Covered pizza - or pizza with a lid

When I make a pizza I start with the base. I make sure the dough is full of flavour by adding various ingredients - often what I have hanging around.

Place both pieces of dough on baking parchment - makes them easier to handle. But don't leave the lid on the paper too long - it can easily stick.

Lid safely on. Leave to prove until the dough is puffy. 

Ingredients:

200g strong white flour

1 teaspoon bouillon powder

1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs

1 teaspoon curry powder

100g lukewarm water with 25g tomato puree stirred in

1 rounded teaspoon fresh yeast or level teaspoon of dried yeast

25g of the sun-dried tomato oil

4 large sun-dried tomatoes, chopped into small pieces

Pieces of roasted pepper, chopped small (I used about a tablespoonful - just to finish off the jar)

Topping:

Houmous

Slices of fried vegetarian sausage

1 sliced tomato

Several sliced mushrooms

Fresh basil

Method:

1. Place the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Stir the yeast into the tomato/water mixture until it’s dissolved (dried yeast takes a little longer to dissolve than fresh) and add it to the flour. Pour the oil into the liquid once it's in the bowl, then add the peppers and sun-dried tomatoes

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, starting with the yeast, cutting through the dough. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by stretching the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Do this until it is smooth – and stop before you get fed up!

4. Prepare your baking sheets, take the dough out of the mixing bowl and place it on your worktop. Divide the dough into  or 2 equal pieces and form each piece gently into a cob shape. Have plenty of flour to hand and liberally scatter flour over the dough and worktop. With a rolling pin, roll out each piece of dough to the size of your baking sheets and place them both on baking parchment.

5. Spread the base with houmous and cover with slices of sausage, tomato and mushroom then scatter shredded basil over and sprinkle with herbs and black pepper.

6. Place the other piece of dough carefully over the pizza and peel off the baking parchment.

7. Leave to prove until the dough has become puffy at the edges.

8. Place in a hot oven, 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for 15-20 minutes, turning round halfway through if necessary. When they're done the pizzas will lift up all along one side when you check underneath, using a palette knife. The bottom should be browning from the edges.

When I say browning, I don't mean this:

Oops! Still haven't cracked it with my chiminea! Still tasted excellent - it was bursting with flavour.

For how it came to look like this, have a look at my chiminea post.

Hungarian chocolate bread

In the summer of 1998, as the Chairperson of the Community Education committee at a local comprehensive, I helped organise a visit to Hungary – by coach, which was an interesting experience in itself – it took us 26 hours! It was a fantastic trip and the Hungarians made us very welcome indeed. The local population pulled out all the stops and could not do enough for us.

One afternoon we were told there was a folk dancing group we really must see. So we piled into our bus – about 38 of us - and drove out to a small village hall a few miles from Pecs in Southern Hungary.

Where we were completely blown away!

It was a typical village hall, we all collected a chair, unfolded it and sat around the walls of the hall wondering what to expect.

We heard a burst of music outside – then in trouped this colourful, exceptional folk dance troupe! We found out later they had won prizes all over Europe.

They proceeded to dance for us for about three quarters of an hour. Then the men all produced handkerchiefs which they laid at the feet of the female members of our group as an invitation for them to join in.

The men were similarly invited and we all spent a few minutes laughing and trying to match the steps of our hosts. There was a wonderful sense of community, of two cultures mingling, and the whole experience shines bright in my memory.

Afterwards we were served refreshments which consisted of small glasses of schnapps – and slices of two-toned, sweet, fruit bread – Hungarian chocolate bread.

When we compared notes about the bread, later, we realised we had been served several versions of the loaf – all were two coloured, all contained dried fruit – but some said they had nuts in theirs, others chocolate chips. We reasoned that the Mayor, or someone, had said “We’ve got these English visitors coming – can a few of you make a Hungarian loaf or something for them?” So three or four loaves were made – each with their own variation.

I’ve tried to recreate it; with how much success, I’m not sure. However, it does taste wonderful!

