General Pizza tips & Quick Questions

Nicki

I don't pre-cook my bases.

I make a very similar dough to the one posted and make enough for 4 pizzas. I have 4 pizza trays which I got for £1 each from a local homewares shop. I use one bottle of pre-made pizza sauce between the 4 (naughty I know but haven't mastered a thick enough tomato sauce yet), add the toppings and cheese. Wrap in tinfoil and freeze. When required I take them straight out of freezer, remove tinfoil and cook from frozen until the cheese is sufficiently melted on top to suggest they are done (takes about 15 mins at GM7, but that will depend on size of the pizza)

Dead easy really and taste much better than frozen supermarket pizzas

danielle24

I make ones from a recipe by Jamie Oliver:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_17300,00.html

Really yummy, can freeze the sauce and bases.

belfastgirl23

danielle24 wrote: »

I make ones from a recipe by Jamie Oliver:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_17300,00.html

Really yummy, can freeze the sauce and bases.

Me too, it's the simplest recipe I've found. the version I have omits the olive oil though.

For the sauce I use a pack of passata, tbsp oregano, tbsp olive oil and tsp salt, cooked till nice and thick.

custardy

i like to add a bit of semolina to the table for rolling out.
gives it a nice crunch

TillyTrippit

Hi, I use Naan bread for a base when we need pizza quickly. I use the garlic and coriander ones from Lidl and just the plain passata - saves on extra herbs. Then I just use any toppings we have in the house. They can freeze easily once prepared, but I normally just freeze the naans as we've always got topping stuff in.
Tilly
xx

Calephetos

lauralla wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies - Calephetos - do I not need any liquid in this recipe, or is it me being daft?!
Also, when you say pre-cook the bases - how long should I cook them for?

I didn't know that there was a whole collection of pizza recipes - thanks!

Argh! Yes - add water! Sorry - my head is all over the place at the moment. Add enough to make it into a dough - not too much - you can always add more. Go for a few spoonsful and add until you don't need ti (if too wet, you can add more flour as you knead).

By pre-cook, I mean that I slide the rolled out bases onto the pizza tray and stick them under the grill for a few moments. I don't 'cook' them as such, but get them a bit more solid (because of issues with our oven). I let them puff up and get baked enough to pick up without collapsing! They can be frozen at this point, or you could leave the freezing until after they're topped.

tooting_jane

Nicki wrote: »

I use one bottle of pre-made pizza sauce between the 4 (naughty I know but haven't mastered a thick enough tomato sauce yet),

I just use concentrated tomato puree which I dilute down to the required thickness.

emmie1234

Hiya not sure if this is what you're after but I got this recipe from DD's school lol She came home from school last term with pizzas she had made at school, they were delicious the bases were lovely. When I asked the teachers what they had used, they said they had got the recipe from somewhere for cheats pizza. They used breakfast muffins and split them into two halves for the bases. They then used tom puree or pasta sauce as the base, added the toppings and sprinkled with cheese. You could freeze them I suppose once you have put the toppings on or just freeze the muffins and only use the amount you need and then put the toppings on fresh before you cook them.
I added some basil and ground garlic to the tomato base before I added the toppings.

They do make small pizzas, but they are ok if you have two/three each if you're having them with something else- salad, wedges, garlic bread etc. Next time we have a party, I'm going to make mini pizzas this way instead of shelling out for "party sized" food.

We made some of these for tea last night and made some with peppers, red onion and mushrooms and then we made some with tuna and sweetcorn. yum!

EmmaJ_3

I use the dough setting on my breadmaker to make pizza dough, makes lovely bases and couldn't be easier. I get home from work late, so if it's going to be a pizza night, OH can put on the breadmaker earlier so the dough is ready for me to make pizzas when I get in, or you could put the ingredients in before you went out and set the timer so it's ready for action when you walk through the door.

I do freeze bases, I roll out the dough on a baking tray and put the whole thing in the freezer, once frozen take off the tray and keep the frozen uncooked base till needed. I also freeze homemade tomato sauce in batches, so then when we want an easy dinner can just pull out the base and sauce, and add fresh cheese & toppings.

Before I got my breadmaker my favourite pizza dough recipe was a Nigella Lawson one, using Italian 00 flour, from 'How To Be a Domestic Goddess'. Honestly I can't recommend that book enough, every recipe I've ever tried from it is divine (waiting for some chocolate biscuits from it to cool as I type!)

mossstar

Emmaj - i don't know if it helps, but i've found that i can make pizza dough the night before in my bread maker and put it in the fridge overnight and all through the next day while i'm at work - I then just take it out and use it when I get in from work! I just make sure that i give it a layer of olive oil (especially on the top) to keep it from going hard.

That's how I get round the fresh pizza after work thing I freeze the hm sauce in small portions and they can just defrost during the day while at work & kids at school. I always have mozeralla in the freezer too!

xx