Chuck's Pizza Base

There are a few chefs which I like to watch on the cable - Anna Olson, Laura Caulder and Chuck on Asian Food Channel, Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri and Alton Brown on Food Network Asia. I would try to catch their recipe as they demonstrate, otherwise, I'll have to go to the website to search for it subsequently.

I managed to catch "Chuck's Day Off" on one of the Wednesday evening last year. I copied the recipe and tried it. Actually I didn't refer to his website before I did the pizza. Only to realised that I had missed out 1/2 cups of flour. No wonder my dough was so wet!! Nevertheless, the pizza turns out very nice. The crust was really crispy and if you like pan pizza, the bread is really soft.

Here is the recipe for his pizza base.

Recipe for Smoked Salmon Pizza, adapted from Chuck Hughes.
Makes 2 (12") large pizzas

Ingredients:
Pizza Dough Recipe
1 tbsp Olive oil (15g)
3/4 tbsp Instant yeast (12.5g)
1 tbsp Sugar (15g)
1 tbsp Salt (15g)
2 cups warm water (500ml)

4 1/2 cups Plain flour (1.125kg)

Toppings: (for one pizza)
125g Smoked Salmons
Onions
Ground Black Pepper
Wild Rockets
2 tbsp Mayonnaise
1 tbsp Honey

Method:

1. In a bowl combine all the ingredients except the flour. Let stand until the mixture starts to foam, for about 15 minutes.
2. Add the flour and knead until smooth, 5 minutes. Roll the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (or overnight).
3. Take the dough from the fridge and split in 2. Knead and roll each dough ball to the desired shape and thickness, on a floured surface.
4. Bake the dough at 200C for about 23 mins.
5. Remove from the oven, let it cool slightly.
6. Mix the mayonnaise with honey and spread it generously over the pizza top.
7. Arrange the smoked salmons on the pizza, topped with onions, wild rockets and sprinkle some ground black pepper.

I made this pizza twice. The second time was more successful.