Homemade Pizza Recipe
Prep time: 2 hoursCook time: 30 minutesYield: Makes 2 10-12-inch pizzas
Pizza dough is a yeasted dough which requires active dry yeast. Make sure the check the expiration date on the yeast package.
You can use all purpose flour instead of the bread flour that is called for in the recipe, but bread flour is higher in gluten than all-purpose flour and will make a crispier crust for your pizza.
Ingredients
Pizza Dough: Makes enough dough for two 10-12 inch pizzas
1 1/2 cups warm water (105°F-115°F)
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups bread flour
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Pizza Ingredients
Olive oil
Cornmeal (to help slide the pizza onto the pizza stone)
Tomato sauce (smooth, or puréed)
Mozzarella cheese, grated
Parmesan cheese, grated
Feta cheese, crumbled
Mushrooms, thinly sliced
Bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, thinly sliced
Italian sausage, cooked ahead and crumbled
Chopped fresh basil
Pesto
Pepperoni, thinly sliced
Onions, thinly sliced
Ham, thinly sliced
Special equipment needed
A pizza stone, highly recommended if you want crispy pizza crust
A pizza peel or a flat baking sheet
A pizza wheel for cutting the pizza, not required, but easier to deal with than a knife
Making the Pizza Dough
1 Proof the yeast: Place the warm water in the large bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved.
After 5 minutes stir if the yeast hasn’t dissolved completely. The yeast should begin to foam, which indicates that it is still active and alive.
2 Make and knead the pizza dough: Using the mixing paddle attachment, mix in the flour, salt, sugar, and olive oil on low speed for a minute. Then replace the mixing paddle with the dough hook attachment.
Knead the pizza dough on low to medium speed using the dough hook until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
If you don’t have a mixer, you can mix the ingredients together and knead them by hand.
If the dough seems a little too wet, sprinkle it with a little more flour.
3 Put dough in warm place to rise: Spread a thin layer of olive oil over the inside of a large bowl. Place the pizza dough in the bowl and turn it around so that it gets coated with the oil.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place (75-85°F) until it doubles in size, at least 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
You can let it sit for several hours if you want. The longer rise will improve the flavor of the pizza crust.
If you don’t have a warm spot in the house you can heat the oven to 150 degrees, and then turn off the oven. Let the oven cool till it is just a little warm, then place the bowl of dough in this warmed oven to rise.
At this point, if you want to make ahead, you can freeze the dough in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
Preparing the Pizzas
1 Preheat pizza stone: Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower third of your oven. Preheat the oven to 450°F for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour.
2 Punch down dough, divide into two balls: Remove the plastic cover from the dough and punch the dough down so it deflates a bit. Divide the dough in half. Form two round balls of dough. Place each in its own bowl, cover with plastic and let sit for 10 minutes.
3 Prep toppings: Prepare your desired toppings. Note that you are not going to want to load up each pizza with a lot of toppings as the crust will end up not crisp that way.
About a third a cup each of tomato sauce and cheese would be sufficient for one pizza. One to two mushrooms thinly sliced will cover a pizza.
4 Flatten dough ball, and stretch out into a round: Working one ball of dough at a time, take one ball of dough and flatten it with your hands on a slightly floured work surface.
Starting at the center and working outwards, use your fingertips to press the dough to 1/2-inch thick. Turn and stretch the dough until it will not stretch further.
Let the dough relax 5 minutes and then continue to stretch it until it reaches the desired diameter – 10 to 12 inches.
Use your palm to flatten the edge of the dough where it is thicker. You can pinch the very edges if you want to form a lip.
5 Brush dough top with olive oil: Brush the top of the dough with olive oil (to prevent it from getting soggy from the toppings). Use your finger tips to press down and make dents along the surface of the dough to prevent bubbling. Let rest another 5 minutes.
Repeat with the second ball of dough.
6 Sprinkle pizza peel with corn meal, put flattened dough on top: Lightly sprinkle your pizza peel (or flat baking sheet) with corn meal. (The corn meal will act as little ball bearings to help move the pizza from the pizza peel into the oven.)
Transfer one prepared flattened dough to the pizza peel.
If the dough has lost its shape in the transfer, lightly shape it to the desired dimensions.
7 Spread with tomato sauce and sprinkle with toppings: Spoon on the tomato sauce, sprinkle with cheese, and place your desired toppings on the pizza.
8 Sprinkle cornmeal on pizza stone, slide pizza onto pizza stone in oven: Sprinkle some cornmeal on the baking stone in the oven (watch your hands, the oven is hot!). Gently shake the peel to see if the dough will easily slide, if not, gently lift up the edges of the pizza and add a bit more cornmeal.
