A secret

We just lost the damb rugby to damb England and I can't get to sleep. So I'm back here again while I cool down.

Time to let you in on a secret. Each Saturday, I make pizza for the family. No big deal, I've noted this before. The difference this time is that I'm going to give you the recipe for making the base. Now I've been doing this for a little while. Slowly perfecting my technique, here, there, until I get it just right. I'm no pro, but the pizza tastes damb good (there's that word again). And yes, the picture above is the very pizza from tonight. I was actually that impressed with it I just had to snap a shot. Well, actually, this is one of three I made, I always make enough for three. We used to eat all three, but now there's enough for left over. Tonight we had garlic bread too so there's a whole pizza left to have for lunch while watching Bathurst tomorrow. Go Skaifey. But I digress.

Here goes....

I use a bread machine to mix the dough. Slightly cheating, yes, yes, whatever. It works good and it saves on effort.

• I'm not sure if you're supposed to keep the yeast in the fridge or not, but I do. So step one, two teaspoons in the bowl.
• Then four cups of bakers flour. Plain flour is ok too but the result is just that little bit better with bakers flour. (....not self-raising flour!)
• Put in a slosh of vegetable oil. Now a slosh is actually a technical term. I'm not going to tell you exactly what it is, but I know exactly what my slosh is. Start with two tablespoons and experiment to find your slosh. It works better if you can customise your technique. I find the result is highly dependent on the slosh technique, what feels right. Trust yourself and fight the urge to measure. The love makes up for it.
• A few teaspoons or a couple of tablespoons of sugar. A bit like the oil, go with your gut on this. You must do this immediately after the oil, because the technique is all about flow. Good flow is good mojo.
• Salt: three pinches, using your pointer finger and thumb from your right hand.
• Lastly, add the water. 330mL exactly. This is very important to get the water to flour to yeast ratio correct. And equally important. DO NOT USE WARM WATER. It will fuck it up. Did you write that down? Underline it in red please.
• This will be enough to make three large pizzas. Scale to suit.

Now my machine takes two and a half hours to mix, nead, rest, nead, rest the dough. So have a beer and enjoy the footy.....

Once it's done I split into three and roll out nice and thin. Lately, I've been folding over a finger width of the edge, pressing it down to make the edge a bit thicker (notice in the photo?) and all like a bought one and all.

I use pizza stones too, to cook them on. Get these really froidin hot and whack the base right on there, then put your sauce and toppings on quick. Our standard fare is just tomato paste, ham, pineapple and pizza cheese (mixture or mozzarella, cheddar and parmesan). This is the family favourite. I really prefer my pizza with a Gyulai salami, fresh basil, and bocconcini but hey, you can't always have it your own way. Just like in the rugby.

I'm not sure whether to settle for supporting the kiwis now, or hope for a surprise with Fiji or Argentina. Just anyone but the poms. Goodnight.