What is considered a great pizza whether its takeaway pizza or homemade is really a matter of preference, but here are some tips on how to make your own:
First things first you have to make your dough, the measurements for ingredients can vary, but the basic ingredients usually stay the same. Basic Pizza dough ingredients are yeast, flour, sugar, salt, hot water and oil. It’s really important to knead the dough. It’s not just about mixing the ingredients together, but about preparing the dough to rise, it should be kneaded until entirely smooth. Once you have made your dough you should leave it on a warm spot for an hour or two allow it to rise.
Make use you heat the oven up about an hour ahead of time to ensure it’s good and hot. The oven realll needs to be at least set to gas mark 7. The crust has to bake and brown very quickly. A slow oven will not force the moisture out of the crust, and the toppings will make the crust soggy.
The best pizzas come out of wood-burning, clay-lined ovens. But for most of us, it is not possible to have such an oven in our home. So, for the home cook, the next best thing is to use a pizza stone. You can buy clay stones specifically designed for pizzas, or you can get unglazed floor or quarry tiles at your local home improvement store. Pizza stones come in round or rectangular shapes. If you find tiles that are rather small, you can set several next to each other to make a larger surface.
Once the dough has risen to need to roll out your crust whichever style you are going for you should always try to roll from the middle. Rolling your crust out on a piece of cornmeal dusted parchment paper, makes life easier especially if you are going for a thin crust. That way you’ll have less trouble getting it in to the oven.
After you have rolled your crust it’s then time for the fun part and deciding on your toppings. Be judicious with toppings. Most thin crust pizza just can’t hold that many toppings. For an average 12″ pizza, about 1/2 cup of sauce is plenty. A cup of vegetables and meats, and 1 to 1-1/2 cups of cheese will make a good thin crust pizza.
Although fun and fairly easy to make sometimes it might be easier just to get a pizza delivery, you might not get that homemade taste or warm fuzzy when you sit down to eat it, but at least it does save on the washing up.
For more information on pizzas and free advice on pizza delivery in Bristol visit pizzadeliverybristol