Little Ted is making his own pizza for tea - but how many toppings are too many?
“What’s for tea tonight?” Little Ted asked.
“I was thinking about making home-made pizza” replied his Mummy.
“Home-made pizza, you mean not one from a store” Little Ted said sounding shocked.
“Yes, I thought we would try to make it ourselves. I have some packets of dough mix and all your favourite toppings, we just need to get started. So what would you like on your pizza tonight?”
Little Ted stopped what he was doing to consider this very important question. His favourite pizza was a Margarita which was really just another name for a cheese and tomato pizza but he also liked to have smoked sausage on it. He didn’t like mushrooms but he quite liked red peppers and maybe some sweetcorn and ham. Oh and he remembered that he’d really enjoyed pepperoni when he tried it. But when he told his Mummy everything he wanted she replied she had read somewhere that you shouldn’t have more than 3 or 4 toppings on a pizza so perhaps he should try to be a bit more selective.
“What are you going to have” Little Ted asked his Daddy.
“I think I fancy Ham and Pineapple tonight”
“Euch, pineapple on a pizza, no way” was Little Ted’s response.
“Right then, let’s get started making the dough” announced his Mummy. “I’ve put the mix in the bowl and added some warm water, so its over to you Little Ted to give it a good stir before we take it out and knead it. But first you need to wash your hands.”
Little Ted did as he was told and stirred the mixture until it was a sticky ball in the centre of the bowl. Then his Mummy put some flour on the worktop and showed Little Ted how to knead the dough by squishing it flat, then folding it up into a ball again.
In the meantime his Daddy was busy preparing the different toppings to go on top of the pizza. He had sliced up the sausage, cut up the pepper and mushrooms (which were his Mummy’s favourite) and drained the sweetcorn and pineapple.
Once his Mummy was happy that the dough was ready, she divided it into 3 pieces and put a clean dishtowel over the top of them.
“What happens now?” Little Ted asked.
“Now, we wait for 20 minutes to give the dough a chance to rise – hopefully it should double in size.”
Little Ted waited impatiently until eventually his Daddy said that 20 minutes were up and he could have a peek to see if the dough had got any bigger.
“Look” Little Ted said, “its grown massive. Can I make my pizza now?”
With his Daddy’s help, Little Ted rolled out his pizza dough onto a tray, then added tomato pizza sauce and cheese. Hmmn, which 3 toppings would he choose? After a bit of hesitation he added sausage, ham and sweetcorn.
“No pineapple?” teased his Daddy as he helped him put the pizza in the oven.
“Just one more thing to do now Little Ted.”
“What’s that?” Little Ted asked
“Help us to tidy up the kitchen then wait. Pizza should be ready in around 15 minutes but you’ll need to give it another 5 minutes to cool down before you can eat it.”
That sounded like a very long time to Little Ted who was starting to feel very hungry, but by the time he had helped his Mummy and Daddy to put everything away, get out plates for putting the food on and had washed his hands again the pizza was ready.
Little Ted’s mouth was watering in anticipation as he went to take his first bite.
“So what’s it like?” asked his Mummy “better than store bought?”
“Yes!” Little Ted said “it’s great. I think its because I chose the best toppings. And didn’t put any pineapple on it!”
The End