It’s thyme for some family-style pizza on the fire!
We know it can be tough keeping the young ones entertained, so our Tree House Team is here to help! We’ve mastered the art of outdoor cooking and what better to do on a beautiful autumn day than cook a homemade pizza on the fire.
To add a sense of adventure to the cooking experience, we take our young pizza makers into the garden to harvest some fresh veggies and herbs for added flavour on their creations. For our fresh toppings, we like to use basil, spring onion and thyme from the garden and wild mushrooms that we can find in the forest.
Making the dough is super fun, but can be very messy, so a table outside is the perfect place to get rolling. Making your pizza dough from scratch is a fun activity and since it requires some elbow grease, can use up plenty of excess energy. A simple mix of flour, yeast, lukewarm water and salt creates the perfect dough – just don’t forget to let it rise while you prepare your ingredients and get the fire started.
Since our pizzas will be cooked in a pan on the heat of the coals, you need to ensure your dough is rolled out nice and thin so you don’t burn the bottom of the pizza while your toppings cook. For ingredients like mushrooms, it’s a good idea to fry them with some butter before adding them on your pizza. This can also be done on the fire, just watch out for the flames!
Remember that the shape of your pizza won’t influence the taste, so don’t stress about getting them perfectly round. Lather your base with some napolitana sauce – we like to make our own – and sprinkle on your unique combo of toppings. Once the coals are ready – we don’t want any flames burning the pizza – pop a cast iron pan over the fire and cook until you start to smell the delicious flavours and can see the cheese melting.
Same as most outdoor meals, your pizza is best enjoyed straight off the fire – just let it cool to an edible temperature. What more do you want? A delicious meal for the whole family to enjoy making and a fun activity to keep the kids entertained! Download the recipe below.