How To Make Homemade Pizza Dough Without A Breadmaker: A Simple Recipe
By making your own pizza at home, you can control the ingredients which go into it, so you can choose either to make it healthy by using lower fat cheese and lots of wholesome veggies or to go to town and indulge your craving for decadent toppings.
It's a little bit time consuming to make pizza from scratch as the dough requires time to rise, but the results tend to be worth it. I like to make a large batch of dough, so that I can freeze half of it for another time. The recipe given here will make approximately 8 pizzas with a 7 inch diameter.
Ingredients
- 800 g strong white flour
- 1 tbsp / 14g dried yeast
- 650 ml water, lukewarm
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp caster / superfine sugar
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Measure out the water - it should be lukewarm rather than hot - and add the sugar and olive oil. Sprinkle the dried yeast into the water and then stir. Leave for 3 minutes for the yeast to activate.
- Sift the flour and salt together, into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre to pour the wet ingredients into.
- Pour the water into the well in the middle of the flour and start to mix. I use a wooden spoon to mix until it starts to come together as a dough and then just use my (clean) hands to finish bringing the mixture together into an elastic dough.
- Take the ball of dough out of the bowl and knead on a lightly floured surface. It's a good idea to cover your hands with flour as well, to stop the dough sticking. Knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is silky smooth. The kneading process will give your arms a good work out.
- Now put the ball of dough into a clean bowl and brush the top lightly with olive oil. Cover the bowl with a loose sheet of plastic wrap and leave in a warm place where it won't be knocked over. Allow the dough to rise for approximately 1 hour. It should double in size.
- When the dough has risen to double its size, knock it back to remove some of the air. I do this by punching lightly into the centre of the dough.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and knead gently for a minute or so. Now you are ready to roll it out on a floured surface.
- Cut the dough into as many pieces as you need. I tend to halve the dough and wrap one half in plastic wrap to freeze for later. Then I divide the remaining half into four pieces which is enough to make 4 pizzas of approximately 7 inch diameter.
- You can use the dough as soon as you have rolled it out. Cover with your favourite toppings and bake in an oven pre-heated to 430 F / 220 C for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
My Favourite Home-made Pizza
There are so many different things you can put on a pizza, but my favourite is very simple. The first thing I do is make the dough, as shown above, and then roll out a piece to approximately 7 inches in diameter. Then I cover it with my home-made tomato sauce which is made using the following:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 and 1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes (in their juice)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
To make the sauce, put the oil into a non-stick pan and bring to a medium heat. Add the onions and fry these off until they are soft. Add the garlic and continue to fry for another 30 seconds before adding the chopped tomatoes, sugar, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Pop into a blender and mix until smooth. When it cools, spread the sauce over your pizza base and add the toppings of your choice. I particularly like prosciutto, chestnut mushrooms and sweetcorn, drizzled with a little olive oil and topped off with low-fat mozzarella.
I use a good quality prosciutto, low fat mozzarella, chestnut mushrooms and sweetcorn.