Today we're actually gonna make, um, a very very simple pizza dough
Let's be honest, who doesn't love pizza?
It's an absolute great recipe to make with friends, with family, with kids
And so, so simple
So I'm going to show you a couple of little tricks here which takes all the effort out of it
But also a great way in which we can bake it at home, um...
Particularly kind of using a domestic oven without the kind of need to buy expensive pizza stones, expensive equipment...
So big thing about this recipe, um, it does take a little bit of planning
'Cause it's... The dough's actually gonna take about 24 hours to ferment
So for example, Friday night's pizza night
Just make this on a Thursday
I know it seems a lot of effort but you're gonna see it's so so quick and so so easy
So what's a little bit different about this recipe
Is we're actually gonna be using a little bit of our sourdough culture
So this is a rye starter, um...
But you can actually, you could use a white starter culture, no problem at all
Whatever you have at home
Great thing about using the sourdough, just adds a great depth of flavour into your dough
But what's probably a little bit different here is
We're actually going to spike the dough with a tiny bit of yeast
Just helps to give it an extra little kick
And also to helps keep our dough lovely and soft
So very simply we're going to start off with 500g of strong flour or bread flour
Ah, we're using, um, a good-quality white flour here
So we've got got 500g
And we're simply gonna add
A teaspoon of salt mix
Mix that straight in
And then to our dough we're actually going to add 50g of semolina
So it just helps to give a lovely crust to our pizza bases later on
So again just mix that straight in
So, to our 500g of flour we're simply gonna add 200g of sourdough starter
So this was fed and you can see it's bubbling away
Fed last night, bubbling away, perfectly ready to go this morning
So then to our dough were adding 325ml of water
So it's quite a soft wet dough
And then just for a little bit of richness
We're gonna add about 50g of olive oil
We're literally gonna add about 1g of fresh yeast
Just give a tiny little spike, add a little flavour
It's gonna help just to keep our dough a little bit soft as well
Now, the great thing about this recipe is it's so so easy
Virtually no knead
Just gotta bring the whole dough together
So again, if you don't have, ah, fresh yeast
Dried yeast will work perfectly the same
You're looking at barely a little pinch
Again, just about a gram
So just roughly work the dough together just to help kind of
Incorporate all that kind of loose flour
You don't even have to get your hands in
And that is it
That is our dough kneaded. Done. Ready to go
The idea... Basically what we're gonna do is
We're gonna pop into a fridge and we're going to let it ferment for 24 hours
As the dough is, ah, proving
You're gonna find that the dough helps to develop, so...
So so easy. It's just case a little bit of planning
Two seconds to put your dough together
Pop it in the fridge, cover it over, and we let it ferment for 24 hours
So, here is the exact same dough
Which has been sitting in the fridge fermenting nice and gently
Nice and slowly for the last 24 hours
So you can see as it's proving up
It's growing in the basket
So what we want to do is, is we again, we need to knock our dough back
Just a bit of flour on the counter 'cause it's a bit of a softer dough
And you can see all the beautiful gluten has been fermenting
Knocking the air from it
So you'll find just with some very simple shaping
Once you bring your dough back together again
You actually find you have a beautiful smooth perfectly developed dough
Which virtually took absolutely no effort to make
Bring your dough together
Let it ferment and let the dough do all the magic
So now we're just gonna shape our dough
Just for what's gonna be used for each of our little pizza bases
So I generally find about 200g is a really nice portion for home
So I'm just using a little weighing scales
Just to help portion the dough, just making sure it's nice and consistent
You can do it by eye if you wish
Although if you're kinda not used to portioning dough
You'll probably find that one is this size, one is this size
And then you'll have some people giving out that some people got one pizza bigger than the others
Very gently bring our dough together
Roll into a nice little ball
So again when you're rolling, we're kind of using this part of our hand
Pushing the dough into the table
Make a large circle. Hand becomes a bit like a claw
If you find the dough a little bit soft or a little bit sticky
Don't be afraid to use a little bit of flour
Again we don't need... Not too much
Just enough so you can handle and manipulate the dough
Sometimes it's easier just to put a little bit of flour on your hands
Just to stop the dough from drying out, a little bit of semolina
And now again we're going to let these
Prove for a little while longer
Probably at least an hour to an hour and a half
Because what we want... You'll find that the dough at the moment's a little bit tight
Because it's been worked, it's been kneaded, it's been knocked back
So we want the dough to be lovely relaxed
So that when it comes to shaping later
Very very simple, very very easy to do
So, if you think about it
You've made the dough the night before
You come home in the evening
Very quickly portion your dough, roll 'em round
And we let them prove and ferment
So at this time, great time to get your sauce ready, your toppings
Carry on with your life
And they'll be perfectly good to go
So from 500g of flour
We're gonna get six great pizza bases
Our dough has been has been, ah, has been proving nicely for the last hour and a half
It's lovely and relaxed
So when it comes to cooking your pizza dough
Particularly at home
Make sure you turn your oven up, literally, to the highest possible setting
Crank it up full
We need that really high, intense heat
And again, you'll often get a lot of places kind of...
