Great for the kids – fun times making your own pizza dough and creating your own tasty toppings!
Ingredients/
300g all purpose white flour
35g wholemeal flour
50g sourdough starter
215g water
10g salt
Method/
Mix
8am: Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until all flour is combined. Rest for 15 minutes.
8:15am: dump flour out of bowl onto counter and knead or slap/fold for 10 minutes. Dough will become smooth and elastic during this process. Transfer to a small bowl, cover (I use a small plate to reduce plastic wrap use) and leave for 4 hours. During this time stretch and fold* (north, south, east, west) four times roughly every 30 minutes during the first 3 hours.
* Stretch and fold: while still in the bowl get hands underneath the dough farthest away from you (north if the bowl was the dial of a compass). Lift, stretch the dough upwards and then fold towards you on top of itself. This incorporates air into the dough and builds elasticity. Turn bowl 180 degrees and repeat. In this way, complete stretch and fold north to south, south to north, east to west and west to east.
12:30pm: dump dough onto counter and cut with a sharp knife or dough scraper into two equal sized portions. Shape into even, smooth balls and place in a lightly oiled container. Cover and leave for 4 hours. During this time they will spread a bit – that’s ok.
4:30pm: in the oven, place pizza stone 10 cm below a rack that is itself 10 cm below the grill. Turn oven on to maximum temperature.
Shape
4:45pm: using the dough scraper, lift one of the rounds of dough and place it onto a small plate that has been covered in a generous amount of all purpose flour. Sprinkle more flour onto the top and press down slightly to make it into an even disc. Flip and press a bit more, taking care to maintain a regular circle.
Transfer the dough disc onto a square sheet of grease proof paper a bit larger that you want the pizza to be. Start pressing down more from the centre of the dough, working outwards and turning the dough and paper frequently to ensure it is evenly spread. Don’t push down the outer 2cm of the dough -leave this light and fluffy.
Here, you can either keep turning and pushing the dough down and out to reach your desired pizza shape or, as I prefer, pick up the dough and ‘walk’ it over your knuckles. This ‘shuffling’ of the pizza around lets gravity stretch it downwards, the action of shuffling knuckles from side to side and walking the pizza dough around helping achieve an even stretch. You can do this gradually. Knuckle for a bit, put it down, stretch out on the grease proof paper into a circle, if not large enough, knuckle the dough again. That’s it! You have your pizza dough!
Cheese and mushroom pizza
Ingredients/
Basil (I use a cold blended paste for convenience)
Extra virgin olive oil
Mushrooms
Mozzarella (I use pre-shredded for convenience)
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Method/
Mix some basil and olive oil in a small cup, then spoon and spread onto pizza dough, coating evenly but leaving the puffier outer 2cm uncovered.
Chop mushrooms into 3-4mm thick vertical slices and spread on pizza. Sprinkle with mozzarella.
5 mins before putting the pizza in the oven, flick over to grill at max temperature. After 5 mins, slide the pizza and grease proof paper onto a thin baking tray and place on the rack 10cm below the grill. Grill for 2 mins then flick back to oven at full temperature. The pizza should be ready after 5 mins of cooking on the oven setting. I open the oven and lift the edge of the pizza with a finger to see if it is nicely done. The crust should be browned, and the pizza still bendy and not stiff.
Remove from oven, shave some parmigiano onto the top and serve!
Prosciutto pizza
Ingredients/
Tomato passata
Prosciutto ham
Rocket
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Basil (I use a cold blended paste for convenience)Extra virgin olive oil
Method/
Spread passata over the base, coating evenly but leaving the puffier outer 2cm uncovered.
5 mins before putting the pizza in the oven, flick over to grill at max temperature. After 5 mins, slide the pizza and grease proof paper onto a thin baking tray and place on the rack 10cm below the grill. Grill for 2 mins then flick back to oven at full temperature. The pizza should be ready after 5 mins of cooking on the oven setting. I open the oven and lift the edge of the pizza with a finger to see if it is nicely done. The crust should be browned, and the pizza still bendy and not stiff.
Place the strips of prosciutto onto the pizza, followed by rocket and shavings of parmigiano cheese. In a small cup, mix up some basil and olive oil and flick over the pizza. Done!
