Pizza
To make the dough you will need:
- 364ml cold water
- 18g salt
- 7g instant dried yeast
- 607g strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting
- Desired toppings
Place 2/3 of the water in a heat-safe bowl. Bring the remaining water to boil and pour into the cold water, this is a sure-fire way to ensure the water is the perfect temp for activating the yeast. Stir in the yeast and allow it to bloom in the warm water, ~5 minutes.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add all of your flour and fix a dough hook attachment. Once your yeast has bloomed, turn on the mixer on flow and slowly pour the yeast mix in. Allow this to go for 5 minutes then add your salt, then allow it to mix for a further 5 minutes. It should be a sturdy and elastic dough. Cover the dough with cling film and let rise for 2 hours, or doubled in size, in a warm place. (You could do this overnight in the fridge if you wanted, just ensure you bring it out 5 hours before you intend to work with it and it is at room temp before moving on to separating the dough).
Once the first prove is done, separate the dough into three of four balls, place with ample space on a tray and cover and let rise one more time, approx 45 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Preheat the oven and baking vessel to 240C.
It is now time to shape your dough! Starting with a round ball on a floured work surface, press and stretch your dough into a disc, being careful to not tear it. Once the desired size is reached, you can crimp the edges to make a crust and add the toppings. avoid overcrowding the top/making it too wet.
Carefully transfer your pizza to a preheated pizza stone or baking track and pop it into the oven to bake for approximately *30 minutes. If you really want to laden the top of the pizza with all sorts, you can blind bake your pizza dough for 12 minutes, then add your sauce and toppings and bake for a further 20 minutes. Guten Appetit!
*Assess as you go. Ovens vary and depending on how thick your dough is, how many toppings there are, if you do more than one pizza at a time, the bake duration, it will vary and you should adjust accordingly.