Note: This is made with two separate doughs, one with cocoa powder and one without. When the loaf is sliced, the nuts show up pale against the chocolate bread, and the fragments of chocolate show up against the white bread. Both doughs contain dried fruit.

Ingredients for chocolate dough (1):

200g strong white flour

2 tbs sugar

1 dsp cocoa powder

100g sultanas

50g chopped cashew nuts

1 dsp fresh yeast

125ml lukewarm liquid

2 tbs olive oil

Ingredients for white dough (2):

200g strong white flour

2 tbs sugar

100g sultanas

50-100g roughly chopped good quality eating dark chocolate (or chocolate chips)

1 dsp fresh yeast

125ml lukewarm liquid

2 tbs olive oil

Plus:

1 teaspoon sugar for a sugar glaze

Method (1):

1.     Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix the cocoa powder evenly in with the flour and add the fresh yeast, crumbled, in a dip in the flour.

Method (2): As (1) but without the cocoa powder.

2.     Pour the lukewarm water over the yeast to start it dissolving, then pour the olive oil into the liquid in the bowl. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Stir the yeast, then the rest of the ingredients, with a table knife or similar, cutting through the dough as it forms. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3.     Knead by stretching the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Do this until it is smooth – or until you get fed up!

4.     Leave them both to prove for about an hour on your worktop, covered with a dry tea towel. Or place in an oiled plastic bag until you are ready for step 5.

5.     When you are ready to proceed, place the dough on the worktop and roll each piece into a long rope – about 25-30cm. Now twist them together into a loaf. The easiest way to do this is to lay one across your prepared baking sheet and place the other at 90 degrees over it – so that they form an X. Starting at the middle, twist them over and over each other, tucking the ends neatly underneath.

6.     Cover and leave to prove until the loaf has risen appreciably. Then bake at 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for between 20-25 minutes, but check after 15. It is done when it is browned underneath. If your oven is browning the top of the loaf too fast, cover with foil or baking parchment.

7.     Brush with a sugar glaze made with one heaped teaspoon sugar and 2 teaspoons boiling water.

When cooled, slice and serve with a glass of Palinka!

(There's a - not very good - pic on my daily bread thread.)


Update, 26th Feb.
Coincidentally, this morning, I bumped into two of the friends who came on the Hungary trip, Jan and Mike. Jan had seen another excursionist (is that a word?) only the day before - they spent some time reminiscing about Hungary. I have to admit, it was a very special trip - 13 years ago, and it's still fresh in the memory!

Calzone in the chiminea

Firing up the chiminea today, so I thought I'd make a calzone or two.

I still haven't quite figured out how to bake a straightforward pizza in there, yet, so calzone it is - simply because you can turn it upside down to cook the top - not recommended with a pizza!

Made up a sponge earlier on this afternoon - 5g fresh yeast, 125g water and 50g each of wholemeal and white.

Mixed it together into a sloppy dough, covered it and left it whilst I attended to a few things.

When I came back after a couple of hours it had risen to a smooth soft, very thick batter.

To this I added another 50g each wholemeal and white, plus:
1 teaspoon bouillon powder
1 heaped teaspoon hot curry powder
1 teaspoon mixed herbs
4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped small
25g oil from the s-d-tomatoes

Mixed this into a dough, kneaded it for about 20 seconds and put it in the bowl, then covered with a cloth.

Started the fire, and, when it was going nicely, I covered it with charcoal and came back into the kitchen to shape the calzones.

I roughly kneaded the bread, which was very soft, and quite sticky - but for a dough you're going to roll out, using lots of flour, it was fine.

I divided the dough into two pieces and rolled them out into circles, working on them alternately.

Here's one of them, rolled into a bit of an oblong - but hey, who cares? Then placed on baking parchment.

Then I spread half of each of them with Pateole (a very tasty vegan mushroom spread) and pesto. On this I placed 40g (roughly) of chopped vegan polony, sprinkled this with some Sheese (a vegan cheese substitute) and finally a dessertspoon of nutritional yeast and some black pepper.

The dough smooths out as it rises.

Then I lifted up the side of the dough with nothing on it and brought it over the filling and tucked it in all round. As you can see, your circles can be quite rough, but by folding the dough over the top they don't look too bad.

