He recommends using pasta flour, where usually I use bread flour. But I had some pasta flour and so used that. The dough was a very wet, sticky dough. So much so that I wondered if I had misread the quantities. But I hadn't. Anyway, I left it for the suggested ten minutes, then tried to knead it on an oiled board for the recommended 10 seconds. It was VERY sticky. I left it for another ten minutes and when it was time for its second 10 second knead I decided to flour my hands - if only because the dough had been so sticky the first time that it was almost impossible to knead, no matter how gently. Back for another ten minute rest, then another knead. The dough was a little less sticky. Another ten minutes, another knead and the dough was less sticky still. Then it went to rise in a warm place for about an hour. By the end of that time the dough had risen by about half and was considerably less sticky. So much so that it was possible to roll it out and stretch it to make my pizza bases.
I put the pizzas into a pre-heated very hot oven and baked them for about 30 minutes. My oven isn't big enough to fit two pizzas on the top, so I rotated them after 15 minutes and put the one that had originally been in the top back there for another minute or two before serving them.
I have to say that the bases were really lovely, although the crusts were a little hard. I prefer a soft crust if it can be managed. But Mr Lepard has instructions for soft crusts so I'll give them a go one day. And I must see if I can persuade The Builder to build me a brick pizza/bread oven in the garden!!!
The quantities given in the book (600g flour, 1 tsp dried yeast, 400 ml warm water, 2 tbs olive oil) make more dough than I really needed but I can't work out how to conveniently reduce them. I might make extra pizzas next time and freeze them (or eat them!!)
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| Pizza Napoletana with olives, waiting to be baked |
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| Ready to eat |
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| Pizza marinara ready for the oven |
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| And cooked |
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