The Best Pizza you can Make at Home
A guide to making pizza in the common garden kitchen
Equipment
- 1 Cleaver
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
- 500g (1lb) White Bread Flour
- 6g (1tsp) Instant Dry Yeast
- 10g (2tsp) Soft Brown Sugar
- 3g (½tsp) Salt
- 20g (1½tbsp) Olive Oil
- 325g (11oz) Luke Warm Water
- Semolina Flour
Pizza Sauce
- 400g (14oz) Tinned Italian Tomatoes
Instructions
Pizza Dough
- Place 500g of Flour, 6g of Instant Dry Yeast, 10g of Sugar, 3g of Salt, and 20g of Olive Oil in a mixing bowl and thoroughly combine
- Add 325g of Luke Warm Water and mix together until you are able to form a rough ball. Then turn it out onto a flat work surface and knead for a solid 10 minutes. Alternatively, throw everything into a stand mixer with a dough hook, and let it do its thing for 10 minutes
- Once Kneaded, return the dough ball to the mixing bowl, coat with a thin layer of Olive Oil, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap, adding a little oil to the rim to make it stick
- Leave the dough in a relatively warm place until it has doubled in size
- Then crack on with the Pizza, using the dough within 24 hours
Pizza Sauce
- Open a can of Italian Plum Tomatoes
- Dump the whole thing into a blender, and blitz until pureed. Add a touch of sugar if it's a little on the sour side
- There you go, sauce!
Building the Pizza
- Fire up your oven as high as it will go. Mine tops out at a pathetic 250℃, but I'm sure yours will go higher
- Using a pastry brush, lightly oil your designated pizza tray
- Take approximately 200g of dough per 12 inch pizza (115g for a 9 inch pizza), roll it into a tight ball, then press it into a rough disc shape
- Dust the work surface with a little semolina flour, place the dough disc in the middle and, using a rolling pin, flatten that sucker until it is at least half the size of the pizza pan, turning the dough several times so it is liberally coated in the semolina flour
- Place the dough disk in the middle of the pizza pan, then working from the middle out and turning the pan the whole time, lightly press the dough with the fleshy part of your palm, delicately pushing the dough towards the edge. This will take a little practice, but you're aiming for a thin layer of dough, leading to a thicker crust barrier that will help hold the cheese and topping in place
- Once satisfied with your doughy disc, add a big dollop of pizza sauce to the middle and spread it outwards using the back of a tablespoon, being sure to leave the thick outer edge clear so you have a place to grip the pizza slice later on
- Next, liberally cover the top with a layer of mozzarella, again leaving a gap at the outer edge
- Now that you have the basic pizza prepared, you can add whatever topping you like, in whatever quantities you desire
- Follow this up with a little salt (remember, Pepperoni and Bacon are both already quite salty) and a sprinkling of dried oregano
- Once the oven has reached its absolute maximum temperature, place your pizza on the very bottom shelf, and leave it to cook until the dough begins to brown lightly and the cheese starts to bubble. Then, carefully remove it from the metal tray with a long metal spatula, and let it cook on its own until the cheese bubbles have become a golden brown colour
- Carefully place the fine smelling cheesy disc onto your pizza board, then, using a big knife (I hate those stupid roller things) chop it into as many equally sized slices as you like
- Take a slice, close your eyes, and bask in a symphony of glorious flavours
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!