When I'd shaped both calzones, I covered them with a tea towel and went to check on the fire.

It was glowing hot, so I put the calzones in the top oven for a minute, just to give them a blast of heat.

After ten minutes began baking in earnest.

Took me a lot of fiddling about with various implements, but eventually I finished up with this one:

Nicely done on top

And this is what it looked like when cut open:

It tasted wonderful - and the tang of wood smoke only added to the flavour 

I had (almost) a whole one with a baked potato and some spicy lentil and tomato sauce - just gorgeous.

LARDY CAKE - vegan alternative

There are many versions of lardy cakes, with varying amounts of lard, fruit and sugar. Here is my vegan alternative suggestion, using Pure soya spread.

Chill the shortening in the freezer for 30 minutes before you start, since this will help prevent it melting as you work it into the bread. 

Ingredients.

200g strong white flour

2 dessertspoons sugar

100g sultanas
1 teaspoon mixed spice 

1 teaspoon fresh yeast

125ml lukewarm water

2 tbs olive oil 

Filling:

50-100g Pure soya spread, chilled

1 dessertspoon sugar

Topping:

Brush with a glaze made with 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 dessertspoon boiling water.

Method:

1. Measure the water and stir in the fresh yeast. Place the flour, sugar, spice and dried fruit into a mixing bowl and mix to distribute the ingredients. Pour in the yeast liquid and add the olive oil.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary. Remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, cutting through the dough as it forms. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by stretching the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Do this until it is smooth – or until you get fed up!

4. Form the dough into a cob shape and roll it out into a rectangle a bout the size of an A4 sheet. Slice the Pure thinly and place it over two-thirds of the dough. Sprinkle with one dessertspoon sugar. Fold the other third over then over again. Turn it over so that you can see the join and make sure that the Pure spread is hidden. Using a fair bit of flour, roll out to the size of the original rectangle and fold into three once more. If you want to make it flakier you can roll it and fold it once more.

5. Place on a baking sheet with a decent lip around the edge (to catch any melted fat) and lightly score the top in a diamond pattern.

6. Leave to prove on your worktop until well risen and bake for 15-20 minutes at 220C (gas 7). Look for colour underneath to show that it’s done.

7. Brush with a sugar glaze made with one teaspoon sugar to two of boiling water.

Belgian buns

These were made with dried cranberries, soaked for a little while. Rolled up, sliced and flattened - and put to prove.

Ingredients:

400g strong white flour

2 dessertspoons sugar

2 teaspoons mixed spice, 2 teaspoons cinnamon

200g dried fruit (currants, sultanas or raisins plus mixed peel)

1 dessertspoon fresh yeast or 1 teaspoon dried yeast

250ml lukewarm liquid

Good splash of olive oil          

Filling:

1 dessertspoon oil

Sugar to sprinkle

Topping:

Icing sugar and halved glace cherries

Method:

1. Place flour, sugar, spice and fruit in a large mixing bowl. Stir to mix them evenly. Place the yeast in a well in the flour, then pour the water over the yeast to start it dissolving and add the olive oil.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Stir the yeast, then the rest of the ingredients, with a table knife or similar, cutting through the dough as it forms. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by stretching the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Do this until it is smooth – or until you get fed up!

4. Leave to prove for about an hour on your worktop, covered with a dry tea towel. Or place in an oiled plastic bag until you are ready for step 5. Or go straight to step 5.

5. When you're ready to proceed, roll the dough out into a rectangle, 40cm by 25cm. Brush with oil and sprinkle with the sugar. Roll up the dough along the short side, towards you, as you would a Swiss roll, and leave to rest on the seam. Cut into 16 pieces and flatten each bun down to about 1cm thick out then place on a prepared baking sheet, fairly close together. The buns should touch all round when risen which helps to keep the buns in shape. Leave to rise appreciably.

6. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes at 220C 425F or gas mark 7, checking the colour underneath the buns – they should be browned evenly across the bottom. You may need to remove the buns on the outside, which have browned underneath, and replace the others in the oven, upside down.

