Hugh’s Magic Dough

Bondi kids love making dough: bread, pizza and pasta regularly grace our table! This ‘magic’ dough recipe can form the base for pizza, flatbreads, breadsticks etc…

Recipe source: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Veg Every Day
Makes: 2 large pizza or 2 calzone

What to do:

For the magic dough:

• Put the two flours into the bowl of the stand mixer with the salt and yeast. Mix well using the dough hook. Add the oil and 325ml warm water and mix to a rough dough. Knead for 5–10 minutes, until smooth. This is quite a loose and sticky dough, which is just as it should be – you get better-textured bread this way – so try not to add too much flour if you can help it, it will become less sticky as you knead.
• Trickle a little oil into a clean bowl, add the kneaded dough and turn it in the oil so it is covered with a light film. Cover with a tea towel or cling film and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size – at least an hour, probably closer to two – or if using the next day, wrap bowl in cling film and put straight into the fridge to prove slowly.
• When the dough is well risen and puffy, tip it out and ‘knock it back’ by poking it with your outstretched fingers until it collapses to its former size. It’s now ready to be shaped to your will.

Notes: Why do we leave the dough to rise? What is this process called?