The process of making pizza

Right then,

Several years back I was often to be seen in the frozen pizza section of any discounter hunting for my fave "Pizza Hawaii". I even used to order them from a frozen food van. But that was before I discovered how unbelievably easy it is to make my own. Thanks to Jamie Oliver (hero of mine) he shows how easy it is to make your own base. I can drop a recipe here if anyone is interested.

The toppings are the fun part. Tonight I dropped some home grown zucchini/courgette and mushroom on top. (a future dream is to grow my own mushrooms but not yet)

Anyone here heard of clay adobe ovens? People get brick ovens built by an Italian company called Forno Bravo which cost about 6-800 Euros. But you can actually make you own for about 50 Euros using natural clay. This is on my "todo" list for next year. I've already asked the neighbours, and will bribe them with a chunk of pizza also! They take about an hour to heat up with natural wood.

Pizzas so baked in such an oven (hell that sounds German) bake in about 30 seconds!

I post this cos I am so in love with pizza and the whole process of making them. anyone have any extra methods they'd like to share?

Drink more.. order a takeaway..

Problem solved?


Whats wrong? Lost your face book password!!!

My top-tip for pizza is this: when you're mixing up a load of yeast with some water and sugar, dump a load of flour in too. When you've then used that to make up your dough, it rises much, much better.
Another thing I do is wipe my pizza pan with a touch of oil, then chuck in some polenta, swirl about, and tip away excess. Good if you're making a deep pan style pizza.

If you find that there are no tomatoes in the house to make a sauce, even though you certainly bought some, but your wife gave them all to your baby who is well into eating tomato, then you might have to quickly knock up an improvised sauce. Tomato puree is your friend. Just let down a couple of tbsp of puree with some water, splash of olive oil, and a pinch of oregano.

A bit of a tip related to Germany is about the cheese. Those balls of mozzarella they sell here, you know the ones, packed in some liquid, are too wet. They'll fuck your pizza up. Try and do yourself a favour by drying the ball a bit with some paper, and also not using too much. The harder danish mozzarella is probably going to be easier for you to use.

Best topping is subjective, but for me, it's tuna, capers, olives, green pepper and onion.

Don we have a tomato thief in this house too. Mine calls them "bimatoes". Hey the top hotel
chefs don't have to work under these conditions do they?

Thanks for that flour in the yeast tip. I'm going to do that from now on.

What I particularly love is using stuff from the garden. I have an oregano plant outside the front door but I also like picking some Swiss Chartd or spinach and droppping that on top with ham or mushroom.

I make the base and then leave it for a couple of hours to rise to get that deep pan effect.
The one tip I was given and it is true is the hotter the oven the better! I now cook them on about 230 degrees C for about 8 minutes!

I do fresh tomato with paprika salami, red chillies and oregano!

I looovvvvvee pizza!!! Fav is hawaian with chichen.

Do you all use semolina flour, too? I've seen Jamie Oliver use to make his pizza dough, but don't know the German name for it.

Anyone who puts fruit on pizza is a sicko!

Yeah yeah I know tomatoes and olives are technically fruit but pinapple. Yuck.

The German name for semolina flour is Hartweizenmehl. There's an old water-powered mill in the small town I live in (Rain am Lech) which has it. I use it to make pasta, but I've never tried it for pizza dough. Do you have a link to a semolina flour pizza dough recipe that you like?

I love pizza too! When I use to make it I did it the lazy way. I would use a ready-made pizza dough, topped with tomato puree or real tomatoes, anchovies, and some cheese.

Although I like pizza a lot, I stopped eating pizza many years ago because of the carb content and the white flour in the dough.

I was in Chicago three weeks ago and went out with a group of 16 people to Ginos East which is famous for pizza in Chicago. I had a salad. The waiter asked me "how could I possibly come to a famous pizza restaurant and eat salad?"

Traveler thats interesting! Pasta? Do you have a machine for it?

What is that "Weichweizenmehl" I see in the supermarket?

Thank you all for the help here. God TT is brilliant again!

@don_rina

I personally find that using Mozzarella di Bufala Campana is far superior. You can get it for about €9 per Kilo in Karstadt. The germans call it Büffelmozzarella, made obviously from Buffalo milk.

Yeh the hotter the oven the better. Or get a pizza stone. You heat them at 275°C for 3/4 hour and then you have a chance of achieving what the pizza ovens can, usually about 350-375°C

@jeremy what about some building plans then? I'd love to make one

Happy to oblige. I've had pizzas from wood ovens whilst in Corsica and love the whole idea. Jamie Oliver At Home is on Chan 4 again and he showed off his opven which was built with firebricks which is another more expensive version. The one I'm interested in uses recycled materials and costs almost nothing, only time.

There's a whole bakery in Bath in England based round a clay oven, a very eco business which I follow via the web from time to time. The Thoughtful Bread Company. They were featured on a show called "Its Not Easy Being Green"

The wife wants a pool in the garden. I've said yes only if I get my pizza bakery!