Perfect Pizza Base Recipe for the Breadmaker

July 21, 2020

I have been experimenting with Pizza Base Recipes. The ideal pizza base needs to be not too doughy and not too crisp. Just that thinnish, soft base that slightly absorbs the toppings, but doesn't go soggy. And ideally, a base that can be made successfully in a breadmaker. I think we've cracked it! And this is our favourite Pizza Base Recipe for the Breadmaker.

Woodfired Pizzas at Home

We have approached making pizzas at home in all sorts of ways over the years. Homemade pizza in the oven can be lovely, but it often misses that "that certain pizzeria something" that wood fire baked pizza has.

The most extreme chapter in this story was when Andy built a Cobb Pizza Oven in the garden. It was beautiful, and we used it about 6 times a year. Our garden is small. Then we wanted chickens, which meant space was at a premium.

So Andy repurposed the railway sleepers he had used. Then he dismantled the Cobb Pizza Oven he had so lovingly created. And wait until you see it.

Cobb Pizza Oven

I know. He really, really wanted chickens.

Converting your Weber Kettle BBQ into a Pizza Oven

COVID-19 meant no restaurants for a long time. Which naturally means you want pizzeria pizzas more than ever, because you can't have them. So in an attempt to crack this 'wood fired pizza' thing once and for all, we got a conversion kit for our 57cm Weber BBQ. It allows us to turn our BBQ into a Pizza Oven whenever we like, then put the bits away until we fancy pizza again.

It doesn't take over the garden, and the pizzas are absolutely fantastic. What a result!

Weber BBQ Pizza Oven

The perfect Pizza Base

So now the race was on to perfect the Perfect Homemade Pizza Base. And I wanted to be able to make it in the breadmaker. Not just because it's the easy way out (the machine kneads so I don't have to) but also because, when I'm working in the shop, I can set the base off in the kitchen in the afternoon. The base makes itself, and then there's pizza for dinner. And we won't be serving it at 10pm because we started making the base so late. Perfect.

Pizza Dough in the Breadmaker

I recently changed my trusty Panasonic SD-2500 Breadmaker for a new Panasonic SD-2511. I'd had the old breadmaker for years, and used it a lot. In recent months the motor started labouring, and the paddle was struggling to knead just about any dough I put in it. So rather than have the motor burn out, I upgraded.

The Panasonic SD-2511 Bread Machine is very similar to the old model, with a few more bells and whistles. And it makes light work of this pizza dough, when my old machine struggled with it. So now I know it was the machine, not the dough.

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A bit later than planned, here we are trying to recreate Pizza Express’s Padana Pizza (Goat’s cheese, red onion marmalade and spinach) 😋 #makeyourown #homemadepizza #homemadepizzadough #padanapizza #pizzanight #homemade #bbqpizzaoven

A post shared by AlmostOffGridBev (@almostoffgridbev) on Jul 21, 2020 at 1:36pm PDT

Perfect Pizza Base Recipe for the Bread Maker

Pizza Dough in the Breadmaker Pan

Makes enough dough for 4 sensibly sized pizzas (about 25cm diameter), or 2 massive ones.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon fast action 'quick' bread yeast
460g strong white bread flour
1 tablespoon dried skimmed milk powder
1 tablesoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
15g butter, softened (if it's come straight out of the fridge, then 10 seconds in the microwave should do it)
300ml water.

Method

1. Put all the ingredients into your breadmaker in the order in which it likes them. The Panasonic starts with yeast and the wet ingredients are last, yours may be the other way around.

2. Set the machine off on the dough setting (it is Menu Setting 28 on this new Panasonic, which takes around 45 minutes).

3. Remove the dough from the breadmaker pan, and divide it into 4 balls (or 2 if you want massive pizzas to share). Put the balls on a plate in a warm'ish area for 10 minutes, covered lightly with a clean tea towel so the dough doesn't dry out.

4 balls of homemade pizza dough

4. Flour a board, and shape each ball into a flat pizza shape. Prick the bases all over with a fork, cover with the tea towel again and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

5. Brush with your choice of tomato sauce, add toppings and bake.

6. If you're making these in the oven, bake them in a pre-heated oven at the highest temperature your oven will go to, on a pre-heated baking sheet/pizza stone. Turn them in the oven after 4 minutes to ensure they cook evenly. Remove from the oven after 6 minutes. If the pizza needs a little longer then put it back in for 1 minute at a time, making sure it doesn't burn.

7. Brush the edges of the pizza with garlic oil or garlic butter (Andy worked in a Pizzeria in Cape Town many year ago, where he learned this tip!) and serve.

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