Home made pizza - a question

Wej · 16 Mar 2009 at 22:32

I recently took the plunge and decided to use my breadmaker to make Pizza dough...

WOW!

You can keep all those shop bought pizza - myself and the kids devoured it in about 10 minutes and then asked for more. The base was so much nicer than shop/takeaway ones, and I'm definitely going to stop buying supermarket ones if home made is this good.

The only problem (and it's a minor one) is that the chees was done (maybe slightly overdone) before the base was as cooked as I'd like it. I think the base probably needs 20-25 minutes, whereas the cheese is ready after 15. How do other people do this - do they do it on a lower temperature (the breadmake recipe suggested 200) or do they part cook the base and then put the toppings on?

Kearney_1988 · 16 Mar 2009 at 22:35

hmmmm my pizza always seems to be cooked ok i think i use about 180 though

Pudney · 16 Mar 2009 at 22:36

Thinner bases, more toppings on top of the cheese, use harder cheeses (or mixes) oh, and bit of advice that no one ever listens to me about, never use lots of watery ingredients on a pizza, it can get disastrous, the laughter at the soggy pizzas i've seen after people have put tins of tomatoes + tuna + anchovies + a few other things

Wej · 16 Mar 2009 at 22:37

Kearney_1988 said:
hmmmm my pizza always seems to be cooked ok i think i use about 180 though

How thick is your base (oo-er missus)? I did a recipe involving 2 3/4 cups of flour and spread it out on a baking tray. It rose up to be about 1cm thick when I took it out of the oven...

Kearney_1988 · 16 Mar 2009 at 22:39

last time i done it, it was rather thick more like a deep pan and had cooked through. cant remember the recipie tho.

how random · 16 Mar 2009 at 22:54

You need to crack an egg onto the top of the pizza before you put in the oven, or half way through cooking depending on how you want it done. Egg on pizza is the best :cool:

Greenlizard0 · 16 Mar 2009 at 22:55

how random said:
You need to crack an egg onto the top of the pizza before you put in the oven, or half way through cooking depending on how you want it done. Egg on pizza is the best

Grrr...that's gross.

Spinach on pizza. Now that is epic :cool:

V1nny · 16 Mar 2009 at 23:17

egg on a pizza sounds so wrong

djbenjo · 16 Mar 2009 at 23:45

Pffft, you lot have no idea. Domino's Pizza is simply the best

(I think they put crack or crystal meth in it tbh!)

SpeedFreak · 16 Mar 2009 at 23:48

You need to preheat a cast iron pan and cook the pizza on the base of the pan. At least according to Heston Blumenthal that is.

Dingleberry88 · 16 Mar 2009 at 23:55

how random said:
You need to crack an egg onto the top of the pizza before you put in the oven, or half way through cooking depending on how you want it done. Egg on pizza is the best

Did this on a pizza I made tonight.

Complete winrar.

robnut · 17 Mar 2009 at 00:35

Make the base real thin, i do about 2/3mm its fine. and use a pizza stone or tray.

growse · 17 Mar 2009 at 00:36

Build yourself a proper oven that goes to 500degC and cook it for 90 seconds, like the Italians do

caff · 17 Mar 2009 at 01:11

I recommend Waitrose frozen stonebaked pizzas. They are amazing.

Their frozen ones are miles better than their 'fresh' i.e. 'fridge' ones.

TeRmIn8r · 17 Mar 2009 at 04:14

get a dominos lol

arknor · 17 Mar 2009 at 07:16

TeRmIn8r said:
get a dominos lol

some people in this thread obviously never made a pizza at home :eek:

dominoes etc are an epic fail compared to the wonderful homemade pizzas you can make which taste 10* better and cost a lot less!

i'd rather take a slice of toast add tomato puree and cheese and grill it in the oven than buy a dominoes

(its actually really tasty! and quick to make)

pitty im on a health kick :X barely eat any fatty foods since xmas

Skidder · 17 Mar 2009 at 07:38

Wej said:
The only problem (and it's a minor one) is that the chees was done (maybe slightly overdone) before the base was as cooked as I'd like it. I think the base probably needs 20-25 minutes, whereas the cheese is ready after 15. How do other people do this - do they do it on a lower temperature (the breadmake recipe suggested 200) or do they part cook the base and then put the toppings on?

Pizza should be cooked at a very high temperature - oven all the way up and left at a long time before it goes in, preferably with a pizza stone left in to heat up for a long time, or if not flat sheets. The pizza takes heat from above and below that way. You are trying to get as close as possible to a wood burning oven which is hotter than our conventional ovens.

For a thin crust pizza complete with toppings - if you're oven is right it wont take more than 10-12 minutes. 20-25 looks off to me, you're definitely not hot enough.

EDIT: by high temp above I mean the highest you can get, in my oven this is well above 225

My best results are in the bbq with the lid on and on a pizza stone where temps are much hotter

You do not need a bread mixer to make pizza dough by the way.

Skidder · 17 Mar 2009 at 07:43

& from another thread here my (or rather locatelli's) dough recipe:

If using oven you need something to put the pizza on, may be an upturned baking tray (or again better still a stone.)

This makes 2 good size pizzas.

375 g strong while flour, add 4 tablespoons of good olive oil, 200g of water, 10 g of yeast

If using dried yeast use slightly less and use 200g of warm water instead (and a tsp of sugar)

Mix all that together, either ten minutes by hand or a few mins in mixer with a dough hook. Add pinch of salt just before you finish mixing.

Take the dough ball put it on the worktop, dimple with your fingers to flatten it a bit, fold it in two and leave it 20 mins

After 20 mins cut the dough in to two for big pizzas or several for little ones, roll very thin with a rolling pin (this works fine and trying to spin it results in a doughy mess from experience!) thin as you can

put the pizza bases in the fridge for a few hours

get the oven on or bbq with the stone/upturned tray a good hour before you need it to get really hot.

top with whatever you like

bung it on the hot thing and cook for 10 mins

and enjoy

HeadlessChicken · 17 Mar 2009 at 07:48

2 options:

Roll dough thinner. Proper pizzas are meant to have a super thin base!
Cook the base alone for 10 mins, remove, add toppings and put back in to oven

alexakasloth · 17 Mar 2009 at 07:48

I've never had this problem using Jamie Olivers pizza base recipe (from Jamies Italy), just make sure it's rolled out really thin. Otherwise, as suggested, cook the base for a while and then add the toppings.