pizza base recipe

mrtayto1

Hi my kids all love homemade pizzas but i always buy the bases. Can anyone give me a simple recipe for pizza bases. Thanks for any help in advance!!

spurious

I always use the recipe below. It probably reads as being a bit more complicated than it is. You can store dough you don't use, just divide the dough into four and those pieces you don't use, rub with olive oil and store in cling film in the fridge.

Basic Yeast Bread Dough (makes enough for four 10-12" pizza bases)

450g-plain flour
7g (1 sachet) dried yeast (or 30g fresh yeast)
30g castor sugar
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
250 ml warm water, or as required

Pre-heat the oven 180o C/Gas 4.
Sieve flour, dried yeast, sugar & salt into a large bowl.
Add oil and gradually add water.
Note: (the water should not be very hot, ideally 37o C – hand warm!)

Mix well until all the water is added.
Knead well, cover with a clean kitchen towel or cling-film, and leave somewhere (close to a hot oven or radiator).
Leave until doubled in size, about 1 hour – this is called ‘proving’.

Knead again – this is called ‘knocking-back’- to original size.
Flatten with hand or roll to required shape or size and place on a well-buttered and lightly floured baking tray.

I find myself thinner is better for the base and as regards the toppings, less is better. I always cook the toppings a little beforehand, esp bacon and onions.

mrtayto1

Thanks a million for the recipe. I have not worked with yeast before but i am going to give it a go!!!! Heres hoping. Thanks again!!!!!:)

JPA

Jamie Oliver recipe which works perfectly IMO.

ingredients

• 1kg strong white bread flour or Tipo ‘00’ flour
or 800g strong white bread flour or Tipo ‘00’ flour, plus 200g finely ground semolina flour
• 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
• 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon golden caster sugar
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 650ml lukewarm water

This is a fantastic, reliable, everyday pizza dough, which can also be used to make bread. It’s best made with Italian Tipo ‘00’ flour, which is finer ground than normal flour, and it will give your dough an incredible super-smooth texture. Look for it in Italian delis and good supermarkets. If using white bread flour instead, make sure it’s a strong one that’s high in gluten, as this will transform into a lovely, elastic dough, which is what you want. Mix in some semolina flour for a bit of colour and flavour if you like.

Sieve the flour/s and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands – this is called knocking back the dough. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. If using straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.

Timing-wise, it’s a good idea to roll the pizzas out about 15 to 20 minutes before you want to cook them. Don’t roll them out and leave them hanging around for a few hours, though – if you are working in advance like this it’s better to leave your dough, covered with clingfilm, in the fridge. However, if you want to get them rolled out so there’s one less thing to do when your guests are round, simply roll the dough out into rough circles, about 0.5cm thick, and place them on slightly larger pieces of olive-oil-rubbed and flour-dusted tinfoil. You can then stack the pizzas, cover them with clingfilm, and pop them into the fridge.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pizza-recipes/pizza-dough

Little Alex

Our own Cooking Club recipe is a winner. I've made five or six batches of this and counting. Always happy with the results.

It you have a Kenwood Chef, or whatever the American yoke is called (:p), dump everything into the bowl and leave it to churn on the lowest setting for 20 minutes. Along the way add little bits of flour or water, depending on whether it's too wet or dry, which can change along the way. It's good when it doesn't stick to the bowl.

huskerdu

I use a similar recipe to the two above.
I par-bake the bases that I am not going to use and freeze them.

The only trick with using a homemade yeast base for the first time is getting
the combination of thickness of base, amount of toppings and cooking temp right.

If the temp is too low, the base will not crisp up and if the temp is too high, and the base is too thick, the cheese might be burnt before the base is cooked.

Experiment a bit and you'll get used to it quickly.

BailMeOut

spurious wrote: »

I always use the recipe below. It probably reads as being a bit more complicated than it is. You can store dough you don't use, just divide the dough into four and those pieces you don't use, rub with olive oil and store in cling film in the fridge.

Basic Yeast Bread Dough (makes enough for four 10-12" pizza bases)

450g-plain flour
7g (1 sachet) dried yeast (or 30g fresh yeast)
30g castor sugar
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
250 ml warm water, or as required

Pre-heat the oven 180o C/Gas 4.
Sieve flour, dried yeast, sugar & salt into a large bowl.
Add oil and gradually add water.
Note: (the water should not be very hot, ideally 37o C – hand warm!)

Mix well until all the water is added.
Knead well, cover with a clean kitchen towel or cling-film, and leave somewhere (close to a hot oven or radiator).
Leave until doubled in size, about 1 hour – this is called ‘proving’.

Knead again – this is called ‘knocking-back’- to original size.
Flatten with hand or roll to required shape or size and place on a well-buttered and lightly floured baking tray.

I find myself thinner is better for the base and as regards the toppings, less is better. I always cook the toppings a little beforehand, esp bacon and onions.

+1 on this however replace sugar with honey and add at least double the amount of olive oil and leave in fridge over night after the initial rise for a crispier base.