Bo's Kitchen

Plant based recipes made with love

pizza crust

Ultimate pizza dough

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ultimate pizza dough

I love pizza. Who doesn’t though? It’s one of life’s great pleasures. I really enjoy making my own pizza dough, there’s something incredibly therapeutic about the process. I’m fairly fussy about the recipe though. Fluffy, puffy dough is where it’s at, just like you get at a proper pizza place. Don’t get me wrong, the gluten free, cauliflower crusted ones are yum too, but more often than not I’m drawn to the real thing.

I recently invested in a pizza stone so needed to find a worthy recipe for it. This one doesn’t disappoint, it really is the ULTIMATE pizza dough. It’s a wonderful texture, full of flavour and gives a satisfying amount of puff when cooked on a stone. You can make several small medium to thin crust pizzas, or a few large, thick based pizzas, I’ve included instructions for both. If you haven’t tried making your own yeasted dough, give this recipe a whirl and I promise you’ll want to make it again and again.

The reason this recipe works so well is due to the very small amount of yeast used, the high water content and the long proving time. Although the first batch will take you the best part of a day to make, I tend to whip up a big batch and freeze several dough balls so I won’t have to make it again for a few weeks. Using less yeast is easier on your digestion too, so there are some benefits to taking your time with this one!

If you’re into bread making, you’ve probably already got a dough scraper, but if you haven’t I can’t recommend one enough. My Mum surprised me with one in the post a few years ago now and told me it ‘only costs 20p’ but will ‘probably be the most useful thing you’ll ever receive’. I had no idea what it would be of course, but I soon realised how invaluable this little bit of plastic was. You can use it to knead very wet dough, saving you time washing off sticky dough from your fingers. It also removes any excess dough from your kitchen counter tops in a jiffy (if you’ve ever tried to scrub off dried dough from the counter you’ll know how time consuming this can be). If you want one, this is the exact one I use. The pizza stone I use is here, it even comes with a peel – essential for quickly transferring your pizza to the oven.

I topped this pizza with a basic marinara sauce, sweet bite peppers, red onions, courgette ribbons and fresh thyme and basil. I really don’t miss the cheese at all, but if you’re looking for a great plant based cheese you can make at home, check out my friend Nathalie’s fabulous chèvre cheese recipe here.

ultimate pizza dough

If you try this recipe, I’d love to hear what you think! Please do leave me a comment below, or take a snap and tag me on Instagram (@bos.kitchen).

Happy pizza making,

Bo

xoxoxo

Ultimate pizza dough
 
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Serves: 6 small pizzas, 4 large ones
Ingredients
  • 1kg strong white bread flour
  • 700g water
  • 15g salt
  • 2g yeast
Instructions
  1. Throw all ingredients into a bowl and knead well for around 10 minutes. Use a dough scraper to knead it if you have one. Turn and knead briefly for a couple of minutes every 10 minutes for an hour.
  2. After an hour, stretch dough out with your hands and return back to the bowl. Leave to rise for at least 4-6 hours.
  3. Divide dough into 6 balls to make individual medium base pizzas, or 4 balls to make larger pizzas. Leave shaped balls for another hour to rise.
  4. Wrap any dough balls you aren't using up in oiled clingfilm and freeze. Heat up pizza stone or baking tray for at least 15 minutes in your oven, at the hottest temperature (mine will go to about 220•c).
  5. If you have a pizza peel, dust well with flour and stretch the dough out with your hands to form a rough base. Try to get the dough under 1.5cm thick for a medium base pizza. Top pizza and use peel to slide onto preheated pizza stone. Cook until golden and puffed up, usually about 8 minutes.

 

 

 

 

Chia and fennel green pizza

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chia and fennel seed pizza crust

I’ve just realised that this is my third pizza recipe. I must really love pizza! I think what entices me the most is how adaptable it is, you don’t really need to have much in the cupboards to whip up a pizza. I always end  up chopping up more veggies than I need for toppings.

I had a craving for a green pizza this week, a herby, summery, savoury affair but with a crisp base that tastes like the real deal. This is honestly so delicious I will be making more houmous at the weekend just so I can have it again next week for lunch. The fennel seeds work really well with the garlic infused pesto. Pesto houmous is also my new favourite thing- SO GOOD.  I thoroughly recommend using marinated artichokes on top, because they are just the most delicious vegetable in the world and every pizza tastes better with more artichokes. A good thing about being vegan and asking for a pizza with no cheese when I eat out is that I get to ask for more artichokes instead. I’m all about the artichokes.

Recipe

Chia and fennel seed pizza crust

  • 1 cup gram(chickpea) flour
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tbsp chia seeds
  • 5 tbsp water
  • 1 tbsp fennel seeds
  • Salt and pepper

Kale pesto

  • 5 large handfuls of kale
  • 2 lemons, juiced
  • 1 bunch of basil (large handful)
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 1 cup of walnuts
  • 2 tsp Organic Burst wheatgrass (optional)
  • 1/4 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt

Houmous

  • 1 tin of organic chickpeas
  • 1 tbsp tahini
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/4 cup of water/liquid from the can of chickpeas

Kale pesto –

  1. Start by blending your garlic cloves in a food processor until finely minced.
  2. Add all other ingredients and blend until smooth.
  3. Store your kale pesto in a jar for up to four weeks in the fridge, covering with a thin layer of olive oil to keep it fresh.

Houmous –

  1. Blend garlic in a food processor until fine.
  2. Add all other ingredients and mix until smooth and creamy, adding more water/chickpea liquid a little at a time if you need to.
  3. If you want to make kale pesto houmous, simply mix equal parts houmous and kale pesto.

Chia and fennel seed crust-

  1. Preheat your oven to 180°c and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
  2. To make the pizza crust, mix the chia seeds with 4tbsp of water and leave to form a gel. This should take around 5 minutes.
  3. Add all dry ingredients to a medium sized mixing bowl and stir to incorporate. Now add the cup of water and the chia seed gel. Mix until it’s smooth but still quite thick, you want it to slowly drop of the spoon, like a thick paste.
  4. Spread the base over your prepared baking tray and cook for 20 minutes, until firm.
  5. Allow to cool and then top with kale pesto houmous, courgette ribbons, red onion, fresh oregano, fresh basil, marinated artichokes and sesame seeds.