byootaful

One of our latest obsessions is home-made pizza, usually a special treat towards the end of the week. We’ve been buying bases for a while and it’s starting to add up since they’re about $4.50 for two. They’re not the frozen ones, they’re fresh and found in the bread aisle – they’re really quite delicious but I was thinking about how to cut back and save some money. I figured, we’ve got a bread maker, why not make our own dough?

I found a simple recipe on Best Recipes that claimed to be “super easy” and, since there wasn’t going to be any practice runs, I needed something fool-proof. I must admit, I cheated a little. I had a lot of stuff to do before lunch and I had a bread maker in the cupboard so, instead of doing everything manually by hand, then allowing it to rise, I decided to throw all the ingredients in the bread maker and let it do it instead.

In goes flour, yeast, caster sugar and salt, then oil and water. Select the “dough” setting, press start… and walk away.

From memory I think it took about one hour fifteen minutes all up. It plays a nice little tune when it’s ready, just like the washing machine does. Ha, that reminds me of yesterday when I was outside taking the clothes off the line and I heard the neighbour’s washing machine finish. It beeped an alarm, like a truck reversing. I remember thinking how much nicer my little tune was. Puddy has even memorised the tune – as soon as she hears it, she comes running into the laundry because she enjoys flopping around in the sun as I hang out the clothes.

Anyway, here’s the finished dough:

Please ignore my creepy fingers. Let’s just say lighting isn’t my strong point.

The dough was nice and warm and a little strechy. I lightly floured the bench, tore the dough in two and rolled out two pizza bases. The amount of dough was perfect for two thin bases, but if you like your pizza bases a little thicker, you might want to make more. I think the recipe creater uses this amount of dough for one pizza, so I guess it just depends on your personal taste.

The speckles in the dough is some sort of herb – I can’t remember! We added it right at the beginning when we put all the ingredients in the bread maker. You can see the dough was quite thin in places, but we didn’t have a problem with it tearing or anything like that – in fact, it probably made it more crispy.

Toppings went on: tomato pizza sauce, mushrooms, cheese, red and green capsicum, mini pepperoni and some shredded shoulder ham (a old favourite from my childhood) and we popped it in the oven at about 200 degrees celcius for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on it, once it’s golden brown it’s ready.

It was absolutely delicious! The darker bits around the crust aren’t burnt – I think we just managed to get the pizza sauce all over the place and it was cooked on. To get a crispy crust, you need to cook it for a little longer than a store-bought crust because then the pastry is cooked through and you don’t get that doughy taste.

We’ll definitely be making this dough the next time we have pizza and I think we might experiment with different herbs and seasonings – some basil or rosemary would be nice in the dough.

SUPER EASY PIZZA DOUGH
from Best Recipes

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour
1 x 8g sachet dry yeast
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup warm water

Method:

1. Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl and add oil or water. (If using bread maker,  now select dough setting and leave it to do it’s own thing. If not using bread maker, continue to step 2)
2. Mix to a soft dough.
3. Knead on a floured surface until soft and pliable.
4. Return to the mixing bowl and cover with cling wrap and leave in a warm spot for 30 minutes. The dough should double in size.
5. When it has risen, “punch” the dough once to remove air bubbles.
6. Remove from bowl and knead gently for 1 minute.
7. Roll the dough out to desired size and add favourite toppings.

Note: This is where the recipe ends. As for cooking, I just went off previous pizza recipes and guessed 200 degrees celcius for about 15 minutes. It depends on your oven, you just want it hot so the base fully cooks and goes crispy. Some people have suggested adding some oil to the pan before cooking – this helps the base crisp up.

Mmmm, now I’m craving pizza for dinner!