Slide the pizza off of the peel and on to the baking stone in the oven.
9 Bake pizza: Bake pizza one at a time until the crust is browned and the cheese is golden, about 10-15 minutes. If you want, toward the end of the cooking time you can sprinkle on a little more cheese.
Recipe: Salted-caramel ice cream sandwiches recipe
Salted-caramel ice cream sandwiches recipe
Easy to make ahead and with serious wow-factor, ice-cream sandwiches are perfect for parties. Try this super-indulgent recipe from Blu Top Ice Cream’s Richard Makin.
Makes just under 1 litre
INGREDIENTS
For the ice-cream
540g whole milk
210g double cream
130g granulated sugar
55g skimmed milk powder
3 egg yolks
25g cornflour
10g vanilla paste (or seeds of one vanilla pod)
For the caramel
300g granulated sugar
295g double cream
For the cinnamon snickerdoodle cookies
Makes 16 cookies
113g unsalted butter
150g granulated sugar, plus 3 tbsp for topping
1 large egg
¼ tsp vanilla extract
175g plain flour
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
METHOD
To make the caramel
Heat the sugar in a medium-sized dry pan on a medium high heat. Measure out your cream while you wait.
Do not stir, just swirl the pan over the heat until the sugar starts to melt. (Remember, molten sugar is incredibly hot and can cause serious burns).
Once the sugar has melted and no crystals can be seen in the pan, keep it over the heat until it turns a deep amber colour. If it begins to smoke, remove the pan from the heat.
Add the double cream to the pan of melted sugar in one go. The mix will bubble and can splatter, so be careful.
Mix the caramel over a medium heat until all the melted sugar has dissolved into the cream (it tends to lump into a ball but don’t panic, it will dissolve).
Add a good pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes and stir.
Put the pan of caramel into an ice bath and allow it to cool for around 10 minutes before covering in clingfilm and transferring to the fridge.
To make the ice cream
Add the milk, cream and half of the sugar (65g) to a large pan over a medium high heat. Monitor the temperature with a probe or jam thermometer and bring the mix to 40C.
While the mix is warming, whisk together the skimmed milk powder and cornflour in a medium bowl.
When milk mix hits 40C add around half of it to the skimmed milk powder and cornflour and blend. Pour through fine sieve back into pan of milk mix.
Add the vanilla to the mix.
Stir continuously with a silicone spatula, scraping the bottom of pan over a medium heat. Try not allow the cornflour to congeal on the bottom of pan, but don’t worry too much if this happens – it will be sieved out later.
Warm gradually to 70C then remove from heat.
Immediately whisk the egg yolks and remaining 65g sugar until pale and foamy in a medium bowl. Temper the egg yolks by pouring a slow, thin drizzle of the hot milk mix over the egg-and-sugar mix while whisking constantly. This stops the eggs from cooking too quickly.
Once around half of the milk mix has been combined with the egg yolks, pour the egg yolk mix into pan through a sieve with the rest of the base while stirring with the spatula.
Stir continuously, scraping the bottom of the pan, until the custard thickens and reaches 85C.
Immediately plunge the pan into an ice bath and blend with a stick blender for around a minute.
Stir occasionally until the temperature drops to 21C.
Add the now cool caramel and blend with a stick blender until the mix is smooth. Cover and chill overnight or for at least four hours in fridge.
Ensuring that the mix is at around 3C to 5C, strain through a sieve and blend with a stick blender before churning in an ice-cream machine for approx 20 minutes, or until it reaches the texture of soft-serve ice cream.
Decant the ice-cream into a tub and keep in the freezer for at least 6 hours.
To make the cookies
Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat and leave to cool slightly.
Beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla in a mixer on high speed for a minimum of 6 minutes
Add the butter to mixer in a slow drizzle, scraping the pan with a spatula to make sure you include all of it.
Mix the flour, salt and baking soda together in a separate bowl.
Add this dry mix to the wet ingredients in a mixer on a low speed but do not over-mix – just until it’s ombined.
Combine the extra sugar with the cinnamon in a baking tray and set aside.
The cookie dough will be wet at this stage, so wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
Form the dough into balls weighing 30g each (around the size of a walnut).
Dunk the top of each ball into the sugar and cinnamon mix and arrange on the prepared baking sheets (cinnamon side up) with a few centimetres gap between each cookie.
Bake at 180C for 10 minutes. The edges should be slightly brown and the centre pale.
Immediately transfer the cookies on their baking parchment to a cooling rack and let cool for minimum of an hour.
To assemble
To assemble the sandwiches, take a large scoop of the ice cream and place it in the centre of a face-down snickerdoodle. Top with another snickerdoodle and squeeze slightly until the ice cream meets the edges of the cookies. Eat straight away!