What better way to keep the kids entertained this summer than making your very own pizza! We’ve modified a pizza dough recipe to make it easy, quick and fun to make at home.
Dough Ingredients:
· 7g packet or 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast
· 175ml warm water (tepid temperature)
· 270g OO flour
· 1 teaspoon salt
· 1 teaspoon sugar
· 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
This dough recipe gives you enough dough for 2x12 inch pizzas, so you can either cook both, or pop the other one in the fridge to be used later (with a little olive oil on top, and cling-filmed).
Tools:
Any chef will tell you that keeping your cooking space organised is a must to avoid tearing your hair out trying to find the mixing bowl! So, here’s a list of all the tools you need to get started:
Large mixing bowl
A few smaller bowls or ramekins for prepping your ingredients
Wooden spoon or spatula
Kitchen towel or clingfilm
Pizza stone or baking tray. A pizza stone will give better results, and are available online
Baking peel or large wooden cutting board (or the back of baking tray, yes it does work!)
Rolling pin or hands that are ready to get a little messy
The method:
You can do this recipe either by hand or with a food mixer (one with a dough hook, but not a food processor). You can also make the dough by hand if you think you’re hard enough, it takes a lot more elbow grease to get the same smooth consistency but tastes great (and definitely goes towards your daily exercise goal)
Before starting your dough, get your oven preheated to 230°, or 210° for a fan oven. By the time your dough is ready, your oven should be hot.
If you’re using a pizza stone, pop it in the oven straight away when you preheat to heat it up.
Step 1
Pour 175ml of warm water into the mixing bowl (or food mixer)
Add the yeast to the water in the bowl, let it sit for a few minutes to work its magic, at which point you should start to see it go foamy
Add the sugar, salt and olive oil to the water and stir it in for 5-10 seconds
Manual ‘by hand’ method
Add ¼ of the flour and stir into the mix with a wooden spoon to start the dough and avoid lumps, once that’s mixed in and starts to thicken add the rest of the flour and stir in with the spoon until the water mix is absorbed
Then get stuck in with your hands and knead the dough until its smooth, this should take about 5 mins (it should feel like a smooth dough without any pockets of flour)
Mixer Method
Add ¼ of the flour to the mixer bowl containing your mix
Turn on the machine (medium speed) and watch the dough hook mix the flour in, then start to add the remaining flour. After around 2mins the flour should be fully mixed in, depending on your mixer speed it could be a little more or less
Step 2: both methods
Take your mixed dough, form it into a smooth ball in your hands, turning it in on itself to make it tight
Cut the dough ball in half with a sharp knife, trying to keep the knife stroke clean and even through the dough to keep two even halves
Place them into two separate bowls and cover for 15 mins with cling film or a wet tea towel. Putting it in a warm spot helps, like by a radiator or on top of your preheated oven.
Whilst your dough rises, you can get your toppings ready – we suggest Mozzarella, a tin of chopped tomatoes, blitzed with some salt and oregano (if you’re vegan, add some garlic to this to make a marinara). Then anything else you’d like – from chorizo and chilli to olives and anchovies
After your dough has rested (it’s going to double in size, like we all have during lockdown) take it out of the bowl by sliding a spatula around the inside edge of the bowl, as the underside of the dough will cling, and place the dough ball down on a slightly floured work surface
Take one half and create your pizza base. Sprinkle a little flour on your hands and on the surface. Open a dough ball by flattening and stretching the dough gently with your fingers, or by rolling the dough with rolling pin
When you've hand stretched or rolled your pizza base, carefully transfer the dough to a lightly oiled baking tray and add your toppings
If you are using a pizza stone, add your toppings first before transferring the dough to the stone using a baking peel or similar, like a flat baking tray (but be careful with this technique as its where 80% of pizza disasters occur)
Once topped, transfer your pizza to the middle shelf of your preheated oven and bake for 10-15mins. But keep a beady eye on it and take it out when you see the cheese has nicely browned, yum
Then you’re ready to rock - date night, movie night, I’m sorry I walked into your Zoom meeting in my dressing gown night.
Let us know how you get on, we love seeing your pizza pics!