Pizza dough

pangolin

Couple of questions..

What are people's pizza dough recipes?

Can you make a decent gluten free pizza? Wife has been told by her Dr to try gf for a few weeks to rule it out.

I've been using the following recipe recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDpCzJw2xm4

For the dough
2 1/4 cups (530 ml) warm water
1 tbsp sugar (12 gl) sugar
1 tsp (3 gl) active dry yeast
2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil
1 tbsp (18 gl) kosher salt
5 cups (600g) bread flour, plus more for working the dough
additional oil for greasing the dough
cornmeal, semolina flour, or coarse-ground whole wheat flour for dusting

For the sauce
1 28 oz (828 ml) can crushed tomatoes (I like Pastene 'Kitchen Ready')
2-4 tbsp (30-60 ml) olive oil
1 tsp (4g) sugar
2 tsp (a fraction of a gram, I don't know) dried oregano

For the cheese
24-32 oz (680-910 g) whole-milk, low-moisture mozzarella, freshly grated (6-8 oz / 170-225 g per pizza)
grated parmesan for dusting (maybe 10 g per pizza?)

Start the dough by combining the water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl and let sit for a few minutes. If the yeast goes foamy, it's alive and you're good to proceed (if it doesn't, it's dead and you need new yeast). Add the olive oil and salt and 5 cups (600g) of bread flour. Mix until just combined, then start kneading. Add just enough additional flour to keep the dough workable (i.e. not too sticky) and kneed until you can stretch some of the dough into a thin sheet without it tearing. (NOTE: You will probably need to add a lot more flour. The quantity I give here is just a base line to get your started.)

Divide the dough into four equal balls and put them in four containers (ideally glass) and lightly coat the balls and the interior of their containers with olive oil. Cover, and either rise at room temperature for two hours, or put them in the refrigerator and let them rise for 1-7 days. (I prefer the long, cold rise.)

When you want to bake, put a pizza stone or pizza steel into your oven (mine works best on a high rack position but every oven is different) and preheat to your highest possible temperature, ideally convection, for a full hour.

For the sauce, simply mix together the ingredients.

Liberally dust a pizza peel with cornmeal (or something similar). Take the cold dough out of the fridge and dust it in flour. Stretch to the widest size and shape that will fit on your peel and stone/steel. Top with just enough sauce to lightly coat the surface. Dust the sauce layer with parmesan, then cover with the mozzarella. Transfer the pizza to the stone/steel and bake until the crust is well-browned and the cheese has browned a bit (but, ideally, has not started oozing out an orange grease layer), 6-7 minutes.

twotoebenny

I don't eat pizza often any more as I can't find a good gf one... definitely following this thread although I'd be surprised if there's many that do their own gf pizza base

ugo.santalucia

I use my own sourdough starter, strong flour, salt and water... no other ingredients. I don't weigh ingredients, I go by feel. The dough should be slightly sticky but workable. Give it a good workout for 5-10 minutes, then let to rest in the fridge with film on top overnight. In the morning get it out of the fridge and let it rise until dinner time.

I've tried gluten free with rice flour... difficult to achieve decent results. Hit and a miss, I got a good one only once

rick_chasey

*buy them out since my equipment and ingratiation are inferior*

thistle_

I have a bread machine and just use the recipe from the instruction book (not gluten free and uses yeast). Much nicer than anything from a shop (and most chain pizza restaurants) but Ugo's looks better.

Water 250g
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 2 tbsp
Strong white flour 400g
Dried yeast 1 tsp

ugo.santalucia

thistle_(mbnw) said:

I have a bread machine and just use the recipe from the instruction book (not gluten free and uses yeast). Much nicer than anything from a shop (and most chain pizza restaurants) but Ugo's looks better.

Water 250g
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 2 tbsp
Strong white flour 400g
Dried yeast 1 tsp

I used to use olive in oil in the dough... completely unnecessary and makes it heavier. Sugaris just there to boost the yeast, best to avoid it, again unnecessary and spoils the flavour (and 2 tbsp is waaaay too much)

twotoebenny

ugo.santalucia said:

I use my own sourdough starter, strong flour, salt and water... no other ingredients. I don't weigh ingredients, I go by feel. The dough should be slightly sticky but workable. Give it a good workout for 5-10 minutes, then let to rest in the fridge with film on top overnight. In the morning get it out of the fridge and let it rise until dinner time.

I've tried gluten free with rice flour... difficult to achieve decent results. Hit and a miss, I got a good one only once

So what would be your rough quantities Ugo? What proportion of flour to water for instance... and how do you do your sourdough?

ugo.santalucia

It takes about a week to make a sourdough starter, then you have it for the rest of your life.
Mix flour with water and get a slurry, put it in a glass jar. Every day feed a bit more flour and a bit more water. After a few days you will see bubbles and fermentation and it will start to smell sour. It's ready to use. Always keep some and feed it daily... if you don't use it then store it in the fridge and feed it maybe once a week or so.

A couple of tbsp of starter will do a pizza or a loaf. It rises slower than commercial yeast, so you are looking at overnight rather than 2 hours, but you get a completely different flavour, as what you have is a mix of yeast and bacteria and the byproducts are not only alcohol and CO2 but also lactic acid (hence the sour flavour).

