Adre’s Pizza Dough

Courgette, Chilli and Artichoke Pizza. Friday nights is pizza nights in our house.

Homemade dough tastes so much better than shop bought and its a 100 times better for you.

The longer you leave the pizza to rise the better the taste. I normally make my dough early on Friday mornings, knocking it down and letting it rise again, throughout the day, ready for pizza’s in the evening.

The beauty of this dough is its versatility, its great for pizzas, flatbreads and even works as a focaccia. I normally make a big garlic bread for Saturday lunch with the leftover dough. I play around with veggie toppings and normally have a mix between cupboard essentials and fresh veggies. See below for topping ideas.

Vegan

The dough is vegan so play around with vegan friendly toppings. There are a wide range of plant-based cheeses available from good deli’s and supermarkets, do keep an eye on the ingredients list, I will always try to source anything that is not homemade, with as little ingredients possible.

Makes about 4 large pizzas (depending on how thin you are rolling them).

Topping Ideas:

• Tomato Passata or puree
• Buffalo Mozzarella
• Pitted Kalamata Olives
• Bottled Artichokes
• Fresh Garlic
• Very finely sliced, onions, courgettes, red peppers and mushrooms
• Fresh basil, mint or chilli

• 220ml lukewarm water
• 2 tspn fast acting yeast
• 1 tspn sugar
• 400g strong white (or brown) bread flour
• 30g extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tspn fine salt

1. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and oil into the lukewarm water and leave for a few minutes. In a large bowl mix the salt and the flour and make a well in the middle, slowly add the water mixture to the dough. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, until fully incorporated. Knead for about 5-10min until you have a smooth, springy dough.
2. Drizzle a little oil into a large bowl, add the dough and cover with oiled plastic. When the dough has doubled in size, remove to a flour-dusted surface (opt without flour is fine) and knead your dough – this is called knocking back the dough, roll back into a ball and place back in the bowl, cover. Repeat throughout the day.
3. About 30min before you want to eat. Heat your oven to its hottest setting, place a baking tray in the oven to heat. This is really important. A hot tray ensures a nice crispy pizza base.
4. Divide you dough into balls, keep the other balls well wrapped. Roll out the dough as thinly as possible. Carefully remove the hot tray from the oven, dust some flour on the tray and place dough on hot tray. Add the passata, cheese and veggies of choice. Bake in the oven for 12-18minutes until golden.