Pizza

Difficulty :- Intermediate

Total Time :- 2 3/4 hours | 3 Minutes cooking

Makes :- 1 12"pizza

We are going to be working with a simple formula which is easily scaled.
One major part of this recipe that creates beautifully bubbly crusts is preheating the oven as hot as you can (My oven is max 270C fan) with a flat piece of cast iron inside for 1 hour. (An upsidedown skillet works well and is what I do.)

Ingredients

Dough- Formula
  • 100g Strong bread flour (Look for a protein content of 11-13g this is vital for gluten development.)
  • 50g Tepid Water (Shouldn't feel hot nor cold to the touch.)
  • 1/2tsp of yeast
  • 2g of Table Salt (It looks like a lot but it gives the dough flavour, 1 tsp is NOT enough.)
  • 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil (This is one of the necessary parts of the recipe to get good browning in a home oven.)
  • 1/2Tbsp of sugar (This is another necessary ingredient to also aid with the browning process.) 
When working with this dough formula, the easiest way to remember is work with 100g of flour for 1 person, half hydration and 2 g of salt. The oil, salt and yeast can generally just be measured by eye.

  Sauce and toppings- 
  • 1 can of plum tomatoes
  • Pinch of salt
  • A few basil leaves sliced thinly
  • Pinch of sugar 
When it comes to cheese instead of using fresh balls of mozzerella try and find low moisture mozzeralla to prevent a soupy pizza. 

 
Method
  1. Mix all the dough ingredients in a large bowl, to ensure your yeast is active, dissolve the yeast, sugar and water in a seperate jug until you see foaming.
  2. Now onto the bit which makes a great dough. KNEADING. Like seriously, you have to knead this for a good 10-15 minutes. It will go from a shaggy ball to a smooth and elastic ball of dough. Kneading it until it comes together is simply not enough. You want to knead it until it looks like a pillow and it will feel SUPER SOFT and supple. If it feels lumpy or it doesn't stretch easily then you probably need to seek medical help. Do NOT add any flour to the counter while kneading, it is a perfect formula that plankton will strive to find
  3. Allow the dough rest in a bowl in a warm place for 1 hour, ensure you oil the dough to prevent it from drying out and cover the bowl with cloth, cling film or a plate
  4. After 1 hour, divide your dough into how many pizzas you are making and roll into dough balls, cover with a light film of oil and rest on the counter covered with damp cloth of some floured cling film. Let those rest for another hour, now is the time to place a pizza stone / cast iron pan upsidedown in the oven and preheat it as hot as you can.
  5. While the dough balls are proving mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl.
  6. Once the hour is up make a small pile of flour and drop the dough ball in the flour coating both sides then place on a clean surface and don't use a rolling pin. Use your hands to push the air bubbles towards the crust of your pizza, I will find a video to better explain what to do. And stretch using your hands until the desire pizza size is met.
  7. Now flour an upside down baking sheet or if you have a pizza peel use that instead. Just make sure the pizza dough can slide off the sheet and onto the pizza stone. Place the pizza onto the baking sheet and wiggle the sheet to make sure it isn't sticking and now sauce and top your pizza. Too much sauce will make your pizza a soupy mess, you really don't need much.
  8. Now give the sheet one final shake to confirm the pizza isn't stuck on the sheet then slide it onto your pizza stone that has been preheating for over an hour.
  9. The pizza should take around 3-4 minutes to cook at 270C (Fan) so begin stretching the next pizza and before you come to top it, the pizza should be burnt but that's fine, it's not your one just make sure you pay more attention to the next

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