study by Amanda Bennett.   She has lots of YUMMY Kitchen units like Chocolate Challenge, Crunchy Cookies, Hoppin’ Popcorn and Pizza Party!