Home-Baked, Stone-Baked Pizzas

It was an extremely successful Christmas as far as kitchen equipment goes - amongst other things we now have a mixer, a mincer, a ravioli press, a proper carving knife and, perhaps most exciting of all, a baking stone (from http://hobbshousebakery.co.uk/) for all my bread baking exploits! A baking stone essentially gives you that stone baked effect in a normal oven. It absorbs heat much better than a baking tray and therefore gives the dough more of a lift when it goes into the oven, allowing it to rise more as the air pockets expand. All of this means that as well as great loaves, I can now make proper pizzas with a crispy, blistered base:

Couple of stone baked white bloomers

Just like Mama used to make....

To make 2 pizzas I use:

125g Strong White Bread Flour

125g Plain White Bread Flour

3g Fast-action Dried Yeast

5g Salt

160ml Water

1 tbsp Olive Oil

In a bowl, combine the flours, yeast and salt, keeping the yeast and salt on seperate sides of the bowl. Add the water and mix with one hand until the dough starts to come together. Tip it out onto a clean surface, add the oil and knead for 5-10mins until smooth and stretchy. Form it into a round. Clean the bowl out, lightly oil it, place the dough in it and cover with clingfilm. Leave to rise for 1-3 hours. If you have a baking stone, preheat your oven to maximum well before you intend to bake, with the stone on the shelf in the top of the oven.

Ready for the oven!

Once risen, tip the dough out onto the surface, deflate it with your fingers and divide into two equal portions. Form each into a ball then roll them out to roughly 1-2mm thickness. Coat them well with semolina or polenta and place on a wooden board or a rimless baking sheet. Add your toppings (don't overcrowd it) and transfer either to your baking stone (the transfer can be a little tricky - make sure the pizza isn't too big for the stone, and that the base is well coated so that it won't stick to your board) or to a preheated baking tray. Bake for up to 10 mins - keep an eye on it, you'll know when it's done.

A word on toppings:

• For a tomato base you can use tomato puree, but I think you get a much better depth of flavour if you fry a little garlic and thyme in olive oil, add a tin of plum tomatoes, mash them with a fork, add a bay leaf, salt and pepper, and a pinch of sugar and reduce down for 30 mins until you have a deliciously tomato-ey paste.
• If you're using veg such as aubergine, courgette, pepper then it's nice to roast them for about 30 mins first - that way you get a nice caramelisation, and they lose a lot of their water content, meaning you don't get a soggy base.
• When you've arranged your toppings, a little drizzle of olive oil will help get everything nice and charred.
• I went for a classic Mediterranean style roast veg and buffalo mozzerella topping on this occasion, but sometimes it's good to think outside of the box - try some seasonal veg like kale or beetroot, or some local cheese - blue works great, as does goat's cheese.

Aubergine and Red Pepper, pre-roasted