I am truly a domestic goddess. I know this because I make pizza from scratch, including the dough, and therefore this makes me a domestic goddess. Even if I do make the dough in a bread machine. And even though I can never roll the dough into a circle.
After you’ve rolled the dough into whatever shape you like (mine’s a kind of retarded Babapapa shape I think), cook the dough in the oven for a while until cooked (I don’t have accurate times, sorry, but I put it on about 200C for about 20 minutes I think).
You may be lucky and have an oven that evenly cooks stuff. Unlike me (but I can blame The Meat Eater for that, as it’s his oven).
Add the toppings; my choice was tomato sauce (heat half a can of chopped tomatoes up until thickened, add basil/chili/curry powder; whatever seasonings you fancy), onions, spring onions, mushrooms, red chili, olives, mozzarella, cheddar and a bit of Redwoods Vegan Melting Mozzarella in one corner to see what it was like as I’d heard about it but had never seen it in London and I was in the Holland & Barrett recently in Ashford and they had a brilliant selection of veggie/vegan food that I haven’t tried before.
Here’s the corner with the vegan mozzarella (the grated bit).
Put in the oven for about 20 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbling (or if you have a cr*p oven, give up after 20 minutes and stick it under the grill). And here’s the cooked pizza.
And here’s the cooked bit with the vegan cheese on.
And the verdict. Yum. The base was a bit soggy, like it usually is when I make it. If anyone has any tips on how to stop the base going soggy, please let me know. I thought cooking the base before and after would help with this, but obviously not.
And as for the vegan cheese. Well, definitely not disgusting like most vegan cheese and when I tried a bit raw I was pleasantly surprised but on the pizza it was a bit tasteless, it had sort of melted but not like cheese, the texture was a bit gritty and strange and I’m not sure if I did one of my veganthon things again I’d bother with it but nicer than other vegan cheese I’ve tried. Maybe I’ll give it a go on toast; it was probably a bit unfair comparing it literally side by side with normal cheese.
Pizza dough (Makes 1 large pizza)
1 teaspoon dried yeast
1.5 cups bread flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup water, plus
1 tablespoon water
Put the ingredients in your machine in the order listed, select the dough cycle and press start. Takes about 1 hour 30 minutes.
Toppings
Tomato sauce (heat half a can of chopped tomatoes up)
Onions
Spring onions
Mushrooms
Red chili
Olives
Mozzarella
Cheddar
7 comments
The secret to a crispy base is a holey baking sheet (a tin with holes in the base rather than one that’s been blessed by a man in a dress) – you can get them in John Lewis I think.
I say that with utter conviction, though I’ve never actually made a pizza base myself – just bought the ready-made ones. And they stay crispy on a holey (as opposed to holy) tin.
Thanks! I think I’ve seen them in Robert Dyas, although maybe not big enough. I will check out John Lewis.
Your pizza looks delicious, even if it was soggy!
I’ve always found that rolling out the dough as thin as possible helps. If you use a similar bread machine recipe as me you should be able to get two big pizzas out of one batch of dough.
Don’t pre cook the base just let it rise for about 40 mins, then slap on the toppings and put it in the oven at the hottest setting for about 20 mins. Proper pizza ovens cook at around 425 degrees C – which is much hotter that you ever get in a domestic setting!
I use a holey base too, which helps.
Thanks pickle, I’ll try not pre-cooking the base first. I’d already halved the dough recipe but will be halving it again, it makes a HUGE amount!
The trick to getting a nice crisp base to home-made pizza is to roll it nice and thin and then put it on a pre-heated baking tray, then into a really hot oven. I don’t pre-cook the base either.