Best Pizza at Home

Crusty, fluffy, chewy and so damn good. This recipe makes the best pizza at home. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

Hello HTS Community

We are making pizza today. Previously we’ve made a sourdough pizza using our sourdough starter, and today we will make one with yeast. There are different steps to get the perfect pizza at home, and I am going to guide you step by step.

We will start with creating a poolish, which is basically a preferment, critical for good tasting bread. It is a mixture of equal parts water and flour with leavening agent (yeast or sourdough). Once rested for 15-16 hours, this poolish is added to the dough. If you ask why is it necessary to add poolish to the pizza dough, my answer would be ‘for better tasting crust‘. The magic of pizza lies in the crust, right?

Sourdough starters impart an amazing taste to the bread, but they do take a long time to reach that stage. So, when you decide to make any kind of bread with yeast, it is difficult to achieve that depth of flavour, and that is where the poolish comes in picture. A poolish or biga will develop flavour using yeast for 15-16 hours, and work its magic when added to the dough.

Ingredients for Pizza

• For poolish
  • Good bread flour/pizza flour- 100g
  • Water- 100ml
  • Yeast- 2.5g
  • Sugar- 2.5g
• For dough
  • Bread flour- 250g
  • Water- 150g
  • Salt- 10g
  • Poolish- prepared earlier
  • Olive oil- 2 teaspoon, to prevent drying
• For sauce
  • Tomato puree- 200g
  • Garlic- 1 clove
  • Olive oil- 1 tablespoon
  • Fresh basil- 2-3 leaves, optional
  • Sugar- 1/2 teaspoon
  • Salt- to taste
• For pizza assembly
  • Cheese of your choice, optional
  • Olive oil
  • Flour + Semolina, for dusting on counter
  • Zucchini or other vegetables of your choice

Steps:

For poolish

• In a container (atleast 600ml capacity) start by mixing water and sugar completely, followed by yeast, mix well. Add flour 2 spoons at a time and keep mixing until no dry flour is left. Cover with a lid and leave on the kitchen slab for 1 hour, and then transfer to refrigerator for 15-16 hours.

For dough

• Take the poolish out of refrigerator and let it come to room temperature for about an hour.

• In a bowl, mix together salt and water and keep aside.

• In another large bowl, transfer entire poolish and add flour. Start kneading flour and poolish with salt water, adding water gradually as and when required.

• Knead dough for 10-12 minutes until it starts to come together. Perform the slap and fold method 10 times and then apply olive oil on dough. Keep aside for 15 minutes to rest.

• After resting, start working the dough again so that it has a smooth finish. Apply olive oil on surface, cover it and leave for 1 hour.

• Divide the dough into 2-3 balls, depending on the size of pizza you want to make.
  • Now if you want to make the pizza on the same day within few hours, shape the balls to have a smooth finish, cover them with a damp towel and let proof for another 2 hours. Proceed with pizza assembly steps.
  • If you want to consume it later, transfer each dough ball in a greased container, separately and cover them with a lid. Refrigerate till you are ready to make a pizza. These will stay good for 3 days in refrigerator. You can also freeze them at this point for about a month.

To make the sauce

• In a hot pan add olive oil and fresh basil leaves. I am using frozen leaves in olive oil, because they are not readily available in my city. Add tomato puree, followed by salt and sugar, mix well and cook for a minute.

To make the pizza

• Preheat oven at the maximum temperature your oven allows. If you have a cast iron pan or tawa place it on the top shelf to heat up. It is important that we place the pizza on a hot surface to get a good crust. If you do not have a cast iron pan, use the oven tray and let it heat.

• Take a dough ball and cover it with a mixture of flour and semolina. If you do not have semolina, use flour. Roll it using your hand, pushing from the center towards outside. Leave a thick edge and stretch the middle part using both hands.

• Apply sauce and toppings and bake in a preheated oven at 250 degree celsius with the upper rods of the oven on. You should have a beautiful golden crust in about 10 minutes.