Avoca Pizza Base

I promised my brother that I'd post this, so here is the pizza base recipe from the pretty damn awesome Avoca Cafe Cookbook. The original recipe is in plain text, my annotations are in italics.

Ingredients:

• 15g/0.5oz fresh yeast (although you can use a single sachet of the instant stuff)
• 1 dessertspoon honey
• 250-350ml/8-12fl oz tepid water (definitely not boiling as this kills the yeast... probably cooler than it comes out of a hot tap)
• 450g/1lb strong flour (I've made it with both white and wholemeal strong flour... white tastes nicer, wholemeal is better for you)
• A good pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

To make the dough, cream the yeast and honey together in a bowl and then add 250ml/8fl oz of the warm water. Stir until dissolved abd leave for 10 minutes in a warm place. It will bubble up slightly which tells you the yeast is alive and well. Place the flour amd salt in a large bow - it must be large enough to allow the dough to rise to twice its original size. Make a well in the centre and add the olive oil, then the yeast mixture, stirring with your fingers (messy!) to combine it with the flour. Add the remaining water if necessary to make a smooth dough that comes away from the sides of the bowl. Knead either by hand or with a dough hook until the dough is elastic and bounces back when you prod it with your finger. Return it to the bowl and coat with a thin film of olive oil. Cover the bowl with cling-film and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Knock back the risen dough, divide it in two and roll out each half as thinly as possible, into a circle roughly 30 cm in diameter. At this point you can freeze the dough, rather than roll it out. I normally make double the amount specified so that I can have a couple of bases ready in the freezer for days when I'm hung-over and craving naughty food.

Spread the sauce and topping over the bases and bake for 20 minutes in an over preheated to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. It's best to have a hot baking sheet or pizza tray in the oven, then if you have a pizza paddle (or are very dextrous), you can slip the the pizza on to it to cook - the blast of heat from the baking sheet ensures a crisp base if you want that sort of thing. Alternatively, just put the rolled-out pizza dough on a baking sheet and put it into the hot oven. I usually cover the baking sheet with olive oil to make sure the pizza doesn't stick.