Homemade Pizza Topping and Dough

Making Your Own Pizza for your Family is Simple and Satisfying

© David Smith

Apr 16, 2009

One of the most attractive things about pizza is a wide choice of toppings which are available. Making your pizza at home rather than ordering from the pizza parlour or collecting from the supermarket means you only have the ingredients you desire. Every member of the family can have their own individual pizza. This can range from the fairly standard mushrooms and salami to the more alarming choices younger members of the family make with fruit, peanut butter and marmite.

The Pizza Base

This recipe makes sufficient dough for two 12 inch traditional thin crust pizzas. Freeze half to save time another day. Just remember to take out of the freezer in plenty of time!

• One level tablespoon active dry yeast. 20 gms.
• 1 cup of warm water. 235 gms
• 2 1/3 cups of bread making flour. 335 gms
• 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.
• A pinch of salt and maybe a grind of black pepper.

Directions:

1. Mix the yeast with warm water and leave for five minutes.
2. Add this to the remaining ingredients in your food processor.
3. Mix for two minutes.
4. If the dough is too wet to handle, add a little more flour.
5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and roll into a ball.
6. Place in a large bowl and cover with a damp cloth.
7. While your dough is resting for thirty minutes it’s time to make your pizza’s tomato topping.

The Pizza’s Topping

• One medium onion.
• Tablespoon of virgin olive oil.
• 14 ounces (400 gms) of chopped tomatoes.
• Pinch of salt, a grind of black pepper and a good pinch of basil.

Directions:

1. Finely chop the onion and fry gently in the olive oil until soft. Try not to let the onion colour.
2. Add your tomatoes and seasonings. A good quality tinned tomato will be okay but fresh skinned plum tomatoes are best.
3. Cook slowly until smooth and silky.

Now it is time to roll out your pizza base.

Assembling the Pizza

1. Using your hands push the dough out into a round. Put in the centre of a floured 14 inch square of baking paper.
2. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 12 inch circle. The dough will be quite forgiving and remember, this is a home-made, not factory made, so a little patch or a lump is fine. Remember your topping will weigh down the middle, so make it slightly thicker.
3. The tomato topping will have cooled sufficiently to spread thinly over your pizza. The tomato mix will thicken as it cooks and remember to leave a clear rim around the edge.

This is the best bit where you can be as creative as you please.

The toppings are limited only by your imagination. Why not have different toppings on each quarter of your pizza? It is totally up to you.

The cheese should go over most toppings, with maybe some salami or chorizo resting on the top to become crispy.

The Italians in Naples use only mozzarella for the cheese. Try mixing mozzarella with a little shaved Parmesan. But as with the toppings the choice of cheese is yours. After all it is your pizza.

Baking the Pizza

Commercial ovens are much hotter than any home oven, so if you want a crispy base here's how.

1. While adding the toppings and the cheese heat your oven as hot as it will go. Place a pizza stone or heavy steel baking sheet in the oven to become very hot.
2. Carefully slide the pizza, on its baking paper, onto your hot pizza stone and quickly return to the oven.
3. Bake for 10 or 12 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and brown and your pizza's edge crisp.
4. Slide your pizza off the baking paper onto a serving dish and cut up and enjoy.

Pizzas have a long history of feeding families. To learn more read this article

Ready to Roll

Filling ready to spread

Ready to Eat

It was Good

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