This recipe makes 2 pizza bases (the size of our oven paper sheet / oven tray / chopping board). I like to add one egg to the dough because it becomes more elastic plus adds protein – but you can also make the dough without it. Have more flour on hand as necessary and if you need to add more water, do it in spoonfuls at a time, not too much.
In bowl 1 (mix well):
- 3 cups flour and keep more on hand.
- 2 sachets (14g) dry yeast (good luck finding one without an emulsifier. I did once but can\’t find it anymore.)
- optional: 2 tsp raw sugar
In bowl 2 (mix well):
- 1 egg, whisked
- quarter cup olive oil
- half a cup room-temp (luke-warm) water with another quarter cup on hand to reach the right consistency
- Combine both bowls. Knead to ensure they are mixed well, adding more flour or water as necessary.
- Rest the dough in a ball in a bowl with a tea towel over for an hour. It should double in size.
- Meanwhile, prepare the toppings.
- Knead the dough again, then cut in half with a knife. You could freeze half (wrapped in silicone) at this point.
- Lay out the baking paper that will fit onto the oven tray. Dust it and the rolling pin with flour.
- Roll out one-half of the dough so that it is thin. If this is the kids\’ pizza, I sprinkle a sparse layer of shredded spinach on one half and sometimes spread tomato sauce on the other half. Then I fold the dough back on top of itself to hide the spinach, before rolling it out again gently. Sneaky huh 🙂
- Use a fork to make some pricks in the base.
- Put in the oven for about 10 minutes – you want it starting to harden but not yet crusty.
- Remove it from the oven and spoon over the tomato paste. Then scatter over the other ingredients, finishing with the cheeses.
- Bake for a further 10 minutes or so, until the cheeses have melted and little tomatoes are semi-dried.
- Use the baking paper to lift the pizza out onto the chopping board.
Toppings can be anything of course but at the moment, these are my go-to:
- tomato sauce or paste
- fresh mozzarella
- shredded baby spinach
- halved cherry tomatoes
- diced ham
- roasted capsicum (bottled)
- jalapenos (bottled)
- caramelised onion (bottled)
- diced olives