Pizza base

[Merry]

Made pizza for dinner yesterday. Yum!
Does anybody know how to make the base thinner?
I use the usual bread recipe, rise it in the bowl then on the tray then flatten it well before putting the toppings on but it rises to a chunky thickness in the oven.
Tastes good but it`d be nice to have the toppings dominate sometimes.

[bazil]

im not really an expert here...but....could you use less or no yeast so that it is unleavened like pitta?

[HILLDREAMER90]

Err just use a rolling pin A.

[Merry]

Yup! Do use a rolling pin It just rises in the oven.
I`ll try using less yeast next time - but I tend to make a batch of bread dough, some of it for loaves - a bit of it for the pizza.

[shiney]

I just roll it out wafer thin. Takes a bit of effort but it does give a nice crisp base. I don't like mega fat pizza bases.

If I am in a rush I make a scone base which is pretty nice too and you can roll that out quite thin too.

8oz SR flour
1 and half oz butter or marg
Enough milk to bind it all together.

Sift flour, rub in butter or marg and add milk to make a dough. Roll out on floured board and put on a greased tray. I put it in a hot oven for about 5 minutes by itself, just so that the base is not too soggy when all the toppings are placed on there.

[Merry]

Thanks! I`ll give it a go next time

[bazil]

if you make a large batch of dough for bread and pizza...you could always try and save a little for the pizza and make some more flour dough mix and add the yaesty bread bit to it?....it may work.....in the principal of charging the flour that has no yeast in it yet not too much that it overly expands

i like flat base too....that other stuff is like a cake

[bwaymark]

Hiya,

I've been on a pizza discoverie mission and am finding now that I can roll 'em out thin enough... the trick is practice practice practice....

:-)

-Ben.

[Millymollymandy]

My pizzas are like that too. I quite like it but do realise that basically we (only two of us) are eating a whole loaf of bread when we have a pizza!

Rolling it is so difficult though! It just bounces back!

And as the pizza rises and the mozzarella melts, it falls off and makes a complete mess of the oven. Grrrrr!

[wulf]

Rolling it is so difficult though! It just bounces back!

And as the pizza rises and the mozzarella melts, it falls off and makes a complete mess of the oven. Grrrrr!

My pizza bases tend to come out very thin. Maybe it's the recipe (I can post that if you want) but there are also a couple of other things I do which probably help.

• 1. After rolling it out, I don't put it immediately onto the baking tray (a round pizza dish in my case) but lift it on my fingers, stretching it round. It's hard to describe but it provides extra stretching and seems to help break the elasticity of the dough.
  
  2. I also normally prebake the base for a few minutes before adding the topping. Coming out of the oven to be "decorated" probably also prevents it rising too much.

Wulf

[Merry]

Thanks folks!
I had slightly better luck this week - I made a pizza sized lump of dough and put it into the fridge to rise overnight. I then rolled it out still cold and it didn`t spring back so much.
Meant that we had a roughly rectangular, thinnish pizza! Probably just as much bread but more topping

Wulf - I`d be interested in your recipe please!

[wulf]

Here you are:

140ml water
15ml olive oil
225g white bread flour
1tsp salt
0.5tsp sugar
0.5tsp yeast

It is a breadmachine recipe (from this book) and I've got a pizza dough setting on my machine (which I think gives about 5 minutes mixing, 10 minutes hard kneading and 15 minutes resting).

Wulf

[Millymollymandy]

Hmmm I use about 400g of flour!! And I still have to stretch it to fit the pizza tray! I do squeeze it a bit too.

I don't use bread flour, only ordinary flour, but that seems to rise in the oven after proving (whereas my bread doesn't rise any more in the oven, something I find very strange).

[wulf]

That's probably why mine comes out thinner then! What about the liquids?

Wulf

[Millymollymandy]

I don't have the recipe in front of me but usually it is about 250ml to 500g of white flour (approx).

This recipe says to use plain flour. Do you think that bread flour would be easier to roll out?