Best Banana Bread Ever!

 

       Who doesn't love banana bread?? Banana bread is the best way to use up old black bananas, the blacker the better. Well one of the ways, the other would probably be banana cake... or hummingbird cake!

         I've plopped a bit of butter on the slice above for photography purposes but this recipe really doesn't need the extra butter because it's nice, rich and moist. Unless you feel like you really need it, then I won't stop you ;) I had been searching around for banana bread recipes and have not moved on since I landed on this one. I actually originally came across it on the blog Ohh-Look by Belle which was taken from an old issue of delicious magazine, but have tweaked it over time and always use it as more of a guide than following it exactly.

        I've made it time and time again and every loaf that comes out of the oven doesn't take long to disappear, which is why I always bake two at a time. I know there are many recipes out there that take their claim as the best banana bread, but trust me with this one. It's the most easiest recipe ever, melt, mash and stir. Exactly what I like. And I've even had a request for it so here it is.

Recipe: Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups self raising flour

1/2 - 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2/3 cup brown sugar

150 grams chopped walnuts

3-4 large over ripe bananas

2 large eggs lightly whisked

1 - 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

100 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees celcius, grease and line a small loaf tin.

2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl together with the sugar and chopped walnuts. Stir until combined.

3. In another bowl, mash the bananas and then stir in the melted butter, eggs and vanilla.

4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.

5. Pour into the tin and bake for one hour or until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

        I've actually made my banana bread with sugar bananas and it gives a very different texture and taste compared to using regular bananas. I actually prefer the banana bread made with sugar bananas and even Ryan agrees it gives a much sweeter and better textured loaf. As they are generally smaller than your regular bananas I add a couple extra just to make sure there's enough banana in there.

        With the Queensland flood at the beginning of this year affecting the prices of bananas I guess I can count myself lucky that we have a sugar banana tree at home which has been giving us plenty of fruit all year round. Sometimes mum will also bring home the blackened bananas which have failed to sell at my uncle's grocery store, score for free bananas!

        Walnuts, I looooove walnuts and Mum says that they are what make the banana bread. I actually use a packet of whole walnuts and roughly bang them with a cleaver so that they are not all completely crushed or chopped. It helps to add another texture to the banana bread. And I usually add plenty of nice fragrant cinnamon.

        Um yes, mashed banana and melted butter looks really appealing. But I love the fact that I don't have to wait to soften the butter (or over do it in the microwave), and creaming the butter is just too tedious of a task.

        I find that if I grease the loaf tin well I don't need to line it and it just pops straight out. Tap it a couple of times on the counter to move any air bubbles around and up to the surface.

        I always love the moment when the timer tells me they are done. And then I pull out two of these beautiful loaves from the oven. The smell around the house is just blissful.

        It's always hard to resist temptation not to wait, hot straight from the oven is best. That way you get a nice thin crispy edge and a wonderfully soft fluffy interior with bits of crunch from the walnuts.

Hot Cross Buns - 2 Flavours - Double Choc Cinnamon Chip and Mixed Fruit & Spices

        With Good Friday and Easter only days away, I thought I would get my hot cross buns post up. I attempted to make these last year for Good Friday, but they were made last minute. I hadn't planned on making them last year and Ryan showed up at my doorstep proclaiming he had totally forgotten to grab some from the shops, so I offered to 'whip some up' but they didn't turn out too good. This year I thought I would plan ahead, and actually have them ready for Easter week starting with Palm Sunday.

        I wanted to steer away from the the traditional sultana, peel & spice mix, the traditional buns are readily available all over the place anyway, so if I was going to make my own, I might as well put my own spin on them. The two flavours I end up with are, Chocolate with Milk Chocolate Chips & Cinnamon Chips, and Mixed Fruit & Spice (Sultana, Apricot, Cranberry & Mixed Spices).

        I based my buns on this recipe from taste. I doubled the recipe for each flavour I made, which meant I was going to be pumping out 4 batches of hot cross buns - all in one day! I had to enlist the help of Mum's small commercial mixer, my little KitchenAid just didn't quite have the capacity for a double batch of dough. And I spent all day in the kitchen, from the moment I woke up (at 11am) until I left the house that evening to head over to Ryan's place.

