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Tuesday 31 December 2013

Thin crust vegetarian pizza with multi flour base

And so I decided to end the year 2013 on a high, what best than trying something in my favourite place, "The Kitchen". Pulled out a recipe book that my friend Krishna gifted to me when he was leaving Mumbai. 




The biggest challenge when baking pizza is the base of coarse. This recipe book had a detailed study on different types of yeasts and flours and the varied results with various proportions of the ingredients. This recipe would serve as a quick guide to making a simple pizza base but I would suggest you study more on yeasts and flours to be able to try out different variations in the bread. 

This recipe has lots of vegetables in it, you can try several other toppings of your choice.

Ingredients (2 medium thin crust pizzas)

Making the pizza base

2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
2/3 cup warm water (80°c - Use a food thermometer)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 levelled tsp active dry yeast
1/4 tsp Italian herb mix (Optional)
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

Pizza toppings (Chop the vegetables in size and shape of your choice)

2 cups chopped mushrooms
2 cups chopped yellow pepper 
2 cups chopped red pepper
1 cup onion (julienne style)
2 tomatoes ( Salad like pieces )
Chilli flakes
Oregano spice mix (I used Oregano + thyme + very little sea salt)
3 Tomatoes (for sauce)
4 garlic pods
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp white pepper (Optional)
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp olive oil
Grated mozzarella cheese (As much as you like, I used 3/4 cup for 2 pizzas) 
2 Britannia cheese slices (Optional)
Salt to taste


Pizza base

Add pinch of sugar, yeast to warm water and keep it in a warm place (I preheated microwave for 30 seconds and kept the bowl in it). Leave it for 5 minutes or till bubbles appear.

Mix both flours, olive oil, herb mix and pinch of salt. Add the yeast mixture to it. Gently knead the dough till it becomes shiny. Lightly grease your hands with oil and apply it on the surface of dough. Place it in an air tight container or seal the open container with plastic cling wrap. Keep it in warm place for 1.5 - 2 hours or whenever the dough doubles in size. Do not open the container until about 1.5 hour.

Tomato sauce

Grind tomatoes, garlic pods, sugar, 1/2 tsp pepper and pinch of salt.
Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a pan and add the tomato purée. Cook on low heat until its cooked (around 10 mins). Keep stirring in between.

Toppings

Add 1 tsp oil in a pan and stir fry all the vegetables (except onions and tomatoes) on high heat stirring continuously. Do not add salt at this stage. Fry until water evaporates (important) and then add some salt and rest of pepper, mix well.

Final step

When the dough doubles in size, knead it again till it settles.

Preheat the oven at 210°c.

Grease the pizza baking tray. Take half of the dough and spread it gently in round shape using hand or rolling pin maintaining 1/4 inch thickness.

Spread a thin layer of sauce and sprinkle grated cheese. Evenly place stir fried vegetables and chopped onions and tomatoes. Sprinkle some chilli flakes and oregano spice mix. Put some pieces of Britannia cheese slice on top for extra cheesy flavour.

This is how it looked before going into the oven 




Bake at 210°c for 20 minutes.

At the time of serving, sprinkle some more oregano and chilli flakes if you like!

I bet, if you have a home made pizza once, you will never have outside again. :-)











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