This is how I make pizza

Ramai orang tanya about the pizzas I make (which in my case, boleh katakan every week!).

I don’t have a specific recipe.

I guess sebab I dah slalu sgt buat pizza, I can sort of gauge the amount of ingredients needed without having to precisely measure them.

But I pernah letak  a pizza recipe in this entry as well if you nak guna.

Normally I will start with the water first.

I will use about 1 1/2 cups of warm water to get 3 large pizzas (3 large pizzas will be enough for dinner, the next day lunch and then some but it all depends on how hungry we are and whether I make garlic bread to go with pizza or not, hehehe.)

If I cuma nak buat 2 large pizzas, I kurangkan the water to 1 cup only.

Then, in that cup of warm water, I add a teaspoon of sugar or less (depending if I want thin crust or thick crust.)

The Other Half loves his pizza to be gebu. I like thin n crusty and also gebu pizza and The Little Misses don’t mind.

Kalau you add too much sugar, the end product will normally be quite gebu from my experience so tu yang I just add either 1 teaspoon sugar or less, never more.

Then I add about 2 teaspoons of dried yeast to the warm water sugar mixture and mix it a bit so the yeast is dissolved.

Then leave it to rise and bubble up for about 20 minutes depending on the weather.

In a bigger bowl, mix together bread flour (or plain flour) and 1 teaspoon of salt.

Salt is a must in making bread because it helps it to rise (I guess it has an effect on the chemical reactions between gluten and yeast and what not kot) but too much salt will make the dough not rise pulak, hehehe.

For 1 1/2 cups of water, I akan guna about 4 cups of flour. Tapi ini pun depends on the weather, humidity and macam2. Sometimes you might need more, some days you might need less.

What I normally do is use 3 cups of flour first.

Then after the yeast mixture dah bubbly, add it to the flour in the big bowl. Add about 1/4 cup of olive oil to the flour and the yeast mixture.

Mix it using a wooden spoon.

Kalau you nampak macam too liquidy, tambah lagi tepung a little bit at a time until you get the right ratio.

Then, you can start kneading guna tenaga 4 kerat sampai lah the dough is smooth and looks like this

Lepas tu, you can let it rest until is has doubled in size.

Kalau you all ada breadmaker, tak payah susah payah follow this step, just follow the BM’s instructions and voila, terus dapat dough yang cantik after an hour +.

And then you can roll the dough and put them in pizza pans.

These are my pizza pans.

My pizza tins have holes in them .

They say, pizza tins with holes provide a crustier crispier dough sebab the heat will go through the holes to cook the base much better. Same with what a pizza stone can do.

We used to have a pizza stone but someone who will remain nameless (aka The Other Half) managed to drop it and break it. Pastu dah malas nak beli, hehehe.

I think this tins definitely give our pizzas a crispier  base.

If I buat pizza for The Other Half who loves his pizza gebu, I will still use these ‘holey’ tins but I will roll his pizza thicker, tak nipis.

Kalau I nak crispier based pizza, I will roll my pizza very thinly. And then terus letak toppings on it and bake it so takde masa lah dia nak naik 2-3 kali ganda while waiting for me to put toppings and then bake it.

I slalunya akan prepare all the toppings first and turn the oven on first before I roll the pizza dough.

So, bila I dah siap roll and put the dough on the pizza tins, I can straight away put the toppings and shove it in the hot oven.

And I normally use a very hot oven to bake my pizzas.

So, this is how I make my pizzas.

I tak tau whether they taste the same like Pizza Hut’s or Domino’s pizza sebab I dah lama gilers tak makan bought pizzas ni, hehehe.

And bila I balik Msia, I tak pernah mengidam nak masuk Pizza Hut or Domino’s or any of the pizza parlours so tu yang lagi lah I tak tau what Msian pizzas taste like.

I think my pizza is ok tasting sebab so far The Other Half and The Little Misses tak pernah komplen, hehehe.