        I counted 192 hot cross buns at the end of the day. Yes, 192! Crazy I know. They were mini, but they were many. I wanted to make heaps, so that I had plenty to give around to my family and also for Ryan's family. While I was baking, I thought I might as well make extra to take to work too. So that's how I ended up with my 4 batches. 2 batches would not have been enough and any less than 4 would have been messy trying to calculate ratios and proportions and what not.

Mixed Fruit & Spice Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm milk

• 2 tsp (7g/1 sachet) dried yeast

• 1/4 cup caster sugar

• 60g butter, melted

• 1 egg, lightly whisked

• 4 cups plain 00 flour

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

• 1 1/2 tsp all spice

• 1/2 cup dried apricots

• 1/2 cup sultanas

• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Variation - Chocolate with Milk Chocolate & Cinnamon Chips

• Replace 1/2 cup of flour with 2/3 cup cocoa powder

• Omit the spices 

• Replace fruit with 1 cup milk chocolate chips and 1 cup Hershey’s Cinnamon chips

Flour Paste

• 1/2 cup plain flour

• 1/3 cup water

• 1/2 tbsp sugar

• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder

Bun Glaze

• 1/3 cup (80ml) cold water

• 1/2 cup (170g) apricot jam

• or one part sugar and one part water

Make the buns:

1. Combine milk, yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar and leave aside in a warm place until frothy.

2. Combine all the remaining dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly, make a well in the centre.

3. Beat the egg and melted butter into the milk and yeast mixture.

4. Pour into the flour mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

5. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 10 - 15 minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy.

6. Place in a bowl and cover, leave in a warm place until dough doubles in size.

7. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius and grease a baking tray or cookie sheet.

8. Punch down the dough to get rid of the air bubbles, divide and roll into balls and place onto the baking tray. Set aside in a warm place until grown by at least a couple of cm.

Make the flour paste:

9. Combine all the ingredients and mix until smooth. Fill a piping bag with a small nozzle or any plastic sleeve will do (just snip off one corner)

10. Pipe rows onto the buns horizontally and vertically.

11. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degrees celcius for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 180 degrees celcius and bake for another 20 minutes.

Make the bun glaze:

12. Mix together the apricot jam and water and mix over medium heat until combined. Or combine the sugar and water and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and syrup thickens.

13. Brush over buns while still hot.

        Rolled balls of dough waiting for the second rising. If I was going to do this again I wouldn't put them so close together. They really grow when baked.

        My rows of crosses. Probably could have made the flour paste much thicker. On Ryan's complaint that the crosses on the hot cross buns are always so plain, I flavoured mine with a bit of sugar and vanilla powder. Don't think it made such a difference because my crosses kind of just blended into the bun.

        This is what happens when you try to squish too many buns onto the one tray. I brushed them with the sugar glaze and then decided they could probably do with another 5 or so minutes in the oven so popped them back in.

        Don't ever do that (cram too many buns on one tray, and bake them again once glazed). Oops, baking them further with the sugar glaze crystalised the top, great crispy toffee like tops though.

        I ran out of flour paste for my fruit buns so had to make up another batch. Was a little sloppy and ended up with a much runnier consistency but... I was feeling a little too lazy to fix it up by now. I also never followed the recipe properly hence me stuffing up the crosses.

Finally! All my hot cross buns are baked.

        They were absolutely soft and fluffy and fragrant eaten straight after they're out of the oven and cooled enough to handle. Even though I didn't rebake the fruit buns after glazing them I also ended up with crystalised sugar syrup on them when they cooled. Think it was to do with my syrup mixture, and the fact that I had to keep reheating it because it went cold in between. It all dissolves overnight though.

        Breakfast the next day. The buns actually stiffen and dry a little overnight - the only downside of home made 'bread' but a quick zap in the microwave or a quick toast under a grill and they are alive again! The upside of home made buns is that you can pack them with as much flavour as you like. Even though my buns were smaller than your average store bought ones, each one was packed full of either choc and cinnamon chips or fruit and spice. I also find the store bought ones a bit on the too sweet side, so adjusted the amount of sugar in mine and they were lovely. Because they were not too sweet and were absolutely light and fluffy, it was hard to stop at one. Smother with a bit (or a lot) of butter/spread and serve with a cup of tea and you have the most perfect Easter breakfast.

