General Pizza tips & Quick Questions

Penny-Pincher!!

Hiya

OH uses tomatoe puree mixed with a little ketchup as the base sauce. Then adds grated medium cheddar, then the topping is normally ham, pineapple, sweetcorn then the mozarella on top :eek: DD just likes cheese and ham :rolleyes:

PP
xx

Anne_Marie_2

Have made pizza for more years than I care to admit. Used to make dough by hand, and nothing more relaxing when in a bad temper than taking it out on the dough! However, the breadmaker is a godsend, and could not do without it now.
My very quick base sauce is done in microwave, tin tomatoes chopped, 1 onion chopped (omit if you don't like it), 1-2 tblsp tomato puree, finely diced garlic clove, or tsp minced garlic, oregano or basil - either dried or fresh, (about 1tsp dried, good handful of fresh), salt & pepper and a dash of mushroom ketchup (or Worcestershire sauce for non-vegetarians). Mix all together in bowl and bung in microwave on full for about 10 mins, stirring after 5. Might need another 5 mins depending on micro so that sauce reduces enough. Should be enough to do 3 large pizza bases. (Use this sauce for everything - spag bol, chilli). Use any other spices/herbs that take your fancy.
Add any other toppings and cheese and bake in pre-heated oven.
For those you are suffering with soggy bottoms.........
Pizza brick is great, but mine went awol when I last re-did my kitchen and suspect it went into the skip by mistake. Now use the trays with holes and find them really good. Don't go for the cheapest though, got some in Asda last year, silver colour and they are really good - think they were about £3 or £4 each. Used at least once weekly, and still not a mark on them. Only thing is don't cut on them - think this has been my mistake in the past. Now transfer to another huge heated ceramic plate and cut on that.
Also, I prefer a thinner base, so never get a soggy bottom (well, not in the pizza dept. anyway - only going down a chute in the middle of the night - but that is another story!)
For those of you who like a deep pan, can I suggest you pop the base in the pre-heated oven for 3-4 mins, flip it over, then add topping and continue cooking. I have done this before to part bake and freeze bases, but never have enough room in the freezer to do this anymore, or to do the deep pan for DD/DH and thin for me, so they are cooked at roughly the same time.
For all of you who manage to do 12" pizza to do 2 or more adults - am so jealous! I have a load of gluttons here - anyone want to do a swap?

AussieLass

Thanks for the tip about the holy trays. I will keep an eye out for them in case I develop a soggy bottom.

Katgoddess

I have a challenge for you all !!!

What topping combinations to put on a pizza that doesn't involve cheese ?

A friend of mine doesn't like it. :rolleyes: :eek:

Queenie

Anne_Marie wrote:

.....
Used to make dough by hand, and nothing more relaxing when in a bad temper than taking it out on the dough!
.
.
.
.
.

Now use the trays with holes and find them really good. Don't go for the cheapest though, got some in Asda last year, silver colour and they are really good - think they were about £3 or £4 each.

I'm having a chuckle at the temper/make dough ... that's what my Mum would do! (Widowed+5 young children = stress) When we cottoned on ... it was almost worth niggling her just to have some HM rolls and bread

I have the Asda Pizza tray - and it really is great for a crispy bottom. I use it for croissants and cookies too :drool:

Anne_Marie_2

Queenie wrote:

I'm having a chuckle at the temper/make dough ... that's what my Mum would do! (Widowed+5 young children = stress) When we cottoned on ... it was almost worth niggling her just to have some HM rolls and bread

I have the Asda Pizza tray - and it really is great for a crispy bottom. I use it for croissants and cookies too :drool:

Laughed at your response Queenie, but it is soooooo true. It is so much safer than battering kids/hubby to a pulp! Never thought for a minute they would be goading me to make more pizza dough.........grrrrrrrr! Will have to go and make some now, boiling at the thought (only kidding!).

Anne_Marie_2

Katgoddess wrote:

I have a challenge for you all !!!

