Paul Hollywood's perfect pizza base recipe (2024)

I have a confession to make. I’ve been rekindling my love of motorbikes lately. It all began for me more than 30 years ago when Igraduated from sitting next to my grandad in his Reliant Robin, which he drove with a motorbike licence because it didn’t qualify as a car, to when I got my very own motorbike (an ER50 Suzuki). And it’s been an off-and-on love affair since.

There’s nothing to beat the speed of a bike. Even if I’ve grown more cautious now as I go past every junction, in case a car doesn’t see me and pulls out, on the bits in between the junctions it’s just a beautiful thing to do. I can’t imagine ever growing out of it.

I’m not quite such a cliché that I’ve got that stereotypical middle-aged male standby, a Harley-Davidson. For me the Ducati Panigale is the prettiest superbike. On the rare days when the weather is kind, I head off to the café near a local garage and meet up with a group of enthusiasts. We’re all silver surfers, ranging in age from 45 to one guy who’s 84.

- The best pizza ovens for your garden

The generic image of bikers is that they’re rough, but it’s just not the case. We come from all walks of life, including accountants, bankers as well as bakers. But once we’ve got our protective gear on – the titanium in the leathers and carbon-fibre back armour that would never have occurred to me three decades ago – the chat turns to bikes and we’re in ourelement.

It’s the details of our bikes that obsess us, and I’m the same way about really good food. Which is why, on a recent trip to Rome, Ifound myself a bit disappointed with the pizzas. The Italians know how to make a motorbike (that Ducati again) and they certainly know how to make a pizza. In the latter case, they’ve taught the world. So when you’re in Italy, you expect the very best, and I can’t really say that on this latest trip anything I tasted quite lived up to that description.

It may be that I have been spoilt by previous visits. I once toured Italy specifically in search of the perfect pizza. Perhaps I could take my Ducati and my silver surfer mates from the garage café and retrace my steps. Our destination would not be Rome, Florence (Fiorentina pizza), Venice (Veneziana) or Naples (Napoletana), but the naval city of LaSpezia in Liguria in the north. Itwas there, in a grubby little place near the docks, that I tasted the perfect pizza.

Heaven.

But, for those unlikely to find themselves in La Spezia in the near future, or too faint-hearted to join me on a superbike pilgrimage out there, here are the secrets of a really good pizza that can be made thousands of miles from Italy. It all comes down to those details. And the key one is the temperature of theoven.

Ideally you are looking at 500F/260C-plus, which is way beyond your standard kitchen oven. That’s why, as Italians know, pizzas are best made in a traditionalwoodoven.

Now, we’ve gone a bit health and safety over wood ovens of late, fearing that the particles the burning wood produces contain carcinogens. When we lived in Cyprus, I used to fire up the outdoor beehive ovens they have there with wood, and then, when they reached the right temperature, take a big bunch of rosemary and brush the inside out, to get rid of any sooty deposits that might attach themselves to the pizza. It had the added benefit of giving the oven, and hence thepizza, a wonderful scent of herbs.Why not try that?

Once you’ve got your wood oven up to the right temperature, my strong advice would be to keep it simple. None of these elaborate full-roast-dinner-on-a-pizza arrangements you can now get that miss the point. Or the so-called “British pizza” that failed to catch on at Jamie Oliver’s Union Jacks mini-chain last year. Or even the latest fad, sweet pizzas, eaten as pudding, and topped with strawberry coulis or limoncello andmascarpone.

So, to make your base, start with 250g of strong white flour, best of all the Italian Tipo 00 variety sold specially for pizza dough.

Mix it with 160ml of water, about 20ml of olive oil (Italian again!) and add 5g of fast-acting yeast and 5g of salt. Blend it all together and then knead it for five minutes.

The best food takes time – another inconvenient but vital detail – so try to leave the dough in a bowl to rise from morning to evening before you plan to use it. When you do, take the wonderful, risen cloud of dough and split it into 120g-150g balls. Again, if you’ve got time, you can leave them for up to three hours in a plastic bag to rise.

Next comes the show-stopping bit. Spread them out, first with your fingers and then with a rolling pin, into 6in or 7in circles until they are the same thickness all over. Now you’re going to throw them in the air, spinning them as they go to make sure the weight works its way out of the centre to the edges. Catch themnot on your fingers – they’ll go through – but on your knuckles. Youwant the dough to be thinner inthe middle and thicker on theedges.

Dust your pizza peel – the long-handled disc used for inserting and removing pizzas from the oven, which you can get easily online – with a 50-50 mix of semolina and flour. Semolina is grittier, makes the pizza slide better and adds an extra crispness.

Now add the topping.

If I’m doing this at home, I go for tomato passata, some olives and buffalo mozzarella. I also like to add a little bit of pouring cream, which blends very well with the mozzarella. Then sprinkle lightly with some dried oregano.

If you are using a wood-fired oven, two or three minutes should be enough. I like my pizzas slightly darker, with a crispier bite, but it’s down to individual taste.

If you are using a conventional oven – most of us probably aren’t yet quite up to depending on an outdoor oven like my beehives in Cyprus – put the dial up to maximum and make sure that it is fully heated before you start. That can take up to 15-20 minutes, so make sure you get the preparations right, or you’ll end up with a soggy bottom that tastes more like a cracker than a pizza.