        Being the good niece/cousin/future daughter in law/colleague I divide up my buns so no one misses out. (Okay I lie, there are so many more family members (and friends) who are missing out but sometimes it's just not feasible to include absolutely everyone. I promise one day I will get around to you all, and visit with some baked goodies). Ryan and his family loved them, he even suggested that I bake some for his Church to serve after the Good Friday Mass this weekend. Work colleagues loved them too. But who in that place doesn't love my baking =p. Don't know if I can go back to store bought hot cross buns now. Home made is just so much better hehe ;)

Sweet Soft Pretzels with Cinnamon Sugar

        I fell in love with these as soon as they came out of the oven. They smelt absolutely amazing and the aroma filled the house causing my sibblings to pop into the kitchen to find out what I was baking. My brother asked if he could have one straight away before I even had a chance to let them cool down and sort through them to pick the best ones to photograph.

        Funnily enough the first time I had a soft pretzel was at Disney World on a family holiday back in December 2001. I don't recall seeing many of them being sold here when I came back but I remember finding out that there was a pretzel store on the Level 5 food court of Westfield Parramatta and I would always have to stop by for either a cinnamon pretzel or the cinnamon glazed one before going home. It has been a long long while since I've last had a pretzel (before making my own), I realised that pigging out on pretzels was not ideal for my health and well, Ryan and I both started working full time so don't really have time to just hang out in shopping centres anymore ;).

        With the acquisition of my pretty KitchenAid, making dough based goodies just became so much easier to do and the warm weather was just great for prooving dough without too much worry about it not rising. I also bought this little book hoping to expand my baking reportoire and came across a recipe for soft pretzels which looked really easy to do. And it was so super easy, the only tricky part was making the pretzel shapes. One batch was okay but when I made a double batch the second time around it seemed to take me forever to make the pretzels. If I was going to make that many again I might just make bun shapes to cut down on the time. But they do look so much prettier in pretzel form.

        I did find that they were a little dry for my liking the next day so altered the recipe slightly when making my second batch. If you warm them up a little in the microwave they soften up nicely though. I'll post the recipe as the book says and note the adjustments I made the second time around (for a double batch). The cinnamon sugar is my own addition to the recipe.

Recipe (adapted from the book 'Swedish Cakes and Cookies')

Soft Sweet Pretzels with Cinnamon Sugar

Makes approximately 16 (or 32 for a double batch)

Ingredients

100gr butter or margarine (250gr butter)

1 1/4 cups milk (2 2/3 cups)

1/2 cup sugar (3/4 cup)

50gr fresh yeast or 2 tbsp dry active yeast (I used 3 sachets of dry instant yeast, 6 for a double batch)

3 1/2 cups plain flour (7 cups)

1/2 cup sugar

3-4 tsp cinnamon

1 beaten egg

        Place the milk and butter in a saucepan and heat on medium until the butter is melted and the mixture is at 45 degrees celcius (37 if using fresh yeast). Pour the milk mixture onto a mixer bowl and add the sugar and yeast, stirring until dissolved.

Add half the flour and mix on high speed.

        Add in the remaining flour and work with the dough hook (or kneed by hand) until smooth and elastic. If it sticks to the bowl, let it rest a few minutes then turn onto a lightly floured surface. It should be loose and feel 'alive' and warm.

        Divide the dough into approximately 16 pieces. Cover with a tea towel while you make the pretzels.

Roll a piece of dough into a long strip.

        And then twise into a pretzel. Repeat with remaining pieces of dough. I was worried about the ends coming apart during baking so 'glued' them down with a brush of water.

        Place on a greased or baking paper lined tray and repeat with remaining pieces of dough. Cover and let rise for approximately 30 minutes (or nicely puffed and about double the size). Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius. (To prevent them drying out while you work, place a tea towel over them).

        Brush the pretzels with the beaten egg. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and then sprinkle onto the pretzels. Bake at 200 degrees celcius for about 5 minutes, then turn down the heat to 180 degrees celcius and bake for another 10-15 minutes. (The original recipe does state 225 - 275 degrees celcius for 5 minutes, way way way too hot, they'd burn before they even cook).

Sniff the aroma of butter, sugar and cinnamon, then eat while warm and fresh!

