Pizza

I'll take your word for it, but would def be nicer with less gloopy cheese, and I fucking love cheese.

Just been to Santa Maria in Ealing, honestly the best pizza I've ever had in London.

Pasquale/MetroCammell is a bloody legend.

Just been to Santa Maria in Ealing, honestly the best pizza I've ever had in London.

Pasquale/MetroCammell is a bloody legend.

So Glad you liked it!!

Our pizza is Real, like steel.

One Love

So Glad you liked it!!

Our pizza is Real, like steel.

One Love

I plan to go there this weekend

Need to pay you a visit Pasquale, been a long time I haven't had *Pizza*.
Well worth the ride. ;)
See u soon.

Let me know when Nuno - I have something for you.

I enjoy making pizza for myself & family / friends for some years now; always sticked to a 'classic' dough recipe -
cup of warm water, 1/2 cube yeast, bit of sugar, salt & olive oil, mixed with flour using a fork until dough is smooth and non-sticky on the outside, put in warm place for at least an hour to rise (?), and there you go.

It's good, but basically it was kind of annoying to roll the dough out most of the time,
it kept contracting, and you had to put some effort into roll out / stretch the dough to the desired size.
Also it did savour of yeast too much for my taste (though we often did combat this with insane amounts of garlic in the sauce).

This week I tried a different method for the first time;
no sugar, no oil, way more, cold water, way less yeast, and way more time to rise (24h to 5 days) in a cold place.
It's really good if you have the time. If people are interested I'll post it up.

best pizza i ever ate was in Nice from a van, it had chorizo fucking lovely, the orange dye melted into the cheese. But i am a veggie now, arguably Italian food is the best for a vegetarian, with endless risotto, pasta & pizza recipes. Asparagus should go on a bianca pizza no tomato sauce..

I enjoy making pizza for myself & family / friends for some years now; always sticked to a 'classic' dough recipe -
cup of warm water, 1/2 cube yeast, bit of sugar, salt & olive oil, mixed with flour using a fork until dough is smooth and non-sticky on the outside, put in warm place for at least an hour to rise (?), and there you go.

It's good, but basically it was kind of annoying to roll the dough out most of the time,
it kept contracting, and you had to put some effort into roll out / stretch the dough to the desired size.
Also it did savour of yeast too much for my taste (though we often did combat this with insane amounts of garlic in the sauce).

This week I tried a different method for the first time;
no sugar, no oil, way more, cold water, way less yeast, and way more time to rise (24h to 5 days) in a cold place.
It's really good if you have the time. If people are interested I'll post it up.

I got given a pizza stone for Christmas which is as-yet unused - post away!

Did your technique make the shaping / rolling etc easier? That's where I think I may struggle.

The whole home-made pizza process seems quite labour intensive, but I guess if you've got loads of people over and have a few beers it would be pretty good fun

Actually home made pizza is really easy. I've got quick dough recipes and ones with a Biga (long rise, wet starter) which tastes much better, it just takes a little foresight. I have a pizza stone and the key to that is get it smoulderingly hot before use - max out the oven and leave it in there for an hour - and if you're worried about it sticking to the stone, make your pizza on baking parchment and use that transfer it on and off the stone using a baking sheet as your pake. 10000x better than anything that can arrive in 30 minutes or less.*

• - unless you make a run for Santa Maria.
  

or alternatively you can go to Sacro Cuore in Kensal Rise...

^ not bad + they do Nutella Pizza for desert

I got given a pizza stone for Christmas which is as-yet unused - post away!

Did your technique make the shaping / rolling etc easier? That's where I think I may struggle.

The whole home-made pizza process seems quite labour intensive, but I guess if you've got loads of people over and have a few beers it would be pretty good fun

It isn't really labour intensive, at least if you have the dough prepared in advance (maybe even the sauce).
The 'cold method' dough descibed below can sit in the fridge for 5-6 days before going off, use it whenever you feel like it.
Since I made way too much dough I've been eating pizza the last four days, all I have to do is roll some dough out,
put some sauce (sometimes readymade pasta sauce I admit) and some veggies and cheese on it and bingo.

The shaping / rolling is better with that dough, though I still have to master it.
Fresh out the fridge it's still contracting a bit, held over warm airflow (like the back of the gas oven) it gets reeeally 'stretchy' within seconds.
Guess one should let it warm up to room temperature, huh!

Ok, so here's what I did -
(the base of this recipe, which I modified a bit, is from here: http://tinyurl.com/cgckdzx ..you might want to check this out for the pictures, even though it's a german site)

• big bowl (plastic is good) or a big pot
  

• big fork

• 1kg flour

• 1/4 cube of fresh yeast (baker's yeast)

• 1 tablespoon salt

• about 1/2 litre lukewarm water

I hear you don't have standardized flour types in GB, so you'll have to check the protein content, specified in the standard nutrition label on the package.
What you want is a fine, white flour, with a protein content of about 9%.
In Germany it's "type 405", in France "45", in Italy it's "Tipo 00". It's the kind of flour you'd use for fine pastry stuff.

Put half of the flour in the bowl, add crumbled yeast, salt, and water.
Mix with fork until you have a runny mix, like a dough for pancakes.
Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel, and let rest for 20 minutes.

Stir the mix for 3-4 minutes using the fork.
This is very boring, as it's not really a 'dough' yet, it's more like stirring soup, for minutes.
But it's an important step, as your distributing the gluten of the wheat while stirring.
This, later, will help to trap the CO2 produced by the yeast in the dough, making it 'fluffy'.
Cover and set aside for 20 minutes again.

Mix in the rest of the flour, peu-a-peu, with your fork.
In the end, this will become strenuous, but keep going for 3-4 minutes.

Let rest for 20 minutes again.

This dough should now keep it's form, more or less, while still looking a bit like it would need more flour. Don't worry.
Turn around the bowl and let the dough flow on big wooden board / worktop dusted with flour.
Dredge the outside of the dough with flour, and kned a bit until you have a nice lump.
Divide in 5 equal pieces, again dredging those with flour and kneading them into nice little lumps.
Put those in Tupperware / airtight plastic containers, dust with flour, and put in the fridge for 24 hours to 5 days.

Roll out on wooden board / worktop dusted with flour, or do these wild wild tricks italians do, throwing the stuff around.
Remember warmth helps the dough to become more easy and elastic.

That's basically it!
I'll work on it and update this in the future, but for now this is the best pizza dough I've made yet.

Bon appetit!

: ]

Ps: I bake in maxed out gas oven at the bottom, in a cast-iron pan, as I do not have a pizza-stone. Works very well.

Brilliant work! That looks spot on... rocket on a Pizza is always a winner too.

Ta - will make the next dough this week, and hopefully remember to do cheese crusts this time : ]

Excellent thread!

Made pizza dough from fresh the first time today,

Was looking for a thin crust (roughly 5mm) and achieved this on half of the pizza, the rest was around 1cm thick , I'm sure the rolling was even but some seamed to rise more than the rest in the oven?

Was still impressed with myself, it tasted epic!
Buffalo mozzarella, Serrano ham, tomato & olives

Tina Kino - the recipe and pic of the results look ace. Definitely going to try it.

list?

1. apollo
   

I would be all over that if it wasn't South of the river!

I would be all over that if it wasn't South of the river!

it isn't ?

When has Earls Court been south of the river??

maybe he's referring to a river in scotland.

in which case I need to move north of that

#southofrivers>>>>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/jun/11/bye-lorelei-farewell-favourite-restaurant

:(

Recent quattro formaggi. It was fucking delicious.

Looks ace. You can't really beat a quattro formaggi for sheer eye-rolling deliciousness.