Easy Pizza Dough Recipe Video

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Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

1kg Baker’s flour (plain flour with a high protein level)

10g salt

10g sugar

20g dry yeast (or 40g fresh yeast)

660ml cold water

Wood-Fired Pizza Dough Recipe

Wood-Fired Pizzas

600g Strong baker’s flour

400g Semolina flour

10ml extra virgin olive oil

10g salt

10g sugar

20g dry yeast

650ml water

Will make 7 x 12” pizzas (225g each), or 8 x 10” pizzas (200g each)

Method

Making Pizza Dough By Hand:

Making Pizza Dough

Mix all the dry ingredients together, and create a well in the centre.

1. Carefully pour 600ml of water into the well and gradually incorporate the wet and dry ingredients by slowly bringing the flour into the water in the centre.
2. Add the remaining water if necessary, depending on how dry the mixture is (it’s best to start with a little water and only add more if needed).
3. Knead the dough, by pressing down with the palms and heel of your hands away from your body, and then turning the ball of pizza dough after every pass.  (If the dough is too large to manage, break it down into two even batches).
4. Continue kneading until you have a smooth ball of dough to work with – this should take roughly 10 minutes of kneading.  (You should be able to pull a piece of the dough out and stretch it quite thin, until it becomes translucent when held up to the light.  This is when you know the pizza dough is ready.)

How To Make Pizza Balls:

Pizza Dough Balls

1. Divide the pizza dough into balls of the desired weight – for 12” pizzas they need to be 225g (7), for 10” pizzas you’ll want it to be about 200g (8).
2. Create round balls by taking each piece of dough in your hands, push your two thumbs into the centre and at the same time stretch the outside around it.
3. Turn the dough halfway around, and repeat this process 3 or 4 times till you have a round ball with a smooth skin.
4. Lightly dust your work bench with flour, and place the dough ball on the bench with the flatter side down and the roundest part facing up.
5. Cover your dough balls with a damp tea towel or cloth to prevent a tough skin from forming.
6. Let the pizza dough balls rest for about 10 to 15 minutes under the tea towel.  This will make it much easier to roll out the balls later and help it hold its shape.  If you don’t allow it to rest long enough it can result in serious shrinkage of the pizza dough after it has been rolled out.

Preparing Your Pizza Bases:

Pizza Base

1. Take your pizza dough ball and place it on a lightly floured section of your bench.
2. With the palm of your hand, press down into the middle slightly, turning the ball a couple of times as you do this – this should flatten the ball while beginning the round shape you want to achieve.
3. Take your rolling pin, starting at the centre of the pizza dough and push out towards the edges.
4. Turn the dough as you do this, to keep your pizza as round as possible.  At this point, your main aim is to push any air bubbles out of the dough.  If you just push the rolling pin back and forth, the air bubbles may remain in your dough and it will not cook evenly in the oven.  Instead you’ll most likely have bubbles rise while the pizza is in the oven, and push any toppings off to the side as well.

My Brand New Pizza Cookbook For You…

Pizza And Parma Cookbook

You can now get your hands on my brand new Pizza And Parma Cookbook, full of my very own inspired creations that you can easily make at home to impress your friends and family!

This is a physical book (not one of those digitally downloadable ones), so you’ll be able to flick through the pages and sit it right next to you as you work through each recipe.