You’ll need a decent iron or good metal base plate in the conventional oven for the pizza. Again it has to be heated up to the maximum before you start. Or you can use a bake stone to cook the pizza on, again preheated. They all build up the heat to deliver the best result. Ten minutes should be enough to produce something golden, bubbling and delicious.

And here’s a very basic variation that you might like to try. I add a little bit of blue cheese – say, a dolcelatte – to the topping, and then when the cream and cheese have produced what’s starting to look like a jelly, Iadd some best-quality Parma or honey-roasted ham, and put it back in the oven briefly until the corners of the ham start to curl up.

Just to be authentically Italian.

Paul Hollywood's perfect pizza base recipe (1)

Paul Hollywood's perfect pizza base recipe
Total time: 40 minutes

Paul Hollywood's perfect pizza base recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you make Paul Hollywood pizza base? ›

So, to make your base, start with 250g of strong white flour, best of all the Italian Tipo 00 variety sold specially for pizza dough. Mix it with 160ml of water, about 20ml of olive oil (Italian again!) and add 5g of fast-acting yeast and 5g of salt. Blend it all together and then knead it for five minutes.

How to bake perfect pizza? ›

Bake pizza in the 475°F oven, one at a time, until the crust is browned and the cheese is golden, about 10 to 15 minutes. If you want, toward the end of the cooking time you can sprinkle on a little more cheese.

What is in pizza base mix? ›

INGREDIENTS: Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Palm Oil, Yeast, Rapeseed Oil, Salt.

What is pizza base made of? ›

Crust: Traditional pizza crust is similar to bread dough. It's a combination of flour, water, yeast, sugar, salt, and oil. The dough is mixed, kneaded, and allowed to rise. Once it's ready, it can be pulled or rolled flat.

Should you poke holes in pizza dough before baking? ›

Originally Answered: Should you poke holes in the bottom of a pie crust? Yes! It's a technique called “docking” pastry, and it helps let steam escape the crust when baking so that it doesn't puff up.

What is the trick to pizza dough? ›

Pizza Dough Tips
  1. Let the dough sit for at least 2 hours. The dough ball should have a temperature of 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit. ...
  2. Don't roll the dough with a rolling pin! This will pop all of the little air bubbles in the dough giving you a chewier, denser crust. ...
  3. Don't use too much flour.
Sep 28, 2019

What is the secret to the best pizza? ›

Here are some secrets to making a mouthwatering pizza:
  • Quality Ingredients:Start with high-quality ingredients. ...
  • Homemade Dough:If possible, make your pizza dough from scratch. ...
  • Proper Dough Resting:Allow the pizza dough to rest and rise properly. ...
  • Quality Tomato Sauce:Use a good-quality tomato sauce.
Jun 12, 2021

What is the best cheese to use for homemade pizza? ›

The most commonly used cheese on pizza is mozzarella, because it melts beautifully without turning oily or lumpy. Cheeses such as feta, haloumi and aged gouda are tasty toppings, but they're a bit fancy for families and don't melt as well as mozzarella. Low-moisture mozzarella in particular has great melt and stretch.

What makes pizza more crispy? ›

As you are rolling out and topping your first pizza, switch your oven to broil. Right before you launch, swtich your oven back to bake or convection bake 500F. The idea is to get your Steel even hotter than 500 F for this thin crust bake. It really helps crisp up that bottom.

What is the best temperature to bake homemade pizza? ›

Generally, the hotter the oven, the better the pizza will be. The best oven temperature for pizza is between 450 and 500 degrees F (250 to 260 degrees C). Pizza ovens cook at temperatures between 800 and 900 degrees F. You can't get that hot in your home oven, but the higher you can go, the better.

At what temperature do you Prebake pizza dough? ›

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (with a pizza stone inside, if you have one). Add cornmeal and flour to a pizza peel or use a pizza pan. Pick the top of the dough a few times with a fork and pre-bake the dough in the pizza pan, or slide onto a hot pizza stone to pre-bake for 3-4 minutes.

What is the difference between a pan pizza base and a traditional pizza base? ›

The key difference between a hand-tossed and pan pizza is the technique, which yields varying results: Crust thickness: Hand-tossed pizzas have a thinner crust, while pan pizzas have a thicker, chewy crust.

How do you use pizza base mix? ›

BEFORE COOKING: Pre-heat oven to 220°C/200°C Fan /Gas mark 7. Empty the contents of the bag into a large mixing bowl, add 100ml of lukewarm water and mix with a fork to form a smooth dough. DURING COOKING: Knead well on a floured surface for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic, roll out to form an 8" circle.

Why does pizza base get hard? ›

Sometimes when too much flour is added, dough will come out hard and stiff. This can be caused by overworking the dough either by hand or with a roller. Overworking dough will pop all the tiny bubbles that make pizza crust so airy and fluffy once cooked. The hard crust can also be caused by the type of flour you use.

How do you harden the bottom of a pizza? ›

Add Bottom Heat

In these cases, there are two solutions. You can either make sure you're cooking the pizza on the bottom rack or use a pizza stone. A pizza stone might be the best solution here. Keep the pizza stone in the oven while it's pre-heating so that it can warm up.

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