7. Cover with icing sugar and top with half a glace cherry.

Notes:

Any dried fruit will do – dried cranberries work very well, as do dried apricots (chopped fairly small)

If you plan ahead, it’s a good idea to soak the fruit beforehand. Use the soaking liquid with the yeast.

The outside buns are done, but the middle four had to go back in the oven for a couple more minutes. I want to see a little more colour on them.

As you can see, decoration is not my strong point!

Fougasse (with variations)

Ingredients:

2 mugs or 400g strong flour of your choice - I prefer half and half wholemeal and white

1/2 teaspoon salt

250ml (or 2/3 mug ) of  lukewarm water (or increase the water to 280ml and use method B here)

1 rounded teaspoon fresh yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil

Method:

1. Place flour, salt and tomatoes in a mixing bowl, measure the water and stir in the fresh yeast.  Once it is dissolved, add it to the flour, followed by the olive oil.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, cutting through the dough. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by stretching the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Do this until it is smooth – or until you get fed up!

4. Leave to prove for about an hour on your worktop, covered with a dry tea towel. Or place in an oiled plastic bag until you are ready for step 5.

5. When you are ready to proceed, knock the dough back and roll it out to about 3cm (1 inch) thick on a lightly floured worktop. Place it on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.

6. Flour the top of the dough and make several separate cuts in the bread in any design you choose, using a sharp implement of your choice. I’ve used a dough cutter, a pizza cutter, a D-shaped spatula, and scissors for this, recently. Make sure the cuts don’t run into one another and, of course, don’t run over the edge of the dough. Stretch out the holes to define them more – the holes will try and close up if you’re not careful

7. Leave to prove, covered with a tea towel, until it has risen appreciably.

8. Bake at 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for between 25-30 minutes.

Variations:

Half a dozen chopped sun-dried tomatoes in the dough at step 1.

The same amount of bottled, grilled peppers folded in at the end of step 3.

A small handful of black olives similarly treated.

Here are several examples from a recent breadmaking session with some adults with learning disabilities:

Teaching the homeless

I've just started a course teaching breadmaking to a group of homeless guys in a hostel.

Last week each student made 3 soda breads: plain, spicy fruited and cheese - one with curry powder and cheese.

The cheese and curry one was voted the tastiest!

This week (24/1/11) we made yeast-risen breads: A freeform loaf - done with 3 short kneadings with a rest in between (method B) - Chelsea buns and apfel kuchen.

Because we don't have a lot of time in these sessions the Chelsea buns and the AK were made from one batch of dough. The dough was rolled out, brushed with oil and sprinkled with sugar, then rolled up like a Swiss roll. Half of this was cut into Chelseas and the other half rolled out and covered with slices of apple which were sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

Here's some of the breads we made

And here's some more - in the form of Spongebob Squarepants!

(7/2/11 - 3rd session out of 8) Another good session today – made four breads, two sweet and two savoury.

One batch with a dessertspoon of sugar made 3 jam doughnuts and 4 petit pain au chocolat. Roll out the dough to around pizza size, cut out 6 circles - 3 bases and 3 tops - add the jam and squidge them together. Roll out the trimmings, divide into 4, push a piece of chocolate into the dough and, once again, squidge the dough around it. Once baked, the pain au chocolat gets a sugar glaze and the doughnuts get a sugar glaze plus a sprinkling of sugar.

The second batch had salt instead of sugar – this made two ‘white’ pizzas. One French – Tarte Alsace -  and one Swiss – Emmenthal bread (link to come).

These  guys are a real pleasure to teach - quick to learn, eager to please (apart from one who said he was allergic to washing up! However he did help to clean the tables.) and appreciative of any help.

No pics, I'm afraid - I had no battery left in my mobile.

Next session (in a fortnight) we're making Italian breads. Any suggestions will be very welcome.

Schiacciata con l'uva – Two-harvest bread (Gluten- and yeast-free)

Made this a while ago - just found it whilst looking for gluten-free recipes in my files. (The ingredients for a wheat flour version are below.)

