In my house, Saturday night
has always been pizza night. However, growing up, I remember the greasiness and
over-enthusiastic seasoning of shop-bought pizzas wasn’t something any of us
particularly looked forward to. But no one ever fancied cooking so we just
stuck with it.
All this changed though on the
day of my Master’s graduation when my parents surprised me with a bread maker.
As congratulations presents go, it’s probably not the most conventional but I
can’t tell you how excited I was! I’d recently got into baking and couldn’t
wait to try out all the different loaves. Flicking through the recipe booklet
that came with it, I discovered the recipes didn’t stop at bread – there were
methods for cakes, compotes, jams... and pizza bases.
To make two thin crust pizzas
(or one deep-pan style base), all you need is:
½ tsp dried yeast
300g strong white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
170ml water
Put all the ingredients in the
bread maker and after just 45 minutes, you have dough that’s ready to shape.
All that’s left to do is to let them prove in the oven at 40°C
for 20 minutes and then it’s time to get creative with the toppings! All pizzas
mentioned in this blog are then baked for 10 minutes at 210°C (fan
oven).
If you don’t have a bread
maker to do all the hard work for you, then it’s possible to make the bases by
hand (or for the less adventurous, there’s always the local supermarket). My
bread maker has revolutionised Saturday nights - gone are the days of the
disappointing sludge that left me and my family feeling bloating and heavy. In
this blog I’ve put together a few of my favourite recipes – I hope you enjoy
them as much as we do.
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