We were sent a pizza steel kit to review last week and thought we’d give it its first trial in this week’s Cakes & Bakes post.
It’s a pizza steel, so of course that was going to be the thing we made! After making last week’s loaf we had some left-over ingredients so we thought beetroot and goats cheese pizza would be a great choice – waste not, want not! And we always have batches of home made tomato sauce in the freezer… we’ll share that recipe next week as it’s a very flexible and useful staple to have available.
The kit is available in two sizes (depending on the width of your oven) and comprises a steel, a pair of aluminium combi peels for preparing the pizzas and a stainless steel dough cutter.
Prior to use, the steel needed to be ‘seasoned‘. This entails it being wiped all over with some kitchen roll impregnated with olive or rapeseed oil and putting it into a hot oven (250ΒΊC) for an hour. Once that’s been done it keeps the steel non-stick, makes it easier to clean and stops it from rusting. So long as you maintain it properly by not washing it in soapy water, keeping it dry and resealing it with oil when necessary.
Before using it to cook your pizza, it needs to be preheated in the oven for 45 minutes (a pizza stone needs up to twice that length of time to achieve the correct heat).
Even if you don’t make pizza that frequently, the steel can be used to make home-made loaves, rolls, baguettes… any sort of bread product.
Prior to using the pizza steel, our home-made pizzas usually take about 25 minutes to cook. This batch of beetroot and goats cheese pizza took a mere 12-15 minutes – and the base and crust had a far superior texture.
We can’t recommend the pizza steel highly enough for producing professional looking and tasting pizzas. In fact, we can safely say it’s going to revolutionise our pizza and bread making!
What’s your favourite pizza topping(s)?
Click here to pin the recipe for later!
- 450g/16oz Italian Tipo 00 flour
- 300ml/10½fl oz warm water
- 10g/⅓oz fresh or dried yeast
- 25ml/1fl oz olive oil
- 10g/⅓oz salt
- 200ml/7fl oz tomato sauce
- 125g/4½oz goats cheese log, sliced
- 1 raw beetroot, peeled and sliced thinly
- 6tsp pesto (or my nettle pesto)
- Place the flour in a mixing bowl fitted with the dough hook attachment
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and add to the bowl
- Mix at slow speed until you achieve a dough texture
- Cover with cling film or a large clear plastic bag and rest for an hour
- Add the olive oil and salt to the dough and mix slowly for a further 4 minutes
- Rest for ½ hour
- Shape the pizza and leave to prove for 12 minutes
- Add the tomato sauce, and other toppings and bake at 230ΒΊC/ 450ΒΊF/Gas mark 8 on a pizza steel for 25 minutes
I couldn’t have pizza without Pineapple on it, weird I know π
Looks lovely! My favourite toppings are black olives and lots of herbs π x
My favourite topping is mushrooms.
My favourite pizza topping is mushrooms, sweetcorn and pineapple.
My favourite pizza topping is mushrooms!
I love ham and pineapple xx
I like ham and pineapple.
I love black olives, pineapple, red onions, feta cheese , and pepperoni with chilli oil π
spinach and goats cheese
spicey chicken
I love olives and goats cheese
I love mozarella, spinach and cherry tomatoes
Vegetables with lots of sweetcorn
Yum yum always tastes better when made from scratch -tuna and gherkins are my favourite
Green peppers, pepperoni, onions and lots of sriracha
this sounds like a really tasty pizza topping. My favourite topping is quatro formaggi, but I like any vegetarian pizza topping
Mine favourite toppings are tuna Pineapple, mixed peppers and red onions!
Got cheese, caramelised onions and Spinach!
pepperoni
I love lots of vegetables, pepper, onions and loads of olives
spicy beef and canadian bacon
I have to have green Chilli’s on my pizza !
Scicilian with plenty of olives and mozzarella π
I love tuna and sweetcorn.
I really enjoy seafood pizza π