Ingredients:

200g cornmeal

100g sultanas

2 dsps sugar

2 tsps gluten-free baking powder

150ml (plus) water

Good splash of olive oil (optional)

Plus a handful of seedless grapes, halved.

Method:

1. Put the oven on at 200C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

2. Place dry ingredients in mixing bowl and stir a couple of times, using a spatula or table knife.

3. Working quickly (the baking powder starts to react when it meets the water), add sufficient water to bring it together as a dough - I found I'd used 162.5g (my scales are divided into 25g segments - the pointer was just halfway between two lines!)

4. Place on baking parchment and roll or push the dough out into a circle about 2cm thick. Cover with the grapes and place in the oven for about 20 minutes

5. It's ready when a skewer comes out clean.

The term ‘Two harvest bread', comes from the fact that the sultanas are from last year and the grapes from this. (If you soak the sultanas in wine it becomes ‘Three harvest bread'!)

The bread has an unusual texture - it seems a little grainy when you first pop it into your mouth, and there is a slight 'metaliccy' taste.

But I had some last night and found myself going back several times for another nibble, which is a good sign!

I had a chunk for breakfast, split and spread with apple puree. It was very acceptable.

I'm certain you could make this into a pizza dough by leaving out the sugar and fruit. I'd be tempted to brush the surface with oil before putting on a tomato topping.

200g wheat flour

100g sultanas

2 dsps sugar

125ml lukewarm water

1 teaspoon yeast

Good splash of olive oil (optional)

Plus a handful of seedless grapes, halved.

Place the dried ingredients in a mixing bowl, stir the yeast into the water and add to the flour. Add the olive oil at this point, if using.

Mix into a dough, knead until the dough is smooth, then roll out into a circle with the dough about 2cm thick and cover with the grapes. Place on a prepared baking sheet and leave to rise. Bake in the oven at 220C or gas 7 for 15 to 20 minutes.

Brilliant teaching session today – despite forgetting the yeast!

Held a Family Learning session at Weston Zoyland Primary School this morning - only the 3^rd session of a course that started back in November. First, the holiday season got in the way, then I had an operation, then last week the school had some advisors in!

Now, however, we should have 3 consecutive weeks to finish off the course.

I always try and cover as many breads as I can in a session, knowing that you can make more than one bread out of a batch of dough. Today we were making a savoury dough, which would make a small pizza and a couple of sizzlers, plus a sweet dough which would make petit pain au chocolat and iced buns.

I generally begin a course by listing my shortcomings as a tutor (I don’t always read my notes; I talk too fast; I let the bread burn whilst enthusiastically going on about bread, etc.) – and I added another one today by forgetting the yeast!

There’s no excuse for this, of course, flour and yeast are a given in any session of mine (apart from when we’re making soda bread, of course!), no matter what other ingredients are necessary!

The day was saved by one of the students coming to my rescue by asking a friend who lived near the school – who, fortunately, had a breadmaking machine – to bring some of her yeast to the school; and ten minutes later, we had yeast!

In the meantime I’d found two sachets of fast-acting yeast in a seat-pocket of my car.

With these I made up a yeast liquid by stirring together half a jug of lukewarm water, a squirt of tomato puree, the two sachets of yeast, plus about 100-150g of flour.

For the first batch of dough – the savoury dough – students (the youngsters – all from the reception class) measured a mug of flour, tipped that into the bowl and added a quarter of a teaspoon of salt and half a sachet of yeast.

The liquid – 1/3^rd of a mug – was made up half and half the yeast liquid I’d made with some lukewarm water.

Once the dough was mixed (adding more water as needed), the children kneaded it until smooth then divided it into 2 equal pieces by sawing in half with the side of their hands. One half was to be a small pizza, the other made into two sizzlers.

Once these were made and the dough was proving, the students made a sweet dough – substituting a dessertspoon of sugar for the salt.

This time I made up yeast liquid by adding sufficient lukewarm water to the now very actively fermenting yeast mixture I’d made earlier. Plus the students also used the other half of their yeast sachet.

This time the dough was divided in two, half made 4 petit pain au chocolat and the other half made three iced buns.

