Topic: Pizza from scratch

[Unclebuck]

I'm very interested in making a pizza from scratch i going to attempt next week i hope.

Can i ask what are your favorite toppings?? I'm thinking of a chicken Tikka and cheese...Mmmmm

[Unclebuck]

Don't know if any of you guys saw this the other day quite interesting i thought could even make some nice Tikka in there

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8876606173245233089&hl=en

[Madchester]

Cooking on a terracotta tile has 2 benefits.  The first is that the tile holds a lot of heat so when you put your pizza on it the temperature of the tile remains very high resulting in quick cooking time.  The second is that a terracotta tile gives your pizza a stone baked taste, which is a big plus.  Using the tile method allows you to cook the pizza quickly giving you a crispy base which is still soft and not dried out.  This is a way of mimicking the conditions of a stone bake oven.

I've never thought of trying Naan bread this way, I think I will give it a go.  I reackon It may reproduce the blistering effect on the naan bread.

[JerryM]

I'm very interested in making a pizza from scratch i going to attempt next week i hope.

Can i ask what are your favorite toppings?? I'm thinking of a chicken Tikka and cheese...Mmmmm

Pepperoni is my fav (smart price asda) closely followed by dry rub and pre sealed/part cooked chicken in rajah tandoori masala (the dark red version).

Cheese is a must - i always use mozzarella.

[chinois]

Cooking on a terracotta tile has 2 benefits.  The first is that the tile holds a lot of heat so when you put your pizza on it the temperature of the tile remains very high resulting in quick cooking time.  The second is that a terracotta tile gives your pizza a stone baked taste, which is a big plus.  Using the tile method allows you to cook the pizza quickly giving you a crispy base which is still soft and not dried out.  This is a way of mimicking the conditions of a stone bake oven

Agreed. Although a piece of iron seems to get the stonebaked flavour as well. Completely agree how the heating from the bottom is usually the downfall when cooking these at home.

[JerryM]

for info have attached pic of the eqt i use. 2 off 14" dia tins, 1 off 12" tin, slice, cutter and handle for tins.

[vindaloo]

Gotta say, this is EASILY by far, the best base yet for me  ;D

Very, very soft when kneading. Really good. It's also very good from frozen as well so I am able to make quite a bit and freeze it. I must admit, I whack all my ingredients in the bread machine to do all the kneading for me.

I stick my bread machine on N^o. 12 - Pizza base, and let it do it's magic for 1 hour 50 min. I do like my dough prepared well in advance so it's no good my girlfriend phoning me up at 3pm, expecting penne arrabiata at 6! I like to make it the night before or very early in the morning at the latest. It really is an extremely soft dough in your hands.

Can I just ask what yeast do people use? At the minute, I've got the Allinson yeast in the small yellow tin. I've also used Asda's own in the brown box (sachets).

[vindaloo]

I forgot to add, I use a pizza stone. I love mine and would not be without one now. I was worried that it wasn't one of the super-thick ones that people recommend, but it does it's job well. It was only ?14 from Amazon and at that price, I thought I wouldn't miss it if it was crap or got broke. I always leave mine in the oven as well.

[JerryM]

well pleased the base suits u.

funny enough i used a bread machine just the same (until it broke) - found it better to bake bread in the oven though but the machine spot on for kneading both pizza and bread dough.

i use the allison type of yeast only for bread. i use "fast action" dried yeast for pizza dough. the short cooking time for pizza does not seem to suit the normal yeast ie allison type - u still get a sort of yeasty taste in the cooked pizza base. i buy the fast action from ASDA but I've also used tesco no probs. i've also used fresh yeast (ask at the bread counter in ASDA) and that works pretty good too.

[RebeccaVT]

We love homemade pizza around here.  I stopped making the dough, however, when I discovered my grocery store sold really good balls of dough all ready to use.

I agree that using a stone and the hottest temperatures possible is the key to getting good homemade results.  I like the idea of using a heavy cast iron pan to make it even hotter.  In the summer, we love to cook pizzas on the bbq.
 
My favorite topping would be sauteed mushrooms and shallots with fresh buffalo mozzerella. Then, fresh out of the oven, drizzle with a bit of balsamic reduction.