Homemade Margherita Pizza

⏳ Time

20 minutes 30 minutes

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

Pizza is cooked at high temperatures, and achieving restaurant-quality results in a regular home oven is impossible. But this recipe has been created specifically for home cooking, and we really enjoyed it.

Ingredients

Wheat Flour - 17.6 oz
Salt - 7½ g
Sugar - 0.5 oz
Olive Oil - 1 fl oz
Water - 8 fl oz
Dry yeast - 3¾ g
Pizza Mozzarella Cheese - 17.6 oz
Pizza Flour - 3 fl oz
Oregano - to taste

Step by Step guide

Step 1

Add the wheat flour to a large bowl, then mix in salt, sugar, and olive oil. It's better to use refined olive oil rather than extra virgin, as it will prevent the dough from having a strong odor or bitterness. Next, pour in 250 ml of room temperature water and start kneading the mixture with a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Knead the dough on a low speed. Once you start kneading, add the yeast, but do not add it together with the salt, as this will prevent it from activating properly. First, mix the dough until it's uniform and free of lumps, and then add the yeast and continue kneading until the dough becomes elastic.

Step 2

Gently knead the prepared dough by hand and divide it into portions weighing about 200 grams each. This size is perfect for a pizza that will be baked in a home oven. Shape the dough into balls, known as pizza balls. From the total amount of dough, you should get four such balls. Place the dough into plastic bags to allow the yeast to start working. Plastic wrap is not suitable for this purpose, as it will tear when the pizza ball begins to rise. Set the dough aside for one to one and a half hours.

Step 3

Prepare the mozzarella: cut it into pieces that are the same thickness as the dough, so the cooking time of the dough aligns with the melting time of the cheese. If this rule is followed, the mozzarella will stretch, which is what everyone always looks forward to. Mozzarella stretches best when it is not overcooked.

Step 4

Sprinkle some flour on the table. Take the ball of dough out of the bag. Stretch the dough ball into a circle using your hands; this is easy: first, flatten it to make a disc, then stretch it from the center to the edges. Once the pizza base is formed, let it rest for a minute, then stretch the dough a little more and shake off any excess flour.

Step 5

Take a wooden board and generously sprinkle it with flour — this will serve as a substitute for a pizza peel. Place the crust on it: this is what the pizza base is called after it has been rolled out by the pizzaiolo. Evenly spread one and a half tablespoons of pizza sauce over the crust. Distribute the cheese on the pizza in such a way that it is present on every future slice. Here’s a simple method: first, arrange the cheese in a cross pattern, and then add pieces in the sectors between the resulting lines.

Step 6

Of course, the best option for baking is a pizza stone, but if you don't have one, it's not a problem. You can take a regular baking sheet, line it with parchment paper, turn it upside down, and place it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 482°F. It's best to use the convection mode with both the top and bottom heating elements turned on; this helps to increase the heating area. Carefully transfer the pizza from the board to the baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes.

Step 7

Remove the cooked pizza from the oven, transfer it to a plate, and bring it to the table. The pizza is ready to eat, but it's best to sprinkle a little more dried herbs on top, such as oregano or an Italian herb blend.