        They're not like the pretzels that you can buy at the shopping centres, and not like the ones I remember from Disney World, but I think they're even better! These pretzels almost remind me of a brioche, soft, fluffy, buttery. They disappeared pretty quickly as soon as they came out of the oven so I guarantee that you will need a double batch ;).

Home Made Beef Burgers (and Brioche Bun) with Parmesan Truffle Fries

        Guess who's back from holidays? Me of course. I've been back for a few days now but have been either busy spending time with the boy (away from the 14 other people who were on holiday with us) and helping to paint his room, or have been cooking for my sibblings because Mum and Dad have flown straight to Vietnam after our family holiday. In between all of that I have just been resting, a holiday from my holiday before I head back to work. I'm just thinking about the mega back log of posts I have and also the 2500 holiday happy snaps I have to sort through... oh dear. Oh and not to mention catching up on my blogs to read too!

        Well being the eldest of 4 I have been left in charge of the household. First thing we did when Mum and Dad were gone was to go grocery shopping. And try and figure out what we were going to eat for the next few days (and weeks). I had a request from one of the brothers for burgers so tonight was burger night. I really do love a good burger and most times when I've had to pay for one I seem to be left slightly disappointed. Dry patty, soggy fillings or bun, sometimes overpowering ingredients too. How could you go wrong with something so simple like a burger?

        Originally I was just going to go buy either some hamburger buns or bread rolls to make things easy but our pantry is absolutely stocked with yeast that is all about to expire so I thought I could 'quickly whip up' some bread dough before I head to Ryan's place to do some more painting. I googled for a hamburger bun recipe and after some clicking and browsing I settled on a light brioche bun recipe found via tastespotting which was from Honey and Butter, which was adapted from Smitten Kitchen, which was adapted from a recipe on The New York Times from Hidefumi Kubota of Comme Ça restaurant, Los Angeles.

        I end up slightly adapting the recipe again. It is really only a light brioche because you don't use as much butter as you would a regular brioche hence it isn't as rich. I find that this works perfectly for a burger bun. I probably shouldn't have flattened my balls of dough so much either because the brother was asking me where the burger bottoms were, these were the whole burger buns I told him. Oh and make sure when you leave the dough to proof the first time to use a nice big bowl, I went out and came home to my dough seeping out of the plastic wrap coming down the side of my bowl - but then again I don't think I was meant to leave it for that long.

Light Brioche Buns

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp. warm milk

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 sachet dry instant yeast
• 2 ½ tbsp sugar
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/3 cups plain flour
• 2 ½ tbsp unsalted butter, softened
Egg wash
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp milk
Optional
·  Sesame Seeds

1. Place milk, water, yeast, sugar, salt and egg in the bowl of a mixer and mix on low until well combined. Add  flour and mix on low until the mixture comes together and is slightly tacky. Add the butter and mix until combined.
2. Change to a dough hook and work dough on low for about 8-10 minutes until dough comes away from bottom of the bowl. It will still be slightly tacky but you don't want the dough too dry.
3. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap then leave in a warm area to rise until doubled in size. This should take approximately 1-2 hours (or even 3), depending on how warm the room is.
4. By now the dough should have expanded and is very airy. Punch down the dough and quickly knead until it all comes together again.
5. Pre heat fan forced oven to 200 degrees celcius. Turn dough onto lightly floured bench and divide dough into 8 portions and roll into balls. Place on lined baking tray and cover with a tea towel until doubled in size again - approximately 1-2 hours.
6. For egg wash, beat together egg yolks and milk and lightly brush the buns. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place a pan with boiling water at the bottom of the oven.
7. Place tray in oven and bake at 180 degrees celcius for 15-20 minutes rotating tray half way through cooking.

        The best thing about home made burgers is that you can customise them according to your own liking - or whatever ingredients you have on hand. Or you can have them simple and plain. Just remember to use quality ingredients, good flavour combinations and don't overcook your patties!

