What's Cookin': The intricacies of yeast I LOVE pizza! However, not everyone out there needs to make a giant pizza to serve a whole family. So, here is a recipe that will yield just one personal size pizza. Perfect for dinner with a nice salad! There are a couple of things you need to know if you are going to make this recipe successfully. 1. You need to know something about yeast. Yeast is a living bacteria. When you buy it in the jar at the store it is dormant. It needs food (sugar) and warm liquid to become activated. 2. The water that you add must be quite warm, but not boiling hot. Tap water is fine, it must be hot enough that you don't want to leave your hand in it for a long time, but not hot enough that you'd want to make a cup of tea with it. If the water is too cool, then the yeast will not be activated. If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast. As in all chemistry, it's a fine balance! 3. When you add the water in to the mix, you only want to stir it once-- just to ensure that all the yeast is exposed to the liquid and it is not stuck up on the side of the bowl or something. Then leave it alone for a few minutes. If you have the time, stand there and watch as the yeast begins to cause minor explosions to the surface-- it's very cool! 4. If you want to double, triple or 17 Independent & Free Press, Thursday, July 8, 2010 Lori Gysel & Gerry Kentner more this recipe in order to make more pizzas for friends, you can cut WAY down on the sugar and yeast. You only need these proportions when you are making such a small amount. So if you are going to multiply the recipe by 10, you can easily cut the sugar and yeast in half. 5. When you add the flour and start mixing the dough, you may find you need another drizzle of water or a bit more flour depending on how accurately you measured, how humid it is, etc. The dough should not be dry, but also not sticky. 6. You can make this dough the day before and either leave in fridge overnight or freeze it. If you put in fridge overnight, put in a greased bowl with plastic wrap overtop. If you just store the dough itself in the wrap and put in fridge, it may grow so much overnight that it explodes out of the wrap! Have fun and keep cooking! Email questions and comments to Lori and Gerry at whatscookin@independentfreepress.com Individual pizza Makes 1 personal pizza Ingredients · 1/2 tsp quick rise yeast · pinch salt · 1/2tsp sugar · 1/4 cup warm water · 1/2 cup flour · Pizza sauce, cheese, toppings Method 1. In a very small bowl, mix together yeast, salt and sugar. 2. Add water, stir once and set aside. Leave the yeast to bubble up to the surface-- should take approximately 5 minutes. 3. Add flour and mix well. 4. Knead dough until smooth. 5. Wrap loosely in plastic wrap and allow to rise for one half hour. 6. Press dough flat and complete pizza with your choice of sauce and toppings. 7. Bake in a preheated 375 F degree oven until crust is golden and firm on the bottom-- approximately 15 minutes. Six Star Cubs Scouts Canada's Cub program is divided into six areas represented by the six stars; the natural world (black star), outdoor activities (green star), creative expression (tawny star), health & fitness (red star), home & community (blue star), and Canada & the world (purple star). Once a cub has demonstrated excellence in an area they receive the appropriate star. The following 1st Georgetown Cubs have worked for three years to achieve all six stars showing an all around excellence in scouting, (front row from left) Brayden McGuire, Ryan Bates and Dylan Sipura with leaders in the back row, (from left), Patti McGrath, Bill King, Jeff Aul and Ron Quinlan. 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