What topping combinations to put on a pizza that doesn't involve cheese ?

A friend of mine doesn't like it. :rolleyes: :eek:

Just use any toppings and don't add cheese! Won't look the same, but am sure your friend will like it. Just bung on what he/she likes.
One really delicious one which I do is with roasted vegetables (tomatoes, onion, mushrooms, courgettes and any other stray veggies lurking about), am sure that would be lovely without cheese. Just chop up veggies roughly, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle on some herbs and/or spices and bung in oven for 20 mins or so - usually roast veggies for a bit longer, but for pizza, tend to make them smaller, and they obviously get a bit more cooking on top of pizza.

jordylass

Over the last couple of months we have become complete pizza addicts, I find they are great for using up odd bits in the veg/salad drawer. I used the bread maker and the recipe from the instruction book the first time, but since then have used a recipe from an italian cookbook that I picked up at the boot sale, I find it quicker and easier than using the breadmaker, and I enjoy doing it. The only thing was the time it takes to rise as I usually start to cook too late.
I found this Jamie Oliver recipe and although the quantites are about the same as the italian one, you just go straight ahead and make the pizza, no rising time.

2 pounds, 3 ounces (1 kilogram) strong bread flour
1 ounce (30 grams) sugar
1 ounce (30 grams) salt
1 ounce dried yeast
1 pint (565 milliliters) tepid water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Toppings, recipes follow

Put the flour onto a work surface or use a bowl, if you are short of space. Using your fingers, make a big well in the middle of the flour. Add the sugar, salt and yeast then pour in the tepid water and olive oil. Using a fork, make circular movements from the center moving outwards, slowly bringing in more of the flour until all the yeast mixture is soaked up. This should be starting to look like dough now so you can start to work and knead it until it is smooth. This should take around 4 minutes. Roll out to a sausage shape and divide into 8 or 10 balls, depending on how large you want the pizzas to be.

Flour the surface and roll each pizza out to about the thickness of 3 beer coasters (1/3 of an inch). They don't have to be perfectly round, they should look home-made. Place each pizza on a lightly oiled and floured piece of tin foil. Flour the top of the pizza, placing another on top of it. Flour that and repeat this until all the pizzas are stacked together. These can be frozen for a couple of months, placed in the fridge for 10 hours, or cooked straight away. Lightly top with your chosen topping (the simpler the better) and bake directly on the oven bars for 10 minutes at your oven's highest temperature.

Toppings:

Tomato:
8 plum tomatoes
Sprinkle dried oregano
Drizzle olive oil

For enough to cover eight bases, chop and de-seed plum tomatoes, dry with kitchen paper, sprinkle with a little dried oregano and a drizzle of olive oil.

Various topping ingredients:
Sliced mozzarella
Rocket (Arugula)
Parmesan
Olives
Sun-dried tomatoes
Artichoke hearts
Prosciutto
Panchetta
Any interesting cheeses - use your imagination

I like mine with spinach and mozzarella mmmmm, I cut my sausage into 5 which makes us all about a 10-12" pizza. This dough wont take any sitting around, (maybe because of no prooving ?sp).

I like my pizza thin and crispy and the children like theirs more deep pan, giving theirs 20 mins on the tray before putting it into the oven is enough to give them a deep pan type of base.

I use the trays with the holes in from asda, the were about £1.75 and I now have 5 of them, (they are also great for oven chips) the only time I get a soggy bottom is if I put too much topping on them.

illmonkey

You used to be able to buy some lovly pizza bases from waitrose, they were semi cooked and had cheese on the top. Then obviously you put your tomato sause and toppins on it, in the over for 15 mins and it was lovly.

I dont know if there still about?!! anyone spotted them?

Also, whats the best homemade pizza? And how do you make your bases.

dooj

I buy pizza base mix from asda, just add water mix for a bit, knead it, then roll out to desired thickness and size. Then add whatever topping you like.