Pizza

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Makes 3 pizzas  (approximately 250g each)

Ingredients:

Dough:
5g active dry instant yeast
70g warm water (around 27C degrees)
5g honey (or 10g diastatic malt)
450g high-protein bread flour (approximately 13-15% protein is a good place to be)*
225g cold water
9g fine sea salt
5g extra virgin olive oil

For shaping the pizzas:
50/50 mix of semolina flour and bread flour

Tomato sauce:
1 x 400g tin peeled San Marzano tomatoes, pureed
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Garlic oil:
1 clove garlic, finely grated
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Toppings:
Low-moisture mozzarella, grated on the large holes of a box grater (approximately 50g per pizza)
1 large ball fresh mozzarella (1/2 per pizza)
Salt
Grated Parmiggiano Reggiano
Fresh basil leaves
+ whatever else you like!

Method:

To make the dough: Combine the yeast and the warm water in a small bowl and whisk to dissolve the yeast.  If you see the yeast granules floating to the top, the yeast is dead. Discard and start again with fresh yeast. (A note on yeast: I like to store mine in the refrigerator or freezer to keep it alive longer as I don’t use it that often). Once you know it’s active, stir in the honey and set aside.

Add the flour to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Place the mixer on low speed and add in the cold water followed by the yeast-water mix. Mix on low speed for 1-2 minutes until the dough is beginning to come together but it’s still shaggy and messy. then stop the machine and lift the lid. Use your hands to scrape off any bits of dough that have stuck to the bowl or any bits of flour from the bottom that haven’t mixed in entirely and make a ball of dough. If for some reason, your dough is not holding together, add half-teaspoons of water until it does. Now, add in the salt and mix again for 1 more minute on medium-low speed. Stop the mixer, pull it off the hook and add in the oil. Mix again for another 2 minutes to incorporate the oil but note that it won’t be totally smooth.

Transfer the dough to a dry, clean benchtop and knead by hand for 2-3 minutes, until it becomes smooth. Leave the dough on the bench to rest for 1 hour – I like to cover it with an overturned bowl.

Once the dough has rested, grease a large bowl or lidded container with olive oil and use a bench scraper to help you lift the dough from the bench into the bowl or container. Seal it tightly with a wrap or lid leaving some space above the dough to allow it to rise and refrigerate for 24 hours.

The next day, remove the dough from the fridge and place it on a clean dry benchtop again. Knead it for about a minute to de-gas. If you find it sticking, a few drops of cold water on the bench will help. Divide into 3 equal pieces of dough and shape tightly into balls. See HERE for a good video on this.

My preference for containers to put them into now are 3 greased, round, tall sided, lidded containers. I feel they lift a bit more into these types of containers as opposed to flat trays, which also make them harder to wrap without touching the surface. It also makes it easier to see how much they have risen. Refrigerate for another 24 hours but for as long as 5 more days.

After this time, remove the containers from the fridge and leave them on your bench to warm up and prove again with the lid still tightly closed.

Once they have risen a further 25%, they are ready to go. This should take about 2 hours, give or take a bit, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. You can always pop them back in the fridge if they have proved enough, but perhaps you aren’t ready to bake yet or your oven is still preheating. This is better than over-proofing so watch it carefully, you want to avoid the dough doubling in size as this is gone too far and it will be flat like a pancake when baked.

To make the pizza sauce: crush a clove of garlic and place it in a small saucepan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Heat over medium heat and let it sizzle for about a minute, before adding in the blended tomato sauce. Season with a good pinch of salt and let it simmer and bubble until it has reduced by 25%, about 15 minutes. Either refrigerate and reheat when ready to make pizzas or keep it hot.  

To make the garlic oil: finely grate (use a microplane if you have one) a clove of garlic into 2 tablespoons of olive oil, mix and set aside.

To bake your pizzas: Preheat whatever oven you’re using. For a domestic oven, heat it as high as it can go with a pizza stone or steel heating inside it. For pizza ovens, aim for at least 350C.

From here, it’s easiest to work one pizza at a time. Your dough ball should just drop out of the container when flipped over but if not, gently pry it out while trying to keep as much air in it as possible. Dust your work surface with the semolina and bread flour mix and top your dough with that too. Begin by pressing down in the middle of the dough and pushing towards the outside. I never pinch the edges or crust. Now lift the base and stretch it on your knuckles like you’ve seen pizzaiolo do. This prevents your fingers from digging into the dough and tearing it. Once the middle is thin and the crust is set, top with your (hot!) pizza sauce, a mixture of the mozzarellas, and any toppings you like.

In a domestic oven: put the pizza on a sheet of baking paper and, with two hands, carefully lift the paper and pizza onto the preheated stone or steal. (Do not use baking paper in a pizza oven; it will catch fire.) You want to close the door immediately and then do not touch it until it almost done which will take about 10 minutes (you may want to turn it once, if your oven has hot spots or heats unevenly – this will be visible in how the dough is colouring).

For a pizza oven: dust your pizza peel with the flour mix and gently lift an edge of the dough and quickly shimmy the peel underneath it (practice makes perfect!). Move the pizza to your oven or pizza peel and quickly and assertively, place the pizza in the oven and pull the peel from under the pizza, like you’re trying to pull a tablecloth from a dressed table and leaving all the glasses still standing. Once the pizza is in the oven, allow it to sit for at least 20 seconds before moving it around. Once the crust has set, you want to start turning it** very often to ensure each side or edge gets a couple of seconds in front of the flame and no one side gets burnt. This part happens very quickly, so you must be standing there watching it while it’s baking. If at any point the temp gets too hot or you’re finding it difficult to control, turn off the flame, take a breath and then resume.

This takes a few more minutes in a domestic oven but the instructions are the same from here on.

To finish your pizza: when the pizza is cooked to your liking, remove it from the oven using your peel and place it onto a cooling rack for one minute to release some steam and set the toppings. Slide it onto a chopping board and cut into pieces and add any remaining toppings like fresh herbs. Brush the crust with garlic oil and sprinkle it Parmiggiano Reggiano. Serve and eat immediately.

*see my Substack post on focaccia for more information on flours.

 **have you ever seen those very small pizza peels that pizzaiolos use? That’s called a turning peel and its sole purpose is to help you turn the pizza. Its small size means it’s not used to lift full pizzas in or out of the oven, it’s just used to turn them around to help get even colour. The peels that come with these pizza ovens are quite large and cumbersome, so I’ve got one of these little ones too, which helps me a lot. They are sold separately.

Recipe adapted from Tony Gemignani, “The Pizza Bible”