Simple Homemade Pizza

I never usually make my own pizza bases but after seeing Buddy from Cake Boss (on his Kitchen Boss show) make them, I decided to give them a go. I've done them before with a packet of base mix but decided it was lazy and unnecessary if the ingredients in the dough were so simple anyway. It's really easy to make and it does take a longish time but most of that time is spent on the dough proving so the actual effort is minimal.

Ingredients - Pizza Bases

3 1/4 cups plain flour

3/4 tsp dried yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/3 cups warm water

Method

1. Put the ingredients into a mixing bowl (place the yeast and salt at opposite sides of the bowl) and mix with a dough hook until a dough is formed. 

2. Knead the dough until it is elastic and smooth (it can be done in the mixer but you can over-knead it so unless you watch it carefully do it by hand as you can't overdo it and it's good stress relief!). 

3. Place the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with cling film or a tea towel. Leave to prove for about an hour until doubled in size. 

While the dough is proving, make the tomato sauce. Using a tube of tomato puree is super simple but this tastes so much better and really doesn't require much more time!

Ingredients

1 tin of tomatoes

2 cloves garlic

2 pinches salt

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup grated parmesan

lots of black pepper

Method

1. Put ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Simple eh?!

When the dough has doubled in size, take it out of the bowl and knead it again. Divide it up into three balls and place on a floured baking tray. Leave to prove again for another hour.

Once the dough has proved again, roll out into about 10" bases. Place on baking sheets and leave for about 10 minutes to rise again slightly.

Ladle over the tomato sauce and top with mozzarella and whatever other toppings you want. I made one with goats cheese, red onion, black olives and spinach and one with just mozzarella, fresh spinach and some herbs. 

Bake at 260 degrees Celsius for 7-10 minutes depending on how thick your base is.  

Tips

Use any toppings you want - prosciutto and mushroom is really tasty too!

You can put fresh spinach on before cooking and it wont burn onto the pizza.

Lots of mixed herbs make it really tasty!

Make all three up instead of dividing the recipe and freeze the pizza to have at a later date.

Use proper mozzarella cheese, not cheddar!!