I make homemade pizza quite frequently, as I like it so much more than shop bought pizzas (although I do love a takeaway as well). However, it’s usually a weekend job because the dough requires proving. So this time I decided to make the dough on Sunday and prove it, then make the pizza on Monday.
As you can see, the proving went rather well:
I split the dough into three portions and put one in the fridge and two in the freezer. When I got home from work earlier I took the dough to allow it to come up to room temperature, then rolled it out into two bases (I did try a brief fling into the air but I was rubbish!), and laid them onto baking trays which had been lightly dusted with semolina.
Unlike the bakers in the Bake Off tent, I didn’t make my own tomato sauce, but instead used a carton of passata (I keep these baby cartons in the cupboard particularly for this purpose) and a sprinkling of oregano.
Slices of mozzarella and a grind of pepper completed the pizzas, and I baked them in a hot oven for 15 minutes until golden. Torn basil on the cooked pizza, and voila, my margarita was complete. As today is meat free Monday, I didn’t let Andrew have any meat on his either (I always prefer plain pizzas).
Ioan enjoyed his own slice of pizza too:
Classic margarita pizza base – serves 2
- Pizza base (makes enough dough for 6 large bases so once proved, divide the mixture by 6 and freeze what you don’t plan to use) – 1kg strong white bread flour, 2 7g sachets of instant yeast, 4tbsp olive oil, 1tbsp caster sugar, 650ml warm water
- For the topping – 1 200g carton of passata (I use the Cirio brand), 1tsp oregano, 2 balls mozzarella cheese, fresh basil leaves, black pepper
Make the pizza dough by mixing all of the ingredients together and kneading for ten minutes until smooth and elastic (I used my KitchenAid freestanding mixer). Allow to prove for one hour, then divide into portions for what you need. Roll out the dough for your pizza and put onto a floured baking sheet (or cover with a dusting of semolina).
Top with half of the passata and sprinkle with oregano, then add slices of cheese, a grinding of black pepper, and bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Tear some fresh basil leaves onto the pizza and serve, ideally with a little droop!
As usual, I am entering this in Jenny from Mummy Mishaps’ Great Blogger Bake Off linky – head on over to her site to see what the other bloggers made, and don’t forget to read her latest round-up. I love the idea of her pizza pinwheels and am definitely going to give them a go! I am sure Ioan would adore them.
wow! check out the rise on your dough! that is incredible! I love a pizza night for tea – intact I think Friday might be this week! Thank you for mentioning my pinwheels – they are a great alternative 🙂 x
thank you for linking up x
Pizza night is great, and your pinwheels are definitely going to make an appearance on my menu!
wow that certainly had a good rise on it!
your pizzas look fab 🙂
Crazy isn’t it – no idea what I did to make that happen 🙂