As for the dough, strong flour salt and water, I never weigh, just go with the consistency. It needs to stick to your fingers a bit, but not too much that you can't work it. Just add water a bit at a time until you get where you want to be. Don't make it too dry, or it will be stodgy and not elastic

ugo.santalucia

I found the recipe for the gluten free dough (the one of the picture above). It uses normal yeast, because I never managed to get a successful gluten free sourdough starter

200 g of Doves Farm gluten free white bread flour

30 g of gluten free Gram flour (chickpea flour)

1 tsp of sugar and 1tsp of salt

1 egg small

2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

150 ml of water

2 tbsp of white wine or cider vinegar

1 tsp of fast action yiest (gluten free)

shortfall

This is my recipe although I use a little less water else it tears too easily when I stretch the dough. Same as Ugo I make it the day before and put it in the fridge overnight. I hand stretch mine but really it's fine to use a rolling pin. Less is more with the toppings. Too much and the dough gets wet and it's like eating a mouthful of raw flour.
500g/1lb 2oz strong plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh yeast
325ml/11fl oz lukewarm water

slowmart

Water 1.25 cups
Olive oil 3 tbsp
Salt 3/4 tsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
bread flour 3.5 cups
Dried yeast 1 tsp

The above makes 4 single pizza's, half the dough then gets frozen and used a week later with no adverse effects.

Usually I just use a tomato base, mozzarella and fresh basil leaves

As for the masterpiece above mozzarellas, bratwurst and chorizo.


I do have a recipe for a tomato sauce using basil leaves and low and slow cooked tomatoes.....

I've only been making the bases for a couple of months and I can't believe how much better they taste. So much so I can't see myself buying another pizza again.



The one aspect which currently alludes me is making a circular pizza, any tips? Tried the spinning but im not having much luck with that technique.

ugo.santalucia

slowmart said:

The one aspect which currently alludes me is making a circular pizza, any tips? Tried the spinning but im not having much luck with that technique.

I can see you have a shape issue. More often than not it's because the dough is not elastic enough, probably too dry or it's not been worked enough and hasn't developed the gluten.
Try a rolling pin, you won't get a perfect circle but it should be better than the current shape

shortfall

slowmart said:

Water 1.25 cups
Olive oil 3 tbsp
Salt 3/4 tsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
bread flour 3.5 cups
Dried yeast 1 tsp

The above makes 4 single pizza's, half the dough then gets frozen and used a week later with no adverse effects.

Usually I just use a tomato base, mozzarella and fresh basil leaves

As for the masterpiece above mozzarellas, bratwurst and chorizo.


I do have a recipe for a tomato sauce using basil leaves and low and slow cooked tomatoes.....

I've only been making the bases for a couple of months and I can't believe how much better they taste. So much so I can't see myself buying another pizza again.



The one aspect which currently alludes me is making a circular pizza, any tips? Tried the spinning but im not having much luck with that technique.

Practice. Watch some YouTube vids and try the different techniques. I find that the consistency of the dough is important. Too wet or over risen and it tears, too dry and it's hard to work with. When it's risen it should be more or less in a ball or dome shape anyway. On a floured surface just push out to the edges with your finger tips and it will quickly spread into a disc shape. At that point you can start to stretch the dough either on the counter or over the back of your hands. Forget spinning it in the air, it might work but it looks like it takes a lot of practice and the same results can be achieved without all the theatre of throwing it over your head!I

This is how I do it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xzbW8CZx538&vl=en

parryman

60% hydration usually.
500g strong flour (or type 00 if i have it)
300g warm water
10g salt
teaspoon yeast (or half depending on proving times)

Mix the salt and yeast into the warm water (200ml cold, 100ml recently boiled) dump on the flour.
pop this into the bread machine for mixing/ kneading.
Turn out into an oiled bowl, clingfilm and fridge for a day or 2.
Take out the morning of intended use, parse into 6 or so balls, pop onto an oiled baking sheet, cover in cling film, leave for a few hours to warm.

Roll, Top and pop in the Ooni.
Eat / repeat.

twotoebenny

Who'd have thunk we had so many pizza makers on the forum... I'm going to give it a go sometime soon... now does anyone have one of the new fangled pizza ovens?

ugo.santalucia

In the days in order to get Italian citizenship you had to prove you could make a pizza, home made egg pasta and gnocchi...*

* that might or might not be true

parryman

twotoebenny said:

Who'd have thunk we had so many pizza makers on the forum... I'm going to give it a go sometime soon... now does anyone have one of the new fangled pizza ovens?

I have a gas powered Ooni Koda, and it is a revelation.
My FiL has a wood fired pizza oven in his garden and that is also really good.

I recommend the gas one to anybody, its relatively small, very easy to use.
I paid about £230 for the oven, great for weekend pizza parties once you are barbecue'd out.

Just needs a couple of goes to get the technique of tossing the pizzas in and turning them sorted.

(Takes about 90secs to cook a pizza)

ugo.santalucia

Almost vegan... tomato, black olives and artichokes in oil and a light sprinkle of parmesan cheese, a bit of rosemary from the garden... all you need to be happy

twotoebenny

parryman said:

twotoebenny said:

Who'd have thunk we had so many pizza makers on the forum... I'm going to give it a go sometime soon... now does anyone have one of the new fangled pizza ovens?

I have a gas powered Ooni Koda, and it is a revelation.
My FiL has a wood fired pizza oven in his garden and that is also really good.

I recommend the gas one to anybody, its relatively small, very easy to use.
I paid about £230 for the oven, great for weekend pizza parties once you are barbecue'd out.

Just needs a couple of goes to get the technique of tossing the pizzas in and turning them sorted.

(Takes about 90secs to cook a pizza)

Thanks, the ooni was one I'd looked at, will put it on my list of things to buy.