MY HOMEMADE STONEBAKED PIZZA RECIPE

Makes 4 medium sized pizzas

Ingredients

For the pizza dough:

1kg strong white bread flour

1 level tablespoon fine sea salt

2 x 7g sachets of active dried yeast

1 tablespoon muscovado sugar

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

650ml lukewarm water

Sauces:

Good quality garlic and herb pizza sauce (or make your own by frying onions and adding chopped tomatoes and lots of garlic)

Spinach and ricotta pesto (optional, but delicious)

This part is all you, but here are my recommended Toppings:

Mozzarella

Parma ham

Fried pork mince

Fried mushrooms

Finely chopped peppers

Garlic

Spinach

A good sprinkling of dried mixed herbs, black pepper and fresh basil

Fresh sliced tomatoes to add last

Method

Firstly, to make the pizza dough I used The Stone Bake Oven Company’s method:

Add two tablespoons of olive oil to your mixer (ideally, with a doughhook). Sieve the flour and salt into the food mixer too. In a jug, add your luke-warm water and mix in your sugar, when the sugar has dissolved sprinkle the yeast over, and leave it rest for five to ten minutes, the mix should become frothy.

Turn the mixer on and start adding the liquid yeast mix to the flour, the dough hook should ideally knead the dough for six to seven minutes on a slow to medium setting.

Coat a large bowl with a splash of olive oil and add the dough ball to it.

Cover the bowl with cling film for about an hour until the dough has risen and doubled in size. Now remove the dough from the oiled bowl and knead it around to push the air out with your hands, this is called knocking back the dough. Your dough is now ready, so leave to one side.

https://www.thestonebakeovencompany.co.uk/recipes/stone-bake-pizza-dough/

Next you need to prepare the toppings. Fry the mushrooms and minced pork and leave to cool whilst you finely chop the garlic and peppers, along with slicing a few tomatoes and the mozzarella. You can cook the Parma ham at this stage but it will also cook and shrink in the oven on top of the pizza.

You want to get your oven at its hottest temperature, as these pizzas want to cook relatively fast! I recommend turning your oven on gas mark 9 now and putting your pizza stone in to preheat just before finishing prepping your toppings.

Ensure that all of your toppings are prepped and ready in front of you to easily add to the pizza, including jars of sauce that should be open with spoons inside. You then want to clear a surface area to lightly dust with flour and roll out a quarter of the dough at a time as you make each pizza.

A little trick I have learnt through making these pizzas is to roll out a quarter of the dough, then lift it onto a sheet of greaseproof paper before adding your toppings. This makes it easier to transport onto the pizza stone (which you want to keep in the oven at all times unless putting pizzas in or taking them out to keep the stone hot), it also helps to keep the stone clean.

Once the rolled dough is on the greaseproof paper, add the sauces and then the toppings. I would recommend adding the mozzarella and sliced tomatoes last so they melt and brown easier. When your pizza is ready, take the pizza stone out of the oven and place on a surface that can handle the heat (usually a metal rack is provided), and then transport the pizza on the greaseproof paper straight onto the stone. Cut off any long hanging edges of the paper as these may burn in the oven, and place in your oven for about 12-15 minutes to cook. You know that your pizza is cooked when the dough is no longer soft in the middle of the base, and from there you can cook longer for a crispier base. Whilst the first pizza is cooking you can prepare your second.

Enjoy!!

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