Pizza with Martha Stewart

Here we go with our first project. Button Boy loves pizza so we got him the Kid's Pizza Kit by Martha Stewart at Macy's. It's really hard finding a cooking toy targeted towards little girls and boys. Everything comes in pink and has a photo of a little girl happily baking with her mom. This kit features a nice set of mini cooking tools in primary colors. I especially loved the French rolling pin, though we had an easier time pressing the dough down with our fingers than actually rolling it. The small print at the bottom of the box clearly states this toy is for ages 8 and up, but I figured we could handle this project together.

http://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewart-Collection-Kids-Pizza/dp/B0046D2TO2

So we started making the the recipe for the basic pizza dough. My son is at the point where he can scoop and level the ingredients himself with a little assistance from Mommy. I thought the instructions were vague. It's a kit for kids and beginners, but they do not explain how to knead dough or have any pictures illustrating it. Luckily I have made pizza dough before. This dough was very sticky, but forgiving. We ended up using lots of olive oil and probably worked it a little more than we should have. Button Boy thoroughly enjoyed the kneading process. I told him this is the perfect time to be aggressive. He loved beating and punching it.

We put his dough on the pizza pan provided. It came out soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. I put a second pizza on a cookie sheet and it came out crisp and stuck to the pan a little. My husband and son overwhelmingly loved the softer crust. It reminded me a little of the thick crust pizza at Pizza Hut. We decorated the pizza with sauce, cheese, pepperoni and black olives from the mini blue, yellow and red prep bowls. Button Boy has always happily helped me with this task. More pepperoni ends up in his mouth than on the pizza. The plastic pizza cutter actually sliced right through the pizza, which shocked me. Sometimes my metal pizza cutter can't cut it.

Overall we loved the end result, but the instructions could be a lot more clear. The pizza was yummy and we and loved the high quality tools in kids' sizes.