Use plain flour for a soft base
Soft Base Pizza From Scratch
Tip: make extra portions and keep the dough and sauce in the fridge or freezer
This recipe makes 4-5 pizzas, I usually just bake 1 and save the dough and sauce in the fridge. The dough will rise again after being rolled out into a pizza. Both the dough and sauce will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week and can be kept longer in the freezer.
Pizza bases
Sieve the plain flour into a large mixing bowl and add sugar and yeast. Put the salt in to one side then mix the dry ingredients.
In a cup, mix ⅓ boiling water with ⅔ cold water and add 2 tbsp olive oil. Add the water to the bowl and mix in thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
Now for the fun part! When the dough becomes sticky, roll the dough together with your hand. Sprinkle some flour onto the worktop and tip the dough out of the bowl onto the floured top.
Knead the dough, rolling it over the floured surface, adding more flour as necessary. Keep kneading, pushing and turning the dough until it springs back when you push into it.
Clean and dry the bowl, put the ball of dough back inside and cover with a damp cloth. Set aside in a warm place for the dough to rise.
Tomato and pepper pizza Sauce
Put the tomatoes in a pan of boiling water and keep on the heat for 2-3 minutes then transfer to a pan of cold water.
Chop the Onion and garlic and blend until smooth.
The Balkan peppers are know as Chushkey in Bulgaria and Serbia.They are readily available,in most high street supermarkets, pickled. If you want to pickle them yourself, burn the outer skin off on the cooker and peel them. cut around the stalk and pull the stalk and seeds out. Pack the prepared peppers into a jar of brine and store sealed for a week or two.
Blend the pickled peppers until smooth, heat a splash of oil in a medium sized saucepan and add the onion and garlic followed by the blended peppers. Peel the boiled tomatoes and blend. Add the tomato blend to the pan then add the tube of tomato puree, dried chilli (be careful with the chilli!), sugar, season with salt and black pepper and stir well. add the chopped basil,stir again and leave on a gentle heat with the pan covered.
Heat the oven to 225C
Take the pizza dough which should have risen to about 3-4 times its original size and divide into 4-5 portions about the size of a baseball.
On a floured surface roll out each portion into a circle about 20cm (or dining plate size) in diameter. Cover a flat baking pan with baking paper or flour and place the pizza base on the pan. Leave covered in a warm place for 15-20 minutes.
When base has rested, spoon the sauce onto the pizza base and spread evenly with the back of the spoon.
I normally put the toppings on next and sprinkle the grated over the top. Add the toppings to your taste and place in the oven for 10 minutes until the cheese is golden. Serve and enjoy!
Ingredients:
For the dough
400 g Plain Flour sieved
2 tbsp Sugar
1 sachet Dried Bakers Yeast
2 tbsp Olive oil
¼ tsp Salt keep separated
For the sauce
6 medium Tomatoes peeled
1 large Onion peeled and chopped
1 bulb Garlic crushed
20 leaves Fresh Basil Finely chopped
2 tbsp Sugar
6 Pickled Balkan ppeppers (paprika) chopped
¼ tsp Dried Chilli flakes
1 tsp Salt
1 tube Tomato puree
Ground black pepper
For the topping
100 g Mature cheddar cheese
100 g Mozzerella cheese
Your choice of additional toppings Pepperoni salami and olives were used
by Paul Nelson
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Liane Langitan-Nelson
Liane Langitan-Nelson
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