Post by reburner on Jun 17, 2013 9:10:03 GMT
This is my standard recipe for pizza dough. I don't make any grand claims for it but it works every time for me and has the advantage of being scalable and using the excess to make bread.
This will yield about 9 *180g pizzas.
1kg flour (I am lucky enough to live right near Redbournbury mill and my preffered mix is 50% their stone ground white bread flour and 50% 00 flour)
4 tsps salt
a good glug of olive oil (probably about 2 tablespoons)
750ml warm water.
10g instant dried active yeast (the one you get in little tins in the supermarket)
pinch of sugar
First off get your warm water by mixing 500ml of cold tap water with 250ml of boiling water from the kettle. Add the yeast and a pinch of sugar, stir and leave for about 13 minutes.
Combine the flour salt and olive oil and mix then gradually add the yeast and water mix (it should be foaming by now). I do this in a big kitchen mixer with a dough hook and run it for 5-6 minutes. It will take longer by hand. You want a soft dough that just about comes clean off your work surface or mixer bowl. Don't be afraid to add a little more flour or water to achieve this.
Now put in a lightly oiled bowl and leave it somewhere warm for 45 minutes by which time it should have doubled in volume. Knock it back and knead briefly and repeat the 45 minutes rising.
After this lightly knead the dough and cut it into balls of approx 180-200g each. Flour these well and lay them out on a tray to rise for another half hour and then you are ready to make pizza.
I usually light my fire then start the dough and the two are then ready about the same time.
If you want to make bread with any surplus dough or you want to make extra specifically for bread then let it rise for a third time for 45 minutes then shape into a loaf or put in a tin for half an hour to rise then bake for 10 minutes at around 230C then reduce to 200C for another 25 mins. Having an oven dish in the bottom of the oven which you put about 500ml of boiling water straight from the kettle into when you first put the loaves in the oven will give you a lovely crust on the bread.
My Thoughts on Toppings.
When you come to make your pizza keep things simple and do not overload with toppings. Some of my favourites at the moment are:
Garlic pizza bread - Just mix some very soft butter with a teaspoon or 2 of prepared garlic (readily available in jars in the supermarket) and then just brush onto your pizza base and cook these as an appetiser before the main pizzas (or just eat loads of these as they are delicious - see photo below)
Simple Margherita - Tomato Sauce, good quality Mozzarella and fresh basil once it is cooked.
White clam - Steam some fresh clams for a couple of minutes in a splash of white wine then remove from shells. Cover your pizza base with a bit of olive oil, some very thinly sliced raw garlic and the clams then top with Mozarella.
Butternut squash and Dolcelatte- Cube a squash then roast at 200c for about 35mins. with a tbsp of brown sugar, rosemary, whole garlic cloves and olive oil salt and pepper. Top the pizza with tomato sauce, the squash, some toasted pine nuts and then some dolcelatte.
Whatever topping you are using keep salt, pepper and olive oil beside your prep area and give every pizza a sprinkle of each before it goes in the oven.
This will yield about 9 *180g pizzas.
1kg flour (I am lucky enough to live right near Redbournbury mill and my preffered mix is 50% their stone ground white bread flour and 50% 00 flour)
4 tsps salt
a good glug of olive oil (probably about 2 tablespoons)
750ml warm water.
10g instant dried active yeast (the one you get in little tins in the supermarket)
pinch of sugar
First off get your warm water by mixing 500ml of cold tap water with 250ml of boiling water from the kettle. Add the yeast and a pinch of sugar, stir and leave for about 13 minutes.
Combine the flour salt and olive oil and mix then gradually add the yeast and water mix (it should be foaming by now). I do this in a big kitchen mixer with a dough hook and run it for 5-6 minutes. It will take longer by hand. You want a soft dough that just about comes clean off your work surface or mixer bowl. Don't be afraid to add a little more flour or water to achieve this.
Now put in a lightly oiled bowl and leave it somewhere warm for 45 minutes by which time it should have doubled in volume. Knock it back and knead briefly and repeat the 45 minutes rising.
After this lightly knead the dough and cut it into balls of approx 180-200g each. Flour these well and lay them out on a tray to rise for another half hour and then you are ready to make pizza.
I usually light my fire then start the dough and the two are then ready about the same time.
If you want to make bread with any surplus dough or you want to make extra specifically for bread then let it rise for a third time for 45 minutes then shape into a loaf or put in a tin for half an hour to rise then bake for 10 minutes at around 230C then reduce to 200C for another 25 mins. Having an oven dish in the bottom of the oven which you put about 500ml of boiling water straight from the kettle into when you first put the loaves in the oven will give you a lovely crust on the bread.
My Thoughts on Toppings.
When you come to make your pizza keep things simple and do not overload with toppings. Some of my favourites at the moment are:
Garlic pizza bread - Just mix some very soft butter with a teaspoon or 2 of prepared garlic (readily available in jars in the supermarket) and then just brush onto your pizza base and cook these as an appetiser before the main pizzas (or just eat loads of these as they are delicious - see photo below)
Simple Margherita - Tomato Sauce, good quality Mozzarella and fresh basil once it is cooked.
White clam - Steam some fresh clams for a couple of minutes in a splash of white wine then remove from shells. Cover your pizza base with a bit of olive oil, some very thinly sliced raw garlic and the clams then top with Mozarella.
Butternut squash and Dolcelatte- Cube a squash then roast at 200c for about 35mins. with a tbsp of brown sugar, rosemary, whole garlic cloves and olive oil salt and pepper. Top the pizza with tomato sauce, the squash, some toasted pine nuts and then some dolcelatte.
Whatever topping you are using keep salt, pepper and olive oil beside your prep area and give every pizza a sprinkle of each before it goes in the oven.