Beef Hamburger Patties

Ingredients:

• 1 kg minced beef

• 3 tbsp chopped onion

• 3 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs soaked in milk, made from day old bread
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/4 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp ground pepper
·  2 tbsp olive oil
Optional - This is where you can chop & change to your own accord
• ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp dried parsley (or 4 of fresh)
• 1 tsp paprika
To serve:
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Fresh pineapple. grilled
• Cheese of your choice
• Sauce or relish of your choice
• Anything else you want in your burger

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix until well combined.
2. Shape into patties and heat some olive oil in a pan until hot.
3. Place patties into pan and cook until well browned then turn down heat. Once patty is half cooked through turn heat to high and flip the patty to brown the other side. Turn down heat and cook through.
4. Set patties aside for a few minutes to rest while assembling the burgers.

        You can't have burgers and not have fries on the side! I was half way through cooking some when the brother poked his head into the kitchen and asked if I was making fries too. Of course I was! However these wern't your average fries - some grated parmesan cheese and a few dribbles of some truffle oil and you have the most scrumptious fries ever! These were first encountered when Ryan and I went to try out Charlie & Co. Burgers at the new Westfield Sydney. Fries just arn't the same anymore without some parmesan and truffle oil!

        So my burger layers were: bun bottom, almost melted cheese (unfortunately the sibblings eat the plastic Kraft stuff, I forgot about the other cheeses I just bought in the fridge), lettuce, juicey beef patty, tomato, grilled fresh pineapple, bbq sauce and then bun top. The brother was wanting a burger with the lot so I had to fry up some bacon too, but then he skipped on the egg because he thought the burger would be too hectic to eat. The can of beetroot we had remained unopened. Seriously the best burger and fries I've ever had!

Bread & Butter - Simple Pleasures - Simply Wize Gluten Free French Stick Bread Mix

        I could live on bread and butter, as long as it's good quality bread and butter. Wheat and grains, is a staple in most diets no matter what cultural background you are from. Alot of the foods we eat contain some sort of wheat product, wether it be the main ingredient or a supplement. Think bread, pastries, pasta, cake, naan bread, pizza, etc most foods alot of us are accustomed to and eat without a second thought. Then think about what it would be like to find out that all the things you love to eat were actually making you sick, because they contain gluten.

        I have a friend who only recently found out she had coeliac disease and I can't say that I know what it's like but it would be a huge change of diet and lifestyle. "Coeliac disease affects approximately 1 in 100 Australians. However 75% currently remain undiagnosed. This means that approximately 157,000 Australians have coeliac disease but don’t yet know it." - coeliacsociety.com.au

        After my post promoting the Gluten Free Expo that's happening this Friday 6th and Saturday 7th at Sydney Showground, I was contacted by Fatima from Tesch Communications introducing me to Simply Wize, which was a new gluten free and fructose friendly food brand and were also a sponsor of the expo. I was asked if I was interested in sampling some of their products and was sent a box of French Stick mix, Crusty Bread mix and a packet of Gnocchi. They also do other products such as deli wafers and mini lavosh, visit http://www.momentumfoods.com.au/ for more information.

        When I mentioned it to Ryan he was a bit skeptical of the products but I was curious and willing to be open minded to trialling new products. Plus, it's for the benefit of all those who do have coeliac disease. If it gets my tick of approval, being one who has no food allergies at all, then surely it will be good enough for those who are coeliac or choose to have a gluten free diet.

        Over the weekend I decide to pull out my box of goodies and try one of the products, I decide to use the French Stick mix, simply because I felt like it. They were also kind enough to add a couple of packets of yeast for me as it was required to be added to the bread mix. The mix looks like regular flour/bread mix and the instructions are pretty much the same as for making regular bread, however just remember to add cornflour when kneading the dough instead of your regular flour. I have always had problems with the kneading part so am never quite sure if I have done it correctly or for long enough, the dough seems elasticky so I think it's okay.

        I divide the dough into three instead of two as instructed to make the french sticks a little smaller. It's then left to rest for 5-10 minutes.

        "To create a French Stick, flatten each ball into a large rectangle" - erm this is my interpretation of a rectangle =D

        "Roll it up starting from the long side. Moisten edge with water, seal and taper the ends" - This is my attempt, they so don't look anything like french sticks. I cover my sticks and let them proof... for a while.

