| Texture: |  (2 / 5) |
| Presentation: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Taste: | (2 / 5) |
Haha, how many puns do you reckon I can make with the word dough?! I’m going to keep on going until I find out so I apologise in advance!
So attempt 2! As it worked so well for me the first time, I decided to stick with the BBC’s recipe for basic white dough ,but adapt it slightly by using the cheaper option of bread flour, and sugar. My ingredients were:
Using the same approach as before, I got to work. But wow, you can instantly feel/smell and see the difference in the flour! When kneading, the dough felt tougher and didn’t have the same smell or whiter colour. But, I persisted by kneading it for longer. As a last minute change of plan, slightly inspired by James Martin’s pre-mixed balsamic pizza dough, I decided to use balsamic vinegar in one of the halves. So I popped that in half way through kneading – maybe not the most sensible idea in hindsight…
I left the dough to prove and it didn’t let me down, both had at least doubled in size:
But with pizza dough, it’s more about the taste than it’s look so let’s get it in the oven! I’d promised my Granny that I’d bring ‘canapes’ so, I thought what could be better than a slice of pizza?! As I wanted it to look slightly better than normal, I opted against hand stretching so, whilst possibly making Mr Napoli scream from his grave, I used a rolling pin. The results? A perfectly thin, round pizza. I topped it with anything I could find in the cupboard, you may be thinking I’m not really taking this seriously, but really it’s only the dough that matters at this stage, so I topped Anti Napoli with ragu, red onions, cherry tomatoes and oregano seasoning.
Hmm but not so perfect in taste. Of course my family were polite enough to say it was lovely but I can now see why the great pizzaioli mandate that you hand stretch the dough. Rolling it destroys it! It makes it tighter, and generally not so enjoyable. I won’t be doing that again…
Colour
- 2/5 Beige/light brown – no charred bits like you’d get in a proper pizzeria. This would probably due to the oven not being hot enough.
Texture
- 2/5 Just terrible – too thin and chewy.
Chew
- 2/5 There was too much chew and not enough soft doughiness.
Taste
- 2/5 I really wasn’t impressed, maybe as a result of me rolling it, but it tasted a little cardboardy and not at all seasoned, despite the balsamic extra.
Verdict?
