Easy thin crispy pizza dough recipe

Once a month or so I make up a batch of bread dough, and this time around I’ve made my thin crispy pizza base recipe. They have that magical combination of delicious plus easy plus cheap. Mmmmm, my favourite.

Here’s the recipe, for those interested people who asked for it yesterday.

Ingredients

• 650g strong plain white flour, or Italian ’00’ white flour
• 2 level teaspoons of salt
• 1 level teaspoon of sugar
• A 7g sachet of easy bake dried yeast
• 20ml of olive oil
• 400ml warm (not hot) water

I sometimes replace 200g of the white flour with wholemeal flour, for a bit more flavour and texture.

Method

1. Stir the first five ingredients together in a large bowl.

2. Add the olive oil, and slowly stir in the warm water a bit at a time to make a soft dough, then put a little flour on your hands and turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface.

3. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic in texture, then dust the inside of the bowl with a little more flour and put the dough back into it. Cover with a damp tea towel or cling film and leave for around an hour or so to double in size.

4. Give the dough another quick knead for a few seconds, then cut it up into portions with a floured knife. Divide it  into 6 if you want to make yourself some 8-inch round pizzas, or divide it into 4 portions to make baking-tray-sized thin and crispy pizzas big enough for two people to share. At this stage you can freeze the dough, tightly wrapped in individual portions.

5. To cook your fresh or defrosted pizza dough, heat the oven to 230 degrees C. While the oven’s heating up, roll out the dough to the desired shape and thickness, place on a lightly oiled baking tray then top with a little passata and add your cheese and other toppings. Bake for around 10 minutes, until crisp and golden brown around the crust.

The pizza in the picture above is topped with thinly sliced onion and red pepper, capers, fresh oregano and red chilli.