I’ve tried and tested this recipe a few times, and I’m TOTALLY LOVING IT!
Simple ingredients. Yummy results!
I mean, really, if a beginner like me can make this pizza, ANYONE can too!
[Thanks to Jamie Oliver for this fantastic basic dough recipe!]
You really should give it a try!
Here’s the recipe!
Basic Dough Recipe
Ingredients
30g fresh yeast or 3x7g sachets dried yeast (I went with dried yeast)
30g honey or sugar (I went with fine grain sugar)
625ml tepid water (ie. moderately warm)
1kg bread flour
30g salt
some extra flour for dusting (I used plain flour)
1. Dissolve yeast, honey/sugar in HALF the tepid water.
2. In a big bowl, mix the flour and salt. Make a well in the centre, and pour in all the dissolved yeast mixture. Make circular movements from the centre, moving outwards, slowly bringing in more and more of the flour until all the yeast mixture is soaked up.
3. Pour the other half of the tepid water into the centre, and do the same circular movement until you mix it all up and create a moist dough.
4. Knead!
Sprinkle some plain flour on a clean table and basically just roll, push, fold the dough over and over for 5 minutes. If any of the dough sticks to your hands, just rub them together with an extra flour.
Btw, kids would LOVE to get involved here! Give them a bit of the dough and let them do some kneading together too!
5. Flour both hands well, and lightly flour the top of the dough. Make it into a roundish shape and place it on a baking tray (As for me, I put this big ball of dough back into the big bowl).
6. Leave the dough to prove until it’s doubled in size. Ideally, leave the bowl in a warm place, eg. near a warm cooker (I covered my bowl with a clean kitchen towel and left it for 1 hour near my warm water kettle). You can cover the bowl with clingfilm to speed things up.
7. When the dough has doubled in size, knock the air out by bashing it around for a minute.
8. Divide the dough into 4 pieces (this recipe makes 4 relatively big pizza bases).
9. Roll the dough, using a rolling pin, into a large, plate-sized shape, about 0.5cm thick
(If you love ‘deep pan pizzas’ like me, I have it slightly thicker, about 0.6cm – 0.7cm thick. Then I use my palms to roughly flatten the middle of the pizza base so that the sides end up thicker than the middle)
10. Add your chosen topping!
Now this is so much fun because I get to sprinkle GENEROUS amount of toppings on our own homemade pizza!
I sprinkle a bit of olive oil on the baking tray first. Then, I place the pizza base on the tray. I’d then smear a bit of olive oil and tomato paste all over the middle part of the pizza before adding on the rest of the toppings and scattering chopped mozzarella cheese on top.
Some of the toppings we’ve used:
Onions, ham, basil leaves, red pepper, mushroom, prawns, olives, rosemary leaves, and pineapple.
We’ve used different combinations and created yummy pizzas!
(I love Hawaiian pizzas, so I’ve made a pizza with LOTS of ham, pineapple bits and mozzarella cheese. Aaaahhh, yummmm!)
11. Preheat the oven and bake for around 7-10 mins at 240 deg Celsius until the topping has melted and the pizza base is lightly golden.
…
Really!
After trying out this dough recipe and actually made homemade pizzas myself, I’m hooked!
Have fun making some of your own! (and I’d love to hear how it turns out!)
Enjoy!
