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White Flour Pizza

Enough for 5 medium sized pizza, halve the amounts if required.

Ingredients

1kg Shipton Mill organic No. 4 flour

630ml tepid/warm water

1 sachet (9g) Shipton Mill organic dried yeast or 5g fresh yeast

12g (about a tablespoon) good salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.

Method

In a large bowl, whisk the yeast through the flour, add the liquids followed by the salt, and stir with a wooden spoon until it all comes together. Flour your hands and begin to knead the dough. Focus on bringing the outer rim to the centre and folding, then a turn and bringing the rim to the centre again over and over. It is an easy dough and quite forgiving. After a few minutes, form into a round. Place the bowl and dough in a large plastic bag, and seal it. Keep in a warm spot out of draughts.

After 2 hours, this can be used for greedy pizza eaters, or folded again as with the initial kneading. Place it back in the bag, and leave overnight, or for up to 15 hours or refrigerate for up to 5 or more days. After a long proof such as 15 hours unrefrigerated, the dough will become stickier, so remember to use a generous amount of flour when rolling it out for the base.

Scale out each piece at about 300g, form each into a round and rest it for 10 minutes. This is a key tip, allow the dough to relax between rolls or it will tense and be difficult to roll out.. If it is well floured, the base can be rolled onto a rolling pin, and then unrolled onto the tray as shown. When rolled out, place on the tray, brush off the flour and brush with EV olive oil. Prick the surface with a fork all over. Allow at least half an hour to rise and relax in a warm spot.

Put on the chosen topping and bake at 230°C for 10-15 minutes. It should be done at 10 minutes, but some like it baked longer.

This is perfect for a topping of passata, 10 slices of a salami, a few arugula (rocket) leaves and sliced or grated mozzarella or sliced or cherry bocconcini.

Italian householders will also add 2 or 3 eggs to enrich this dough, reducing the water slightly.