All about Pizzas
In March 2022, Mt Nimmel Hall acquired a pizza oven, so now it is with considerable enthusiasm that we say “Welcome to the art of using a wood fired pizza oven“. We are starting a GALLERY OF PHOTOS. We welcome your contribution.
There are five aspects to consider:
The fire
You aren’t going to have to worry too much about the fire, the oven should be nice and hot by the time you arrive and start to cook.
But be ready to buy a drink for whoever did light the fire, because they started about 4 hours before cooking time in order for the oven to absorb heat and get to a temperature of over 400C.
Dough Recipes
by Steve Davis
1 hour quick dough
- 150ml warm water
- 7g (1 packet) active dry yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 300g of 00 (high protein) or all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbs extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
Combine water, yeast, and sugar in a bowl; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add flour, salt, and oil, and stir until a ragged dough forms.
Transfer to a lightly floured work surface.
Knead with floured hands until dough is smooth, elastic, and tacky but no longer sticky, about 5 minutes.
Transfer to a bowl brushed with oil, turning dough to evenly coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in volume, 30 to 45 minutes.
Divide it into balls either at home or at the hall. When shaping into pizza bases, liberally cover the dough with polenta and keep plenty on the table as you stretch it out. Also add some polenta to the peel or whatever you are using to transport your pizza. The polenta acts like little ball bearings and helps the pizza slide…it also adds a wonderful texture to the pizza – if you have eaten at Lenny’s in Mudgeeraba, you will know…
24 hour mouth-watering, soft inside, crunchy outside, pizza dough
This recipe will make about 6 x 200g pizza bases. It is complex, but worth the effort. Read it well before trying to make it ;o)
Start making the dough 24 hours prior to using it.
Ingredients
- 200g flour (best is 00 flour which has a higher protein content). Available in Coles or Woolies.
- 200ml water
- 5g honey (a teaspoon)
- 5g dried yeast
- Salt
- Bit of olive oil
1: Make the Poolish
Mix the water, honey and yeast together well and let it sit for 15 minutes to become a bit frothy, then add the flour. This is called the Poolish, a spongy dough … which it will become.
Leave to stand for 1 hour at room temperature.
Place the Poolish in a sealed container in the fridge. Do not leave in the fridge more than 24 hours, as it may turn a bit acidic. Also, make sure your container is big enough to allow room for it to double in size, otherwise you can finish up with a mess to clean up in your fridge – we discovered this the hard way. A 2 litre ice-cream container is way more than big enough.
2. Make the Dough
Three before you are going to cook, take the Poolish out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature for 1 hour.
Two hours before cooking, put the Poolish into large mixing bowl and add 300g flour. Stir 20g of salt into 300ml water then slowly add to the mix, a bit at a time, kneading the dough as you go. As you’re kneading, add 200g more flour and keep kneading until water is fully integrated (this can take 10 – 15 minutes).
Then pour it out of the mixing bowl on to a flat floured surface. Now you can work better with 2 hands. Fold the mix onto itself then stretch it out again and again – until well mixed (good to watch video below). This is a bit different to making bread where you knead with your hands and fists.
Once it is nice and smooth, lightly olive oil the surface and let it rest for 15 minutes. Now make a nice round ball, pulling the sides down underneath so the outside of the ball stretches tight. Lightly olive oil it again, cover and let it rest for 1 hour, it will expand and get light and spongy.
3. Shape the dough
One hour before cooking – cut the dough into 250g (or bigger if you like) chunks. The bigger the balls, the fewer you will make…but they will be bigger pizzas. Its handy to use a bench scraper to lift the dough, then make them into balls, flour them well. Cover with a slightly damp cloth. If you put them into a muffin tray it is then easy to manage them (or you can put them on a baking tray, but keep them apart). They will expand again and may join up a bit but they are easy to separate. Let them rest for 1 hour
4. Bring to Mt Nimmel Hall
You’re now all ready to bring along to the Hall. It is best if you shape each of your pizza bases once at the hall. Don’t be tempted to use a rolling pin! Stretch them with your hands leaving a thicker edge.
When shaping into pizza bases, liberally cover the dough with polenta and keep plenty on the table as you stretch it out. Also add some polenta to the peel or whatever you are using to transport your pizza. The polenta acts like little ball bearings and helps the pizza slide…it also adds a wonderful texture to the pizza – if you have eaten at Lenny’s in Mudgeeraba, you will know…
This video is good but it goes on a bit. It jumps in and starts at 2:55.
Sauce
Ingredients
- 800g can of whole tomatoes
- Dessert spoon of salt
- 4 or 5 leaves of chopped basil.
- 1 teaspoon of olive oil
Steps
- Pour the can of tomatoes into mixing bowl and add the salt.
- Add in the chopped basil.
- Add the olive oil.
- Mush up the tomatoes through your fingers.
Toppings
- Onions
- Olives
- Roasted eggplant (if you want, you can put your sliced eggplant in the oven on a tray, it will cook in 10 minutes)
- Pear and stinky cheese e.g. blue vein – trust us on this
- Capsicum
- Mushrooms
- Sun dried tomatoes
- Mozzarella cheese (the packets of pizza cheese are good too)
- Chilli seeds
- Then there’s all sorts of meats that go well on a pizza, eg., pepperoni, ham, bacon, prosciutto, Italian sausage, etc.
- Other things…
Cooking
Every once in a while rotate your pizza so that it cooks evenly, as the side closest to the fire will cook the fastest.
Cooking is really quick! In a nice hot oven, your pizza should be ready in just a few minutes.
the pizza