Help! Foolproof pizza recipe needed.

[evremummy]

Made pizza dough in my breadmaker today and ended up with quite a small but very thick pizza. I tried stretching it out but it just kept pinging back. It tasted ok and it was eaten but it wasn't the thin crispy base I was after. Also, a lot of what I think was fat came out of the cheese and pepperoni and pooled in the middle of the pizza or was it that my tomato sauce was too watery?

Recipe I used was in my breadmaker book and didn't call for any sugar which I thought was needed to make the yeast work. Also it said to allow the dough to prove for 20 mins at 90C but my oven doesn't go as low as that so I just covered it with a tea towel whilst I went out to collect my DD from school, it was sat for a lot longer than 20 mins.

Any tips for a tomato sauce base or should I just spread with tomato puree? I was trying to hide some veg in the sauce!

TIA

Hmm. I used Jamie Oliver pizza base recipe. It uses sugar, salt, yeast, olive oil. My dough is stretchy but doesnt spring back like you describe. Are you using bread flour? It maybe be too much gluten? I use pasta flour.

I roll them out very thin, and then whack the oven up full and precook them on a pizza stone for a few minutes. I can then put them away until I need them. They are easier to move round once topped too, if the base is precooked, and it saves time. We tend to eat one each for dinner, the kids have slightly smaller ones.

I sometimes use Aldi's red pesto for a base sauce, it's very nice, especially with goats cheese on top! Once topped I then cooked them again, and they get crispy and nice. Def not soggy.

Can't help with the base, because I just use the bread machine recipe.

For tomato sauce, I sweat an onion, some carrot and garlic. Simmer with passata, a pinch of sugar, a pinch of salt, a dash of vinegar and some herbs. and any other veg you want to hide. And pepper. Whizz up with a hand blender and freeze in an ice cube tray.

How hot did you cook the pizza for, and for how long? What was the cheese that you used and how did you make your tomato sauce?

recipe

I also recommend Jamie Oliver's recipe from his Italy book. I stick it all in the food processor pn dough hook and then roll it out. Think it will give you the thin base you're looking for. Can post it if you like.

One by one of the Hugh fearnley Whittingstall chefs is brilliant- google HFW Perfect Pizza Dough.

i have given up making sauce for pizzas as it always makes the base saggy

use red pesto! It's fabulous!! :D

and you really really have to roll pizza dough, and sometimes picking it up and shaking it will help.

Actually he has put it on his website, so here goes. Hope no copyright infringement!

ingredients

? 1kg strong white bread flour or Tipo ?00? flour
or 800g strong white bread flour or Tipo ?00? flour, plus 200g finely ground semolina flour
? 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
? 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast
? 1 tablespoon golden caster sugar
? 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
? 650ml lukewarm water

That's for 6-8 pizzas - I usually half the quantities

Another vote for Jamie Oliver, except I use my bare hands. Being lazy I use 1tbsp of Bertolli basilica sauce for each 8 in pizza.

Never fails.

I have never had a bad pizza using this recipe here if you want thin crust roll and cook straight away if you want thick let it rise.

I only use the base recipe - for the tomato topping I usually chuck a tin of tomatoes and blitz it then we add on whatever toppings we want!

I use that one too mrshercilepoirot

It's brilliant and so easy

*hercule

I also use the HFW recipe. Actually just finished eating a pizza made with it! I roll the dough thinner than you'd think necessary to get it lovely and crispy. Bit of tomato purée, garlic, herbs, grated cheese then mushrooms and caramelised onions.

I left the salt out of the dough as DD was eating it and I don't think it harmed in overly.

I can get twelve big pizzas out of the JO recipe, and sometimes a bit of dough left for bruschetta or garlic bread. I roll very thin, Italian style. Much nicer and thicker bases won't get as crispy.

Thanks everyone . BlueEyeshadow my tomato sauce was similar to the one you describe except it didn't have vinegar in it and I put a teaspoon of green pesto in it and some celery. The celery flavour was a bit overpowering to be honest, so I don't think I would use that again. I made way too much so have frozen it to use it again either on pizza or as a pasta sauce.

I often go to Aldi, so I will look for the Red Pesto ChopstheScarletduck. Yes, I did use strong white bread flour, was going to use wholemeal but decided to go with the recipe. I've never seen pasta flour anywhere but then I've never looked for it. Is it more expensive?

I did wonder whether it would have turned out better if I had a pizza stone as it turned out a bit undulating and also whether my fan oven had anything to do with how much it rose when I cooked it. Any recommendations?

So rolling and cooking straight away would give me a crispier base. I did try to roll the base really thin, even though the recipe suggested just flattenening with your hand but it just kept pinging back into a smallish circle.

I will experiment with the HFW recipe and the JO. I thought with the flour quantity I used I would have got a couple of decent sized pizzas out of the recipe I used but no such luck. I like the idea of making a big batch up then freezing the bases. I'm guessing I would have to lightly cook them before freezing?

Thanks again .

I usually get my pasta flour from sainsburys, though I did stock up last time I went to Italy! It prob is a bit more expensive than bread flour, depending which you buy, but it isnt absurd. Maybe £1.30? And 12 pizzas from a bag of flour is pretty cheap once you get it right!

I have a fan oven. I think it was more to do with your flour and possibly too much yeast? if you don't have a pizza stone, any heavy weight tray preheated until smoking hot will do. I would precook before freezing. I tried freezing dough and it was rubbery and not so nice. I fold or roll my bases once cooked for easy storing.

Mine dont rise at all really when cooking. I let it rest, and the dough rises, but it doesn't rise in the oven much, just puffs a little. Not like naan or pitta that blow up like footballs!

I do a normal bread dough recipe and allow it to prove at room temp. Then really, really roll it very thin (usually cut it up and do smaller individual ones rather than one big one)

Then whack in the oven 'blind' for 5 mins before adding tomato sauce & toppings. As ChopsTheDuck says, this makes it nice and crispy