I have tried a pizza before, but as I have mentioned here about my era of baking disasters, it was a failure. But since I have a new found interest in baking, and a few of my current attempts have been successful, I decided to give pizza a try.
This is a non veg pizza, though I think it would taste pretty good even without the sausages.
What you’ll need: (for 2 pizzas – 4 servings)
Pizza Base:
250 g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
100 ml warm water
1 tsp olive oil
Topping (per pizza):
Ready Made Pizza/Pasta Sauce – 3 tbsp
Sliced Sausages – 70 g
Sliced Capsicum/Green Bell Pepper – 1/2
Sliced Mushrooms – 100 g
Sliced Olives – 30 g
Grated Mozzarella Cheese – 75 g
Grated Cheddar Cheese – 50 g
Oregano – 1 tbsp
Red Chilli Flakes – 1 tbsp
Salt & Pepper – to taste
What you’re going to do:
1. Dissolve the sugar and yeast in warm water and keep in a warm place for about 15 minutes. NOTE: the water should be just warm, not too hot. The mixture should foam up like below:
2. Mix the yeast mixture along with the flour and salt and knead it well.
3. Add olive oil and knead again. It has to be really pliable and elastic, so add more warm water if necessary. Knead for about 10 minutes. NOTE: If the dough isn’t smooth and elastic enough, it won’t rise.
3. Place the dough into a large bowl and cover with a damp muslin cloth. Leave to rise for about an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 200˚ C.
5. When the dough has risen to double the volume (sorry, should’ve taken a pic here), knead it again knocking out the air from it, for about 7 minutes. If you have time, cover and leave again for another hour, else continue.
6. Divide the dough into two sections. Use a rolling pin to flatten each section into a disc of the size of your baking tin. It should be approximately ½” thick. Place it into the baking tin and leave to rise for 10 minutes.
7. Divide each of the toppings into two parts, one part for each pizza.
8. Prick the pizza base all over and spread about 3 tbsp sauce all over it. Arrange half the toppings except the cheese over this.
9. Sprinkle some pepper and salt (if needed. The sausages, mushrooms and cheese had enough salt in them, so I used just a pinch).
10. Spread the grated cheeses over the toppings and then sprinkle chilli flakes and oregano. Here’s how mine looked before popping it into the oven:
11. Place the tin in the oven and bake for about 12-15 minutes, till the cheese is completely melted and the crust is golden.
12. Remove from pan, slice and enjoy!!
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| Stretchy cheese and crunchy capsicum and soft sausage. Mmmm.!!!! |
This pizza turned out ok, in my opinion, but it certainly wasn’t perfect. For one, I wish I had kept the dough to rise for longer, to get a fluffier crust. I also wish I had used some cheese with more flavor and I would have liked some more color. Regarding the health factor, the refined flour base is the problem. You can use more cheese if you like it that way, but I was happy with this amount. That’s the thing about pizza, you can twist the toppings any which way you want!
I also plan to try the following:
1. Wholewheat base
2. Paneer and onion on the topping
3. Seafood topping
So, that was quite an enjoyable dinner :-). Do any of you have a never-fail pizza recipe? Do share!!
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