Pizza Bases Recipe

Method

1. Weigh all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix really well until you have a very soft and stretchy dough. This should take about 15 minutes by hand and 12 minutes if done in a mixer. It's really important not to shirk on the kneading to get an elastic, super-stretchy dough that is robust and will give you great pizzas. You need to put the effort in at this stage.
2. Put the dough back into the mixing bowl, cover and leave in a warm place to rest for 1 hour. This'll help the dough to become even more elastic and it'll improve the flavour.
3. Tip the dough onto a clean, flat work surface and divide the dough into 200g portions. Then make a claw from your hand and using a circular action and a bit of palm pressure, mould the each piece of pizza dough into tight round rolls.
4. Slosh a good glug of olive oil into a big roasting tin and roll the dough balls around, coating each with oil. This'll stop them proving into each other and give the pizza base a lush crust. Leave the tin of pizza bases covered in a warm place to rise for an hour or so.
5. Meanwhile, fire your oven up as hot as it'll go with a baking stone or baking sheet in place. Anything above 230°C/gas mark 8 will work but 350-400°C in a wood-fired oven is best.
6. Throw the dough into a rough circle then blind bake the base directly on the baking pizza stone/tray for just a couple of minutes. Take it out once there is the slightest hint of colour.
7. Once they are all made, allow the oven to build up heat and start topping and making pizzas. With a blind baked base you can finish the pizzas under a grill. Try Tom's quick pizza recipe with salami, anchovies and olives.
8. Any unused bases can be frozen until you need them. Just place a small square of baking parchment between each one so they don't freeze together. Otherwise they'll keep in the fridge for a few days.
9. Rolling pin alternative to throwing: With plenty of semolina flour on the table, use a rolling pin to roll out the bases, rotating the pizza base as you go. A beautifully flat and even pizza base with a nice bit of crunch can be easily achieved with a very thinly rolled base. The thin bases can be topped and baked in a very hot oven in the same way.