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Pizza: years of practice have come to fruition.

bonza

Well-Known Member
Yo

I have been experimenting with pizza base recipes for a long time, and finally have tweaked one to create perfection.

This recipe creates 3 thin bases (half way between classic crust and thin 'n crispy), or two thick bases (likened to deep pan).

500g strong bakers flour Sometimes called pizza and bread flour, can be substituted for plain flour.
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
10g dried yeast Can use 1 sachet, but i've found the more the merrier.
~300ml of room temperature water

Combine all dry ingredients and mix together with hands. Add almost all the water, mix dough together to create a dry, springy ball. If needed add the rest of the water, however try to avoid creating a wet sticky mess (lol) as this will mean you need to add more flour to correct.

Knead the dough This is of vital importance as it can cause the dough to be lumpy, hard or turn it in to rubber. Kneading takes me about 10 minutes but i am rather slow. You are looking for a springy texture rather than a rubbery one. The best method for kneading is to push the dough away from you, rotate 90 degrees, repeat.
A mechanical aid, such as a dough maker is perfectly suitable for this section and will slash the preperation time in half.

Proving This is the process where the dough is allowed to rise. After many years of practice I have found the best way. Place dough in a glass bowl lined with a thin layer of oil. Place a teatowel over the top and put bowl in a warm, sunny area (not hot). Leave anywhere from 30 mins to 6 hours (the longer the better). After proving, punch down the dough, and knead slightly (<1 minute).

Sauce I make my own sauce, using tomato paste, red wine, garlic, oregano, basil, and I experiement with whatever other herbs I have handy. Sometimes I get lazy however and just buy a jar of dolmio pasta sauce (in the big jars), they are flavoured with red wine, garlic, or herbs and such. This also will work fine.

Topping Use your imagination. Some of my favorites are: Chorizo, english spinach and mushroom; Ham, capsicum, mushroom and sundried tomatos; eggplant (cut very thinly), onion, capsicum and garlic; just to name a few. The basic technique is 1 strong flavour (chorizo, sundried tomatoes, garlic), 1 absorbant vegetable (mushroom, eggplant), 2- 3 medium flavours (capsicum, spinach, onion, ham).

Cooking Use a pizza maker if avaliable. This is device with a hot stone and a gentle top heat. It will leave the pizza with a perfectly cooked top and a light fluffy base with a crispy bottom. If you love pizza as much as I, get one of these. If not an oven will do fine.

Pizza maker
Allow ample time to preheat device (~15). Place pizza in and check every 3 minutes.
Oven Pre heat to ~180. Place pizza in oven, check 10 mins later, then every subsequent 2.

Photo uploaded next time I make one

Love
 

noobItUp

Super Moderator
Staff member
-OZ-bonza said:
I regard this as a hate crime against pizzas.

But overall good work in here bonza. I use those pizza stones too. They cook the base much better than the old pizza trays.

Another trick is to use cormeal or polenta to help stop the base sticking to anything (but usually thats not a problem on a pizza stone).
 

nelots

Well-Known Member
Ewww eggplant and I use surplus marble paving left over from my backyard pavement area instead of those pizza stones :banana:
 

i0nwr1t3r

Moderator
Ok guys , so I have to ask , wth is a pizza stone?
Screenshots pls & how much are they?

Intrigued

i0n

P.S. Eggplant , you wild man bonz :p
 

noobItUp

Super Moderator
Staff member
i0n, pizza stones are the schizz. Makes your crust nice and crispy and cooks nice and evenly.

I have 3 pizza stones and I think they were roughly 20 bucks a piece. I picked mine up from DJs but I am sure you could get them from lots of other homeware shops.
 

nelots

Well-Known Member
Dont pay $20 for a pizza stone just goto bunnings and buy a polished stone paver for like $5 each :banana:

Admiral: You do realize all breads contain both sugar and salt right......... hell even chocolate contains salt!
 

The Admiral

Well-Known Member
nelots said:
Dont pay $20 for a pizza stone just goto bunnings and buy a polished stone paver for like $5 each :banana:

Admiral: You do realize all breads contain both sugar and salt right......... hell even chocolate contains salt!
Lies man. I'm positive that they're like an acid and a base - if you put them together, you get water, and something that isn't half as useful as either of them.
 

Trigger Happy

Moderator
I think you are thinking of sugar and spice, completely different scenario.
Put those two together and see if you live adminral.

Cheers
 

noobItUp

Super Moderator
Staff member
nelots said:
Dont pay $20 for a pizza stone just goto bunnings and buy a polished stone paver for like $5 each :banana:
Good advice, only thing with bought pizza stones is that they are nice and thin so they heat up nice and quickly and also cool down fairly quickly.

But meh, a nice polished paver would probably work quite well too.
 

nelots

Well-Known Member
^You do realize that a pizza stone is just a rebranded polished paver right?

Triggerhawk: Sugar + spice..... you mean like curry? you guys have no idea so kindly watch some Mastersook episode to get back to speed with us culinary elite!
 
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