It’s totally possible to make fantastic pizza at home in a conventional oven. All you need is a can do attitude and a pizza stone to cook them on. This latter item is vital (as is the former, really!): you heat the pizza stone red hot in the oven before putting your dough on it – this ensures a crispy base, unattainable normally outside of a specialist pizza oven. Invest in one – they’re about a tenner.
First up: the dough itself.
I use Jamie Oliver’s basic pizza dough as my standard one. All of his recipes are fantastic and super reliable.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/recipe/pizza-dough/#bd7tsuV0RftylepW.97
Ingredients (6-8 pizzas)
1 kg white bread flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 x 7 g dried yeast sachets
1 tablespoon golden caster sugar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
650 ml lukewarm water
Equipment: Pizza Stone
Method
1. Sieve the flour and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. Mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well.
2. Bring the flour in gradually from the sides and mix it into the liquid. Work it all in together and knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.
3. 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.
4. 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 clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. If using straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.
