“Once you've tried this easy pizza dough recipe, you'll never look back (trust me) ”…he said…
Ok, so the blog post is about Rome etc, and pizza came (according to rumour) from Naples, but, well, here ‘tis:
Makes 4 thin bases, or 2 thick ones.
Ingredients:
½ Kg white bread flour
100 gr finely ground Semolina Flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
325 gr/mls lukewarm water
Method
1. Sieve the flour/s and salt on to a clean work surface, or a bowl, and make a well in the middle.
2. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and oil into 325 mls of lukewarm water and leave for ten minutes, then pour into the well.
3. 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. It will start out sticky. Knead on a floured surface, until you have a smooth, springy dough, about 7 minutes
4. Place the ball of dough into 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 90 minutes until the dough has doubled in size.
5. 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.
6. 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 four thin crust medium pizzas.
7. Timing-wise, it’s a good idea to roll the pizzas out about 15 to 20 minutes before you want to cook them.
8. Use your hands or a rolling pin to form your pizza pie.
9. Cover with your toppings, let it rest for 10 minutes, then, bake for 7 minutes at 220˚C or 425˚F.
10. Yum!
Tips
Make sure to use a strong bread flour, 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, or you can omit.
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