Baking a crispy pizza using a pizza stone

Note 25 Jan 2016: We don't use this recipe anymore because we found another dough recipe which gives us fail-proof results every time. Click here for that new recipe.

Our homemade vegetarian pizza with three types of cheese

 
Happy New Year! 

Been a busy start, this 2014, but not without some extra time to cook and explore new recipes. Pizza is one of them. My partner and I had tried to make homemade pizza a few years back, but we weren't happy with the dough. Never got cooked well, even with the use of pizza stone which should result in crispier base.

That was until a few days ago when we decided to open an old recipe book and tried the Super Food Ideas quick pizza dough, wholemeal version. It was okay, but the base was still sticky and wasn't really crispy. Wonder what went wrong again...

We still had half of the pizza dough this morning. So, for lunch, I decided to just use the pizza dough and try again, with more flour this time. It worked. It worked really well, actually, such that I feel the need to share it here.

Read on for the tips to bake a crispy pizza using a pizza stone. At least, I think it works for me...

QUICK PIZZA DOUGH

Modified from Super Food Ideas - April 2007, Page 69

Original Recipe by Janelle Bloom

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour (or 1 cup plain flour and 1 cup wholemeal flour; or 2 cups of wholemeal flour)
• 8g sachet instant dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon caster sugar
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

1. Sift flour into a large bowl. Add yeast, sugar and a pinch of salt. Combine warm water and oil. Add to flour mixture. Mix until dough comes together.
2. Turn onto a lightly-floured surface. Knead for 8 minutes, adding more flour if necessary, or until elastic (when you press the top it should bounce back and leave no indentation). Cut dough in half.

Notes & tips

• The pizza dough can be made to the end of step 2 and frozen. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 6 months. Thaw in the fridge then bring to room temperature before rolling out.
• Bake in 220 C for all plain flour; in 250 C in plain/wholemeal combination

 

HOW TO BAKE A CRISPY PIZZA USING PIZZA STONE

1. Follow the dough recipe above.
2. Preheat oven at 250C. Heat the stone inside the oven until the stone is warm (takes less than 5min), but you can still take it out safely.
3. Sprinkle a GENEROUS AMOUNT of flour on the stone. Roll the dough on the stone. The dough should NOT stick to the stone or to your hand or to the roller at all! If it’s still sticky, add more flour to the dough. If it’s sticky on your hand/roller, it will stick to the stone as well.
4. Add the toppings. What I did in the photo above was adding tomato sauce, chopped sundried tomatoes, artichoke, sautéed mushroom, slices of provolone and capricciosa/mozzarella cheese, sprinkles of feta cheese and sprinkles of thyme.
5. Sprinkle olive oil on the pizza on a zig-zag movement.
6. Put the stone (with the pizza) on the upper rack of the oven, about 3-4 inches below the oven ceiling. Bake for 15-20 min.
7. Every now and then (like every 5 min), open the oven door and insert a spatula under the pizza to ensure it doesn’t stick to the stone. Revolve the stone pizza if it’s safe to do so.
8. Pizza is ready when crust is crispy, easy to lift and cheese is golden brown.