Pizza recipes?

I love making pizza. So let me give you some tips.

Dough with yeast in it will make the base spongy (rise a little). You *really* need to find a recipe that you like beforehand. I've tried a few and now know what I like. Also watch your portions. e.g. My base only uses 1 cup of flour ... and that is enough for 4 really hungry (greedy) people. It really makes a huge pizza. Again this is why I say practice making the base, it is really cheap to make the base. You don't even need to put topping on the practice pizzas :D

If you are going to make a pizza base sauce then make sure to reduce the sauce as much as possible. By this I mean you need to ensure that you remove as much water vapour from the sauce as possible. If the sauce is too 'wet' then it will make the pizza base soggy, and ruin your pizza. I like to use two layers of cheese.
Basically
* Pizza base
* Sauce
* Some cheese
* Some topping
* Some cheese

If you put too much cheese on top of all the toppings, then the toppings will most likely sweat and cause your base to become soggy :D

Anyway, have fun!
 
I use Jamie Oliver's pizza dough recipe - http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pizza-recipes/pizza-dough - I don't do all the nonsense stuff of sieving the flour but it does need time to rest after all the kneading is done. The best part of home pizza's are the endless variety of toppings which I can create and serve.

Because we do pizzas from home fairly often, I have bought 2 pizza non-stick pans, racks to place them on (so that they don't go soggy when sweating), pizza cutting board and a decent pizza slicer. I makes the whole experience more enjoyable.

Whichever route you go, have fun and enjoy the occasion :)
 
Wow thanks for all the suggestions guys!
Imagine... said:
Pizza dough that works for me: Mix +-10 tbs of warm water with 3/4 tsp dry yeast. Add 1tsp honey, salt to taste and 1tbs olive oil. Add 1.5 cups of flour; mix with a spoon then knead. You may need a little water but go easy on adding it. The bowl you'd mixed it in should be fairly dough-free, so just coat with a bit of olive oil and stick the kneaded dough in there. Cover with gladwrap and let rise for an hour or more, until doubled. If it's cold, turn your oven on to a low heat for about 5 min, then turn it off and stick the bowl in there to let the dough rise (no plastic wrap, of course). You can also opt to make this a day/2 in advance and leave it in the fridge to do a slow rise. Just remember to give it sufficient time to get to room temperature before you plan to use it. Once risen, deflate (press down with palm), divide into 2 balls and let rest (covered) for 15 min. Roll on floured surface until fairly thin, top and pop into the oven. Get the oven temperature up fairly high, and put the rack on the top-most slot when making the pizza. And keep an eye on it so you don't burn it!
This makes enough for 2 small pizzas. Double if you want more.
I also prefer to roll then on a piece of baking paper, and slide that onto the tray in the oven. Gives the tray a chance to get hot in the oven as well. You might have better results with a stone, but this method works fairly well. Also avoids a lot of mess :D

The tomato base:
Over medium heat, fry some diced onions in olive oil until almost translucent. Add as much garlic as you like. Some chilli too, if you like it. When the aroma of the garlic hits you but before it browns, add a tin of chopped tomatoes (or any tomatoes, really; it all disintegrates into the sauce). Can make with fresh tomatoes if you prefer, but it works better from a can. If you do use fresh tomatoes, I'd poach them quickly and remove the skins. Add salt and sugar (you can always adjust this later, start off with a tsp of each). Let it simmer on medium-low, stirring every few minutes, until you get the texture you want. You can also drop some herbs in there if you'd like. Dried herbs work well; add just before adding the tomatoes.

The cheese will depend on the toppings you go with...

Loads of interesting toppings you can put on there. Any ideas? Or do you want any involving specific ingredients?
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Awesome, thanks man! Will definitely try some of this! :)
 
bwana said:
good recipe ;)

Pizzas are hit and miss unless you have a pizza slate/slab for your oven or even one of those cheap sunbeam pizza ovens.
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Heston Blumenthal, on his show In Search For Perfection, showed how to make a perfect pizza at home. I've been doing it this way for a year or two and it's unbeatable.

