Brisbane Pizza Dough

Morgan has kindly shared his secret pizza dough recipe with me. He bases his dough on the recipe suggested by Theo Kalogeracos in Theo and Co: The Search for the Perfect Pizza p.61. But, he doubles the yeast recommended! Very cheeky.

Ingredients to make enough dough for two dinners for 2-4 people. That means one giant pizza on the night you make it and two big calzones from frozen dough. Allow frozen dough six hours to fully defrost.

500g strong bakers flour (i.e. plain flour with the highest protein level available)
5g salt (roughly half a tsp)
5g sugar (roughly half a tsp)
20g dry yeast (2 x sachets from the supermarket)
165ml cold water +/-

Mix all the dry ingredients together and slowly add the water and bring the flour into it over a few minutes. Then, knead the dough for 10minutes. This is the most important thing to remember. Set a timer and get sweaty!

The thing about making pizza is that you need to practice. Buy Theo's book for pictures and more help on the specifics. Morgan doesn't really measure anything but the flour and the yeast. Everything else he does by intuition. He adds water to the point it 'feels right'.

Once the dough is made, Morgan oils the bottom of a metal bowl, covers it in glad wrap and sets it next to a boiled kettle--after he makes a cuppa.


Dough re-enactment! :)

He comes back an hour later for his next cuppa and the dough is ready to use. This is what it's like making pizza dough in Brisbane in the late summer.


The combination of Brisbane's flora, fauna and shifting culture makes it an absolutely unique place to live.

When Morgan grew up in the Dandenongs, he would come home from school at 3pm on a cold day and his mum would start making bread dough whilst he chopped wood. It took about the same amount of time to knead ingredients and start a fire. When the fire was ready, dough could be placed beside it and bread would be ready in time for dinner.


Morgan and me walking along the river when we first arrived in Brisbane in 2006. This photo was taken one week before our wedding day.