“In the childhood memories of every good cook, there's a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot and a mom.” -- Barbara Costikyan (10/22/84 New York Magazine)

What do you get when you combine 7 children (ranging in ages from 18 months up to 4 years of age) with flour, yeast, water, cheese, pizza sauce, etc.? A recipe for disaster? Not if you plan it right!

I recently had 7 kids in my kitchen making their own pizzas. The youngest was an 18-month old girl and the oldest was a 4 year old, with an assortment of ages in between, including my almost 3-year old daughter. We started by making the pizza dough. The kids took turns pouring ingredients into the mixer and then watched in fascination as the paddle spun and mixed everything together into dough.

When the dough was ready, I divided it up into 8 balls, and each kid made their own personal pizza--rolling out the dough, then spreading on the pizza sauce and adding their favorite toppings. I was very impressed with how nice each pizza looked. Even the littlest kids took a lot of pride in their creations.

After the pizzas had finished baking, we cut them up into slices and served them with apple slices and baby carrots.

The pizza party was a blast--definitely something I'll be doing again. My daughter loved it and talked about it for days afterward. Considering how many small hands we had in the kitchen, the mess was minimal (I probably make just as big of a mess when I cook by myself)! It was interesting to see how intent the kids were throughout the process. They loved doing things themselves! It was also fun to see them get excited about using kitchen equipment. The majority favorite was the pastry brush--each kid seemed to transform into a miniature Monet when they wielded it! My favorite moment of the day though, was probably watching the youngest of our bunch rolling out her ball of dough with the rolling pin. She was so determined to do it by herself!

My tips for getting small kiddos involved in the kitchen:

• Preparation, preparation, preparation! If you have everything ready to go and set out before hand, the experience will be fun and less messy. In my experience, the less prepared I am, the more likely my daughter is to lose interest or start being naughty
• Measure out your ingredients before hand and have them ready and waiting to go in prep bowls. This way your kiddo can pour the items into the mixing bowl. This streamlines the process for them and creates less mess for you. Later, when they are a bit older they can start helping with the measuring too!
• When making pizza dough, choose a recipe that produces an easy to work with dough. A sticky dough is just going to make a mess and be frustrating for both you and your child. (You can find my favorite recipe after these tips!)
• Talk to your child about the ingredients and the process. Have them smell things and notice the color and texture of ingredients. My daughter was in the garden the other day and excitedly pointed to a plant and told me that it was basil. That was purely a result of us talking about ingredients while in the kitchen!
• Have a small stepping stool that you can bring into the kitchen so that your child can have a better view of what's going on!
• Have your child help you clean up. While the pizzas are in the oven, how about rinsing off the pastry brush used to spread the pizza sauce, or the mixing bowl used to make the dough? Cleanup is part of the cooking process, so why not teach them that from the very beginning?

This is my favorite pizza dough recipe. The dough takes about 10 minutes to make and then is ready to go! I also have a video tutorial of me using this same recipe to make bread on my website, if you are a visual person. Just stop where I start the first rise—you don’t need one to make pizza using this recipe—and pick up with step 5!

Fuji Mama's Easy Peasy Pizza Dough

Makes 2 large pizzas or 8 personal pizzas

5 1/4 cups white bread flour
2 - 4 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. (rounded) saf-instant yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp. oil
2 cups hot water

Favorite pizza toppings

1. Preheat oven to 420 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Mix for 1 minute and then check the consistency of the dough. The dough should be very sticky. If it is too dry, add more water.

3. Mix for 5 minutes. (Do not add any more flour after the dough has finished mixing.)

4. Spray kneading surface with cooking spray and turn dough out onto surface. Knead dough briefly until it has a smooth even consistency (this will only take several turns of the dough to accomplish).

5. Divide dough into 2 pieces (or more if you want to make personal pizzas). Roll out each piece of dough into a large circle and place on a baking stone or greased baking sheet. Top with desired toppings.

6. Bake pizzas the crust is browned and the cheese is golden. To double check that your pizza is cooked through, use a thin spatula to lift up the pizza edge--if the bottom of the pizza has started to brown, it's done! Cooking times will vary depending on how large/small and how thick/thin your pizzas are. My large pizzas typically take between 15 and 20 minutes to bake, and the personal pizzas took about 10 minutes.