My Stonebaked Pizza

 

PIZZA (makes two)
For the dough:

• 250g strong white flour
• One 7g sachet instant
  (fast-action) yeast
• 5g table salt
• 160g tepid water (yes, grams!)
• 20g olive oil

For the topping:

• two tins of Italian Plumb Tomatoes
• Two packets of mozzarella cheese (cheap is good)
• Toppings to taste – I like fresh basil and extra

Making the dough is a standard process. 



I chose to use a cake tin bottom covered with semolina to transfer the pizza from table to oven.

 

 

I waited an hour for the dough to double in size.

 

 

I decided to quarter the dough.  This seems to give the right amount of dough for a smallish pizza.

 

 

I watched a Jamie Oliver video which showed a good way of creating the tomato sauce. 

 

After watching a good Youtube video about how to stretch the dough out, I made a rather pleasing thin pizza base.  I made sure that I had left about a half an inch of un-stretched crust around the edge.

 

Next it was time to spread the sauce in a circular fashion, ready to add the cheese and fresh basil.

 

Coating the crust with a drizzle od olive oil would allow it to give a nice crispy crust.

 

 

 

Using a baking stone seems to give the pizza a lovely crispy base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baking Foccacia bread for the first time

Ingredients

For the dough

• 500g/1lb 2oz strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 x 7g/¼oz sachet of fast-action dried yeast
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing
• 300ml/10fl oz/½ pint warm water

For the topping

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• flaked sea salt, to taste
• 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves, roughly chopped
• 10 tiny sprigs of rosemary

I was inspired by The Hairy Biker 'Bakeation' program a couple of nights ago to attempt making a Foccacia bread for the first time.  I quickly loaded-up the menu from the BBC website and got started.

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It was the standard process for making and kneading the dough.  It did however contain two tablespoons of olive oil.

After the first rise, I pressed out the dough onto a baking tray, then covered and allowed to rise again for 30mins.

Just before putting in the oven, I created the finger holes and added salt, olive oil and rosemary.

Placed into my lower Aga oven at 220 degrees.

Pretty pleased with the result.  Will eat with dipping oil and balsamic vinegar.

Starting to Bake Bread

Purchased the James Morton 'Brilliant Bread' book as inspiration.  Looks straight forward.  Lets hope that my endeavours pay off.

I tried the basic wholemeal loaf and tried adding some chopped olives and walnuts.  I added the fruit after the second rise.  Not sure if this was the right thing to do. I have heard some people say that adding in the initial mixture can effect the rise.

Dusting with Semolina seems to add to both the charm and the flavour of the loaf.