It took a little juggling to bake all these, using my two small ovens and a domestic oven.

I had one minor misadventure when I put a tray containing a pizza on the top shelf of the domestic oven – not realising there was already one there! There was a ‘clunk’ followed by a sizzling sound as the pizza topping met the back of the oven. When I had removed the oven shelves I was able to get a metal spatula under the pizza which was leaning against the back of the oven.

Surprisingly, the pizza, although a bit battered, was OK – indeed, as young Izaak proved later on in the session, it was very tasty indeed! (It would have been a different story, I’m sure, had the pizza been a full size one!)

Here’s a (not very good) pic:

Just a few of the pizzas and sizzlers - the numbers are to identify the breads

Why was it a brilliant session?

When we started a couple of the mothers said, "We're not going to make all that, are we?"

Well, we did - just about. Everyone went home with 4 varieties of bread plus the recipes.

The adults (there was one grandparent) are managing to stay back and let their children do most of the work - although they find this difficult (holding back is far harder for them than the actual breadmaking!).

Another thing we're making progress with is giving the child time to react. So often I'll ask the child to, say, pick up the dough and wipe it round the side of the bowl. The child will take a second or so to react to this request, by which time the mother will chime in with "Pick up the dough, Chloe (or whoever)".

I'm asking them to hold back and give the child time. Chloe will carry out the required action - when the information has trickled through.

We were also able to cover the main reasons why they should make their own bread:
1. It's teaching their child a skill for life - besides which it's fun! (Not to mention being educational.)
2. It's healthier than shop-bought bread - they control the quality of the food their feeding to their family.
3. It will save them money - the pizzas and sizzlers cost about 70 or so pence - the sweet breads as little as 30p.

As they were all leaving I gave them all some homework - which is to invite someone into their kitchen and teach them what they've just learned!

BASIC CHEESE AND TOMATO PIZZA

Ingredients:
200g (1 mug) strong white flour

1/4 tsp salt (optional)

125ml (1/3^rd mug) lukewarm water

1 teaspoon fresh yeast, crumbled

Splash of olive oil

Topping:

Tomato topping – passata, 1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes or similar

100g Cheddar cheese grated

Method:

1. Place flour and salt (if using) into a mixing bowl. Measure the water in the same mug and add 1 teaspoon of yeast. Stir to dissolve then add to the flour.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with your fingers. Stir round in big circles, pulling the flour off the sides of the bowls into the middle. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by flattening the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Once the dough is smooth either leave it, covered with a dry tea towel, for an hour or so, or go straight to step 4.

4. Without knocking it back (that is; kneading a couple of times), form the dough into a round bap shape. Have plenty of flour to hand and scatter flour over the dough and worktop. With a rolling pin, roll it into a circle around  25-30cm (10-12”) across. Keep turning the dough around and refreshing the flour. The dough should slide on the flour.

5. Pour the tomato topping over the pizza and spread it out with the back of a spoon, leaving it 1 cm from the edge. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the tomato, and leave to rise - on your worktop is fine.

6. When the dough at the edge of the pizza has become puffy, place in a hot oven, 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for 15-20 minutes. When they're done the pizza will lift up all along one side when you check underneath, using a palette knife or similar. The bottom should be browning from the edges.

Notes:

To get a crisp bottom to the pizzas, there are several things you can do:

• Make sure you keep the wet topping away from the edges – and don’t overload the pizza;

• Have a heavy metal tray at the bottom of the oven to use as a pizza stone. If you do this, have your pizzas on baking parchment on an up-turned tray – then you can just slide the pizzas into the oven.

• Finish them off in a large, dry, frying pan

Variations to the base:
Obviously, you can individualise the toppings on any pizza to suit you and your family. However, you can also add other ingredients to the dough - my current favourite is to use a teaspoon of bouillon powder instead of the salt, add a teaspoon of mixed herbs, several chopped oil-soaked sun-dried tomatoes and a good glug of the oil from the jar. The oil makes a real difference to the crust which, to my mind, begins to resemble a shortcrust pastry.