1. You start with heating a cast iron or thick base pan. Heat on maximum on the stove.
2. Turn on the broiler in your oven and let it get hot.
3. Make your desired type of pizza - with raw dough not a pre made base.
4. Put the pizza on the smoking hot pan
5. Put the pan in the oven under the broiler. The oven rack has to be real high, right under the broiler.
6. Let it go for 2 minutes.
7. Cut and serve. You'll never want to buy another take away pizza.
 
zeb said:
Heston Blumenthal, on his show In Search For Perfection, showed how to make a perfect pizza at home. I've been doing it this way for a year or two and it's unbeatable.
Click to expand...

[video=youtube;8uOng2plzZA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uOng2plzZA[/video]

[video=youtube;H-o9D5DV9qo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-o9D5DV9qo[/video]

[video=youtube;5E0GP1rkFRM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E0GP1rkFRM[/video]

I love this oke, he's my all time favourite chef.
 
Last edited:
Mike Hoxbig said:
So would any of you kind folks care to share some ideas on how to make a great pizza?
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For the cheese, buy a block of mozzarella and shred it yourself. It will be a better quality than you usually find in the pre-shredded packs.

Pizza Dough
Their are several recipes for dough, but here is one that I like. It does take a while to make, but it's worth the effort. There are recipes for quicker dough, but I really didn't like the taste. This one rises quite a bit. If you prefer a thinner crust use less yeast.

Ingredients
1 Cup Warm Water at about 40˚
3.5 Cups Cake Flour
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Honey
2 Teaspoons Salt
1 Packet Yeast

Directions
1. Put the warm water into a bowl. Add salt and honey and mix with a spoon. And yeast and let sit for about 10 minutes.
2. Gradually add flour and olive oil and start mixing. One the mixture is too heavy to mix, start kneading dough with your hands. Knead it until you have a small ball. If the dough cracks, SLOWLY add a bit of water. If it feels too much like batter, add flour bit by bit.
3. Coat the dough with olive oil, place it in a large bowl and cover it with cling wrap. Let the dough rise for one hour at room temperature. Then deflate it. Let it sit for another hour. [Note: if you do this the day before you can keep it in the refrigerator overnight]
4. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface. Put some flour on top of the dough. Roll it out in a circle until it is about 5mm thick. IMPORTANT: Use a fork to polk holes in the dough to let the air escape while it is in the over.

Pizza Sauce

Ingredients
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 tablespoon ince garlic
1-2 tins chopped tomatoes (or fresh tomatoes)
90 mls tomato purée
2.5 tablespoons Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
about 1/4 block of unsalted butter (chopped into smaller pieces)

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-to-high heat
2. Sautée the onion in the oil for one minute.
3. Stir in garlic, tomato purée, italian seasoning and sugar.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Make sure you stir occassionally.
6. Reduce heat to low and stir in butter.
7. When the butter is half melted remove the skillet from the heat and continue stirring until incorporated.

Making the Pizza
1. Preheat the oven to 210˚ - 220˚
2. Put dough on a pizza stone if you have one and put it oven.
3. Precook the dough for about 5-10 minutes. This will help it stay crispy.
4. Take out of oven.
5. Add sauce.
6. Add toppings
7. Add cheese
8. Put back in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Note: Thinner pizza crusts take less time to cook and thicker ones take longer. These are the times I use in Joburg, but if you live closer to sea level the baking times will probably be shorter.
 
I have a chuck of marble that goes into the Weber, nothing better than a wood fired pizza :) We make our of thin crust base, or use store bought bases when lazy. As far as toppings go, anything goes :) made an interesting one the other night with left-over butter chicken curry!
 
Haha nice ponder. When resurrecting threads one might as well do it properly - with a double post. Like a boss. :cool:
 
HavocXphere said:
Haha nice ponder. When resurrecting threads one might as well do it properly - with a double post. Like a boss. :cool:
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:o Dunno how that happened. Oh well, at least I get points for trying :D

Edit: I posted in two different threads and I suspect the mods merged the threads hence the double post!
 
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