recipes

The base

Ingredients

500 grams bread flour
375ml bottle of Castle Lager
10g sachet of dried yeast
A pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 240 Centigrade.

Mix the dry ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Add the beer, except for the last few drops, which the maker should drink.  Use a dough hook to mix until well combined.

Cover with a piece of oiled plastic and a tea towel.  Leave to rest in a warm place for a couple of hours during which time the dough should have doubled in size.

Turn out on to a well floured surface and form into a ball.  Weigh and divide into 4 equal parts.  (A little more than 200 grams each.)  Cover the remaining three potions while you prepare the first base.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circle which will fit your pizza pan.  Prepare the pan with “spray & cook”. (Stick and spray.)  Use your finger tips to fit the dough circle to the edges of the pan, trying to achieve a uniform thickness.  Again using your fingers spread a small amount of olive oil (a few drops) to cover the pizza base.  Add two shakes of salt, evenly distributed.

Place the pizza base (and pan) on the bottom shelf of the oven and wait until the base begins to form bubbles.  About 5 minutes.

The Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

400g tin of chopped tomatoes.  In season, use fresh very ripe tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped and mashed with salt
freshly ground black pepper
half a handful of dried mixed herbs
optional, if available, in season: fresh basil leaves

Have this ready when the pizza base comes out of the oven.  Heat all of the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat.  Stir and reduce to a spreadable sauce.  About ten minutes.  Spread a thin layer of the sauce evenly over the pizza base.

The Cheese

300 grams mozzarella cheese

Place the cheese in a deep freeze for a couple of hours.  This will make it much easier to grate.   Using one quarter of the cheese, spread an even layer after you have placed the topping of your choice on the tomato sauce covered base.  Return to the oven until the cheese melts and bubbles and you have what obviously looks like a delicious pizza.

Work together with a partner.  While one prepares the bases, the other will assemble the toppings.  In little more than half an hour, you will have four fantastic pizzas.

The Topping

Here are some of our favorites.  Remember, less is more!

ham, gherkins and chilli jam

olives, capers and anchovies

blue cheese, rocket and onion marmalade

salami and fried onions