Pizza in a Domestic Oven

You always see Jamie Oliver on Tv or other chefs telling you that you can make your own pizza at home very easily.  Well you can't.  The simple fact of the matter is, that unless you have a professional oven you do not get sufficient temperature.  However, there is a way around it.  You need some basic equipment to help boost the temperature.  A pizza stone is a flat, smooth stone which you need to heat in your oven for at least an hour beforehand.  I have tried every way possible to see which works best and even with a stone you still do not get a good bake if you put the pizza in without cooking the base first.  If you heat the stone on a lower shelf at the top temperature you can get on your oven and then place the base on the stone and par-bake it for 7 minutes or until it is easily lifted off the stone and is not browned. 

Then remove the par-baked base and place on a wire cooling rack for a few minutes.  When it has cooled slightly then top and slide back onto your pizza stone but this time on a higher shelf for about 10 minutes.

To make the perfect base is easy if you have a Kitchen Aid or similar with a dough hook.  I just put my flour, yeast, salt and a dash of olive oil into the bowl and then dripple in water until you have a wet paste.  Different flours absorb different quantities of water so there is no point following a recipe slavishly.  Then I leave the mixer running on 2 for about 15 minutes.  After this increase the speed and watch until the paste seems to have formed a more cohesive ball and has cleaned the sides of the bowl.  If it is still gloopy just sprinkle some flour onto it to ease handling.  Place in a bowl, covered with a tea towel in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough is doubled in size.

Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead to knock out the air bubbles and then roll out into your required size.

Baking the base first means that you have a properly baked base that is not doughy and indigestible.

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe (to make two individual thin crust pizzas or one large)

250g strong flour
Half a 7g sachet of dried yeast
Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp. salt
160ml (approximately) of water. *all flours absorb differing quantities of water so add water gradually*



Tags: Pizza  Pizza in a Domestic Oven  Pizza Dough  Food  Pizza Stone