Get a pizza stone, which are great if you have it
Ah, but if you don't you can always improvise
I'm just taking a very simple roasting tray
And you're literally gonna flip it upside down
And the idea now I've got a kind of a lovely flat base
Which has been beautifully preheated
And I'm gonna slide my pizza base directly onto it
So then once it hits it, it's cooking
What we're going to do here is we're gonna...
Use our board here. It's gonna kinda act a bit like a peel
So we can shape our pizza base on this
And then slide it from here onto our preheated roasting
So basically it's hitting hot surface, it's cooking instantly
'Cause if you were kinda shape it round just onto a tray
Um...
Basically what's gonna happen is you're gonna put onto a cold tray
You're gonna pop into the oven
Then you're waiting for the tray to heat up
And all the time your dough is, um...
Is drying out. See the idea is we want it to be cooking instantly
So we're just gonna use a little bit of a mix between, kinda, semolina and some flour
When it comes to moving your dough, again
Don't just kinda grab it as a ball and squash it all together
Try retain the natural shape that it's got
Just use your little dough scraper, again
Don't knock the air from it just yet
So it actually takes very little...
Work, or very little shaping
Just be gentle with the dough
It's already in its natural shape
Use my fingers, working the dough out
Already you can see it kinda stretching
If you kinda like that pizza base where it's got that lovely uneven crust
That's only gonna come if you shape it by hand
It does take a little bit of more practice
'Cause if you're using a rolling pin
Basically you knock all of the air from the dough
So it's gonna be very
So if you can, try and work it by hand
If you're not comfortable with it, don't worry
A rolling pin's absolutely fine
All I'm doing when I come to shape it by hand
My hand's in underneath
I'm simply transferring the dough from one side to the other
Very gently 'cause I don't want to put my fingers through it
I'm using the natural weight of the dough
To stretch and work it out
Like with very very little work the dough...
'Cause we're working with a much softer, wetter dough
It stretches and works out very very easily
So I'm simply just gonna take
My chopping board here
Again I'm using some semolina
Semolina's great, it doesn't burn as easily as flour
So a little bit coarser, also
It's lovely and easier for your... Your dough to move
Transferr the...
Your dough
And if you ever find that your dough has torn ever so slightly
And you're afraid to waste it
Just cut a little piece off
you'd always patch it up no one's ever
And then before it goes, just make sure it's moving
You see none of the dough is sticking
So when it comes to sliding it off
It's gonna come off nice and easily
Now, when it comes to topping your pizzas
It really is a case of less is more
You need very very little toppings and you don't want to overload it
With... With different ingredients
Because again it adds too much weight to the dough
A little pizza sauce
Working from the center
All the way out
Again, just when you're saucing the pizza
Just be concious. Don't let it kinda drip on to the sides of the trays
'Cause it can, again, cause the dough to stick a little bit
So we're just gonna go for
A little bit of salami here
And when it comes here, it's all about personal preference
Whatever you have, whatever you're into
Green peppers
Tiny bit of shallot
Few little green olives
Certainly a love or hate thing
I kinda love 'em
Again, we're just gonna use a little bit of buffalo mozzarella
You can use grated, no problem whatsoever
Blue cheese is great
Little bit of parmesan, goats cheese
You can really kinda...
We're very blessed here in Ireland to have some of the best cheese in the world
And that is kind of it
A little crack of pepper
Pinch of salt
A little drizzle of olive oil
So basically... What we're just simply using a wooden chopping board
It's gonna act as as our peel
You can see it's moving
You're in full control, just...
Work towards the back of the roasting tray
Once the dough starts moving
Just pull it straight back
And you're looking at about
Four to five minutes of full heat. That is all
That's it. Five minutes
And that's all it takes
Just a normal domestic oven works absolutely great
You can see that beautiful kinda
Uneven, lovely bubbly crust
That's exactly what we want
So you can see our lovely, kinda
Puffy, light, beautiful crust
So at the bakery with our wood-fired oven
We'd generally be doing our pizzas up to 350°C
So yeah, you really need that really high intense heat
But, to be honest, you can do a really great job at home
You can see those nice little char marks starting to form
That's exactly what we want
And this one...
With family, with kids, absolutely perfect