Spec me a good pizza recipie :)

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Me and the GF and her little brother are planning to make some pizzas tomorrow, so am after some nice recipies that include making the base yourself :)

Any help would be great!

Dan
 
not sure bout a base, but for the topping have a plain tomato sauce with mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, onions, chicken, panchetta. bit posh but tastes great!
 
Strong white flour, olive oil, yeast and some salt for the base.

Mix all together and add some warm water and mix in until gooey, place onto a flat surface and knead, adding flour as necessary.

For toppings I use tomato puree spread on the bases with a spoon, then some slices of salami/chorizo, some finely diced onions, slices of peppers, chopped ham and chilli powder, peppers, chillis and mushrooms then some torn up mozzarella cheese.
 
One of the best homemade ones I ever made was knock up the base using which ever recipe you fancy, then make up some chilli con carne pre bake your base slightly smother it in chilli con carne and cheese then cook till done. Yum
 
Just copied and pasted one of my recipes from another forum, hope it works :)




Base:

250g Strong white flour
250g Plain white flour
10g fine sea salt
5g yeast
2 tbsp olive oil

Mix all the dry ingredients. Add the oil to 325ml warm water. Slowly mix this into the flour, and form a rough dough:

img0213k.jpg



It is a very wet and sticky dough, but wetter is better when it comes to the majority of bread making. It needs a minimum of 10 mins kneading, until really silky. Then make into a round, and put into a lightly oiled bowl:

img0214cz.jpg



After an hour or so, it should have doubled in size:

img0219u.jpg





While it is rising, make the tomato base. I actually used some I had made previously and frozen, so no pics. But it's dead simple:

* Lightly fry a clove of garlic in olive oil. Don't let it brown.
* Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a few sprigs of chopped sage
* Let simmer for 10 mins
* Blend with hand blender till smooth. Season with salt & pepper. Done

Ok, only toppings I use;

img0215nu.jpg


* Decent (wet) mozzarella
* Fresh chopped basil
* Freshly ground black pepper
* Decent olive oil
* Tomato base

At this point, put a flat roasting tray in your oven and turn it on to literally as high as it will go.
There is enough dough here to make 4 pizzas (my sized) so I 1/2 the dough (after knocking back) and freeze half. Half again so you have 2 balls. Time to roll it out.

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Be generous with the flour, and roll / shape with hands as thin as you dare. Assuming you kneaded well it will hold together really well.

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Ok, time to work quick. Get tray out of oven. Sprinkle with polenta (or flour if you have none). Slap on your dough. Spread tomato base, add mozzarella and basil. Finally apply loads of black pepper, and a thin trickle of olive oil.

img0223uf.jpg



A few people have found this looks like waaay too little toppings. But trust me when I say less is more with pizza. Get into oven asap. Depending on how good you oven is, it should take between 4 - 10 mins. Keep a sharp eye on it as it will burn quickly.

Once cooked, pull out onto a board, and do the same with the other one.

Finished product:

img0225jt.jpg




For me it's what a pizza should be; Thin, crispy, light, full or flavour and most of all, simple. Of course you can add other toppings, but please follow the same ethos; less is more! And at least try this simple pizza once.


I bang a few of these out quite often when we have had friends / family over, and they always get a great reception. More than 1 person has said it's the best pizza they have had out of Italy :D
 
Headless chicken that looks amazing!

Might add some pepperoni and chorizo though :)

How much is Mozarella in Tescos going to set me back, bear in mind we're going to make a giant pizza as GF has got a big oven, probably 50cmx25xm if not bigger :)
 
Headless chicken that looks amazing!

Might add some pepperoni and chorizo though :)

How much is Mozarella in Tescos going to set me back, bear in mind we're going to make a giant pizza as GF has got a big oven, probably 50cmx25xm if not bigger :)

49p for a tesco value mozzarella ball iirc, or there abouts.

Will probably need 3.

More for better stuff ofc, but not an insane amout. ~£1.
 
Can I just say Quorn chicken is far nicer than real chicken when on a pizza!

Although it does kill me that I'm endorsing those veggy types when I buy the stuff...

And yeah, that pizza looks delicious HeadlessChicken, ever tried putting some chillies or so on there? I might give it a try some time as I love chillie pizza, but not sure it would go down too swell with that one.
 
Can I just say Quorn chicken is far nicer than real chicken when on a pizza!

Although it does kill me that I'm endorsing those veggy types when I buy the stuff...

And yeah, that pizza looks delicious HeadlessChicken, ever tried putting some chillies or so on there? I might give it a try some time as I love chillie pizza, but not sure it would go down too swell with that one.

Yup, I use all manners of diff toppings:


Leftover roast meat
Chorizo
Chilli
Peppers
Roast veg
salad (after cooking)


Anything really. But I also always do a simple cheese & basil, its soooooo good :)
 
How much do you think it costs to make the cheese and basil pizza?
I'm going to guess that as a student I'll have to only buy the stuff for a special occasion!
 
How much do you think it costs to make the cheese and basil pizza?
I'm going to guess that as a student I'll have to only buy the stuff for a special occasion!

No more than £1 for 1kg of flour which will last a good while.

20-30p for a load of yeast sachet.

£1 for a bag of basil?

And £0.50-£1 for the mozzarella.
 
HeadlessChicken: Thanks - I will try that! Looks good! I have been making pizzas for a few weeks now (bread mix from a packet), grated mozzella (sp?) and solami. For tomato base I used tomato puree.

They are good but not brilliant. I will try yours:)

EDIT: I will try the less-is-more approach. I usually go for more is more:p.
 
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No more than £1 for 1kg of flour which will last a good while.

20-30p for a load of yeast sachet.

£1 for a bag of basil?

And £0.50-£1 for the mozzarella.

Well by god I might actually be able to afford it!

Now I'll just get fat off pizzas instead of pot noodles.

Hurrah :D
 
I use the same recipe as headlesschicken for the base really. I use a breadmaker to do the work though.

For the topping I take a decent quality tin of chopped tomatoes and add a little salt, pepper, basil and oregano. I boil this down so I can run a spoon accross the pan and leave a trough. So it's more of a paste.

Then I spread the paste over the pizza leaving a 1-2" gap to the edge and spread a couple of handfulls of cheddar cheese over it. I prefer not to have half inch thick layer of cheese.

I'll add whatever topping after that. Pepperoni, chopped peppers, onion, mushrooms, olives whatever. After baking with the oven on full, I'll usually throw on some mozzerella sliced thinly to melt rather than cook it.

Recent one (phone pic) it looks small but that's a 12" pizza tray.

pizza.jpg
 
For base i use strong white bread floor, yeast, salt, oil. Roll the dough quite thin, or let it rise for half an hour for more deep pan.

I would seriously advise you to buy some tomato pizza base (is pretty similar to pasta sauce but perfect for pizza, sainsburys do a good cheap one. This will make or break the pizza.

Then, grated cheese, pineapple, spicy peperoni (or salami ), and ideally chicken.
 
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