Recent images have come of celebrity chef Paul Hollywood making pizzas in his girlfriend’s pub. Nothing wrong with that… everyone loves a good pizza and getting a slice prepared by a celebrity simply makes it taste better. We certainly have been very fond for many years of his pizza recipe and we would definitely recommend making your own at home for movie nights.
This recipe is adapted from Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake. Where most chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, Yottam Ottolenghi, Jamie Oliver, and Paul Hollywood all use strong white flour or even specialized pizza flour, we prefer to use a mix of cake and bread flour. There is no real reason for it, we were pushed this way as we do not have access to strong white flour and our bread flour is too coarse. The bread flour makes for a tougher dough with more bite and structure while the cake flour allows it to have more air in and more pleasurable to eat.
Precooking the dough makes it easier to cook the final pizza and achieve a perfect crust every time. If using a proper pizza stone, preheat the stone and do not pre-bake the base. The right pizza stone will draw the moisture out of the bottom of the pizza base. For more top tips on how to make the perfect pizza, follow why not see the tips we garnered from 10 top chefs?
Sourdough pizza base
Course: Lunch, Dinner, SnackCuisine: Italian, AmericanDifficulty: Medium8
servings2
hours30
minutes20
minutes300
kcal2
hours50
minutesPizza is a universal favorite – a sourdough leavened base rolled thinly, topped with tomato sauce and cheese and other toppings, and baked at high heat until crispy.
Ingredients
Sourdough starter, between 200g and 500g, an exact amount not important, the less you use the longer the initial rise.
300g white bread flour
200g cake flour
15g salt
350 – 450 ml tepid water
Olive oil for kneading
Directions
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, salt, and 300 ml of water together and leave for 1 hour.
- Add the sourdough starter and 50 ml water. Knead together to form a soft dough, adding a bit more water if required. Initially, the dough may feel too dry, but keep going until all of the flour is incorporated.
- Coat a tray with some flour and knead for 10 minutes. The dough starts to feel quite wet, but keep going and the dough will start to feel smoother and more elastic and will form skin.
- Pat the dough into a ball and gently pat the lower edge under it to create some tension on the top, using the pinky edge of your palms.
- Lightly oil your mixing bowl and place the dough in it. Cover the bowl with a slightly damp tea towel.
- Leave to rise in a warm place (22 to 24°C) for around 5 hours. The dough will double in size. I like to place it in my oven with the fan and light on, with no heat.
- Tip the dough back onto the floured tray and fold the edges of the dough inwards to gently knock out the air.
- Roll out into a log and cut into 8 equal portions.
- Using the palm of your hand as a cup, roll each portion into a ball.
- Gently tuck the edges of each ball under it using the pinky edge of your palm. This will create some tension on top of the dough and help it rise.
- Put the balls onto one or more tray, leaving about 5 cm of space between the balls. Loosely cover the trays with some cling film
- Leave to rise in a warm place (22 to 24°C) for another 4 hours.
- Turn your oven to 230°C.
- Put a ball onto a floured tray. Roll the dough to a thin layer of about 0.5 cm. Feel free to let the edges be thicker if you like the effect.
- Transfer to a cooking tray, prick all over the inside with a fork. This will prevent the dough from growing thick in the middle. If you prefer a thicker base, skip this step.
- Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
- They are now ready for the pizza sauce and toppings!
