While my brother and I two very different characters, we both have one weak point, pizza.
I try to limit myself as much as possible, I still have times when I cannot stop the craving.
Although we both share the love for a delicious dough, we have disagreements on the toppins.
No matter how hard I have been trying to spread the love of Hawaiian pizza I always get knocked back.
Knocked back hard.
My family and friends don't seem to understand that melted cheese ham and pineapple is a match made in heaven.
As we agreed that we will all share the pizzas that we make, I had no other choice than to cross the Hawaiian option from the list.
It's easy just to pick up a store-bought pizza dough or a ready-made pizza base and add some toppings on the top, but it's just not the love that I mentioned before.
Might none of us can agree on the toppings there is definitely one thing we all see eye to eye, the dough.
It needs to be fresh, soft, light and flavourful. That's just the heart of a good pizza.
Did you know that you only need a few simple ingredients to make a dough from scratch?
The recipe we found and decided to make an attempt at making is created by the amazing Jamie Oliver.
This is a classic Neapolitan pizza base using only 3 ingredients.
Believe me when I say that at the end it will well worth the extra effort of making the dough instead of buying it, plus it's just such a fun thing to do with your loved ones.
The secret three ingredients for a perfect Neapolitan pizza dough is
1 kg Tipo 00 flour, plus extra for dusting
1 x 7 g sachet of dried yeast
olive oil
To find the method of making this pizza dough just click here to follow Jamie Oliver's full recipe.
You can also watch my full IGTV tutorial by clicking here or on the picture below.
As my brother and Carl both have experiences working with pizzas, I asked for their tips on how to make the perfect dough easily at home.
Here are some of their thoughts.
Ovens:
Restaurants cook their pizzas at extremely high temperatures, and no home ovens can't reach the same amount of celsius.
You should use more water for pizzas that you make at home than the ones made at the restaurants.
The pizzas stay longer in the oven at home so that means the dough needs to more hydrated otherwise will be soft and light just super crunchy.
Dough:
Try to knead the dough by hand rather than using a stand mixer.
A stand mixer is definitely a more comfortable choice, but you'll have a better control of the texture if you knead it by hand. If the dough is sticking to your hands, add a little bit of flour.
The perfect dough should be a little tacky, but not too sticky.
If you don't want to use all the doughs. You can freeze the extra dough balls for another time.
All you need to do is once the dough is ready, divide it into 4 sections.
Place a dough ball into a greased freezer bag and place it in the freezer immediately.
When you wish to use it just put the dough into a greased bowl and leave it at room temperature for several hours. The mixture will rise eventually, and then you can use it to roll and bake another delicious pizza.
Sauce:
You can use any tomato-based pasta sauce, or you can also get creative and use
pesto, bbq sauce, or some other savoury sauce that you have at home.
I love a saucy slice actually I love when the dough is slim and swimming in the tomato sauce but as I was told too much sauce can get your pizza dough soggy.
This means it will be very hard to transfer it into the oven. Just drizzle here and there use the back of the spoon with circular motions to spread it.
Avoid putting the sauce right at the edges of the crust.
Toppings:
There are no rules about the kinds of toppings you should or shouldn't put on a pizza.
This is where you can really get creative and think outside of the box.
It's also really fun to experiment with creative toppings.
Hawaiian pizza always will be my number one but the second one on my personal list is definitely the all-time favourite Margarita with fresh basil on top.
These are the tips for a homemade pizza success.
As you all know by now, I'm not a good cook, but both my brother and Carl are professionals.
So you don't need to worry these aren't my suggestions.haha
To make a great start to your weekend, grab a couple of beers or some wine, pick a Netflix movie and get comfy on the sofa with this delicious pizza.
Since the lockdown, this has become our date night habits, and thankfully it isn't impossible to make it happen regularly.
Hope you will enjoy this recipe from Jamie Oliver just as much we do.
If you have any of your own tips for a successful pizza, make sure to share with us in the comments!