        They don't quite appear to be double the size at this stage but upon prodding they seemed to have risen and were airated. Good enough I suppose, I cut the surface of each roll and then pop them into the oven. There's also a bakers tip: For best results place two ice cubes on a seperate pre-heated tray in the oven to create some steam. (Steam allows the bread to rise in a uniform manner creating a sheen on the fully baked product) - Oops! I misread that at the time and decided to use 4 ice cubes and put it on the same tray as the bread.

        While cleaning up I spot this on the kitchen bench. Interesting! My parents usually have a coffee in the morning and use sweetened condense milk instead of regular milk- the vietnamese way of having coffee. They're usually quite busy, but isn't this just plain laziness? =D I havn't tried it yet but am keen to see what it tastes like.

        25 minutes later I have myself three small french sticks. So fugly though! I'm not too thrilled with the result, it seems to be okay, the bread feels a little heavier than I expected. Not sure if it was to do with the product or my baking skills.

Doesn't look quite like the beautiful photo on the box.

        I cut one up to inspect closer. I poke at the inside, squishing it in my hands. It feels like regular bread though I have a little suspicion that it's not cooked as it's a little moist but I think that's from my ice cubes, it also smells like regular bread. I break off a piece and put it in my mouth "hey it tastes pretty much like the real deal' I think to myself.

        I grab some 'butter' (okay it was Devondale dairy spread but it tastes good) and slather some on my freshly baked bread. Mmm it was good. I cut up a few slices and slather on some more spread. I keep coming back to the kitchen and before long I've finished one whole stick. Yes just bread with the diary spread, nothing else, oh the simple pleasures in life.

        I save one of the french sticks to give to Ryan to see what he thinks, he's very very skeptical but when I call him the next day and ask him if he'd tried the bread his response was "it was really really good, I'm suprised". So there you have it, a tick of approval from a picky eater. I wanted to give a french stick to one of my managers at work to see what he thinks but it would have spoiled by the time he took it home from work. Now I have to think of some cool ways to use the other products, maybe I might give them to my manager to try out at home.

Home Made Pizzas (May 2009)

        Who DOESN'T love pizza? Especially home made pizza. If you have the patience to make your own pizza dough, nothing beats home made pizza! None of that crappy premade biscuity bases (thought I am guilty of trying to use them but they all seem pretty ordinary, the ones I have tried anyway). But for those non cooking/non foodie friends you can buy a premade pizza base, or any kind of leb/pita bread will suffice - it's all about the topping! The great thing about home made is that you can put absolutely anything you want on it. So you can be either as boring as you want or as gourmet/outrageous as you want. I'm actually disappointed in myself that I havn't made home made pizzas again since May last year =(.

        I absolutely love anything freshly baked, and bread is one of them. Pizza dough is quite easy to make as long as you follow the instructions and work it through properly and let it rest and rise. I can't even remember which recipe it was that I used but if you google basic pizza dough I am sure there will be numerous recipes that come up. I usually pick the one that has the least ingredients and steps. The important thing is that you knead it well (needs to be quite elasticised) and let it rest well (until it doubles in size).

This is what the consistency of the dough should look like.

        I just grabbed balls of dough and rolled it out on a floured bench. Wasn't game to try and do the pizza base toss.

        The colours of Italy, baby bocconcini, cherry tomatoes, pancetta (or could have just been fancy ham from Woolies Deli), basil and mozarella. I made my own tomato sauce base using a can of tomato puree and mixing through some sauteed diced onion, garlic and mixed herbs in it. There is really know right or wrong way to top a pizza though try not to overload it. Once done put it in the oven for about 15-20 minutes at about 200 degrees and you have a piping hot delicious pizza created by you!

        Probably should have put the Basil on after cooking but it tasted fine, just looked a little blackened.

        My version of a Vegetarian Delux =p. Tomato sauce, mozarella, sliced mushroom, cherry tomatoes, basil, pineaple and grilled eggplant (I cheated and bought the eggplant pregrilled from Woolies Deli and pineapple was canned).

The cooked "Vegetarian Delux" =D. I was trying to be "healthy".

        For the sibblings who arn't at all into vegies and weird toppings I made a gourmet Hawaiin and also a BBQ chicken pizza for them. I had bought so many ingredients for the pizzas that there was enough to make more pizzas the next day. I found that the dough I made the day after turned out better, could be that I kneaded the dough more and it was also a warmer day. Home made pizza is the best.