PIZZO FORNO PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

Ingredients

  • 1 kg white bread flour or Tipo ’00’ flour , or 800g strong white bread flour or Tipo ’00’ flour, plus 200g finely ground semolina flour
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2 x 7 g dried yeast sachets (or wet yeast)
  • 1 tablespoon castor sugar
  • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (Olive oil makes it crisp)

 Method

  1. Ensure you have a clean work surface and sieve the flour/s and salt onto this surface – make a well in the middle of the sieved flour.
  2. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and oil into 650ml of lukewarm water and leave for a few minutes to activate the yeast –you will see it starting to create like a smooth foam. Then pour the mixture into the well created with the flour.
  3. Use a fork, and bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough. Alternatively you can use a mixer to combine the flour mixture and liquids.
  4. Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
  5. Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands – this is called knocking back the dough. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in cling film, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. Ideally you should let the dough have a second rise and a long fermentation and repeat the procedure. A 2 day fermentation is ideal! Then you are good to go!
  6. If using straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls (approx. 220gms) as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.
  7. Timing-wise, it’s a good idea to roll the pizzas out about 15 to 20 minutes before you want to cook them. Don’t roll them out and leave them hanging around for a few hours, though – if you are working in advance like this it’s better to leave your dough, covered with cling film, in the fridge. However, if you want to get them rolled out so there’s one less thing to do when your guests are round, simply roll the dough out into rough circles, about 0.5cm thick, and place them on slightly larger pieces of olive-oil-rubbed and flour-dusted tin foil. You can then stack the pizzas, cover them with clingfilm, and pop them into the fridge.

Tips:

This dough is best made with Italian Tipo ‘00’ flour – finer ground than normal flour, and it will give your dough a great super-smooth texture.  If using white bread flour instead, ensure using flour that is strong and high in Gluten – this will create into a lovely, elastic dough, which is ideal. You can mix in some semolina flour for a bit of colour and flavour, if you like.  In South Africa Eureka Mills make an excellent premixed PIZZA BASE flour with the recipe on the back of the packet.